The Newly Departed thread: announcements (departures)

[Joods]

No not at all. CL never was the preachy kind here. She stood her ground on things she strongly believed in, but she never acted like we were all going to hell because we didn't believe in the same things. 

I'm glad we still keep in touch.

You must have missed her drama there at the end.  

I personally don't miss her.

She's gone through a lot in her personal life. Some people need to stop being petty and try being more understanding about someone else's sadness.

[Silver]

She's gone through a lot in her personal life. Some people need to stop being petty and try being more understanding about someone else's sadness.

I've perfected the art of understanding what someone has been through and still disliking the person. Isn't that what we all do in life anyway?

[Joods]

She's gone through a lot in her personal life. Some people need to stop being petty and try being more understanding about someone else's sadness.

I've perfected the art of understanding what someone has been through and still disliking the person.  Isn't that what we all do in life anyway?

By being more understanding, I meant more empathetic.

[Silver]

By being more understanding, I meant more empathetic.

Chancing "understanding" to "empathetic" doesn't change anything.

[Whateverist]

I think this place just isn't her flavor.

It used to be...
During the past year (maybe a bit more), I've noticed this place becoming more hostile towards theists.
Some people tend to be respectful, like whateverist and Tiberius.... Some people are engaging, like khem or jorm...
But some people are just nasty, like kit and tizheruk.

Sure, everyone is entitled to their opinions, as long as they follow the rules... But the vocal nasties make those same theists feel unwelcome. And that is something that didn't seem to happen when Rayaan was admin.
There was more respect, back then.
I've even noticed my own motivation for posting on religious threads dropping, as I don't care to engage when others are just insulting people. Why should I bother to write something, if I expect the religious to feel insulted and just leave, never to read my words?

It's been a sad realization about this place...
But you guys do you.
Those of us who are more interested in the actual exchange of ideas and in understanding each other will, in time, find some other place... Or some niche within this one... Time will tell how things turn out.

We used to say we're the site for people of any faith or no faith to discuss.  (Sorry but I can't find it anywhere now and I realize the wording isn't right).  But in practice we're the site where the majority group are free to be pretty darn rude to theists and what that does is keep the discussion shallow and safe - for us.  Discussions on religious topics get highly repetitive and nearly always involve low lying fruit.  We don't get many (any?) interesting theist ideas expressed because - who would bother to try under these conditions?

The high degree of free speech we enjoy here is fine for having fun but not conducive to depthy discussion.  It just isn't.  For those looking for confirmation that believers are slow witted knuckle draggers, this is definitely the place to be since we drive anyone with any self respect away.  But I wouldn't dream of suggesting to any theist I actually find interesting that they come here.  And there is a good reason we don't try to moderate a better level of civility.  That shit is hard to do and the job would be way too onerous to do for free. 

There are thoughtful people here and definitely sharper knives than me so I can still have a good time and now and then actually learn something new.  But it really does get repetitive so I find myself exploring other sites.  Only the xtian ones seem to take on civility but of course most fail miserably.  

Ah well, the family here is still less disfunctional than the one I started out in, as well as being a hell of a lot more fun.

[ignoramus]

Mark, I agree. But I also don't believe tougher moderation or censorship is the answer.

We are the world here. This is what the world thinks and feels. I go with the flow. You can't fight it.

[Silver]

We used to say we're the site for people of any faith or no faith to discuss.  (Sorry but I can't find it anywhere now and I realize the wording isn't right).  But in practice we're the site where the majority group are free to be pretty darn rude to theists and what that does is keep the discussion shallow and safe - for us.  Discussions on religious topics get highly repetitive and nearly always involve low lying fruit.  We don't get many (any?) interesting theist ideas expressed because - who would bother to try under these conditions?

The high degree of free speech we enjoy here is fine for having fun but not conducive to depthy discussion.  It just isn't.  For those looking for confirmation that believers are slow witted knuckle draggers, this is definitely the place to be since we drive anyone with any self respect away.  But I wouldn't dream of suggesting to any theist I actually find interesting that they come here.  And there is a good reason we don't try to moderate a better level of civility.  That shit is hard to do and the job would be way too onerous to do for free. 

There are thoughtful people here and definitely sharper knives than me so I can still have a good time and now and then actually learn something new.  But it really does get repetitive so I find myself exploring other sites.  Only the xtian ones seem to take on civility but of course most fail miserably.  

Ah well, the family here is still less disfunctional than the one I started out in, as well as being a hell of a lot more fun.

Whatever.

[Minimalist]

How does one have a meaningful discussion with someone who has no intention other than to wallpaper the place with pages from their particular book of fairy tales?  Fuck that shit.  If they want to discuss history that's fine.  I'm all in.  But pretending that any of this god shit is real is simply a bridge too far.

[DodosAreDead]

We are the world here. This is what the world thinks and feels. I go with the flow. You can't fight it.

There are a disproportionate number of atheists here for this to be the world. It's more like the world, but inverted in terms of proportions. 

First of all, I should always have some popcorn on hand when reading this thread.
On a more serious note, I do think this place isn't very conducive to well-rounded discussions about faith. Emphasis on well-rounded. When I first came here, I was more interested in the atheist part of AF, but that got old quickly. Like, really quickly. Now I just come here for entertainment and to see differing POVs on politics. I think the majority here is intelligent, articulate, and thoughtful, which is why I like it here. Just because many of us are atheists, doesn't mean we have similar opinions on most other things, or even about atheism and theism, and that's what keeps it interesting. If I was a theist, I'd probably still stick around for the same reasons, and not for any meaningful conversation about faith. 
If these things are driving away some of the most thoughtful theists, I think it's sad, but not particularly something to do with the behavior of atheists. Just the nature of this forum.

[Little lunch]

I've perfected the art of understanding what someone has been through and still disliking the person.  Isn't that what we all do in life anyway?

I'm of the opinion that real understanding of a person is what helps us to shed our often misplaced dislike for a fellow human being.