In before...

[FreeTony]

I'm a little confused. There must be loads of murders by Atheists every year, just as there are loads of murders by Christians, Muslims etc. This is the first time I've seen it mentioned that a killer is an Atheist.

It is quite interesting to perhap feel what moderate peaceful Muslims go through when one of their radical brothers commits a similar act. There are however a few differences:

1. As an Atheist I don't claim to be any more moral than a Theist, nor would I say that of other Atheists. Religious people often claim that by following their religion they are better. It is this claim that we may counter with examples of religious people doing horrible things.

2. I'm not going to claim that this guy wasn't a "True Atheist".

3. There is nothing in the God Delusion, nor the Atheist Experience, that says anything about killing people. This isn't true of all religious texts.

[Faith No More]

I think it's important as an atheist community to tackle this head on, and condemn this behaviour in other atheists, rather than running away from it and taking the "no true scotsman" mentality. That would be hypocritical, since atheism often criticises religous people for refusing to comment on the radicals.

It's true that we atheists ought to speak out about this - if his motivations were truly anti-religious, that is - but it's a sad fact that we'd have to. My condemnation of his actions has about as much to do with me being an atheist as his violent actions have to do with him being an atheist, which is nothing at all.

[FatAndFaithless]

This is the first time I've seen it mentioned that a killer is an Atheist.

Apparently on his social media pages he posted a lot of anti-religion stuff and defined himself as a "militant atheist".

[Minimalist]

Then why wasn't he shooting xtians. There's a fuck-ton more of them in NC than muslims.

[FreeTony]

Apparently on his social media pages he posted a lot of anti-religion stuff and defined himself as a "militant atheist".

Sorry, what I meant was there must be hundreds of murders commited by Atheists every year, but the Atheist bit isn't normally mentioned.

[FatAndFaithless]

Apparently on his social media pages he posted a lot of anti-religion stuff and defined himself as a "militant atheist".

Sorry, what I meant was there must be hundreds of murders commited by Atheists every year, but the Atheist bit isn't normally mentioned.

Oh I know, I just mean the reason it's being mentioned at all now is because he plastered all that stuff across his public profiles.

[vorlon13]

Doesn't seem to me to there being much religious significance to a parking space.

Hell, people have been shot on the Illinois tollway for holding up an on ramp. I'm not seeing this parking fracas as all that unprecedented or unusual.

[Regina]

I think it's important as an atheist community to tackle this head on, and condemn this behaviour in other atheists, rather than running away from it and taking the "no true scotsman" mentality. That would be hypocritical, since atheism often criticises religous people for refusing to comment on the radicals.

Murder is murder, disliking a religion doesn't give you carte blanche to murder innocent people. My thoughts and condolences go out to the victims and their families.

I don't really see how we could possibly pull a "no true scotsman" though. The guy is an atheist, as much as Stalin or Bill Gates or me. There's no denying that. I'm more concerned about what the hell motivated him to take the lifes of three average innocent humans. If he held violent beliefs, not only anti-theistic beliefs but anti-theist beliefs (against theists themselves), that's a far clearer motivation for his actions than simply "i don't believe god exists".

Well just in case, I'd hate to see violent radical branches of atheism forming. Kinda defeats the point of being an atheist, considering a major principle of atheism seems to be opposing religious violent radicalism.

[FatAndFaithless]

I don't really see how we could possibly pull a "no true scotsman" though. The guy is an atheist, as much as Stalin or Bill Gates or me. There's no denying that. I'm more concerned about what the hell motivated him to take the lifes of three average innocent humans. If he held violent beliefs, not only anti-theistic beliefs but anti-theist beliefs (against theists themselves), that's a far clearer motivation for his actions than simply "i don't believe god exists".

Well just in case, I'd hate to see violent radical branches of atheism forming. Kinda defeats the point of being an atheist, considering a major principle of atheism seems to be opposing religious violent radicalism.

I wasn't aware atheism had any major principles besides not believing in a god.



In any event, it appears this triple murder was a result of a freaking parking dispute.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2015/02/10/4....html?rh=1

I don't see how anyone could connect a multiple-homicide over a parking spot in any way to simply not believing in a god. He may very well have had some violently islamophobic beliefs, which might have impacted his response to this simple problem, but it should be obvious this guy has some massive mental health issues.

[Foxaèr]

Faux News will have a field day, See, atheists are evil and destroying our Christian nation.