Message to any religious users regarding Violence in our community.

[IanHulett]

<begin rant>
I'm glad that this is rare, but it still pisses me off that there are self-proclaimed atheists and anti-theists going around committing violence like that guy who assaulted that ohio pastor, or Hicks who goes around killing muslim people, claiming they're doing it "in the name of" atheism and/or anti-theism, or maybe I'm strawmanning, I don't know what these people are really thinking when they do these things. We're trying to get rid of this crap, and we keep trying to tell you guys that we're a peaceful group and tell the religious extremists that we won't take their sh*t, but then these morons come around and start committing physical attacks on you guys and now in addition to having to condemn religious extremists, we have to go around telling you that we won't accept the a**hats that commit violence who identify in our community.

{snip}, and any other religious people who have an account here, or who are visiting here from a google search or whatever, who are Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Amish/Mennonite, or whatever religion you subscribe to, I need to tell you, I may be an anti-theist, and believe religion is harmful in most cases, and may even mock religion and call religion a cult or whatever, but I'm sure I can speak for a decent number of fellow atheists and anti-theists here when I say that this community doesn't support violence of any kind. Whenever an a**hole pops his ugly face and attacks or kills a religious person, we are that quick to disown this person. We condemn violence everywhere. We condemn it wherever it comes up outside our community, and we especially condemn it when it comes from within our own community, however rare they come up.

We're a peaceful community and prefer to solve our differences with words, NOT our fists. We disassociate ourselves from violence of any kind, I can't stress this enough. Fortunately these people are a rare occurance in our community and we rarely have to deal with them. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

</end rant>

Sorry if I upset anybody. I feel as though I needed to post this.

[robvalue]

Well said.

Violence is not the answer.

[CapnAwesome]

The guy in question had a lot of beliefs, I think it would benefit the whole Atheist community to be self reflective in this matter, rather than falling into the trap of saying 'nah nah nah, it couldn't possibly have anything to do with being an Atheist.' We've seen plenty of people (they normally don't last long) come on here to say crazy things about all Muslims who make the claim to be Atheists. Sometimes they are trolls and other times we have to accept that they may be genuine. I'd still note that this sort of stuff is extremely rare for Atheists and most hate crimes against Muslims worldwide are carried out by other Muslims of opposing sects and after that overwhelmingly by Christians. This isn't an excuse for violence and even if the person's Atheism is coincidental, a good moment for reflection.

[Godscreated]

@ IanHulett,I appreciate what you had to say, but do not be to naive, I've been threatened on this forum, unfortunately, by physical violence. I suspect there are more violent atheist than you might want to believe, just as I would like to think there are few violent people who identify as Christian.
Now you understand what it's like to have your way of life attacked by those who do not represent your view but claims to be one of you, just maybe you'll think twice before lumping all Christians into the same pie. You all to often jump to the conclusion that all who say they're Christian, are. When they do not meet a minimum standard, and Christianity has a minimum standard, they are not Christians, they're want a be's and have no idea what it is to be a Christian.

GC

[dyresand]

@ IanHulett,I appreciate what you had to say, but do not be to naive, I've been threatened on this forum, unfortunately, by physical violence. I suspect there are more violent atheist than you might want to believe, just as I would like to think there are few violent people who identify as Christian.
Now you understand what it's like to have your way of life attacked by those who do not represent your view but claims to be one of you, just maybe you'll think twice before lumping all Christians into the same pie. You all to often jump to the conclusion that all who say they're Christian, are. When they do not meet a minimum standard, and Christianity has a minimum standard, they are not Christians, they're want a be's and have no idea what it is to be a Christian.

GC

Considering.... we are the most peaceful people on the planet, while theists are the majority in prisons while atheists are a minor percentage. atheists are violence compared to the overall theist statistics, theists are the most violent people.

[IanHulett]

@ IanHulett,I appreciate what you had to say, but do not be to naive, I've been threatened on this forum, unfortunately, by physical violence. I suspect there are more violent atheist than you might want to believe, just as I would like to think there are few violent people who identify as Christian.
Now you understand what it's like to have your way of life attacked by those who do not represent your view but claims to be one of you, just maybe you'll think twice before lumping all Christians into the same pie. You all to often jump to the conclusion that all who say they're Christian, are. When they do not meet a minimum standard, and Christianity has a minimum standard, they are not Christians, they're want a be's and have no idea what it is to be a Christian.

GC

Huh. I don't remember lumping you all together, considering I don't like equating innocent people to terrorists. I remember debuking/criticizing some of your responses to my threads rather aggressively, but I don't remember saying you are all the same. I'm not saying I didn't, but I am saying I don't remember doing it if I did. I'll probably remember if I come across it somewhere down the road.

[Norman Humann]

Violence is not the answer.

What was the question, though?

Meh, I'm gonna guess B.

[dyresand]

Violence is not the answer.

What was the question, though?

Meh, I'm gonna guess B.

Fire? Burn it with fire? ?

[Godscreated]

@ IanHulett,I appreciate what you had to say, but do not be to naive, I've been threatened on this forum, unfortunately, by physical violence. I suspect there are more violent atheist than you might want to believe, just as I would like to think there are few violent people who identify as Christian.
Now you understand what it's like to have your way of life attacked by those who do not represent your view but claims to be one of you, just maybe you'll think twice before lumping all Christians into the same pie. You all to often jump to the conclusion that all who say they're Christian, are. When they do not meet a minimum standard, and Christianity has a minimum standard, they are not Christians, they're want a be's and have no idea what it is to be a Christian.

GC

Huh. I don't remember lumping you all together, considering I don't like equating innocent people to terrorists. I remember debuking/criticizing some of your responses to my threads rather aggressively, but I don't remember saying you are all the same. I'm not saying I didn't, but I am saying I don't remember doing it if I did. I'll probably remember if I come across it somewhere down the road.

Sorry it seemed as if I was pointing at you alone, it was meant for all the atheist here, it goes on every day here, there are some here that know they are the ones I was referring to. We should never lump people into one bad pile because there's a few bad apples. Some here consider me a rotten apple because I want give into their way of thinking, to compromise would be dishonest to myself and I just can't do that.

GC

GC

[Nope]

@ IanHulett,I appreciate what you had to say, but do not be to naive, I've been threatened on this forum, unfortunately, by physical violence. I suspect there are more violent atheist than you might want to believe, just as I would like to think there are few violent people who identify as Christian.
Now you understand what it's like to have your way of life attacked by those who do not represent your view but claims to be one of you, just maybe you'll think twice before lumping all Christians into the same pie. You all to often jump to the conclusion that all who say they're Christian, are. When they do not meet a minimum standard, and Christianity has a minimum standard, they are not Christians, they're want a be's and have no idea what it is to be a Christian.

GC

No one should threaten anyone with physical violence.

I don't lump all Christians together.

The man who shot the students was an atheist because he disbelieved in any deities. I am not going to practice The No True Scotsman fallacy for an atheist anymore than I would for a theist.