9 Dead in SC church shooting

[Silver]

Please do.  Callous lunacy should be on display for all to see.
Boru

Thank you.

[Exian]

Kitan, your view will never be a popular one, even if you set aside the empathy argument (and I suspect you're getting the reaction you wanted). Consider all the people who weren't shot in that church; I'm one of them. You asked for a few more, well, that could have been anyone one of us, or your family, or you. You have shown that you do not care who gets killed. You have shown that you do not value individual lives.

[Rhondazvous]

Another aspect of this story is how we Seculars are being criticized for our response.  Here is the link: How "Secular Humanists" Responded to Charleston Church Shooting  http://www.fitsnews.com/2015/06/18/how-s...-shooting/

That was the very first thing I wanted to look at after watching the news this morning.  My question was "I know we would criticize the prayer response, but I want to know how we should offer support for the people who are hurting from this."  You know, show our humanity towards those who lost their loved ones.  I am not saying we should not criticize the prayer response, I criticize it.  How would each one of us offer our support to them.  

I for one, would like to offer some kind of support in a fund to help offset their funeral expenses.  The hands that help are better far than lips that pray, as Ingersoll said.

An organization I am proud to have founded, the Freethought Society of the Midlands, has started a fund for the families of survivors that has raised over $3000. I know the Secular Humanists of the Low Country based in Charleston and other humanist groups in the state are also involved.
http://www.fsmidlands.org/

There will be a lot of "funds" claiming to be for this. Se if we want to help in that way, we may do well to contact the families directly of find out from the local funeral homes how we can get money to them.

As for criticizing the prayer, you know that under normal circumstances I'd come down on it with both feet. But I wouldn't tell a person how to express their grief. However, the asshole who wrote the article is not expressing grief, he's being an opportunistic jerk.

I was told that one of the survivors is a 5-year-old girl whose grandmother told her to play dead. Can you imagine a child that young knowing how to play dead?

[Brian37]

While the west is right in valuing the individual and first world nations value pluralism to a greater degree, only America has managed to equate "freedom" to "fuck you I got mine" and " No rules", and the right and even libertarians think any scrutiny to their claims always ends up in a claim of blasphemy on par with religion.

[Chas]

It doesn't matter if they have them in their homes.  They have to be seen with them, or it has little or no impact on people's attitudes.  If groups of 10-12 black men strolled through white neighborhoods, openly carrying guns, that would be noticed.  But having a gun in their own homes does not any visual impact.

In the 60's, members of the Black Panthers marched and rallied carrying firearms. The result? The Mulford Act.

[Brian37]

An organization I am proud to have founded, the Freethought Society of the Midlands, has started a fund for the families of survivors that has raised over $3000. I know the Secular Humanists of the Low Country based in Charleston and other humanist groups in the state are also involved.
http://www.fsmidlands.org/

There will be a lot of "funds" claiming to be for this. Se if we want to help in that way, we may do well to contact the families directly of find out from the local funeral homes how we can get money to them.

As for criticizing the prayer, you know that under normal circumstances I'd come down on it with both feet. But I wouldn't tell a person how to express their grief. However, the asshole who wrote the article is not expressing grief, he's being an opportunistic jerk.

I was told that one of the survivors is a 5-year-old girl whose grandmother told her to play dead.  Can you imagine a child that young knowing how to play dead?

I hate this bullshit, whenever something like this happens, it is never a good time to talk about it. BULLSHIT, compassion is fine, but no one is talking about disturbing the event of mourning or the immediate family in the moment. But commenting about the logic of any claim outside those events as an outside observer is fine.

Prayer does not work, and I am tired of people hiding behind any event to avoid criticism to what amounts to merely talking to yourself.

[KUSA]

So the Christian God does not care about little kids either.

Jesus is apparently so inept that he can't even cause a gun to jam.

It's made of iron bro. God can't fuck with iron.

[Rhondazvous]

I am only disappointed that the number was not more than nine.

For those wondering I made the above statement, it is logically simple really.

For the same reason that the forces of nature, including diseases, cull our overpopulated earth, an act I view more as good than bad, the same can be stated for those people who murder.  They are being driven by their nature to kill, and I merely view it as a natural means of further lowering the population of the earth.

For a thinking, reasoning, response-able, otherwise intelligent being to put himself on the same level with mindless nature and disease is devolution, not evolution.

Your avatar alone suggests that you are not an atheist. If you’ve mistaken atheism for satanism, you’ve come to the wrong place. Yes, you can speak your depraved mind, but we’re not going to let you pretend to be one of us.

[LastPoet]

What the fuck is wrong with you, Kit?

[Faith No More]

I guess it was inevitable that some NRA member would say something disgusting...and of of course he claims that a lack of guns was the problem...

A Houston attorney on the National Rifle Association's board of directors is blaming the deadly Charleston church shooting on one of the victims, saying the slain pastor had opposed concealed-carry legislation as a state senator that could have saved him and his fellow worshippers.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/2...6N20150620