The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians

[Thumpalumpacus]

And what does his personal life have to do with anything? every one of us has a personal life.

I know sometimes it's easy for most people to forget it's a human behind the screen name, which probably explains all the horrible things being said to/about Randy.  

I have a personal life, unmarried, but with a fine young man for a son attending university in California. That certainly didn't stop Randy from slurring me personally -- nor did I expect it to do so. He too only sees my screen-name. Perhaps you could direct some of this advice his way? He could use it as well ... and it might help him from feeling so angsty about his unwelcome reception.

Expecting a friendly response to an unfriendly approach isn't very realistic. One reason why so many of us appreciate your addition to this forum, CL, is that you're friendly almost all the time, and when you're not it's justified (in my own opinion, at least), even when you're put-upon by assholes. I respect that about you, but I ain't you, and I don't believe turning cheeks is always the appropriate response.

[MTL]

You know, as I think about it, I'm not so sure it is cool to let any theist come in here with the express and sole purpose of promoting his religion.  If someone came here wanting to sell rock crushers, they wouldn't last the day.  Isn't Randy just pushing his brand?  I have to think about this some more.

I basically think he is trolling, more than anything else.

It's good to let some theists in.
It would be better if they were all here to actually converse, rather than proselytize,
but what can you do.

what pisses me off is that I had Christianity effectively force-fed to me for the first 15 years of my life, plus,
but in my experience, most Christians, or any Theist, for that matter, are not interested in hearing our point of view.

That's in the real world, where the status quo generally dictates that we "respect their religion"

...that usually translates into being gracious when they presume that we are Christians, too,
or being gracious when they try to guilt, judge or scare us into becoming Christians,
or not resenting it when they think they're doing us a big favour by inviting us accept their unproven beliefs,
and finally, not resenting it when they try to impose their religion on us, via civil law.

So we have little forums like this, where we rule.

And they are welcome to come, if they want, and discourse with us in the way we wish they would have, IRL,

but instead we get the same old boring shit we get, out there.....for the most part.

[Catholic_Lady]

Great. Where?

Here: 

From what I've seen, Randy has had much nastier things said to him than he's said to anyone else here. The way you're portraying it above is as if Randy came in here and was a big bully to people who were nothing but kind and welcoming to him. "Randy is the villain, and everyone else is just the innocent snow flake, and now we're all heroes for calling him all sorts of horrible names." 

^That's what it sounds like you're saying. And I'm sorry, but that is extremely one sided and is not the case. 

I guess you can continue to cuss him out and call him nasty names if you really believe it's the right and noble thing to do. But if you're going to do that to a person, I urge you to at least take a look at some of his very first posts here on AF and see if things really started the way you seem to think they did.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I think the real problem has finally dawned on me...this isn't a forum for discussing Christianity.

You're right. You're absolutely right. This isn't  a forum for discussing Christianity.

Congratulations, Randy, you finally got one right!

This is a forum for atheists to gather, learn about each other, socialize, point out interesting things to one another, joke with one another, and discuss all sorts of topics (the dominant religions of the world being one of those).

It's only your arrogance and self-centeredness that tells you it should be for discussing your  religion.

We atheists tend to work toward being open toward people who differ in opinion, and thus we welcome theists here in a way that is not, repeat not,  reciprocated by the theists, who almost universally treat us like shit wherever they hold dominant social control. The internet is one of the first times in all of history where we are relatively free to speak our minds openly, aside from private gatherings in homes (ironically akin to Christianity, in its early years). This is our free space, for the first time since the spread of Christianity and its repressions 1700 years ago.

And yet, you invade our sanctum, you abuse our hospitality, and then you try to play the victim card  when we don't welcome your self-righteous OneTrueFaith™ proselytization with open arms. 

This is our house. Polite guests are welcome, regardless of their personal opinions. But the moment you start to tread on us, the moment you start to think you are superior to us, or need not respect us, you can expect a shitstorm of hostile rhetoric coming back your way. And you will deserve every fleck of it.

qfmft

I really admire your way with words, Rocky.

[Catholic_Lady]

@CL-The name of the thread is "The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians". It does not make a good point at all. It looks at the behavior of a few people and attributes it to all of us. That you would say it's a good point is insulting to us.

I have specifically said several times that this does not apply to every atheist. If that still insults you, I don't know what to tell you. My intention was not to insult anyone. When I see someone getting ganged up on and being called nasty names like what was happening earlier, my instinct is to say something, regardless of who it is or why they are getting ripped apart. I've done the same thing when it was happening to EP, and very recently when it was happening to Atheist BG.

[TheRocketSurgeon]

I just want to second what Thump just said. Extra Kudos, Thump.

C_L, you have a good heart, and everyone sees it. That's why even if sometimes we all lose our tempers with one another, we still respect and like you a great deal.

I do not see a good heart in Randy's actions. I see pride, I see disdain, and I see a lack of consideration for his fellow human beings, all because he has a prejudice (the word means "pre-judged", which is obvious by the number of totally incorrect things he says about atheists, and then refuses to correct when his errors are pointed out to him-- he is not interested in learning what an atheist really is, just in looking for excuses to convert us to TheOneRightWay™ or else to come up with new reasons to hate us) against non-believers.

Many of the great evils of history, and definitely many of the great evils that we atheists have to face in real life, all the time (constantly, for some of us, especially ones like me who are in "Red State" country, aka "Jesusland"), from people who show us no love, respect, trust, or consideration for no reason other than our refusal to subscribe to the domination of Christianity over this culture. So we come here for a bit of respite and comfort, and even to enjoy some people who are Believers but who don't treat us badly, and then have to face guys like him--- which is fine, so long as we get to shoot back!

When people start letting them get away with the "slap-then-hold-up-the-martyr-card", when we get slapped and then slap back, it destroys much of the reason a lot of us come to forums like this, myself included.

We do not exclude people because of beliefs. But I'll be dogdamned if I'm going to refrain from calling anyone out for being an asshole toward me or others like me, on here.

---

Edit to Add: I see Thump complimented me while I was typing this. So double Kudos to you, Thump, and thanks!

[Losty]

@CL-The name of the thread is "The Atheist Obsession with Insulting Christians". It does not make a good point at all. It looks at the behavior of a few people and attributes it to all of us. That you would say it's a good point is insulting to us.

I have specifically said several times that this does not apply to everyone. If that still insults you, I don't know what to tell you. My intention was not to insult anyone. When I see someone getting ganged up on and being called nasty names like what was happening earlier, my instinct is to say something, regardless of who it is or why they are getting ripped apart. I've done the same thing when it was happening to EP, and very recently when it was happening to Atheist BG.

I don't have any problem with you standing up for him when people call him nasty names. I just don't appreciate you saying he has a good point when he has made it clear that he thinks we are all obsessed with insulting him because he's a Christian. I'm sure you can understand that.
I like you, I think you're a sweet person. But I don't understand how you can't see this.

If one of our anti theists were to create a thread called The Christian Obsession with Hating Gays and I were to say "well s/he does have a point", wouldn't that be insulting?

[Catholic_Lady]

Well, I'm going to bed guys. I'm sorry if anything I said offended anyone. There are many people here who I really really like, and who have been nothing but kind to me. I wasn't trying to offend you. I'm not a mod and it's not my job to try to correct people's behavior, so I hope the posts I've made here in the last few pages were ok, but perhaps I should leave it alone at this point. Either way, take it as you will.

Goodnight, yalls.

[Whateverist]

Yeah, we are being flame baited alright. But I still think our best course of action is to ignore him. Why give him the satisfaction of getting under our skin? I'll be avoiding his threads as I expect more of the same. But unless the staff finds his style of proselytizing objectionable in a spamming sort of way, there are plenty of other threads to play in. I don't intend to take it upon myself to drive him away and I don't think it is our place to do so. This is the house (forums) that Tiberius built. We play by his rules.

[Catholic_Lady]

I have specifically said several times that this does not apply to everyone. If that still insults you, I don't know what to tell you. My intention was not to insult anyone. When I see someone getting ganged up on and being called nasty names like what was happening earlier, my instinct is to say something, regardless of who it is or why they are getting ripped apart. I've done the same thing when it was happening to EP, and very recently when it was happening to Atheist BG.

I don't have any problem with you standing up for him when people call him nasty names. I just don't appreciate you saying he has a good point when he has made it clear that he thinks we are all obsessed with insulting him because he's a Christian. I'm sure you can understand that.
I like you, I think you're a sweet person. But I don't understand how you can't see this.

If one of our anti theists were to create a thread called The Christian Obsession with Hating Gays and I were to say "well s/he does have a point", wouldn't that be insulting?

All I was saying was that there is such a thing as bigotry towards people of faith. (just as there is bigotry towards non religious people, and all types of people, really. So it is no different.) 

I can see how the title is insulting, though, and I apologize. I should have specified that I don't agree with the generalization being implied in the title.