Are all atheists this ill-informed about religion?

[Ravenshire]

Maybe he's right.  Or at least about me.  I took this quiz about the bible, and got a 0 on it.  =/

http://exchristian.net/3/

The quiz is absolutely brilliant.  There is no way to get any score other than 0, no matter how well you know your Bible.  It's too bad that most folks will find it frustrating, instead of actually testing the test . . . answering one way for the first answers, and then the opposite.

The third incorrect clued me in. After three, even were I guessing, I should have gotten at least one right. Going back to the start and giving the opposite answers proved it.

[John V]

I suppose any theist who has read this part of the forum has to chuckle at how terrible atheist critiques of theism are.

Yep. Lately I've been amused by the "you should kill your child if you think those who die as children go to heaven" crowd. It just shows an utter lack of understanding.

But when the laughter dies down, you're left with a troubling realization: There actually is a huge pool of people on this planet who call themselves atheists and post on the internet, but are less familiar with theism than toddlers with the inside of a quantum mechanics textbook.

Here I have to disagree. The pool isn't huge. There's only a few sites with daily posting, and those share some of the same members. In the past few years I've seen two sites go defunct - atheist.net and friendlyatheist. Atheist.net (out of Denmark IIRC) was a pretty good one. By that I mean it had a relatively high quality of debate. But, most internet atheists don't want quality debate. They just want a safe place to mock theists and feel better about themselves.

Where does one go for actually informed atheistic critiques of religion? I'm feeling my brain atrophy after reading some of the threads here.

In a forum setting? Good luck. Try theologyonline. That used to have decent quality. But, since it's geared toward theists, it can be hard to get a word in yourself. That's why I hang at atheist sites. When you're in the minority people will always be there to argue.

[houseofcantor]

But when the laughter dies down, you're left with a troubling realization: There actually is a huge pool of people on this planet who call themselves atheists and post on the internet, but are less familiar with theism than toddlers with the inside of a quantum mechanics textbook.

Here I have to disagree. The pool isn't huge. There's only a few sites with daily posting, and those share some of the same members. In the past few years I've seen two sites go defunct - atheist.net and friendlyatheist. Atheist.net (out of Denmark IIRC) was a pretty good one. By that I mean it had a relatively high quality of debate. But, most internet atheists don't want quality debate. They just want a safe place to mock theists and feel better about themselves.

It gets old, meng. Started in Oct of 2011 on TTAF with a thousand posts in the first month, with fat ol' several paragraph rants; but once you cut away the reactionary release, there really ain't much to say about it. I do not agree with your conclusion that "we just want a place to feel better about ourselves;" mostly I still kick it to socialize with my peeps and to show newly minted atheists that it is OK to be an atheist in a theistic environment.

[Esquilax]

Yep. Lately I've been amused by the "you should kill your child if you think those who die as children go to heaven" crowd. It just shows an utter lack of understanding.

Can I just point out the hypocrisy of looking down on atheists for what you see as just "looking for a place to mock theists," coming right after this mocking dismissal of an atheist argument with no explanation of why it's bad?

But, most internet atheists don't want quality debate. They just want a safe place to mock theists and feel better about themselves.

Yep, because nobody is better qualified to make broad, sweeping statements about the motivations of an entire group of people than a complete fucking stranger, hmm?

[Rhondazvous]

I suppose any theist who has read this part of the forum has to chuckle at how terrible atheist critiques of theism are.

Yep. Lately I've been amused by the "you should kill your child if you think those who die as children go to heaven" crowd. It just shows an utter lack of understanding.

I guess when Pat Robertson told a grieving mother to thank god for killing her three year old because the child might have grown up to be another Hitler, he too was showing an utter lack of understanding. Like with the test Drifuzy posted, we can't win for losing because whatever the Bible says in one place, it says the opposite in another place.

[Rhondazvous]

These Christians set up and knock down their atheistic straw men and are then amazed at us.

[Crossless2.0]

These Christians set up and knock down their atheistic straw men and are then amazed at us.

Meanwhile, they continue to evade by any means necessary our repeated requests for good evidence. When it comes down to it, most of them are dishonest to the core.

[Faith No More]

But, most internet atheists don't want quality debate. They just want a safe place to mock theists and feel better about themselves.

This coming from the guy who appears to use the internet for the sole purpose of shitting on people.

[houseofcantor]

Yabut...

Drifuzy

That poor cat got mangled right there.

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And it was Cecelia, I'm thinking

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[JesusHChrist]

And these Christians think there is anything about their claims worthy of a "debate"....

Debating them only provides unwarranted validation, akin, to physicists debating purveyors of "angel therapy", astronomers debating astrologers, or an MD discussing the finer points of the latest techniques in homeopathy.

Like all woo, with theism, there is no there, there.

Mockery and ridicule are some of the most powerful weapons we have against dark-ages thinking. They've had sufficient opportunity to make their case and have failed miserably.