"Not the right time" rears it's ugly head again.

[abaris]

Your lack of understanding is irrelevant. If you're trying to influence an emotion-based person, you have to appeal to them emotionally. Isn't that logical?

We all are emotion-based persons. Personally I think the thread title is a bit misleading. It's not the when but the where that counts. Confronting people in mourning to deliver some message is a no go under any circumstances. I don't have to be a theist to consider that to be in bad taste.

[Brian37]

I have a redneck friend from Oklahoma, who is an atheist, grew up in church, left religion, was a libertarian for a while but is now a full fledged liberal economically. He also grew up with a very bigoted racist uncle. Last year his uncle was robbed murdered by someone who had been renting property on his land. Now even he said as evil as his uncle was he would have done anything he could have if he could have stopped it, not because he liked his uncle, but because his empathy in that nobody deserves that.

But but sure, in our private conversations he did say he was relieved that his uncle was no longer around to spread his hateful bullshit. But I am also sure he'd never advocate someone go to his uncle's funeral and disrupt it. But again, the issue is the difference between NEWS events and private in person settings.

I cant begin to count the amount of times over my 15 years of on line debate I have seen the Holocaust used, and rightfully so by skeptics, to point out the absurd logic of claiming an all powerful all loving god. Nobody, no group of human beings deserve that being done to them. But, it still is a historical event, and even while a tragedy is new or ongoing, you cant simply slap simple solutions on tragic events when it comes to speech.

It still remains case by case and context of situation. In person face to face, no. But in the context of commenting on a major news event, you cant simply say "never".