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AngryBiker · August 30, 2010 at 9:53 am

Quote:I'm just rambling now and I've had one beer to many...

Have another beer. You came closest to answering my original post. Thank you. I understand you folks a little better now.

**Tiberius** · August 30, 2010 at 9:57 am

(August 30, 2010 at 9:24 am)AngryBiker Wrote: Fair enough, Adrian. I'll give you all of that as long as atheists quit misusing the Constitution to push their agenda.

We aren't pushing an agenda. We aren't misusing the Constitution. As I argued in my first reply to you, the Supreme Court has ruled that the 1st Amendment cannot restrict the free exercise of religion, nor does it allow the government to promote one religion over another, or over irreligion. This means, quite simply, that any government act that overlaps a religious one (or affects a religion) is unconstitutional.

This overlap includes (but is not limited to) the following:

- Prayer in public schools. By which I mean, either forced prayer, or a prayer given out as part of a school ceremony. Private prayer by individuals (or groups of people who are all fine with it) is not prohibited. The free exercise of religion is not being reduced by prohibiting prayer as an official school activity; it is upholding it for those students whose religious beliefs do not involved prayer.

- Any form of religious indoctrination by the government, or forced religious test by the government. In other words, the government cannot force you to believe a certain way, nor can it make a requirement that you have to be of a certain religion to qualify for any kind of government job. This includes atheism as a religion by the way. The government can no more indoctrinate atheism than it can Christianity, or any other religion. That is to say, just because government cannot mention "God", does not mean its stance is "there is no God". The government's stance on religion (including God) should be "That is none of our business. Religious beliefs are personal, and not controlled by the state."

- 10 Commandments being displayed in courtrooms. For obvious reasons, these commandments are representative of the Abrahamic religions, and thus are favouring those religions over any others. Not only that, but there are several of the 10 commandments which are simply not covered by the laws of the US. It makes no sense to have them displayed in courtrooms when some of them aren't even part of the justice system.

**Eilonnwy** · August 30, 2010 at 9:58 am

AngryBiker, you're now leaving the beginning quote tag off your posts. Please don't do that. If you want to remove the entire quote you need to remove BOTH tags that look like this:

Code:
[quote] blah blah blah [/quote]

If you're trying to just trim the quote down, please make sure you're leaving the beginning quote tag on.

Edit: I see you fixed it. Thank you.

**Tiberius** · August 30, 2010 at 10:02 am

Actually I fixed it.

@AngryBiker, I sent you a PM with some information about BBCode. I suggest you read it.

AngryBiker · August 30, 2010 at 10:24 am

Quote:That kind of arrogant baiting is what Adrian was talking about. You can make your points and/or counter the points of others without inflammatory comments, which seem intentionally designed to instigate a round of flaming. That's called 'trolling', and you'll find that it's not very welcome here.

Fair enough, Paul. My original post was civil. I did not step in here without the expectation of getting slapped around, as atheists I have met do not like being disagreed with. My er, 'welcome' here has been met with more hostility than anything I have dished out. One poster called me an 'asshole', not that I care. That same individual later gave me a good answer to my original post after admittedly having 'one beer too many'. I'd like to by him another. Adrian called me out for calling one poster 'honey' which is the way we speak here in the American Southeast. I meant no disrespect. I didn't see where Adrian called him out for calling me 'asshole'. You'll forgive me if I take umbrage at the incongruity.

**Paul the Human** · August 30, 2010 at 10:31 am

I believe Adrian was talking to everyone that was pushing the boundaries of civility, not just you. And yes... you did come immediately with sweeping and insulting generalizations about atheists, without even trying to see if civil discourse is possible with this particular group. The response you recieved was predictable.

Anyway... if you leave out the unnecessary little digs and inflammatory/abrasive comments when you are trying to make a point, you might find that people react to your points, rather than the 'tone' of your post.

~~Scarface~~ · August 30, 2010 at 10:32 am

Double standards does seem to be the order of the day, Biker. It's "their" forum after all.

**Eilonnwy** · August 30, 2010 at 10:33 am

**Eilonnwy** · August 30, 2010 at 10:37 am

(August 30, 2010 at 10:32 am)Scarface Wrote: Double standards does seem to be the order of the day, Biker. It's "their" forum after all.

Scarface, the only double standard we have is that we do not allow preaching. That's it. We're fairly upfront about it as it is in our rules.

Otherwise, If you want to come as a theist or deist and have an honest conversation, then we welcome you. However, if you start off your posts here with a chip on your shoulder, making blanket and incorrect statements about atheists, then you're going to get dog piled with people telling you why you are wrong. That's the nature of the game.

**leo-rcc** · August 30, 2010 at 10:38 am

Don't give me that bullshit line Scarface, you and AngryBiker are not the only gay in the village. There are more Deits and Theists on this forum and we do not need to keep warning them about their usage of the forum. So I suggest you bin the persecution complex for a while.

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