Never had that happen before

[Astonished]

I was on another forum, not dedicated to religious discussions but with an all purpose political-religious-etc. type of subsection, and a small argument about some subject of inanity (is there any other subject involving religion?) went on, and somehow an alleged 'non-fundamentalist' believer managed to bring up Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and North Korea as examples of what happens when religion is abandoned and when 'reason and science' are taken to extremes and run out of control. I am not able to be as frank as I am on here on that other forum, so I had to really pace myself to point out how absolutely horrible of an insinuation that was and that they were sounding exactly like the sort of fundamentalists they seemed to brush off. Amazingly, the stupid asshole actually acknowledged they were being extremely obtuse in their point and while I think they were completely full of shit and just trying to backpedal not to look like a dick, they did admit they were communicating it poorly, and re-worded everything so that it omitted any mention of science as an ideology to be misused. But I don't really believe they were being genuine even for a minute; I think they misread the room and thought it was mostly theists in it or at least that they would support him, but you don't use those exact fucking examples of 'atheist' regimes and those kind of dismissive and derogatory comments about reason and science if you're not a goddamn fundie fuckhead.

I don't really ever remember a theist actually admitting they were dead wrong about something (or at least as close to it as one's ever gotten to actually doing that in a discussion I was involved in) so that was an interesting experience. It didn't go quite to completion as I would have hoped but they did acknowledge that dogmatism was a stupid position and I even (jokingly, perhaps a bit mockingly or condescendingly) commended them for being open to 'changing their mind due to new information and evidence'.

I would be suspect if anyone on here had ever gotten a theist to admit anything on that level (or more) but if you have, or you're a theist who did admit it when called out on something, hey, go ahead and share it and we'll all have a good laugh.

[Brian37]

Been at on line debate for 16 years almost on a daily basis. You may not have seen the bullshit Hitler/Po Pot/Stalin crap before, but believe me, I have seen it plenty of times.

Hitler wasn't exactly a standard Christian, he was more his own brand of Deist/Catholic/Occult. He had a belief in the power of providence so no, he most certainly was not an atheist. He also ruled over a majority Christian Germany. Churches never left under the Nazis, only anyone even outside the party who challenged them would be silenced.

Stalin was an atheist by the time he took power, but studied orthodox Russian theology and the authoritarianism of the bible again, helped him convince a majority Russian Orthodox Christians to follow him. Same thing with religion under Stalin, religion never left under Stalin, only those who apposed him, even outside religion, would be silenced.

Po Pot ruled over Asian religious majorities. 

On and they may not have mentioned Cuba, but Cuba is a Catholic majority nation.


North Korea also is a religious nation. Not a standard religion, but a mix of mostly Korean Shamanism and "Chondoism=Party of the young friends of the Heavenly way"..... Basically worship of the state.


So dictatorships are not religion free, they are dissent free. It isn't religion they lack, but pluralism. Dictators don't ban religion they ban challenge to their power.

[Astonished]

Been at on line debate for 16 years almost on a daily basis. You may not have seen the bullshit Hitler/Po Pot/Stalin crap before, but believe me, I have seen it plenty of times.

Hitler wasn't exactly a standard Christian, he was more his own brand of Deist/Catholic/Occult. He had a belief in the power of providence so no, he most certainly was not an atheist. He also ruled over a majority Christian Germany. Churches never left under the Nazis, only anyone even outside the party who challenged them would be silenced.

Stalin was an atheist by the time he took power, but studied orthodox Russian theology and the authoritarianism of the bible again, helped him convince a majority Russian Orthodox Christians to follow him. Same thing with religion under Stalin, religion never left under Stalin, only those who apposed him, even outside religion, would be silenced.

Po Pot ruled over Asian religious majorities. 

On and they may not have mentioned Cuba, but Cuba is a Catholic majority nation.


North Korea also is a religious nation. Not a standard religion, but a mix of mostly Korean Shamanism and "Chondoism=Party of the young friends of the Heavenly way"..... Basically worship of the state.


So dictatorships are not religion free, they are dissent free. It isn't religion they lack, but pluralism. Dictators don't ban religion they ban challenge to their power.

Preaching to the choir, dawg. I've seen this debunked in practically every book I read by authors like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris. It's amazing that the religious still even bring this shit up. Name one dictatorship that used secular humanism as a foundational philosophy, right? But no, they'll still try to use atheism as a blanket accusation of that kind of immorality when it's either still entirely religious, or simply irrational in every other way. The intentional misunderstanding of atheism as a dictionary definition and as a worldview is long past being tiresome. But at least someone pretended, on a forum where others could see it, to do a retraction of their dogshit rhetoric.

[Brian37]

Been at on line debate for 16 years almost on a daily basis. You may not have seen the bullshit Hitler/Po Pot/Stalin crap before, but believe me, I have seen it plenty of times.

Hitler wasn't exactly a standard Christian, he was more his own brand of Deist/Catholic/Occult. He had a belief in the power of providence so no, he most certainly was not an atheist. He also ruled over a majority Christian Germany. Churches never left under the Nazis, only anyone even outside the party who challenged them would be silenced.

Stalin was an atheist by the time he took power, but studied orthodox Russian theology and the authoritarianism of the bible again, helped him convince a majority Russian Orthodox Christians to follow him. Same thing with religion under Stalin, religion never left under Stalin, only those who apposed him, even outside religion, would be silenced.

Po Pot ruled over Asian religious majorities. 

On and they may not have mentioned Cuba, but Cuba is a Catholic majority nation.


North Korea also is a religious nation. Not a standard religion, but a mix of mostly Korean Shamanism and "Chondoism=Party of the young friends of the Heavenly way"..... Basically worship of the state.


So dictatorships are not religion free, they are dissent free. It isn't religion they lack, but pluralism. Dictators don't ban religion they ban challenge to their power.

Preaching to the choir, dawg. I've seen this debunked in practically every book I read by authors like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris. It's amazing that the religious still even bring this shit up. Name one dictatorship that used secular humanism as a foundational philosophy, right? But no, they'll still try to use atheism as a blanket accusation of that kind of immorality when it's either still entirely religious, or simply irrational in every other way. The intentional misunderstanding of atheism as a dictionary definition and as a worldview is long past being tiresome. But at least someone pretended, on a forum where others could see it, to do a retraction of their dogshit rhetoric.

Decades of the cold war created that meme. It is up to atheists to debunk it.

[Astonished]

Preaching to the choir, dawg. I've seen this debunked in practically every book I read by authors like Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris. It's amazing that the religious still even bring this shit up. Name one dictatorship that used secular humanism as a foundational philosophy, right? But no, they'll still try to use atheism as a blanket accusation of that kind of immorality when it's either still entirely religious, or simply irrational in every other way. The intentional misunderstanding of atheism as a dictionary definition and as a worldview is long past being tiresome. But at least someone pretended, on a forum where others could see it, to do a retraction of their dogshit rhetoric.

Decades of the cold war created that meme. It is up to atheists to debunk it.

Godless commies and all that, yeah? It already has been debunked of course, but just like with every other inconvenient fact, theists will ignore it.

[Crossless2.0]

Disappointed.

I looked at the OP title and thought I was about to read an AF parody version of Penthouse Forums.

[Brian37]

Disappointed.

I looked at the OP title and thought I was about to read an AF parody version of Penthouse Forums.

Dear Penthouse Forums,

Tonight I went to a bar, I had been curious for a long time, but was too shy to try it. It was way better than I expected. Thank you for liberating me.