Do atheists fancy themselves as nonconformists?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh PP, if an atheist is vitriolic in their opposition to religion it's only because we have watched religion destroy countless lives. There's justification. Heaps and heaps of justification. It's a negative force in the aggregate. Sure, it gave my grandmother peace when she died, but I don't consider that a good enough reason for all the other shit it does.

Oh PP, that doesn't mean you get to spew vitriol. Get a grip on yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow there's so much judgement and assumption here. It seems like you Christians, DCUM christians at least, certainly not all of them, feel like judging all athiests with the broad brush painted by the loudest and most obnoxious that you see.

Would you like me to judge all Christians by the greedy money hungry evangelical church leaders? Judge all Christians by the Duggars? Judge all Muslims by the terrorists? These are the loudest voices among you so the must represent the majority right?

I am not an atheist to be a non-conformist I am an atheist because I don't believe in God. I think from a technical definition I am probably agnostic because I agree there is no true proof for or against but I think of agnostics as generally 'believing in something but now knowing what.' I understand there is no proof one way or the other, but deep down believe there is nothing. Not a tremendous amount of people in my life know about this. I do not spend time arguing religion with my family members and attempting to rob them of their faith. Their faith brings them great comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Why can't you be happy for me that I have found peace with my understanding of the world?

This thread is filled with such aggressive questioning. At the end of the day life is short, do what makes you feel fulfilled and happy and what helps make the world a better place. If we all do that, regardless of what our motivations are (ie, heaven or just because) then we'll all end up alright.

I'm sorry you've had some bad interactions with atheists, most of us have had bad interactions with religious folks. Perhaps we'd all get along better if we simply respected each other and, if curious, started a dialogue.

The atheists have been much worse on this thread, IMO. Too bad you guys can't also acknowledge that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow there's so much judgement and assumption here. It seems like you Christians, DCUM christians at least, certainly not all of them, feel like judging all athiests with the broad brush painted by the loudest and most obnoxious that you see.

Would you like me to judge all Christians by the greedy money hungry evangelical church leaders? Judge all Christians by the Duggars? Judge all Muslims by the terrorists? These are the loudest voices among you so the must represent the majority right?

I am not an atheist to be a non-conformist I am an atheist because I don't believe in God. I think from a technical definition I am probably agnostic because I agree there is no true proof for or against but I think of agnostics as generally 'believing in something but now knowing what.' I understand there is no proof one way or the other, but deep down believe there is nothing. Not a tremendous amount of people in my life know about this. I do not spend time arguing religion with my family members and attempting to rob them of their faith. Their faith brings them great comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Why can't you be happy for me that I have found peace with my understanding of the world?

This thread is filled with such aggressive questioning. At the end of the day life is short, do what makes you feel fulfilled and happy and what helps make the world a better place. If we all do that, regardless of what our motivations are (ie, heaven or just because) then we'll all end up alright.

I'm sorry you've had some bad interactions with atheists, most of us have had bad interactions with religious folks. Perhaps we'd all get along better if we simply respected each other and, if curious, started a dialogue.

The atheists have been much worse on this thread, IMO. Too bad you guys can't also acknowledge that.

I'm PP but that was my first post in this thread. I read through this entire thread with fresh eyes and really vehemently disagree. The OP is an objectively mean and taunting post designed to insults and be mean to atheists. A couple people responded with some dry humor explaining that no there is no great agenda to being an atheist, it is just who we are. Those posters were then accused of being arrogant and rude. I thought they actually responded with a lot of restraint to really unnecessarily mean and insulting OP frankly.

Throughout this thread here is just a sampling of the things that I have felt to be extremely insulting and dismissive of atheists (not including the OP):

By far the vast majority of atheists aren't simply people who don't believe in god(s). They are people who are vitriolic in their opposition to religion,

Most atheists absolutely hate religion with a passion. That's far beyond merely disbelief in god. They hate the institution of religion.

the atheists on DCUM remind me of the philosophy 101 kids.

Funny, I find some atheists to be absolute and rigid in their atheism. While many people of faith, at least those who aren't afraid to question their doctrine and faith, have grappled with ambiguity and nuance--to me that requires intelligence.

I do agree DCUM's atheists are obsessed with their own importance and victimhood. They derail threads to talk about themselves and pick fights based on perceived slights, like the eye-roller did above.

And then they wonder why nobody likes them. Folks, it has nothing to do with your atheism, and everything to do with how you conduct yourselves.

Yawn to the melodramatics of the atheists here.

Yes, I think so. Most atheists on here seem to have their sense of being persecuted as a major aspect of their identity

I'm so sick of hearing "be good for goodness sake and just treat people well, you f'ing religious a$$hole." E.g. the eye-rolling atheist above. Are some of you really that clueless?

Try to refrain from rolling your eyes. You only reinforce the idea that, actually, there is an "angry atheist" persona that some atheists conform to.

^^^ example of attention-seeking atheist (emoticon gives it away)

I would actually really appreciate it if you could show me what you felt was offensive here. Because I know I am reading through this with the bias of being on the other side. But what I saw was mostly a lot of religious PPs ignoring all the reasonable and nice atheists and focusing on things here and there they found objectionable to paint every atheist on DCUM as an obnoxious, attention seeking jerk.

The original eye rolling PP was responding to the incredibly eye rolling WORTH OP. And yet you used that one moment of understandable sarcasm to just unload on us. It's just really unfair.

[Anonymous]

Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

I am the atheist PP who quoted all the religious PPs who I think have been jerks. I think that that was a mean comment by an atheist. There are ways to make that point that are less accusatory. To say that something people find as a cornerstone to their personal belief system has been bad for the world is not something that is going to make you any friends.

To the PP who responded to me. I find it difficult to swallow that posters like you are claiming that atheists love to play the victim card in a thread that was created by a religious person to mock atheists. It is not starting the discussion in fair play to criticize us, have atheists object to being criticized and then say they love playing the victim card. I would never have posted here had the OP not so dismissively and casually insulted people like me. There is a cruel streak in making fun of someone for getting bent about not liking being made fun of. That puts the atheist in an impossible situation. Defend myself and confirm that I am a whiny little victim or say nothing and let you rip on me?

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to [b]calling religion a net negative influence on the world. [/b]I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.[/quote]

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

[/quote]

If you're going to claim you don't understand why that's offensive, then there's no point continuing the discussion. Give it two seconds' thought and the problem should come to you.

Plus everybody can play that game. What's so offensive about pointing out that "I'm so sick of hearing 'be good for goodness sake and just treat people well, you f'ing religious a$$hole.' E.g. the eye-rolling atheist above"? Because objectively speaking, atheists do say the equivalent pretty frequently around here. Are you actually saying we have no right to find it hypocritical?

I do believe I could have good conversations with lots of you. But as someone else said above, the vitriolic and immature atheists tend to drown the rest of you out.

You have to concede that there are two very immature atheists who tag-team each other here. They have become many people's' experience with DCUM's atheists. I myself have been frustrated when, in the middle of an interesting exchange, one of them shows up to call me or someone else a sheeple and to talk about airborne pasta.

Once again: your quotes are all about people who are tired of bad atheist behavior; nobody but nobody has challenged their lack of religion. On the other hand, anything I could pull up in the way of bad atheist behavior, if I bothered to do so, would be atheists insulting religion itself. (And no, "religion is stupid and so are you" is not an innocent "observation".)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

I am the atheist PP who quoted all the religious PPs who I think have been jerks. I think that that was a mean comment by an atheist. There are ways to make that point that are less accusatory. To say that something people find as a cornerstone to their personal belief system has been bad for the world is not something that is going to make you any friends.

To the PP who responded to me. I find it difficult to swallow that posters like you are claiming that atheists love to play the victim card in a thread that was created by a religious person to mock atheists. It is not starting the discussion in fair play to criticize us, have atheists object to being criticized and then say they love playing the victim card. I would never have posted here had the OP not so dismissively and casually insulted people like me. There is a cruel streak in making fun of someone for getting bent about not liking being made fun of. That puts the atheist in an impossible situation. Defend myself and confirm that I am a whiny little victim or say nothing and let you rip on me?

But can a religious person let go of the emotion and try to understand the comment? Think of all of the wars/deaths associated with religion. How many lives have religions saved? Is that observation objectively that far off base?

I don't think there will ever be a meaningful exchange until people let go of the emotion and stop all of the attacks. And learn how to use the reply/quote function properly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow there's so much judgement and assumption here. It seems like you Christians, DCUM christians at least, certainly not all of them, feel like judging all athiests with the broad brush painted by the loudest and most obnoxious that you see.

Would you like me to judge all Christians by the greedy money hungry evangelical church leaders? Judge all Christians by the Duggars? Judge all Muslims by the terrorists? These are the loudest voices among you so the must represent the majority right?

I am not an atheist to be a non-conformist I am an atheist because I don't believe in God. I think from a technical definition I am probably agnostic because I agree there is no true proof for or against but I think of agnostics as generally 'believing in something but now knowing what.' I understand there is no proof one way or the other, but deep down believe there is nothing. Not a tremendous amount of people in my life know about this. I do not spend time arguing religion with my family members and attempting to rob them of their faith. Their faith brings them great comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Why can't you be happy for me that I have found peace with my understanding of the world?

This thread is filled with such aggressive questioning. At the end of the day life is short, do what makes you feel fulfilled and happy and what helps make the world a better place. If we all do that, regardless of what our motivations are (ie, heaven or just because) then we'll all end up alright.

I'm sorry you've had some bad interactions with atheists, most of us have had bad interactions with religious folks. Perhaps we'd all get along better if we simply respected each other and, if curious, started a dialogue.

The atheists have been much worse on this thread, IMO. Too bad you guys can't also acknowledge that.

Agreed. I think some honest acknowledgement would be refreshing and mature

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

I am the atheist PP who quoted all the religious PPs who I think have been jerks. I think that that was a mean comment by an atheist. There are ways to make that point that are less accusatory. To say that something people find as a cornerstone to their personal belief system has been bad for the world is not something that is going to make you any friends.

To the PP who responded to me. I find it difficult to swallow that posters like you are claiming that atheists love to play the victim card in a thread that was created by a religious person to mock atheists. It is not starting the discussion in fair play to criticize us, have atheists object to being criticized and then say they love playing the victim card. I would never have posted here had the OP not so dismissively and casually insulted people like me. There is a cruel streak in making fun of someone for getting bent about not liking being made fun of. That puts the atheist in an impossible situation. Defend myself and confirm that I am a whiny little victim or say nothing and let you rip on me?

But can a religious person let go of the emotion and try to understand the comment? Think of all of the wars/deaths associated with religion. How many lives have religions saved? Is that observation objectively that far off base?

I don't think there will ever be a meaningful exchange until people let go of the emotion and stop all of the attacks. And learn how to use the reply/quote function properly.

Wow, just wow. Are you trying to be the poster child for smug, condescending behavior and made-up facts? Because if so, you're succeeding. In the process you're corroborating all the bad things people think about atheists. Pat yourself in the back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

I am the atheist PP who quoted all the religious PPs who I think have been jerks. I think that that was a mean comment by an atheist. There are ways to make that point that are less accusatory. To say that something people find as a cornerstone to their personal belief system has been bad for the world is not something that is going to make you any friends.

To the PP who responded to me. I find it difficult to swallow that posters like you are claiming that atheists love to play the victim card in a thread that was created by a religious person to mock atheists. It is not starting the discussion in fair play to criticize us, have atheists object to being criticized and then say they love playing the victim card. I would never have posted here had the OP not so dismissively and casually insulted people like me. There is a cruel streak in making fun of someone for getting bent about not liking being made fun of. That puts the atheist in an impossible situation. Defend myself and confirm that I am a whiny little victim or say nothing and let you rip on me?

But can a religious person let go of the emotion and try to understand the comment? Think of all of the wars/deaths associated with religion. How many lives have religions saved? Is that observation objectively that far off base?

I don't think there will ever be a meaningful exchange until people let go of the emotion and stop all of the attacks. And learn how to use the reply/quote function properly.

Wow, just wow. Are you trying to be the poster child for smug, condescending behavior and made-up facts? Because if so, you're succeeding. In the process you're corroborating all the bad things people think about atheists. Pat yourself in the back.

So, no, you're not ready to drop the emotion? Feel free to continuing throwing out insults. We are all used to it now. You kill every discussion with your own smug condescension and name calling. Hi, pot!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow there's so much judgement and assumption here. It seems like you Christians, DCUM christians at least, certainly not all of them, feel like judging all athiests with the broad brush painted by the loudest and most obnoxious that you see.

Would you like me to judge all Christians by the greedy money hungry evangelical church leaders? Judge all Christians by the Duggars? Judge all Muslims by the terrorists? These are the loudest voices among you so the must represent the majority right?

I am not an atheist to be a non-conformist I am an atheist because I don't believe in God. I think from a technical definition I am probably agnostic because I agree there is no true proof for or against but I think of agnostics as generally 'believing in something but now knowing what.' I understand there is no proof one way or the other, but deep down believe there is nothing. Not a tremendous amount of people in my life know about this. I do not spend time arguing religion with my family members and attempting to rob them of their faith. Their faith brings them great comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Why can't you be happy for me that I have found peace with my understanding of the world?

This thread is filled with such aggressive questioning. At the end of the day life is short, do what makes you feel fulfilled and happy and what helps make the world a better place. If we all do that, regardless of what our motivations are (ie, heaven or just because) then we'll all end up alright.

I'm sorry you've had some bad interactions with atheists, most of us have had bad interactions with religious folks. Perhaps we'd all get along better if we simply respected each other and, if curious, started a dialogue.

The atheists have been much worse on this thread, IMO. Too bad you guys can't also acknowledge that.

Agreed. I think some honest acknowledgement would be refreshing and mature

17:19 just took on the "net negative" bully. That gives the rest of 17:19's post more credence in my eyes, because she's not pursing some narrow agenda. We religious people should do the same for folks like the "table scraps" poster in the Christmas thread. I've already posted that I respect the negative reactions to this thread's OP.

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to [b]calling religion a net negative influence on the world. [/b]I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.[/quote]

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

[/quote]

If you're going to claim you don't understand why that's offensive, then there's no point continuing the discussion. Give it two seconds' thought and the problem should come to you.

Plus everybody can play that game. What's so offensive about pointing out that "I'm so sick of hearing 'be good for goodness sake and just treat people well, you f'ing religious a$$hole.' E.g. the eye-rolling atheist above"? Because objectively speaking, atheists do say the equivalent pretty frequently around here. Are you actually saying we have no right to find it hypocritical?

[b]I do believe I could have good conversations with lots of you. But as someone else said above, the vitriolic and immature atheists tend to drown the rest of you out.

You have to concede that there are two very immature atheists who tag-team each other here. They have become many people's' experience with DCUM's atheists. I myself have been frustrated when, in the middle of an interesting exchange, one of them shows up to call me or someone else a sheeple and to talk about airborne pasta.[/b]

Once again: your quotes are all about people who are tired of bad atheist behavior; nobody but nobody has challenged their lack of religion. On the other hand, anything I could pull up in the way of bad atheist behavior, if I bothered to do so, would be atheists insulting religion itself. (And no, "religion is stupid and so are you" is not an innocent "observation".)[/quote]

Not PP (although I have posted on this thread) and I would ask why you don't just ignore those posts and respond to the non-vitriolic ones? Just ignore the posters you think are ridiculous and talk to the ones with whom you feel a reasonable and productive discussion is possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow there's so much judgement and assumption here. It seems like you Christians, DCUM christians at least, certainly not all of them, feel like judging all athiests with the broad brush painted by the loudest and most obnoxious that you see.

Would you like me to judge all Christians by the greedy money hungry evangelical church leaders? Judge all Christians by the Duggars? Judge all Muslims by the terrorists? These are the loudest voices among you so the must represent the majority right?

I am not an atheist to be a non-conformist I am an atheist because I don't believe in God. I think from a technical definition I am probably agnostic because I agree there is no true proof for or against but I think of agnostics as generally 'believing in something but now knowing what.' I understand there is no proof one way or the other, but deep down believe there is nothing. Not a tremendous amount of people in my life know about this. I do not spend time arguing religion with my family members and attempting to rob them of their faith. Their faith brings them great comfort and I'm happy for them that they have it. Why can't you be happy for me that I have found peace with my understanding of the world?

This thread is filled with such aggressive questioning. At the end of the day life is short, do what makes you feel fulfilled and happy and what helps make the world a better place. If we all do that, regardless of what our motivations are (ie, heaven or just because) then we'll all end up alright.

I'm sorry you've had some bad interactions with atheists, most of us have had bad interactions with religious folks. Perhaps we'd all get along better if we simply respected each other and, if curious, started a dialogue.

The atheists have been much worse on this thread, IMO. Too bad you guys can't also acknowledge that.

Agreed. I think some honest acknowledgement would be refreshing and mature

+1

Would gain a lot of my respect if they did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, anybody here could go through this thread and catalogue mean atheist behavior ranging from eye-rolls to calling religion a net negative influence on the world. I personally didn't think OP was that bad, maybe a little naive, but I'll defer to you because you say these these are your feelings.

But why bother, unless we're in some competition to feel the most victimized? That's certainly not something I care about. However, I do agree with others that some--not all!!!--atheists like to play the victim card.

The most interesting thing about this thread is that any anger at atheists hasn't been linked with lack of belief per se. Every single one of your quoted passages, as well as OP, refers to atheists' BEHAVIOR on DCUM and elsewhere. Something to chew on.

I'm sorry, but this is considered "mean behavior"? It's not a personal attack on anyone, just a PP sharing an observation/opinion.

I am the atheist PP who quoted all the religious PPs who I think have been jerks. I think that that was a mean comment by an atheist. There are ways to make that point that are less accusatory. To say that something people find as a cornerstone to their personal belief system has been bad for the world is not something that is going to make you any friends.

To the PP who responded to me. I find it difficult to swallow that posters like you are claiming that atheists love to play the victim card in a thread that was created by a religious person to mock atheists. It is not starting the discussion in fair play to criticize us, have atheists object to being criticized and then say they love playing the victim card. I would never have posted here had the OP not so dismissively and casually insulted people like me. There is a cruel streak in making fun of someone for getting bent about not liking being made fun of. That puts the atheist in an impossible situation. Defend myself and confirm that I am a whiny little victim or say nothing and let you rip on me?

But can a religious person let go of the emotion and try to understand the comment? Think of all of the wars/deaths associated with religion. How many lives have religions saved? Is that observation objectively that far off base?

I don't think there will ever be a meaningful exchange until people let go of the emotion and stop all of the attacks. And learn how to use the reply/quote function properly.

Wow, just wow. Are you trying to be the poster child for smug, condescending behavior and made-up facts? Because if so, you're succeeding. In the process you're corroborating all the bad things people think about atheists. Pat yourself in the back.

So, no, you're not ready to drop the emotion? Feel free to continuing throwing out insults. We are all used to it now. You kill every discussion with your own smug condescension and name calling. Hi, pot!

Who exactly do you think I am? Clearly you're trying to stir the pot.

Hey everyone else, can we all agree to ignore this flame-thrower?