Who has changed their minds about religion on this forum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Human rights created by social contract are useless. If we create them by majority vote, we can remove them by majority vote - then how can they protect minorities? Unless human rights are THERE - objectively, apart from human decision or cultural creation - they can't do their job." - Tim Keller

I hope he's not trying to say that the Bible is the originator of human rights.

It would be like saying the Bible is the originator of kindness, or any other positive human attribute.

He’s saying humans aren’t the originators of human rights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Human rights created by social contract are useless. If we create them by majority vote, we can remove them by majority vote - then how can they protect minorities? Unless human rights are THERE - objectively, apart from human decision or cultural creation - they can't do their job." - Tim Keller

I hope he's not trying to say that the Bible is the originator of human rights.

It would be like saying the Bible is the originator of kindness, or any other positive human attribute.

He’s saying humans aren’t the originators of human rights.

It's God?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

In many cases, I think it's hard to know why a post was created. Unless you're a bonafide mindreader. But it seems safe to say that threads often devolve into bashing - by both atheists and believers. Atheists often think believers are silly to believe in an afterlife (among other things) and believers often think atheists are going to hell when they die.

[Anonymous]

This is why I come here:

https://www.amazon.com/We-Little-Faith-Stopped-Pretending-ebook/dp/B0BV7MG25G

We of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (and Maybe You Should Too) by Kate Cohen

"It’s an inspiring book that will—hopefully—push us toward a larger cultural conversation in which ‘atheism’ isn’t seen as a dirty word.”—The Humanist

"America doesn’t need more God. It needs more atheists. Here’s an impassioned call for nonbelievers to be honest with themselves and their families about their lack of belief—and help change the American cultural conversation.

Even though a growing number of Americans don’t believe in god, many remain reluctant to say so out loud. Kate Cohen argues that not only is it rewarding for those of little faith to announce themselves, it’s crucial to our country’s future.

As she details the challenges and joys of fully embracing atheism—especially as a parent—Washington Post contributing columnist Kate Cohen does not dismiss religion as dangerous or silly. Instead, she investigates religion’s appeal in order to explain the ways we can thrive without it.

Americans who don’t believe in god call themselves atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics, and freethinkers. Sometimes they are called “nones,” based on the box they checked on a survey identifying their religion. And sometimes they call themselves Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist.

Whatever you call yourself, if you don’t believe there’s a supernatural being in charge of the universe, it’s time to join the chorus of We of Little Faith."

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Yes, and I admitted that I missed it and apologized. I also "did my homework" and went back 6 pages to look for more examples. I didn't find any. If there are more that I missed, please share your receipts. If not, just admit that people creating threads to bash atheists isn't a rampant problem and move on. Harping on this without backing up your claim isn't going to help change anyone's mind about the mean, bad Christians. It's just going to make you look paranoid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Yes, and I admitted that I missed it and apologized. I also "did my homework" and went back 6 pages to look for more examples. I didn't find any. If there are more that I missed, please share your receipts. If not, just admit that people creating threads to bash atheists isn't a rampant problem and move on. Harping on this without backing up your claim isn't going to help change anyone's mind about the mean, bad Christians. It's just going to make you look paranoid.

DP and it is interesting to me that some atheists (maybe not PP) come on here claiming they intend to change minds - see the thread title! - but then are so grouchy when asked for data or reasoning to back up their claims. Note: I did not say all (some present really interesting arguments!). Note 2: I did not say PP who refuses to "do your homework" is one who intends to change any minds.

FWIW to those who do intend to change minds, what these attitudes certainly won't do is change hearts, and we all find ways to justify believing in what we love.

[Anonymous]

Who said they want to change minds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Yes, and I admitted that I missed it and apologized. I also "did my homework" and went back 6 pages to look for more examples. I didn't find any. If there are more that I missed, please share your receipts. If not, just admit that people creating threads to bash atheists isn't a rampant problem and move on. Harping on this without backing up your claim isn't going to help change anyone's mind about the mean, bad Christians. It's just going to make you look paranoid.

DP and it is interesting to me that some atheists (maybe not PP) come on here claiming they intend to change minds - see the thread title! - but then are so grouchy when asked for data or reasoning to back up their claims. Note: I did not say all (some present really interesting arguments!). Note 2: I did not say PP who refuses to "do your homework" is one who intends to change any minds.

FWIW to those who do intend to change minds, what these attitudes certainly won't do is change hearts, and we all find ways to justify believing in what we love.

Hearts pump blood.

No one wants to change that.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Exactly.

So frustrating. Atheists don't need to justify their beliefs (or lack of), but yet people beat down that we must prove everything to people who refuse to do anything on their own. Such garbage that pp is trying to deny actual lived experiences - IRL and on this forum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Yes, and I admitted that I missed it and apologized. I also "did my homework" and went back 6 pages to look for more examples. I didn't find any. If there are more that I missed, please share your receipts. If not, just admit that people creating threads to bash atheists isn't a rampant problem and move on. Harping on this without backing up your claim isn't going to help change anyone's mind about the mean, bad Christians. It's just going to make you look paranoid.

DP and it is interesting to me that some atheists (maybe not PP) come on here claiming they intend to change minds - see the thread title! - but then are so grouchy when asked for data or reasoning to back up their claims. Note: I did not say all (some present really interesting arguments!). Note 2: I did not say PP who refuses to "do your homework" is one who intends to change any minds.

FWIW to those who do intend to change minds, what these attitudes certainly won't do is change hearts, and we all find ways to justify believing in what we love.

Hearts pump blood.

No one wants to change that.

Um...if you don't understand figurative language I don't know what to tell you. Using "hearts" to mean "where our affections/emotions come from" is standard usage in English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who said they want to change minds?

There was a long, long thread entitled "Why do atheists post on the religion forum" where at least one and maybe multiple posters claimed they were trying to change my own personal mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The atheists who post here are usually far more close minded and tedious than the atheists I know in real life. They engage in patronizing, gross oversimplifications and reductive thinking that actually puts me off atheism. I remain open to agnosticism since we can’t prove metaphysical beliefs one way or the other.

You've expressed your opinion, and now I'll express mine: I don't care if your characterization of anything anyone says here "puts you off atheism". I hope no one is religious or non-religious because they were "put off" by someone. I think being put off by someone is a terrible reason for believing or not believing.

We know a tree by the fruits it bears.

I pay a lot of attention to character. Not a religious literalist and don’t resonate with dogmatism in either religion or atheism.

There's no dogmatism in atheism because there's no dogma. It's simply lack of belief in theism (any religion).

.

Many of the atheists who post here are extremely dogmatic, patronizing and unnecessarily antagonistic.

If you are a religious person who is sure you are right, despite total lack of evidence and lots of faith, then simply ignore anyone who doesn't see things your way.

I have good friends and family members IRL who are atheists. We have wonderful relationships based on mutual respect.

Many atheists who post in this forum are extremely patronizing and disrespectful with a disdain for nuance.

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum?

One glaring difference I have noticed is that a majority of religious posters speak only for themselves and their path to religion while many atheist posters appear to speak for not only for themselves, but for all of atheism and the many different kinds of religious beliefs and experiences. Further religion as a whole is conflated with evangelism and biblical literalists.

This could be just a few obsessed atheists doing other atheists a disservice though.

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts?

As reflected in the observation that they usually just speak for themselves or their specific faith tradition, they have diverse tones. I am not comfortable with biblical literalism, proselytization or evangelism and don’t resonate with dogmatic takes from either religious people or atheists. I just see less less overarching dogma from the religious posters in this forum.

Dogma can be both secular and religious. The Latin word dogma means “philosophical tenet” derived from Ancient Greek (dógma, “opinion, tenet”).

I was curious if you were going to provide an objective observation. Guess not. You can't seem to respond without finding a way to trash atheists.

There are bible literalists pushing dogma. There absolutely is overarching dogma re: Christianity. And there are disrespectful believers with not an ounce of nuance.

It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists. It's also expected to be outwardly accepting of other religions, with the assumption that everyone has SOME religion, and only the non-religious atheist types are bad guys. That will change eventually. It already has thru much of Europe.

Huh? I'm from the DMV. It's not been a thing here as long as I've lived here for it to be acceptable to trash atheists. Maybe in other parts of the country, but not here. I'm deeply religious, but I've known many thoughtful and intelligent atheists who have challenged me and been great friends to me since high school.

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP.

Pretty sure they are responding more to the downright meanspirited and insulting attitude displayed by individual posts than judging a group in the abstract.

Guess you haven’t been here long. Some “believers” on here can get pretty nasty. Starting threads to disparage atheists, etc.

When is the last time there was a thread on here started to disparage atheists? On the first page of the forum right now, there are only two threads about atheists and both were started by atheists to discuss being atheist (the one about talking to little kids and the one about how you became atheist). I'm sure there are some rude comments from "believers" in the talking to little kids thread, but it's long and I didn't follow the whole thing, and either way, it wasn't STARTED to bash atheists. The how did you become atheist thread is all positive stories of atheists sharing how they became atheist. I'm not saying there aren't "believers" on here who get nasty, just that they're not starting threads to do it. I was going to say that it's more common to see threads started by atheists to bash religion, but looking through the first page of the forum again, I wouldn't really be able to back up that statement either. The "wives submit to your husbands" thread and the Trump voters who are Christian thread were pretty explicitly created to bash Christianity, but really most of the threads are just people asking about different religious practices/theologies (changes to Catholic Mass, why people go to confession, what's the Trinity, etc) or prayer requests.

Like I said, guess you haven’t been here long.

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

I'm very interested in comparative religion and discussion of morality and faith, so I lurk here more often than I would care to admit over the past 4 years. I've also just skimmed back over the last 6 pages of topics. As someone else pointed out, I had missed a thread bashing atheists about religious freedom on page 1. But other than that one, I didn't see any posts created to bash atheists, though, again, I might have missed one. Of course, bashing atheists ends up happening on a lot of threads, but it's not actually accurate to say that threads are created for that purpose. Certainly not any more than threads that are created to bash religion. In both cases, there are fewer threads than I would have thought whose goal is to bash each other.

Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? Or would you like to amend your complaint to be about how threads often devolve into bashing? You can certainly make a stronger case for the latter.

Why should everyone else do your homework for you? I already pointed out a thread on the FIRST page that you conveniently missed. There are plenty of others that are specifically started to bash atheists. Just because you are too lazy to use your own eyeballs doesn't make it less true. Sounds like a white person who says racism doesnt exist because they haven't personally experienced it

Yes, and I admitted that I missed it and apologized. I also "did my homework" and went back 6 pages to look for more examples. I didn't find any. If there are more that I missed, please share your receipts. If not, just admit that people creating threads to bash atheists isn't a rampant problem and move on. Harping on this without backing up your claim isn't going to help change anyone's mind about the mean, bad Christians. It's just going to make you look paranoid.

DP and it is interesting to me that some atheists (maybe not PP) come on here claiming they intend to change minds - see the thread title! - but then are so grouchy when asked for data or reasoning to back up their claims. Note: I did not say all (some present really interesting arguments!). Note 2: I did not say PP who refuses to "do your homework" is one who intends to change any minds.

FWIW to those who do intend to change minds, what these attitudes certainly won't do is change hearts, and we all find ways to justify believing in what we love.

How do you know this thread was started by an atheist? The title and OP don't mention one way or another. Interesting that you assume it was an atheist and that they are trying to change minds. I've read the entire thread and didn't see a single post about atheists trying to change anyones mind. Almost all the posts, from atheists and religious, say that this forum has NOT changed any minds. Again, the "believer" pps are being disingenuous and trying to twist things into something completely different. Maybe if you focused on actually reading the thread and posts you'd have a better understanding? But perhaps you like to make things up, invent scenarios and blame atheists for all your issues?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who said they want to change minds?

There was a long, long thread entitled "Why do atheists post on the religion forum" where at least one and maybe multiple posters claimed they were trying to change my own personal mind.

When was this?

Is that poster even still active? Lots of assumptions there…