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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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. [/quote]

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.

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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. [/quote]

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

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

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.
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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. [/quote]

How would you describe the "believers" who post often on this forum? 
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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. [/quote]

I was asking about “believers”.

How would you describe the tone of their posts? 
[/quote]

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”). [/quote]

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. 
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[b]
It's still acceptable, in US culture, to trash atheists[/b].  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.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

Certainly some religious people on DCUM think it's acceptable. DP. 
[/quote]

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

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

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

Either that or you aren’t being objective.

[/quote]
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 [i]created[/i] 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.

[b]Which threads, other than the religious freedom one, were started to bash atheists? [/b]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.[/quote]
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 [i]are[/i] 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  :roll: [/quote]

Exactly. 
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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. [/quote]
I'm not denying anyone's lived experience. I'm saying that if you look at the actual threads created on this forum, it's blowing it out of proportion to say that most or even a bunch of them are created expressly to attack atheists. It's happening, as was the case with the religious freedom thread, but just not that often. Just like it happens that threads are created to attack Christians, again, not that often. Maybe it FEELS like it happens more because of the emotional impact it has on the PP, but it's objectively not a frequent occurrence. I said at one point yesterday that a stronger argument could be made for threads devolving into atheist bashing and I would fully agree with that argument, but an argument that people here START threads regularly to bash atheists is just not born out by the last 6 pages of threads that I went through, nor by my recollection of frequenting this forum over the past 4 years.

FWIW, I'm not asking atheist PP to justify their atheism at all. Go ahead and believe or not believe whatever you want, as long as you're a good person.[/quote]
Again, you are not capable of having an actual coversation without twisting words to try and suit your narrative. The post you replied to about believers starting threads to disparage atheists did not say "most" threads or even "a bunch". I will copy and paste it for you, since you seem severely lacking in reading comprehension.

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

This 100% happens. Stop trying to twist words that are written clearly, in black and white. You are incorrect, and it's not worth talking to someone so disingenuous as to deny actual facts stated about this forum and posts. [/quote]

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