Two excellent things about these boards
Offline Two things made me smile recently about how business is done, here, and I'd be happy to hear any comments about whether or not you believe these are good things:
1. Hamby and crew giving a serious whipping to that guy who came in and demanded we not use the name of his lord in vain.
First, you don't go into someone's house and tell them what the rules are. It's not just rude, it's being an asshole. If you you want to try herding cats, don't get all pissy when it doesn't work out.
So: well done.
2. A couple of new theist posters I've seen have asked straightforward questions without vicious intent, and have received straightforward answers without bile.
If this were simply a place for theists to go for abuse, then I probably wouldn't stay. But the friendly approach to friendly theists makes me smile. There are a good number of patient members here who have no problem responding to simple questions without getting testy. That's commendable, and on the internet, that's rare.
To sum up, bitchy theists get bitchy treatment, and friendliness begets friendliness. This, in my never humble opinion, is how it should be.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
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I agree.
It's like... people get what they ask for...
Amazing, no?
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Yes, this is a place where atheists can come for abuse as well.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
Yes, that was.....awesome. My only regret is that by the time I reached the thread, the theist was gone. I didn't get to spam Yahweh or link the Jehovah scene from the Life of Brian.
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
My dad's best advice was, "Always be polite. It doesn't cost you anything, and you'll find that people treat you with more respect."
My dad's second best advice was, "Don't go into someone else's house and stink up their bathroom. Sure, you might feel good after the shit, but they'll never invite you back again, no matter how polite you are."
I don't know what that has to do with anything you said, but that's the advice my dad gave me.
"Yes, I seriously believe that consciousness is a product of a natural process. I find that the neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers who proceed from that premise are the ones who are actually making useful contributions to our understanding of the mind." - PZ Myers
The Jew who came in here should not have made that demand.
The sad part is he will label us anti-semetic because he has no evidence for why a taboo on a word will magically make the world a better place.
This is no different than when a gang member shoots a rival gang member because they spray painted their symbol over the other's symbol.
His point was not to say, "All Jews are bad", but that there is no good reason to hold the superstition of speaking a word, any word, of any culture in the world, or in human history, not just that particular Jew.
When I was a teen, I guy actually had convinced me that if I said in a dark bathroom facing the miror "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary", that some evil spirit would attack me.
I also had a friend a long time ago. We were on the beach and I decided to etch in the sand, his fraturnity symbol letters, he grabbed my arm telling me I couldn't since I wasn't a member.
ALL these examples are the same silly superstition. Hambi's reaction was not that he was Jewish, but that he came onto a atheist board which he didn't own and made demands.
That would be like me going to a Christian board and make the demand that they cant say I am going to burn in hell.
So what most here, including Hambi try to do, is ask WHY people make the claims they do and ask that they provide evidence for the claims they make.
So, if that Jew wanted to stay, and he was more than welcome to, then insted of making demands, what he should have done, is provide evidence as to why it is a credible claim, other than tradition, that something bad will happen for merely saying YHVH,.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I agree that it is great that there are members here that have the patience to explain things to theists and atheists. There is just the right balance IMO between those posters and the posters without the same level of tolerance.
Sometimes a few newcomers say just the wrong thing and are quickly shuffled off into trollville or banned but for the most part I think we as a community keep this place well regulated.
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/16901
It was pretty odd that the Jewish guy who came here thought that he could censor us. He really acted as though we were in the wrong on this matter even though he was the one who was trying to be a censor. I'll never get some people. Someone out there was genuinely hurt and offended that we wouldn't conform to his censorship standards.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India
It was pretty priceless, though.
It's like any group in human history living in the past. Being hurt, is something we all can understand. If anyone should be able to understand an atheist, most certainly a Jew should. BUT, it seems that long after the fact, a given group slighted by the majority, thinks that entitles them to taboos.
If a Jew, Black, gay, atheist, or Muslim wants to say they have been hurt in the past I say, "NO SHIT!, Should I call that into CNN?"
Remembering the past should not involve censoring people who are merely disagreeing. None of the atheists I know here, or anywhere for that matter condone genocide, much less that of the Germans of WW2.
BUT, what does that have to do with proving that if I say your deity's name, somehow magically your penis will fall off?
I am not going to refrain from saying "GOD DAMN IT" or "YHVH" just because someone is offended. I get offended that theists equate atheists to Stalin and Hitler.
All I ask, is not that you don't blaspheme me, but BACK UP WHAT YOU CLAIM, then be willing to debate it.
"Don't say that because my ego is fragile" does not work for me, and should not work for those seeking to learn and grow.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I browsed thru that thread just now, and I am sorry I missed it.
His attitude epitomized much of what is so wrong with religious belief itself, IMHO.
Equating our ridiculing of his religion and his fallacious attempts to justify his position with anti-semitism.... But that is a problem with people who just so identify with their religion that they can't separate mocking and rejection of their religious beliefs from attacks on themselves as persons.
The Yahweh thing also epitomized how religion can make an action which causes no actual explicit harm to anyone or anything whatsoever into something deeply 'wrong', which is one of my deepest objections to religion, especially its claims to providing a moral framework.
I so felt like cheering for Hamby - that elevation of the action of simply spelling out a name into a something like a 'sin' really needed to be ridiculed so emphatically. A name is a word used to refer to something. To have a 'name' which cannot be actually used is the height of absurd nonsense.
Favorite oxymorons: Gospel Truth, Rational Supernaturalist, Business Ethics, Christian Morality
"Theology is now little more than a branch of human ignorance. Indeed, it is ignorance with wings." - Sam Harris
The path to Truth lies via careful study of reality, not the dreams of our fallible minds - me
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Science -> Philosophy -> Theology
I agree with the OP.
And add that there's a healthy level of comedy surrounding the forum as well. It has been present since I first got here, and it is very enjoyable.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I love it when that happens.
Seriously, that dude was a douche who was just looking to start trouble. Anything other than laughing him out the door would have given him dignity he didn't deserve.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I have to stop you right there, Bob. You know how I feel about the word "elevation". It's ... well, it's a sin. I really must ask that you avoid the word "elevation".
...
*snicker*
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence