Atheist Anthony says we are hateful

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Atheist Anthony says we are hateful

Anthony posed some comments that incite debate on our myspace page, and we deleted them, he then reposted as he clearly doesn't "respect" our page, and reasserted himself. This time with a grudge that we deleted his comments and insinuating that he'd expose us or something as thought Nazis or whatever his threat was meant to insinuate. So for the benefit of Anthony (since that's what we're here for-sarcasm) we'll address his points.

Anthony in our comment section wrote:

Since, out of intolerance you deleted my last post, I'm screencapping this for future reference.

Anthony, you disrespected us by not adhering to our very simple comment guideline that is stated on our comment window which says "This is not the place to engage us in debate or leave the common strawman argument we've been seeing here lately. If you want to debate us, or have a question send us an email or post on our message boards." Additionally, you lied about our position asserting that we hate theists, and therefore even more so, we're not willing to give you a voice on our myspace page. The myspace page is not conducive to a one topic debate, back and forth in which we can hash out an issue without interruption from other comments.

Your comment that you are screencapping it should be taken as some sort of threat. Not only did you not take the time to learn our position before commenting, you also didn't take the time to read our comment rules, and would then proceed to expose us in someway without an accurate representation of who we are. Of course I'm assuming a little here, but I think the inference is a safe one, correct me if I'm wrong.

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I have the right to publicly express my opinion without hindrance.

True, but you don't have the right to do it wherever you want. A myspace page isn't exactly public, it is controlled by it's owner, and they can do whatever they please on their page. You are more than welcome to speak out or do whatever you want on your blog or page, or shout it from the streets.

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If you disagree, feel free to state so.

Not only do I disagree, but I disagree with your lack of seeking out the answers before you made the upcoming positive assertions. I disagree with you thinking that you deserve an individual answer to your claims (we've answered these thoughts many times). I disagree with you thinking that our myspace comment section is the appropriate place to voice these misinformed positions.

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Insult me like you do perfectly good people, but do not lack the bravery to argue for your beliefs (or lack thereof).

Some perfectly good people deserve to be insulted. Some of them insult the power of the brain, and our ability to think logically with their gross misuse of the brain. I wasn't intending on insulting you however, and I don't think I need to in this post. We don't lack the bravery to argue for our beliefs, we have over 40 hours worth of recordings and over 2,500 posts on this message board explaining them. Don't lack the research skills to seek out answers before you assert a misinformed position with certainty.

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Delete this post, and it is only showing who the truly irrational ones are.

I deleted it. Furthermore thinking that deletion of a post when the rules specifically state that comments that incite debate will be deleted is irrational, is silly. Deleting the post doesn't make us irrational, it makes us consistent.

Oh goody now that we got your threats, attempts to illicit an answer (which worked) and silly positions out of the way, let's move on the the crux of your argument.....

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In all honesty, this is a bit ridiculous. I am an atheist and I am a member of the group that automatically signed me up...not liking religion is one thing, but openly expressing hatred is another.

Please point out one thing you see from us that you would consider hatred.

We speak up about the dangers of religious belief because we care about people, we care about humanity, and we want to see it move forward. I suppose there is a possibility that the things we say are wrong, but one thing I know for sure is that we say these things out of goodness and a legitimate desire to make the world a better place.

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If we are supposed to be rational and tolerant, and religious people aren't...what we're doing now makes us no better than what you all are saying the religious people are doing.

OK, here is where you dip off. Who ever said that atheism=rational and tolerant? I know I don't. Atheism itself may be rational, but not all atheists are rational people. Furthermore, you certainly can't be one to preach tolerance, you yourself are intolerant of our position, our views, our rules on our myspace page. It is not wise to always be tolerant, in fact dare I say that it is irrational. It is wise to respect peoples civil rights, don't infringe on their right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Don't disrespect peoples rights to have beliefs, they are free to have their beliefs, however so are we. Our belief is that a great many people of the world hold irrational beliefs, beliefs not predicated on logic and empirical evidence.

We don't claim to be better than religious people in everything we do, however in the claim that a god exists and the belief in it with no evidence, we claim that our lack of belief is more valid, and "better" than the belief of theists.

Should we have been tolerant of Hitler?

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If we are truly rational, why are we trying to start up a hatefest anyway?

There's no need for you to say "we" there, but whatever. We don't have a hatefest. We sincerely care about humanity, and desire to live in a world in which people have evidence for the things they believe. Most theists already live their life in this way except for one key belief, and that is theistic belief. That belief can lead to all sorts of other beliefs that lack evidence.

We aren't in a hatefest. But feel free to point out the things that you think are hateful, and we'll offer clarification.

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Hate accomplishes nothing.

Actually that's inaccurate, but I assume you meant hate accomplishes nothing positive. Which is bounds more accurate, although I could probably contrive an example in which it did. For example, maybe a soldiers hate for Osama Bin Laden led to his perseverance in the ground war in Afghanistan.

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In fact, if anything (save for extremists) we are worse than them!

Who's we? I'll assume you mean RRS. What are you measuring "better than" and "worse than" with? Clearly it's not the validity of our atheism.

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While they try to peacefully convert us, trying persuasion, we cast all that aside and flat out insult them.

People who don't want their beliefs insulted, shouldn't have beliefs deserving of insult. And for what it's worth there are tons of moderate theists who insult atheists similarly to what you think our insults are. The mere notion of someone thinking that I'd be stupid enough to believe in a specific god without falsifiable evidence is insulting in itself.

"Religion is an insult to human dignity." - Nobel Prize winning Physicist Steven Weinberg

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What does that accomplish in the long run aside from spread hateful messages?

Again, we're not hateful. As to what it accomplishes, well we've had quite a few theists tell us we helped open their eyes. We've had bounds more atheists come forward and gratefully expressed thanks for the time we spend speaking out. They've realized now that it's safe to be atheist, as they were always feeling shitty for their lack of belief constantly being bombarded by people who wanted them to believe in a god.

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I am Anthony and I respect other people's beliefs.

Good for you, you've got the public school systems obedience standards down pat. So you'd have no problem with me claiming the moon is made of green cheese right? I should hope you never attain a position of power, or you may allow murderers to get away with murder, because after all, they're just expressing their beliefs. Or you may allow the Hitlers and the Bin Ladens of the world to get away with their crimes, after all these are just their beliefs.

Anthony, as you get older you realize, certain beliefs don't deserve respect. For example you don't respect our belief to think the way we do. You fervently speak out against us, even bordered on making some sort of threat if we'd delete your comment again. The difference between us, is not very far, it simply seems you respect a belief that we don't. If you want to be more accurate, say what we say, "I respect peoples rights to have beliefs, but not necessarily the belief itself." If you respect the beliefs of theists one might wonder why you aren't a theist.