http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026216483 Thu Feb 12, 2015, 12:33 PM
Star Member mr blur (6,572 posts)
I am another anti-theist who fantasises that religion "would just disappear"
I have never held a gun, never bombed an abortion clinic, never murdered a doctor, never been a member of the Ku Klux Klan;
never raped a child, never blown up a pub full of British soldiers, never wanted to behead someone who drew an unflattering picture of Charles Darwin, never harrassed and beaten a schoolgirl for wearing clothes that I didn't like, never persecuted a girl for wanting to go to school and overcome ignorance;
never refused to sit next to a woman on a plane, never treated a woman as an inferior being because she is a woman, never mutilated the genitals of a young boy or girl, never burned someone's 'holy' book in public because they weren't like me.
I don't tell people who they should love, or have sex with, or marry - hey, if it's safe, sane and consensual it's none of my ****ing business.
I don't march up and down at funerals insulting and hurting friends and families of dead people whose only crime was to not be exactly like me and share my bigotry.
I'm not making extraordinary claims for myself, I am not special; I just have the advantage of not having a fantasy supernatural being telling me exactly how I should be living, who I should be hating, who is inferior to me and everything else right on down to who can **** who and whether or not they are breaking some bullshit imaginary law for being responsible and using a condom.
And now I find myself here on a "Progressive" online community seemingly surrounded by people who see that a sick **** who didn't believe in gods went out and killed three people who seemed to believe in a very un-American god, and seem to think that atheism is the problem?
Am I and the other atheists and agnostics on DU supposed to apologise because we don't believe in God either, so we must share the blame and guilt because, obviously, being an atheist is the first step on the road to a murderous rampage?
I don't feel obliged to speak up about this because I feel, somehow, that my shared (lack of) beliefs with this murderer somehow gives me a share in the responsibility. It doesn't.
I just thought that DU was better than this.
Welcome to the reality of the DUmp.
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 12:59 PM
Lurks Often (3,615 posts)
4. It's extremists that are the problem
Be it political extremists, religious extremists, extremists against having a religion, racial extremists and extremists who have causes that don't fit into any of the prior categories, it is the extremists that are the problem.
I know very tolerant people who take comfort in religion, it's made their lives better, I have no right to take that from them.
As for DU, this latest incident is yet another in a long line of posts where a large chunk of DU gets outraged over something long before most of the facts are in and start posting things that often blame people that they don't like because it fits their worldview of what they think happened.
In this case there were a number of initial posts blaming a right winger, Fox watching, nut job.
Yeah,but normal people are used to you mutts make fools of yourselves.
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 01:05 PM
TexasMommaWithAHat (889 posts)
6. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
There are plenty of assaults on religious people on this board.
So the mud is being flung in a different direction for a change.
And you don't like it?
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 01:27 PM
Star Member Waiting For Everyman (7,615 posts)
8. No, you're supposed to understand now
why bringing up the Crusades etc. after ISIS executes somebody is IRRELEVANT. What you're complaining of is the same irrelevancy that we get trotted out all the time (against Christians, and against the US politically, when neither are the perpetrators of the crime at hand).
You're supposed to catch on. Maybe some will, some probably won't. Nevertheless, the point is made.
And the larger point, which is MOST relevant, as it was at the ISIS executions, is that innocent people have been killed and that is not excusable no matter the cause or the "history". Arguing about religious history at times like this is an attempted manipulation and a self-absorbed diversion from the tragedy which just took place.
(By "you" I mean the general usage of course, where the shoe fits.)
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 02:20 PM
B2G (4,297 posts)
16. I don't know why you're so shocked
You evidently haven't been paying attention around here the last few years.
Not much fun to be lumped into a category and denigrated based simply on your skin color, sex, personal beliefs, gun ownership status, income, etc., is it?
Welcome to the club...it's a tough room.
Funny how being around hate filled lunatics is a downer.
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 02:49 PM
Fumesucker (38,455 posts)
18. Welcome to DU!
Seriously though, have you been paying attention here? DU loves to hate on people who don't measure up to some standard or other.
I would be proud of that.
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 03:02 PM
cpwm17 (2,568 posts)
20. There is an extremely hot-headed, reactionary, small group of atheists on this board
that like to collectively blame all religious believers for the actions of individuals. That is not fair at all. Some posters here are just getting even.
It is very fair to criticize particular religious beliefs and often the believers that hold them. But that is a big difference than collective guilt.
Atheist or simply anti western christian.
Response to mr blur (Original post)
Thu Feb 12, 2015, 03:23 PM
Star Member el_bryanto (9,410 posts)
27. I agree that this person's actions shouldn't be reflected in attacks on DUs Atheist community
Frankly we don't know enough to know that his anti-theism was even a motivating factor, but even if we did, it would still be the actions of a disturbed individual, and no reflection on the larger movement.
That said, as a DU believer, the same sort of posts are made every time a religious person commits and atrocity, insinuating that believers share culpability in a small way for continuing the same belief system that justified whatever the latest tragedy is. So I do totally understand why some believers might respond in the way they have. I think they are wrong, but I can understand it.
Of course I also think it's wrong when DU's Atheist community jumps to condemn all religion when a religiously motivated disturbed individual commits an atrocity.
Bryant
Imagine knowing full well what a bunch of insane,angry and evil people you are hanging around with and yet going back day after day to join them.
