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Originally Posted by jeffbase40
Like I've said before, I've based my perceptions on atheists on my personal experiences. And those experiences involving atheists have always always been 100% negative. Mockery is plentiful even here, and mockery is nothing more than an extension of hostility. Another example? The fact that I never once see atheists disagree with each other in a debate involving Christian. Instead, it's always back slapping bravos.
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Honestly, it gives me no pleasure in telling you this - I have no personal animosity towards you at all despite some of the things you believe in. But seriously, if every encounter you've had with an atheist has been 100% negative, then you might want to start considering the possibility that the onus might be on you. I don't know how many encounters you've had with atheists, but if it's more than a few, then it's probably not all of them that are the problem, but you. Something you do, some mannerism, some behavioral trait is being seen by atheists as irritating or even overtly hostile. It's easy to lose sight of that when hashing out big issues like religion vs atheism, but even big debates require a certain "something" in the charisma department.
No, I don't know what it might be. This is a text-only medium and there's no way I could tell you what it might be - if it really is anything at all. In any event, you can mull over what I've said or chuck it in the trash. The choice is yours.
As for mockery, well ... I guess that's the flip side to the Christians when we atheists are threatened with eternal torture. Some of us do find that insulting because, when that is used as a weapon, what's actually being said is, "You DESERVE to be tortured forever." How would YOU feel if someone told you that? I think that's far worse than mockery and a joke or two at Christianity's expense. It's not that we actually believe we're going to be frying at the end of Satan's pitchfork. What's disturbing is that YOU (meaning Christians in general) believe it.
And finally, regarding these "back-slapping bravos" you talk about, I really don't know what you would have us all do? Should we deliberately write posts that we know other atheists will disagree with just to take some heat off the Christians? Should we really be that deceptive and dishonest?
As far as I recall, I never joined a clique nor has anyone offered me a membership into one. To the best of my knowledge, there are no anti-Christian conspiracies or planning strategies held offline so that we atheists are always in synch with each other or so that we're always in agreement. There's no atheist club that is out to get you - at least not one that I belong to. I'm not even in communication with anyone through private messages that maintains solidarity among atheists.
The bottom line is that, if we usually agree with each other, should that REALLY come as a surprise to you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
Again, the nature of this forum only serves to support my perceptions. Look at the quality of thread posts. Almost 100% anti-Christian only really serving the purpose of trying to demonize and make Christians look bad.
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And yet you're here ... and you keep coming back. No, I'm not suggesting that you leave. That's not what I want at all. I only say that because a lot of us here simply enjoy the challenge of a debate. For me, especially, being disabled on top of living in one of the most isolated IQ wastelands in America, I need to keep my brain exercised lest I become another vegetable watching reality TV all day and night. In some ways, I guess, you're actually helping me out in your own way (which isn't to say I don't mean what I say in my debates because I do).
The fact that you're here mixing it up with the rest of us, it's easy to assume you're here because you enjoy it, as well. I'm sure there are other things you could be doing than responding to all of us mean and nasty atheists. The fact that you actively CHOOSE to be here says to me that you enjoy a good intellectual "rastling" match.
But hey, I get the fact that it might seem like people are ganging up on you or that all of us atheists are teaming up and dog-piling you. If that's how you feel, send me a private message. I'll leave you alone for awhile. My intentions aren't to make you angry or for you to rip your hair out.
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Originally Posted by jeffbase40
I'm really sorry that you believe Christians are just horrible people, but that is so far from reality.
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I don't think Christians are horrible people. I don't think I've ever said that. However, I will be honest (as I always am) and say that there are aspects of Christianity itself that I find to be rather horrible. It's just too bad that some good people can get caught up in it. Things like that pro-discrimination law in Mississippi ... c'mon. That's the kind of slimeball religion that's going to get atheists rankled. That doesn't mean, however, that I think all Christians are horrible people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
The Christians I know help each other. I serve a God who I've seen heal broken lives and rescued people from a dark life of drug abuse. Now how can you say that is a bad thing? Christ is not a myth. These people didn't heal themselves through the power of their own imagination.
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No, people healed themselves with their own strength and determination. I don't go around visiting hospitals and rehab clinics to tell everyone that Christ is a myth; as long as Christians respect the ideal that religion is a private choice and not something that should be pushed onto people through the force of law, then I really don't care what people wish to believe. I only challenge it here because it's a debate and discussion forum about religion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffbase40
None? Ok, here is one example. The school had to tear down the banner because apparently atheists find anything from the Bible to be so offensive.
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Jeff, a banner in a gym doesn't affect anyone's life one way or the other. Yet if we allow a school promote the Bible this one time, certain Christians will be encouraged to sneak religion into the public school system whenever they think we're not looking. There are plenty of private schools out there which are free to promote religion all they wish to.
But the real point I was trying to make is that a religious banner in the gym, a memorial bench with a cross on it ... whether they exist or not, no one's life is really affected by it. You can't compare that to gay marriage, without which partners are denied all kinds of benefits, not the least of which concerns medical rights and visitation privileges. I had a lesbian couple as my roommates throughout my grad school years and I've seen first hand what this does to people, how seriously and egregiously this anti-gay marriage crusade affected them.
And that's to say nothing of the hatred it generates. When I was an undergrad, I had a female roommate and we lived off campus. Nothing at all strange about that. Yet we had our house egged and our cars vandalized by a gang of neighborhood kids, none of whom could have been older than 12, because they thought my roommate and I were gay. Just because we lived together, they thought we were gay - and because they thought we were gay, they believed they had the right to vandalize our property and holler gay slurs at us whenever they saw us outside (even when we weren't with each other).
Kids that young, they have to be taught to hate gays and I doubt very much that this hatred came from secular parents. Surely you can see why I'm very much against Christians who teach this kind of hatred and bigotry. I'm not even gay, not even bi-curious, but because of this anti-gay frenzy the Christians started, I couldn't even have a female roommate in college without having to put up with a lot of crap. Yes, even "innocent" people who aren't gay were harassed and bullied because of the fear taught to young children by bigoted parents. And if it happened to me and my friend ... how often do you think this has happened to others like us all over the country? You're not going to see it on the news, after all.
I don't argue and debate against Christians just for kicks. There are very real consequences for the BS being said behind pulpits and in front of mics all over America.
Stop and think about THAT before accusing me or anyone like me of simply hating Christians or thinking they're all bad people. It's a two-way street, ya know?
Take care, Jeff.
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