[Muridae]

While I’ve gotten quite a bit more attention then I expected, and I’m trying to work upwards through a surprising list of comments, do allow me to address this one first:

First, I’m not really trying to play white knight for anyone; indeed, I came address a few specific misconceptions, regardless of who stands on what side. Still, I can understand why I get set in that catagory.

However, you are right - I’m not here by accident. But if you think I’ve been summoned or such, you’ve jumped to conclusions. This would be a point to make a crack about the manner of your thinking, but I shall hold back.

Instead, the reason is quite simple: This comic, and the comments attached to it, was posted to reddit, in the subreddit r/atheism, which I visit now and then:

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/nwb7w/freep_the_dawkins_delusion/

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

Surely it’s not difficult for you to believe that one among that number decided it may be worth their time to comment.

Granted, as creationists don’t tend to be swayed by science and reason and as this site is (no offense) not particularly prominent, I expect I will come to a point where feel my time is better spent with friends and libations for the new year.

[wintertime]

Muridae,

Personally, I don't care what you or anyone else cares to believe.

However, no one should be forced to pay a dime to support your,mine, or anyone else’s belief about the appearance of man on earth. No one’s child should be **forced** to attend a school where they are under government compulsion to attend classes that establish someone else’s educational worldview! It is **fundamentally** impossible to have a religiously neutral education.

And...It does seem that those who are the most vehement supporters of compulsory ( police enforced ) government schooling are evolutionists. IDer’s and creationist are the most likely to support measures to privatize K-12 education.

And....Not for a minute do I believe that atheistic government teachers are able to hide their contempt for Christianity from their students. It will bleed through. Personally, I think Christians who send their precious children into our nation's godless schools are very foolish.

[grey_whiskers]

Instead, the reason is quite simple: This comic, and the comments attached to it, was posted to reddit, in the subreddit r/atheism, which I visit now and then:

reddit?

I've seen a funny looking link next to other stories with several logos, such as twitter, Digg, and reddit -- so I'm guessing it's some kind of social networking?

And by the subdirectory, I infer it has sub-chat-rooms or somesuch?

<snip>

Surely it’s not difficult for you to believe that one among that number decided it may be worth their time to comment.

I'll take your word on it, as I've seen any number of sites which comment on atheists / fundamentalists/ Paultards whatnot.

But we do not often find n00bies showing up on FR who begin commenting in the *middle* of an ongoing squabble on a thread...most often they show up and post a *link* to a news story or spam for Romney or Ron Paul or try to flame conservatives. People that show up in mid-thread have often been summoned by someone else as though a djinn.

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

As far as the comic, it appears to be a more sophisticated vesion of the old "No! Get your OWN dirt!" joke.

The problem is that a disproportionate share of the atheists somehow think that biology disproves Christianity, as though religion were merely a superficial attempt to explain the world, based first in ignorance, then in argument from authority (scholasticism), and based on the social group dynamics of people so benighted they had absolutely no conception of regularity in nature, nor natural law, and were hence ripe for the plucking...; such model now rightly supplanted by science.

That'd be great, if it were true. But most of that applies not to Judaism but to the pagan gods of the polytheists, who were *explicitly* anthropomorphic and whose interference was invoked for every vagary of life.

As far as creationists not being swayed by science and reason, that depends on the individual; and many scientists are quiet unreasonable too to the point that Dilbert had a character named "Dan, the illogical scientist":

Incidentally -- I find your earlier remarks interesting:

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

Is the 350,000 supposed to be impressive or something? If it is, you have--doubtless inadvertently--set aside your implicit claim of rationalism as the sole arbiter of truth, to be supplanted by "groupthink", much as the AGW crowd has stated -- "teh science is settled."

Granted, as creationists don’t tend to be swayed by science and reason and as this site is (no offense) not particularly prominent, I expect I will come to a point where feel my time is better spent with friends and libations for the new year.

As you have in earlier paragraphs proclaimed yourself among the arbiters of reason, I am suprised to find you (again) relying on ad hominem.

Enjoy your New Year, until your eyries receive you, at your journey's end.

Cheers!

[A_perfect_lady]

Remember, they start at the end and work backwards. "There must be a God" is not their starting point. It's their end point. No matter what explanation you ask for, they mentally add "that includes God" before they even start to think about it.

Examples above include these ideas that Emmanuel is a nickname or codeword for Jesus ("so see, he really DID fulfill the prophecy") and that a married couple hadn't had sex so he could still be of a Virgin, and of course, the promise Jesus gave to return in the disciples' lifetime MUST have REALLY meant that... um... one of them would have a dream about it. Yeah, that's it. They work backwards. Every time.

[metmom]

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

I'm calling BS on that one. I don't believe those numbers for a minute.

Granted, as creationists don’t tend to be swayed by science and reason and as this site is (no offense)

No offense taken but if that's what you believe, you're a moron.

Creationists simply aren't swayed by the liberal, God hating mentality that you and your fellow self-proclaimed intellectual "elites" buy into.

And we aren't swayed by philosophy that is thinly veiled as science by its adherents.

You're working on the presumption that what passes for *science* and *reason* in your minds really is either scientific or reasonable.

[metmom]

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

The last time I heard something like this was from a now banned Darwin Central, mouth-breathing troll, trying to convince someone that the entire internet was laughing hysterically about something a creationist had said on FR. Nobody believer it then either.

So, noob, what WAS your previous screen name? How are things over in the DC swamp?

[metmom]

The comic, its creators, and its supporters are being laughed at by a community of up to 350,000 composed both of atheists, rationalists, and free thinkers who find humor in people actually believing that the comic makes a good point, as well as Christians rubbing their temples at the excesses and illogical of their distant compatriots.

The last time I heard something like this was from a now banned Darwin Central, mouth-breathing troll, trying to convince someone that the entire internet was laughing hysterically about something a creationist had said on FR. Nobody believed it then either.

So, noob, what WAS your previous screen name? How are things over in the DC swamp?

[grey_whiskers]

Huh.

I just surfed over to the link.

It's 11:00 by the clock on my computer, local time.

37 comments on that thread, when I started this; I had some cooking and got interrupted, and it's now 12:37 AM.

Implying a participation rate of approximately 0.01% of the population of /r/atheism.

What's even more telling is some of the self-congratulatory comments by the folks over there.

Godssheep 3 points 12 hours ago
The sole (openly) atheist in there is trying damn hard though.

[–]NukeThePope 3 points 11 hours ago
I couldn't bear to watch him struggle.
[–]WorkingMouse 1 point 25 minutes ago
There are two of us now. And I think I just got censored.

So. Mr. workingmouse, I presume?

on the other hand, there are these posts:

[–]kurtwinter 4 points 10 hours ago

Downvoted for linking to a Free Republic article. That goes against all that is good in the universe.

Such commentary does not speak well for your bona fides; nor does such as

[–]BetYouCanNotTellMe 1 point 9 hours ago

No - it needs to serve as an example of what the US will be like if the likes of Bachman or Paul are elected.

Bachman is misspelled; and Paul-supporters are regularly ZOTTED (banned).

Such a level of fatuity (literally, self-satisfied stupidity) -- is not reassuring.

But it is interesting how your take here on this thread is quite different than your take say seven months ago on reddit/christianity.

(source: http://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/h67dn/a_question_of_theology_dealing_with_god_being/c1t7nqo)

If you're up for a real discussion based on those points, later over the weekend, I'm game.

For the nonce...have you ever bothered to to consider the implications of your statement that

I don't believe in evolution; I accept it based upon the evidence that supports it. This is also why I am an undecided agnostic; for me, I see no convincing evidence for a god or the supernatural, so I don't see a reason to base my decisions on the assumption that there is one ?

A lot of atheist are offended at religion, as it seems to be a realm in which their intellect is not only (allegedly) insufficient (as if...); but it is regarded as a non-sequitur. Oh, the indignity of it all!

And so the stock response is to retort that atheism is the sacred refuge of the few who have the courage, the will, and the intellectual stamina and heft to scale the heights, far above the easily satisfied crowd who only wants cheap comfort, yada yada.

They then turn around and complain "a real God wouldn't send anyone to Hell."

So who's the one looking for comfort?

As a celebrated Christian author said, The horror of the Christian universe was that it had no door marked Exit..

That was my chief complaint when I used to be an atheist.

That, and noplace to call my own, with my business my own.

Yuck.

Cheers!

[metmom]

[50mm]

Atheist troll Muridae ZOT!

To be added or removed from the Viking Kitty/ZOT Ping List, FReepmail Darkwing104 or 50mm.

[Vendome]

FO nOOb, erh, dead nOOb..

Have a Happy New Year contemplating...Well, nothing....