I've been reading here since 2004 and I can't remember a time when I've seen so many religious and gay themed threads hit the front page. What's going on? I come to ATS for my dose of conspiracy theory - not an ecclesiastical pissing contest. This crap has gotten way out of hand. I'm not posting this just to raise a stink. But I've found myself completely turned off and I've been visiting less because of it. I really do like ATS and I hope that something will happen to return it to its roots.

These are just hot button issues today. There are a lot of issues actually getting worked out IMHO. The tone of these threads has been changing a lot. I think its great. The fact is, many people who have strong religious views and who are very anti-gay have not in the past had their views challenged. They usually associated with like-minded, right?
I think the interchange has been good all round, if occasionally over dramatic.
Anyway, I don't think anyone could possibly keep up on all subjects in all areas, so its really just "read what you want" and skip over the rest.
cheers mate

Maybe it has to do with the Holiday Season and the controversial voting on gay marriage. The gay marriage issue it still pretty hot in California.

I Completely agree these threads have nothing to do with the spirit and intention of ATS which is to deal with addressing the obfuscated truth.

I believe it would be interesting to see the IP address of all these posts to determine if they originate from a few or many sources.

Remember, if we ignore it, it will go away. Censorship is a double edged sword.

Oddly, speaking of religion is not necessarily religious in tone, and may be used in a Socio-Economic conversation, as religious views affect both.

Politics and Religion affect each other, as well as Socio-Economic topics.

All them reflect on Conspiracy Theory, and relate to UFO's in one way or another.

I think you might want to use the word, 'religiousity' when you wish to denigrate a belief system, or your lack of interest therein. It's less confusing.

With must have had a large intake of Homosexual Fundamentalist Christians who love a good conspiracy theory hmmmmm....

ATS is a Large-Scale-Media-Outlet


It has Grown into this...

This, power that is created itself, is accessed by anyone who wants to.

And contribuited to by anyone who wants to...


Thus,

Those with an ideology of inflicting their views, will flock to mediums of power.



This is nothing more them AT LEAST Thousands of years of human history being played out on a new medium...

The internet...
And that sub-medium is ATS...


The movement in the death of the Western World, is the elimination of moral truths, and the ushering in of a new religion, and first, they must destroy the old religion.

Homosexuality is not a new issue, it has existed as long as we have.

And this is not the first time that certain societies have embraced it, and certain powers, promoating it.


What made AboveTopSecret will destroy ATS.

At the start, everything was open to discusion.
You could talk freely...

Over the years... ATS grew... this little idea of free thought, ignighted a segment of the world that was tired of the Politacaly Correct world where everything was a lie and a fraud...

ATS bears the burden of all living things, the way of decay... and make no mistake about it, ATS is alive, it grows and changes it min. With new ideas, stories, and restrictions...

Yes... Restrictions...
Things were called into question...
What WAS accetible topics?
Could the average member really be trusted to talk freely?


Restrictions were put in place...

Starts small...
Certain topics...
Or hobbies...
Then it moves to to words...
Then... it moves to what 'they think you are saying'...


The system gets bogged down with rules and restrictions...

And the inherent limitations that come with the emotions of humans, and the privilages of power.




Now we bring it back to your main point...
Whats with the threads, on certain topics...

Those are what ATS is now... Those are the topics that ARE the acepeted ones..

You say you want ATS to get back to its roots...
My friend, that is not possible... not unless you got a time travel device... Which, acording to SOME people on this site... you just might...



Now Rather then Mangle the idea with words anymore, which you can see is a specialty of mine, I give you the answer to all your questions... In words more graceful then i ever could.

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear.


--Marcus Tullius Cicero
Roman orator, statesman 42 B.C"



We are mere actors repeating out a story...
Only the Charaters and Scenes change...


If you ever think your the first to think of something... Your a fool...


This world is magnifigicent

And the only object to Human inovation, is censorship...



Now, with all that in mind...
Figure out your part in the play, our point in the play, and what these Facts that are happening, means is going to happen, in this great big Play called Human history


Now... im sorry... cause... you were only asking about the Shadows on the wall... and I stated talking about WHAT is making the shadows on the wall...


You must realise, that what you are seeing, is merely the result of what you are NOT seeing...

And if you only read one sentence... let it be ^^ THAT one

Religious threads are getting out of hand, nothing to do with ATS and the content is all Evangelical propaganda by religious trolls. ATS was never like this before, you could discuss religion in a mature manner.

Therefore, I ask the administration to introduce a laïcité policy for ATS - separation of non-conspiratorial religious threads. A quick scan of recent posts and you'll see idiotic religious threads spawning all over the place. Belowtopsecret should be the location for personal religious experiences, not the conspiracy side of this network.

Skunkworks and Fragile Earth are full of topics on how to find God. That has nothing to do with those subject matters whatsoever. Try discussing the Middle East without a Bible quote polluting the thread or how evil the Islamic religion is

Secularisation of the Abovetopsecret is needed.

What your leaving out here is that it is ANTI religious peoples and Gay people who are STARTING MOST OF THOSE THREADS .....for either baiting purposes (maybe so everyone will complain like you are ) or because they really do have some questions ..............

Most conspiracy threads have people with many different ideas, they all fight their own corner to get their ideas out and so the thread dies down quickly as there is no prolonged support.

With homosexual and religious topics, there are two main 'sides' with many smaller fractions in between. This allows for much greater support for each side and so a thread receives many more replies.

EG. Normal thread: I believe 'A' about this issue.
I believe 'B' about this issue.
I believe 'C' about this issue.

Homosexual or religious thread:

I believe 'A' about this issue.
Me to.
I believe 'B' about this issue.
I also believe 'A' about this issue, but also 'D'
I believe 'B' about this issue.
etc

We dissagree so greatly as most arguments are close to 50/50 allowing the support continue evenly on both sides prolonging the replies.

I've noticed a whole lot of anti-religious trolling over the last few months. The pro religious stuff ends up in BTS pretty quick usually (or it was started there in the first place.) Typically consisting of the types of scholarship, insights and reasonableness one can find at your local Sunday school class for toddlers.


They go something like this:
The Bible says God is all-powerful.

But, that means that God could make a hot dog so big He couldn't eat it.

But, if He couldn't eat it He can't be all-powerful.

Logix... I haz it! Christians r dum!

A "free-thinker" can expect several dozen stars and flags for something like this. Hence... many more will follow. This stuff has been sticking around in the Conspiracies in Religion and Origins & Creation forum instead of being moved to BTS where it belongs. It's a big big place, I'm sure the mods are doing their best.

The recent Israel-Palestine conflict is probably fueling some of the religious threads too. 'Til then, you can just ignore 'em... that's what I do. Haven't noticed many 'gay threads' but, as was already mentioned, with the recent election it would make sense.

The zealots and/or insecure on both sides tend to do most of the talking. Same as it ever was.... *shrug*


ATS is what we make it - user-generated content. Internet Discussion Rule Number 1: Don't feed the trolls. They eventually go elsewhere to feed or just starve to death. Either way, problem solved. No matter if your pro or anti whatever... look for the quality discussions, let the others go.

What else can you do?

*Applause for Rren*

The homosexuality threads were mostly a result of the Proposition 8 issue in California but they have died down for the most part. Onto the religious issue:

It really frustrates me to see this accusation crop up again and again. Not the complaint that religious threads are taking over the board. It's understandable to get frustrated by an outbreak of certain topic trends. There's always some hot topic that dominates the recent post list. However, what does get to me is the accusation that the religious are the responsible party.

As Rren and Simplynoone one point out, with the exception of the faith forum, 90% of the religious threads I see started are coming from skeptics, critics, or nonbelievers. They ask the questions, they start the discussions, they kick off the critiques. The religious cannot be blamed for this when they show up to offer answers or bring in the 'defense perspective.'

Well, I am gay and agnostic. But I try to leave that out when I post here and I think that whether one's religion (or lack thereof) is correct or whether homosexuality is acceptable or not should be hashed out on BelowTopSecret. There's nothing really conspiratorial about the examples I posted. They reminded me of something I'd see in a university newspaper.