U.S. Atheists Reportedly Using Hair Dryers to 'De-Baptize'

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


understanding is the key, that zealotry of any kind (religious or atheist) is most likely bad for you and everyone else, for that matter. what needs to happen here is to define what is and isn't zealotry, and usually, that's where the conversation breaks down.

reply to post by airspoon


What do you expect in a Polarized USA?

It's silly and childish, no need to degrade or belittle other people's beliefs because you don't believe in them.

Atheists especially, now I don't want to blanket statement, but the most condescending or ridiculing and sometimes non-sensical of the different belief structures I have encountered were atheists.

There's just some smug sense of betterment that exists in the ones I have met. Obviously there are others which are completely fine, not all atheists are this way.

Although the ones that are suppose to "represent" the atheist community are all like this. Which is the problem.

All of our "representatives" are extremists, when the reality is most people are moderate.

~Keeper

[edit on 7/18/2010 by tothetenthpower]

reply to post by traditionaldrummer

There's a woman who was on the Daily Show last week who wrote a book about this very subject...she said something that really cut to the core of this for me...I haven't read her book, and I don't remember her name...but here's her quote paraphrased...

"Why is it that so often, the gladiators for both sides are inferior representatives of both sides?"

Edit to add that her name is Marilynne Robinson, and the book is Absence of Mind. Here's a review of it. And while she doesn't expressly or exclusively address atheism but instead couches it in terms of science, a lot of the discussion applies.

[edit on 7/18/2010 by ~Lucidity]

reply to post by airspoon

Giving a kid a choice shows a lot of class.

Some how I think trying to create an UNDO with a hairdryer would only compound the problem....fan blades...

Like the carpenter said:
You can shave off a little wood but you can't put it back on....

Originally posted by undo

understanding is the key, that zealotry of any kind (religious or atheist) is most likely bad for you and everyone else, for that matter. what needs to happen here is to define what is and isn't zealotry, and usually, that's where the conversation breaks down.

I fully agree with this. Zealous atheists are just as annoying as zealous theists.

I also have a problem with the disparity of respect between theists and atheists. It's assumed we should respect people's beliefs, yet very few people respect people's non-beliefs.

reply to post by airspoon


I'm an atheist and i think these people are stupid.

This symbolic gesture to me seems nothing more than a form of ritualism (that surely they are against?)

Fools. Maybe just another way of discrediting atheism?

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
"Why is it that so often, the gladiators for both sides are inferior representatives of both sides?"

Excellent point and one which I agree with strongly. Zealotry is abrasive. Beliefs make people act weird sometimes.

Originally posted by traditionaldrummer
No, each ceremony is performed by like-minded people.

I was referring to the audiences. The actors in the OP, without doubt, invited Nightline to the event to make it a "publicity stunt". Further evidence is the labeling of the hair dryer with the words "Reason and Truth". Had the "ceremony" been intended only for those participating, that labeling would not have been necessary, as they would have been perfectly aware of meaning of the symbolism.

Christians, like any other religious people, lose their mind at anything which may contradict their beliefs, including those who rejected their religion and openly celebrate it.

I haven't, yet, read any post in which the poster is "losing their mind". I think you are being very myopic.

Nightline and FOX and everyone else ran the story to exploit such people so they'd watch the advertisements on their networks and websites.

Agreed, however, if those performing the "ceremony" had kept it to themselves, the Nightline story wouldn't have run, so the Fox story wouldn't have run, so this thread wouldn't have been posted... So, what was the impetus for our discussion?

As far as this business of respect goes, why does religion deserve it?

Religion does not. People do.

Religions that actively discriminate against homosexuals, deny science which is contradictory to their religion, actively subjugate women, attempt to force their teachings and rituals in schools, etc. ... this deserves respect? We look the other way on this but lose our minds over atheists with hair dryers?

While your claims could be argued, individually, for the purpose of this thread I will combine them with one comment. Religions don't do any of those things, people do. And, it is a relatively low number of adherents who do so.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
Atheists like taking something that is sacred and special to others and desecrating it. Pissing on the church lawn, spraying graffitti on religious statues, putting a quran into a toilet, turning baptism into a joke - whatever can be done to belittle others beliefs, their infantile minds are willing.

Im not religious at all but I have the greatest respect toward people practicing their Religion and wouldnt dare mock their rituals.

And so the peurile caterwauling begins. It reminds me of the apologia over the billboard graffiti vandalism.

[edit on 18-7-2010 by 4nsicphd]

Originally posted by WTFover
While your claims could be argued, individually, for the purpose of this thread I will combine them with one comment. Religions don't do any of those things, people do. And, it is a relatively low number of adherents who do so.

And the same goes for these types of atheists. If we shall not judge the few extreme people in religion why then should we judge the few extreme people in atheism? Are we not to give respect equally to all people?

reply to post by ~Lucidity


all i know is, i expect them to protect me from zealots, be they religious or not religious. i don't want to wake up in my bed one day to find i have to pay extra taxes or higher interest rates , because i'm not this or that, nor do i want to be forced to go to church on sunday, stoned to death, burned at the stake, nuked, starved to death, shot, stabbed, drowned, poisoned and etc, based purely on my interest in ancient texts, my belief in other dimensional beings and how it may differ from someone else's belief on similar topics.

reply to post by traditionaldrummer


I don't "judge" either. (tongue in cheek) I believe everyone has the right to be wrong!

My position on this incident is, simply, keep it to themselves.

Originally posted by WTFover
Unfortunately, those involved in these types of "debates" (using the term loosely) are more consumed with being "right", than being truthful.

Yep.

Like a kid with his hand in anothers face chanting "Not touching you. You can't get mad. Not touching you. You can't get mad."

reply to post by undo

No one is going to protect you from zealots or radicals of any sort. You have to do this yourself. Look at their actions and motives, negate and minimize the risks to you and yours, and carry on. The best protection is probably calm, logic, and common sense.

Originally posted by WTFover

My position on this incident is, simply, keep it to themselves.

It seems that's what they were doing. Nightline showed up at the American Atheists Convention. Talk to Nightline about offending the christians. They ran the hit piece on people who were most certainly minding their own business.

reply to post by ~Lucidity


i can't protect myself, as i don't have access to tv reporters, large amounts of money, college professors, the burgeoning book market, newspapers, and etc, because i'm not mainstream. i'm a fringer (i believe ancient star gates are real. that doesn't lend itself well to any side of the debate and labels me as a lunatic fringe participant by both sides of the general debate, in question. the religious, because i'm suggesting it's a piece of technology involved in the biblical story, and the non-religious, because it speaks to mythology as being more than myth). my only voice is via those who have the ability to garner public attention and propagate memes. the meme needs to remain or become more balanced, as the zealous approach is nothing but a time bomb waiting to go off.

To me, it's clear that the only purpose of this hair-dryer de-baptization was onlt to poke fun at people who believe such a thing. I think they should have every right to poke fun at whoever they want, but if their goal is acceptance by others, then poking fun of them is porobably not the wisest thing to do.

--airspoon

reply to post by airspoon


perhaps as many of them mature in their beliefs, they will come to the realization that fighting fire with fire only works on paper.

FAUX news?

Faux atheists, doing absurd things that would infer they believe baptism has any substantive effect beyond the psychological?

More hyperbolic 'heretical' hysteria for FAUX 'newsers'.

"The iconoclast proves enough when he proves by his blasphemy that this or that idol is defectively convincing - that at least one visitor to the shrine is left full of doubts. The liberation of the human mind has been best furthered by gay fellows who heaved dead cats into sanctuaries and then went roistering down the highways of the world, proving to all men that doubt, after all, was safe - that the god in the sanctuary was a fraud. One horse-laugh is worth ten-thousand syllogisms."
H. L. Mencken