An Atheist Possibly Returning Here

It's been about two years since I stopped posting on the ATS/BTS network, mainly because the forums I frequented (this, Conspiracies in Religion, O&C Conspiracies, etc) had become far too infuriatingly unbalanced towards Christians. Not to the religious peoples, specifically to the Christians. I left here because I couldn't stand the insane levels of bias against atheistic members on this forum, so I wanted to see if there was a possibility that things have gotten better.

Short version, have things gotten more balanced in the Atheist v Christian debates? Or have things taken a turn for the worse? I say Atheist v Christian because the rest of the religions don't tend to be very well represented.

Hey Madness!

Welcome back! I personally never noticed that much of a bias, just....surges. Sometimes a thread has a theist post something, and then a whole slew of theists post in agreement, or star. Then an atheist posts something, and the same thing happens. Then the occasional bigot (from either side) posts, and strengthened, loads of bigots follow suit.

It is only that last one that irritates me. They don't care about debate, they don't care about giving or receiving knowledge, they just want to denigrate whatever their little pet peeve is, with both ears and eyes closed, until an interesting 5 page thread becomes a 30 page thread of flames.


Anyhow, the quality of the atheist perspective may very well have been improved with your return .

[edit on 14-8-2010 by babloyi]

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Been a long time since I have seen you. Really your just better off staying away it has gotten worse. This place is a shadow of its former self to be quite honest. When you have people congratulating each other on how many negative points they have, something is definitely wrong.

Thank you for an Atheist thread by an Atheist.

I enjoy discussing how one came to this point of non-believe - - - as most cultures around the world are dominant in one god belief or another. Most people are assimilated from birth into some form of god belief.

I think there are few who are Atheist from an early age because of society.

I think Atheism is increasing in strength - - and there is an increased number of Atheist parents. I can only hope they do not force their children to be Atheists - - anymore then I hope god believers don't force their belief on their children.

There is a difference between explaining/introducing to allow one to decide for themselves.

I only wish these thread OPs would be void of any mention or challenge to believers. Why instigate from the "get go".

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Bias ?
Speaking as an Atheist you always have to bear in mind that when you deal with any topic related to faith and such like you are in the arena . It never hurts to have a thick skin in general and the same goes for dealing with the topics you mentioned . If I stopped posting on the boards just because some members held fruit cake views and ideas I wouldn't have lasted a week around here .

Cheers xpert11 .

well hello stranger. LOL madness the OP can go both ways. You know how many times I have seen threads saying christians are sky daddy worshipping idiots, fags, and every name under the Sun. That stuff still goes on all the damn time.


but let's get to the qoute.


signature
I bet there'd be hell if someone told a Christian/Jew/Muslim "It’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists!"
Atheist Chat v1.1



Why/. Not for me. It's not dangerous for me. My nieces and nephews always ask about God. Infact they are more into God than me. Let people chose what they want. Nothing is dangerous about Gods true teachings.


The muslim on the other hand would probably blow your house up. You told me my 'philosophy' was dangerous for our children. I wouldn't ge mad, I would lmao and then chuckle and say sure buddy.


but besides all that. Good to see you back and I liked debating with you bro.

peace.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


I am a christian and i have no problem with the fact that you are an athiest.One of Gods greatest gifts to mankind is the freedom to chose to believe or not to believe.God loves all of us equally whether you believe in him or not.Athiests or christians in the end we are all Gods children.Just to prove my point i will even flag your thread.

Welcome back madness, its been a while. I am now ready to reveal more of the spiritual to you. I cannot remember what we used to talk about, but I am still here and you are on my friends list, so it must be because of destiny that you have returned to ATS.

It seems I'll stick around for a while. I hope to not get flooded with anything to heinous or impenetrable to reason or logic while I'm here, but we'll see.



reply to post by JesusisTruth


Yes, unfortunately some people still use ad hom attacks on both sides, I do not ignore that people on my side do it and I do not encourage it in any form.

Now, with regards to my sig, the reference I'm making is to someone openly saying it was dangerous for children to even learn that Atheism existed. I am all for children being allowed to learn of the existence of any religion and/or philosophy and even to receive a form of instruction in what its adherents believe, but I'm against the indoctrination of any group. This was a STATE LEGISLATOR IN ILLINOIS. If a state legislator in any state were to say it was dangerous for children to know about Christianity, there would be an uproar. If a state legislator said it was dangerous for children to know about Judaism, there would be an uproar. ...If a state legislator said it was dangerous for children to know about Islam...well, your telling comment about blowing up houses speaks to the unfortunate bias against the second largest religion on Earth from the largest religion. That legislator would probably be hailed as a hero by Fox News and the Tea Party.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Great to see you back.

Generally speaking debating standards have got worse and trading insults at times seems the norm nowadays rather than respectful and reasoned debate.

Of course there is still quality here, two leading examples have already posted in this thread; babloyi and Jesusistruth.

I'm sure there are other's who will step up to the plate.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Have things gotten any better?

There have been quite a few threads by various atheists clearing up misconceptions and such, which is always a good thing. But we still do get plenty of anti-atheist threads, then again there are plenty of anti-Christian threads.

One thing is for sure though, the misconceptions and strawmens against atheism are only going to be strengthened if the atheists here on ATS start abandoning the boards and yielding to "bullying" by theists. Letting them have free run isn't the answer. After all this is ATS/BTS, we should be denying ignorance wherever we see it.

Welcome back and I for one hope you stick around