“But I don’t feel I know the answer nor is it my role to lecture people on coming around to my way”

“No more than hundreds of years of slavery allows blacks to be dicks to white people, for instance.

Our view don’t coincide because because we share a religious viewpoint but because we recognize boorish behavior.

RE: This is what qualifies as being a dick? Are you kidding me?

No Oliver is serious. It’s the Santa-Syndrome. When you were 8-years-old and figured out there was no Santa that’s fine. But when you tell your younger brother and he cries your parents yell at you for not being nice. That’s the Santa-Syndrome; making somebody cry by pointing out make-believe is just… well, make believe. What Oliver is saying is that we should not make religious people cry because they are as delicate as 6-year-old children.

But several hundred years of Christians being a-holes doesn’t excuse the same behavior from atheists.

When are you going to get it through your skull that this is NOT the same behavior?

So everything suddenly becomes okay if they would stick a “We think” in front of the slogan. “We think there’s probably no god…” It seems to me that your outrage meter needs calibration if those two little words are making you all apoplectic. Those words are implied, anyway… or does anytime someone make an assertion that cannot be 100% proven, they should clarify that they’re not the sole arbiter of what constitutes reality? E.g., instead of saying, “Leprechauns don’t exist”, one should say, “I think leprechauns don’t exist.” Hmm… if that’s the case, I guess I have to amend some statements I’ve made on this blog over the years. Let me get started:

I THINK George W. Bush is an idiot.
I THINK that Frank DiSalle, Dr. Pedro, JayTea, Amused Observer, and some other (but not all) conservative posters here are idiots, too.
I THINK that Cheney is not human.
I THINK that global climate change is a real problem.
I THINK that religion is a negative force in our society.

I think that’s a decent start, but I think more will come to me later.

Finally, I love how Amused Observer is the only person here that’s actually agreed with you, Oliver. Almost everyone else has been either mildly to strongly critical of you on this post – but Amused Observer has your back. That should tell you something, when you’re on the side of a complete idiot hack.

I’m sorry, I meant to write, “I think that should tell you something, when you’re on the side of someone who I think is a complete idiot hack.”

I lova ya O-dub, but you’re pretty much stuck in FAIL mode on this one.

Can atheists be really obnoxious? Obviously, since anyone can. But when I hear theists running around claiming how “persecuted” they are by the secular gay feminazi agenda I have to ask myself, really? Somebody telling you they don’t believe in your sky-god/spaghetti monster is persecution? Whereas telling people who don’t believe in your personal sky-god/spaghetti monster that they will suffer for eternity is an act of moral committment to your faith?

I just don’t see the supposed spite and malevolence on the part of atheists here. Dudes put up some signs that said you should enjoy your life. Know what I used to see driving past churches in rural Ohio where I went to college? Signs that said “Gays will suffer in hell! Repent!”

Like I’ve been saying, qualitative difference. When a secret atheist group starts breaking into churches and forcing people to renounce their belief in Jesus, then we can talk.

Are agnostics without balls? Maybe, but then I don’t feel comfortable working in a world of unprovable definites. I have no clue if God exists or not, there’s no science available that proves or disproves it and I haven’t seen it with my own two eyes to prove it either. I don’t have that sort of confidence in something I can’t prove or disprove.

As I’ve said before, I probably have more in common with atheists, and at the moment where I lost my belief in God – when my mom had a heart attack – I was pretty ready to be in that camp. But for me, something about how the world works and man’s personal and collective goals makes me feel there’s something more to it than birth-grow-die. But I don’t feel I know the answer nor is it my role to lecture people on coming around to my way.

But the word truly bothers you I can tell. Go ahead and call me agnostic then, it’s pretty much atheism without balls.

That’s a tame, even friendly, message, and I for one am overjoyed to see atheists putting out a little something to contradict the endless flood of proselytizing from the Christianists.

Anyway, for the sake of comparison,
Dickish ad: “Hey dumbass, there’s no god and you’re wasting your time praying. P.S. Religion kills people and should be eradicated.”

Non-dickish ad: “There might not be a god, so relax and just enjoy life.”

Step 1: Get over your big bad self.
Step 2: Repeat Step 1 as needed.

They should do what I do when I see their beliefs expressed in such a public way: get the fuck over it.