I guess I don’t know the right Christians


Right now, I get more vicious hate mail from atheists, a little bit from Christians, and almost none from Muslims — but I shouldn’t take that as representative. You have to look in the right place to find Christian hatred.

You know if any of you commenters said anything like that about any group here, it would be grounds for banning, right?

Comments

  1. rorschach says

    These people may just manage to pull the trigger of a shotgun, but they sure fail at spelling, or reason. Cheap labor in Chinese companies might be all they will ever be good for. If the FBI doesn’t get them first.

  2. says

    This is a bit old, though. I remember those comments. If I recall correctly, they were pulled from FOX News’ Facebook page on an article where Blair Scott was discussing American Atheists’ 9/11 memorial lawsuit.

  3. opposablethumbs says

    Goshdarn theists, I say educate ’em all! Give ’em a wide range of books and good teachers and a decent curriculum and a robust non-church-based social safety-net, that’d larn ’em! Maybe. Eventually. Some of them. Their kids, anyway. Or maybe grandchildren … :-\

    They are quite the charming bunch, though, especially the one who has a real thing for torture.

  4. Dick the Damned says

    I blame Dawkins, Dennett, Harris & Myers. They aren’t militant enough.

  5. anteprepro says

    Wow. Just wow. Where is this from? Seems to be a response to one of the standard “atheist objects to cross on public land” kind of controversies that Christians deliberately misunderstand the point of.

  6. atheistblog says

    Ok I volunteer. Kill the ignorance, Kill the hatred, Spread the love.
    One particular comment amuses me the most, the comment about how jebus was tortured. If I can tell someone more cruelly tortured and killed for their secular convictions than jebus would they give up jebus and worship the mentioned persons ? Just wondering.
    BTW kill the idiocy.
    BTW is that a female who wrote if you don’t love jebus and cross you should be raped ? Really ?!

  7. joe_k says

    Christians? Are they the ones who believe that you should do unto others as you would want others to do to you? So this charming lot want to be raped, tortured and killed?

    Sorry, can’t help them. I seem to be having a bad case of morals at the moment…

  8. mikeyb says

    Christian’s are really persecuted in our country. At our local theater we have the choice of watching:

    God’s not dead
    Heaven is for real
    Son of god
    Noah

    Which one to choose, and why aren’t all the films Christian. Oh yeah, Noah should be stricken from the list because it is a non-historical version of the biblical flood event, so that one is out. The Son of god was done by the history channel, it’s godless so that one is out too. I’ll have to pray about which of the other two to watch.

  9. David Marjanović says

    BTW is that a female who wrote if you don’t love jebus and cross you should be raped ? Really ?!

    She’s not saying it lightly, I guess.

  10. Bethany Rants says

    I found Myers’s blog because of the Fox News article.

    Reading this specific blog saddened and kind of humiliated me. I am a Christian Conservative (but I don’t always agree with everything my Conservative “side” says). It makes me sick knowing that there are people who identify religiously and politically the same as I do, but they are so close-minded and…. DUMB.

    Christians (since that’s what this specific entry is about) are not called to judge. And that is what all of these comments are, quite obviously (my name is Captain Obvious of the S.S. Derderder), judging Atheists. We, as humans in general, shouldn’t be judging others. Live and let live, to be cliché. Reading these comments just confuses me… How can one profess to love Jesus and be a Christian, yet wish torture, rape, death, etc. on a fellow human being? Maybe my parents raised me different, but I thought decency was tantamount to the human experience.

    *shakes head*

  11. anteprepro says

    Bethany Rants:

    It makes me sick knowing that there are people who identify religiously and politically the same as I do, but they are so close-minded and…. DUMB.

    Incidentally, if you are morbidly curious and delve deeper, you will find that conservative Christians are involved in some really ugly shit sometimes. They don’t live up their advertising very often. Also, if you are more morbidly curious, you will see that we atheists have our own odious shitheads to deal with too, just in case you think my saying this is some “holier-than-thou” kind of bragging.

    It’s sickening. Yet not as rare as you’d think. Which it makes it more sickening.

  12. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    Digging up cherry-picked material that’s 3 years old? Seriously? That’s the best you can do? So, nothing recent then, huh? I can find current material from anti-theists like yourselves much, much worse than this quite easily because (1) it’s not fake — what you meme regurgitators would call “Poes” — and (2) it’s pretty commonplace among your ilk.

  13. omnicrom says

    That’s nice Nunov. We’re fully aware of many of the problems in the atheist community, and indeed PZ often speaks out against them. If you’d like to bring out some atheists who endorse the killing of Christians I’ll be more than happy to denounce and speak out against them. How about you? Will you denounce the many anti-women, anti-sex, anti-gay, anti-humanist spokespeople on the Christianist side? Atheism has a problem and we’ll readily admit it, will you admit the problems of your religion?

  14. anteprepro says

    Nunov: 3 years old? Citation needed.

    And your attempt to help these folks avoid criticism by saying “atheists do worse” is noted, and repulsive.

  15. says

    Nunov Yuzbiznez:

    You can’t imagine how much I hate confrontational pseudonyms like yours: it’s an announcement that you don’t respect the rules here, and that I should expect to have to ban you sooner or later, because you’ve signed on with an intent to push the boundaries.

    I had no idea how old this collection of hate was; it was sent to me just today. But you’re welcome to show us a link to a group of atheists chatting about killing Christians with a shotgun. As I said up top, that would be against the rules here.

    Oh, but right, you are flipping off the rules.

  16. opposablethumbs says

    Interesting, the difference between Bethany Rants and Nunov Yuzbiznez! All Nunov wants to do is play puerile gotcha, while Bethany is actually addressing the OP. While I don’t doubt that many of us would probably profoundly disagree with either of them on many topics, only one of them merits initial respect and a courteous response.

    Personally I can think of few instances in which I’d be likely to find common ground with a conservative christian, but trying to treat one’s fellow human beings with basic decency, at the very least, is certainly one such! There are a lot of atheists – around here, at least – who are more than willing to call out atheists who are misogynist, racist, glibertarian or homophobic. If only there were more theists in the public arena loudly calling out religious misogyny, racism, deliberate economic oppression and homophobia instead of assuming all theists are basically decent folk just because they are theists.

  17. vaiyt says

    I can find current material from anti-theists like yourselves much, much worse than this quite easily

    Cool. Where is it?

  18. Thumper: Who Presents Boxes Which Are Not Opened says

    @Vaiyt

    You misunderstand. What Señor Witty Pseudonym means is that he can find many examples of “Anti-Theists” criticising religion!!!111elebentyZOMG!! Which is totes equivalent to and/or worse than threatening to shoot someone in the head for pointing out that you are wrong *nod nod* #SophsticatedTheologification™

  19. blf says

    Apropos of nothing much, I can find lots of unsubstantiated claims of “atheists” shooting xians (presumably because the shootee was a xian, i.e., a hate crime rather than, e.g., a robbery gone wrong), but there is (a) Nothing definite (no evidence or verifiable details); (b) The “examples” tend be real monsters like Hitler and Stalin and imagined monsters like Obama (nevermind the dubious atheism of all three); and / or (c) A lot of simple presupposing that it happens.

    Has an atheist ever shot a xian? I’d be astonished if that’s never happened, there are plenty of atheist arseholes.
    Has such a shooting ever happened because the xian was a xian? Certainly not impossible, atheists can also be unhinged.
    Has there been “lots” of such shootings? Unlikely, the lack of documentation is telling here…

  20. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    will you admit the problems of your religion?

    The problem isn’t the religion, like the problem you mention isn’t atheism.

  21. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    What Señor Witty Pseudonym means is that he can find many examples of “Anti-Theists” criticising religion

    Uh, no. Thanks for trying to speak for me, but you are a piss-poor mind-reader. Don’t quit your day job, though you’d fit right in with every other mind-reader in history.

  22. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    Nunov: 3 years old? Citation needed.

    Buddha H. Siddhartha, how difficult is it for people to do a Google search themselves? (Not even going to attempt HTML this time. Waiting for caffeine to kick in.)

    https://www.google.com/search?q=“all+atheiest+die+a+go+to+hell+haha”

  23. says

    #23, Nunov Yuzbiznez:

    If that’s your argument, a generic pointer to this blog as a whole as evidence that atheists say things like the facebook comments up top, then you are a liar. Keep it up, and you will be banned. And nothing will be lost, you vapid fraud.

  24. blf says

    Oh good grief, “Señor Witty Pseudonym”‘s argument is she\he can find (and possibly quote-mine) examples of people expressing exasperation with the well-documented antics of xians? By that logic, Peanuts is anti-German because Snoopy is trying to shoot down the Red Baron.

  25. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    Point is, if it were Christians cherry-picking years-old atheist quotes from somewhere, you’d all be up in arms about it, calling it unfair and not representative of atheism, and you’d be right to do so. Ah, but PZ posts a handful of old comments from alleged Christians (Facebook is full of fake profiles that people use to troll — this includes what you would meme-ily call “Poes”) and suddenly it’s “representative” of typical “Christian hatred” because you looked in the “right place” to find it. I can look in the “right places” and find all sorts of atheist hatred if I wanted to.

  26. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    “Señor Witty Pseudonym”‘s argument is she\he can find (and possibly quote-mine) examples of people expressing exasperation with the well-documented antics of xians

    Flattened by the irony bus!

  27. blf says

    And now we have the “No true Scotsman” reasoning. What’s next, you need an understanding of sofisticated theomumblejumble?

  28. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    If that’s your argument, a generic pointer to this blog as a whole as evidence that atheists say things like the facebook comments up top, then you are a liar. Keep it up, and you will be banned. And nothing will be lost, you vapid fraud.

    My generic pointer was as valid as your generic screenshot. Not surprised you didn’t get the irony of my joke. You are quite laughably inept and hypocritical.

  29. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    And now we have the “No true Scotsman” reasoning.

    Seems okay for you guys to use it against me when I mention being an atheist formerly. Of course, you all shot yourselves in the foot regarding the matter with the whole “Poe’s Law” thing.

  30. blf says

    And goal-post moving: From a claim implying murder (and the advocacy of same being commonplace), to saying nasty things, to cherry-picking quotes.

    Convenient how sites like Rapture Ready aren’t mentioned. But I supposed those aren’t true xians. I mean Scotsmen.

  31. Nunov Yuzbiznez says

    Incidentally, blf, the “No True Scotsman” fallacy can’t be applied to things that are based on belief/behavior. For example, you can’t apply it to someone who claims to be a vegetarian or vegan, yet still eats meat. Trying to apply it in that case is a fallacy in itself. The same goes for Christianity. People are born Scotsmen and nothing — not even putting sugar on one’s porridge — will change that. People are not born Christians and when someone claims to be a Christian, their behavior can certainly be used to determine whether or not they truly may be one.

  32. blf says

    [T]he “No True Scotsman” fallacy can’t be applied to things that are based on belief/behavior.

    Horsepucky. It is an ad hoc attempt to retain an unreasoned assertion. And here is a fairly good discussion, which I excerpt below:

    The basic idea behind the No True Scotsman Fallacy is that one can make a generalization of some sort (from the offensive ‘All Greeks are lazy’ to the more benign ‘Bears normally hibernate’), and then protect this generalization from any counterexample by claiming that it isn’t a real counterexample. But by doing so, the person making the assertion has made a contingent statement into a logically necessary statement, illegitimately. That is, ‘All Greeks are lazy’ could turn out to be either true or false until we go out, find some Greeks, and check (and quickly discover our error). But if the person who has made the assertion systematically rejects any example that undermines the generalization (‘That’s not a real Greek person.’), then it seems that the statement could never be falsified—it’s logically true. But “All Greeks are lazy” is obviously not a logical truth; it’s not a truth at all! In essence, the person who makes the ‘No True Scotsman’ move is perpetually moving the goalposts, preventing us from ever convincing her that that she made a false claim.

    There is no requirement whatsoever that the generalization being defended need represent a real, concrete, observable, thing. It most certainly can apply to a belief (which is often counterexampled by a real, concrete, observable thing, albeit that isn’t necessary).

  33. nich says

    People are not born Christians and when someone claims to be a Christian, their behavior can certainly be used to determine whether or not they truly may be one.

    Nunov was banned, but the SIWOTI compels me: which of the members of the many, many Christian sects out there get to make that determination?

  34. Nick Gotts says

    nich@41,

    Well, look for the Christians who love their neighbours as themselves, sell all they hath and give to the poor, turn the other cheek when you hit them on one, give you their cloak as well when you sue them for their tunic…

    Ah. Turns out there are in fact no Christians!

  35. chigau (違う) says

    Nunya Yurbiznez
    There is a known definition for what it means to be a Christian
    Liar.

  36. nich says

    There is a known definition for what it means to be a Christian

    Holy shit! Get the Pope, the LDS President and Billy Graham on the line! Call a press conference! Somebody is going to finally reveal what exactly it is to be a Christian! I swear to god if it turns out to be a goddamn scooter that balances itself on two wheels, I’m going to be pissed!

  37. Athywren says

    You know, I think we should allow Christians to use the NTS fallacy. It would be nice to see the Christian population of the world reduced to zero without having to wait a few generations or commit genocide.

  38. Athywren says

    (And I love the idea that Nunov is somehow immune to memes and regurgitating them.)

  39. Bethany Rants says

    Reply to anteprepro (comment 14):

    I actually do know and understand that Christians have done some obscene things in the name of religion (my brother is agnostic and I’ve heard it a million times before). I know that it didn’t end with the Crusades and that it still happens today. I guess I’ve just been in an area where I’ve been pretty sheltered and haven’t really seen it first hand. I do know that sometimes it is also people claiming to be Christian (such as the WBC) that put a sour taste in people’s mouths. I remember the first time I heard about that group (I didn’t know their history, just that they were being giant tools) I was confused. Why was a supposedly Christian group protesting a military funeral? Why were they being SO intolerant of the homosexual community? I may not agree with other people’s “lifestyles” but (like I said in my previous comment) it’s not a Christian’s place to judge, but rather to love.

    And I totally get that EVERY group of people has their nitwits bringing others down, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t suck for everyone else. I’m just glad that you are willing to sanely discuss (unlike some people on other websites who are just like “You’re a Christian? What’s wrong with you? Why are you even here? YOU SUCK!!!” So thank you for that.

  40. Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trolls says

    it’s not a Christian’s place to judge, but rather to love.

    Ah, another “no true Scotsman” arguer.

  41. says

    Bethany:

    I guess I’ve just been in an area where I’ve been pretty sheltered and haven’t really seen it first hand.

    I have no idea where you live, but it’s likely your christian privilege is at play. You’re so accustomed to the deference and unearned respect granted christianity that you don’t see the various ways that christian beliefs affect others. I believe that christian beliefs have a negative impact on the United States.
    •opposition to contraception and abortion
    •corporations attempting to push their religious views on their employees
    •opposition to evolution and climate change
    •opposition to marriage gender equality
    These are just a few of the ways christian beliefs stand in opposition to progress, science, and morality.
    There is a wealth of information available online if you’re interested in learning the various ways christians oppress non christians.