What is with abusive atheists?

by Fernando 187 Replies latest jw friends

  • MrFreeze
    MrFreeze

    I get irritated when debating with people who are religious because most arguments they use fail to use any logic. It gets very frustrating.

    Plus those same religious people treat me as subhuman because I do not believe in their god.

  • FlyingHighNow
    FlyingHighNow

    Fernando, . People can only change if they understand the need to change. I hope you can appeal to people's better sides. There has been a lot of tension on the board between atheists and believers. Here's hoping that it will run its course and the board will settle back into a good, healthy balance. Try not to get drug into circular arguments.

  • Fernando
    Fernando

    Thank you FlyingHighNow.

    I think your point on "circular arguments" may be worth pursuing.

    Possibly we all need to see when such a situation has come about, immediately point it out, and withdraw.

    I guess it is potentially frustrating and divisive. I also imagine this happens when two parties are each speaking too far outside of the other person's frame of reference, context or worldview. This seems to erode common ground, and escalate negative aspects of the interaction.

    Maybe we could have an informal JWN communication protocol like CAA-IRW-ISOCG (Circular Argument Ahead - I Respectfully Withdraw - In Search Of Common Ground), or something similar.

  • NewChapter
    NewChapter

    Ah Fernando--- If I only copied all of the terrible things that believers have said to me. I would like to post links, but the f**k you post, said to me by a believer, has been pulled with the link. That is only one example---no believer came on to say that was inappropriate.

    Also---where does THIS come from? "Can an atheist reasonably use his unfavourable circumstances in life as an excuse? Why do abusive atheists choose to ignore the fact that there are many on JWN with much worse circumstances and far better behaviour and attitudes?"

    And lastly: Believers see this as an awesome display of God's humility. Atheists choose to ignore any manifestations of God in those around them, and even in themselves. I suppose if I were to counter such a statement by saying I do not CHOOSE TO IGNORE, but choose to see the reality that there is no manifestation of God around us, and to think so it to believe a fiction---then I would be categorized as abusive. Because you can say that I am ignoring reality, but I cannot say it back to you. Just something to think about.

    I have concluded that perhaps we sound harsher because we do not encase our opinions in a bubble wrap of Christian love, but just say what we believe or don't believe. Believers say very much the same things, but disguise it as loving. Yet at its core . . . . . I have never called a believer a name. I have been called many by believers. And yet, for some reason, it is the atheists that are abusive. ABUSIVE. If we strongly support our opinions, and refuse to respect belief in myths and legends, we are abusive. For a believer, not respecting their beliefs is not respecting them. For an atheist---we generally don't care if you respect our nonbelief. It's an interesting dynamic.

  • Scully
    Scully

    I'm atheist, and I try to keep a live-and-let-live attitude toward people who value religious belief, provided they extend the same live-and-let-live courtesy to me.

    Like a bumble bee, I will mind my own business tending to the flowers, until someone offends me into brandishing my stinger. You will know it when it happens.

  • FlyingHighNow
    FlyingHighNow

    Circular arguments begin with baited questions.

  • Berengaria
    Berengaria

    Yet another example of a thread begun by a believer attacking unbelievers. Expecting the unbelievers to say "Thank you sir, may I have some more?"

    Get over yourselves. That spirit you are so full of? It's not spirit.

  • sizemik
    sizemik

    Not again . . .

  • cyberjesus
    cyberjesus

    What is it with abusive atheists? The same as with abusive christians..... Think of the title of your thread...... what is it inviting?

    what is it with fat people? what is it with stupid people? etc etc etc

    The person who is abuses others does it for a wide variety of reasons... and is not limited to belief/non belief.

  • NewChapter
    NewChapter

    Yes again Size. We atheists are just beating believers bloody---abusing them. They are a quivering, helpless, persecuted mass that never say anything offensive. Yet we still feel the need to kick them when they are down. We choose to ignore the manifestation of god all around us, and that leads us to be ABUSIVE. But believers have god in their hearts, and we don't respect that, therefore we are abusive. In fact, the only way we could not be abusive is to respect everything a believer believes----even if it is dragons and hideous creatures, the sight of which would cause us to die from the pure ugliness, if they did not alter their appearance. I guess some or all of us have bad personal circumstances that cause us to lash out, and we use those circumstances as an excuse to be abusive. We force them into debates. We won't leave them alone. And when they enter debates they are forced into, we will not follow their personal rules, which are to not say how we view beliefs. We are expected to keep it to ourselves. Life was so much easier when we didn't speak out. Then we had to screw it all up.

    This thread was not meant to be provacative. Some of us may choose to believe it is, but that is because we are abusers. I shall start a thread about abusive believers and see how that pans out. Afterall, no atheist has been banned for abusing a believer---however the same is not true for believers--who were quite silent as the abuse was carried out.

    Perhaps we should define abusive. It's a pretty violent word----involving victims. It is not the same as offensive----or maybe it is. Words tend to lose original meaning in these discussions.

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