There are a few things that I'm fairly confident about.
1) I'm a good person, a caring person. The atheists attacking me do not know me and have never sat down over some coffee or a beer to know this. They would like me if we did. I know this. We have a great deal in common too. It's easy to dehumanize someone whom you have never met.
2) I try not to sweat the small stuff, and it's mostly small stuff. My age gives me this perspective.
3) I've faced bigger challenges and survived, much bigger.
4) Bad press is still good press. That goes for Hollywood and it goes here as well.
5) People forget and move on eventually. Time is on my side. It's something to talk about that will die down soon enough. Then in a few weeks they'll find someone else to vilify. It's what people do. We set the boundaries for the people we want to include in our in-grouping by excluding others.
6) The largely confrontational activist type of atheism at Freethought Blogs is not representational of atheism among most academics. This is not to say it isn't needed, because it is, very much so. It's just not representational of academic atheists.
7) Most atheists and most Christians aren't even aware of our dispute, and most of those who have heard don't give a damn. After all, it doesn't affect their lives one bit.
8) Some Freethought Bloggers have an exaggerated sense of their own importance in the over-all scheme of things. It's easy to think this since people choose to believe what they prefer is true. But I know enough to know that I'm not important much at all.
9) Most of us use words as weapons (and I'm no exception). We construct arguments against others just because we don't like them. Sometimes our disputes are merely saying "I don't like you," with no real substance at all. When we see ignorance then we can be pretty sure that's what's going on.
10) I have plenty of friends but no personal atheist friends to hang out with where I live. I am not part of any atheist organization. Nor do I have any institutional support. I have gone it alone from the time I rejected Christianity until now. So the atheists attacking me cannot do me any harm. They can only harm our combined effectiveness.
I watch 'freethinkers' on pharyngula put on an orgy of mutual masturbation, frothing at the mouth with contempt for the people they allegedly want respect. Repeating the same vapid jokes, catchphrases, and talking points in a desperate bid to show the internet how freethinkerish they are. I love it when the facade of 'secular morality' falls away and they tear each other apart like baboons competing for attention from the alpha males. P.Z. Myers and his harem of bloated monkeys don't want to fit in with respectable society, they want to hurl shit and maintain their adrenaline-fueled adolescent spite. Recently Myers said he wouldn't want to go to heaven unless it was to wage war, tear it down, etc. Yes, a middle aged, educated man said something puerile enough to be featured as an angry scribble on a 15 year old's marilyn manson notebook. He's really gonna stick it to yahweh by knocking down the gates of heaven, a man who can't even be bothered to jog regularly. You're all a fucking embarrassment. Love, Jenny.
ReplyDeleteI still remember when they were discussing "female circumcision" (aka "cut their clitorises out") as viewed by some Muslim nutjob, and somebody casually mentioned male circumcision. Boy oh boy, did PZ and his fangirls raged. Because, you see, they were discussing FEMALE circumcision, and any attempt to show them that the problem wasn't as much with the fact that the Muslim nutjob was trying to justify it (which you would expect him to do, because Islam in general hates women; the guys was only being consistent), but that he was trying to slip it under the "circumcision" banner, which is viewed as perfectly normal when made on little boys.
DeletePZ was also been, in my opinion, really hypocritical in that incident. He very loudly stated his annoyance with men bringing up male circumcision in the female circumcision thread, and made a post basically saying "Geeze guys, I'm sorry you get your little wangs cut and sex is slightly less pleasurable, but we're talking about female genital mutilation here! Stop acting like MC is such a big deal!"
DeleteThen during "Elevator Gate" he ripped into Dawkins for using the same logic; Dawkins said something like "There's a Muslim woman being forced to wear a Burka somewhere, who can't believe that an American woman is complaining that she got hit on late at night". PZ said that it was wrong to ignore the "smaller" things just because there's worse things out there, yet he did the exact same thing during the FGM/Male Circumcision episode.
"I love it when the facade of 'secular morality' falls away ..."
DeleteOkaaay. So much for this blog being out of the earshot of Christians, or at least theists who think atheists can't be good without a god.
Seriously, though, it isn't too hard to find "adrenaline-fueled adolescent spite" from the (nominally?) religious. Heck, that would be a relatively kind way to describe, for example, threats aimed at Jessica Ahlquist like "Let's all jump that girl who did the banner #fuckthatho" or "hail Mary full of grace @jessicaahlquist is gonna get punched in the face." Of course, it would be unfair to ascribe such behavior to all religious people, since their moral behavior runs the gamut from inspiring to depraved. It is similarly unfair to ascribe adolescent spite to atheists in general.
And Fabricio, another "Okaaaaaaaaay ..." for you, too. (Wish there was an eyeroll emoticon.)
Oh yeah, the elevator thing. Don't remind me of that, it was the first time I realized that those petty things really bore me to tears. I mean, c'mon woman, can't you handle a hit on an elevator without trying to evoke sympathy from everyone else? If it was something more serious (threatening, physical assault, etc.) that would be fine; call security and throw the guy in prision if it's the case. Dawkins was right: too much fuss about it, and he took flak from saying it loud. Atheist everywhere were lucky that he is such a British gentleman; if it was me, I'd probably say "fuck it, you bunch of sissy, prissy and hissy retards" and leave the atheist scene altogether to focus on biology.
DeleteTo some extend, it is a good thing you guys in USA are having so much trouble with the Catholic Church and contraceptives, and transvaginal scans, and whatnot. Maybe Rebecca-whatever sees that there are worst things to make noise about, things that you can't solve alone, unlike a single, unarmed, and probably skinny guy in a elevator, on a hotel full of security.
United States of America: where even the atheists complaing about bullshit.
Ramsey: roll your eyes until they pop out of your eyesockets, I really couldn't care less about them.
Gosh, I had no idea I had to jog my corporeal body around in order for my ghost to be in shape to beat Jesus up. Thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteAnother non-response with null substance other than trite, self-promoting snarkasm. Myers' little quips would fail a Turing test in terms of predictability. Shhhh, don't tell him that.
Delete