Reply #53: My answer is yes.....resounding YES!

[ironbark]

“Yeah there are assholes on both sides,....”

AND THERE IT IS AGAIN !!! >>> "both sides" <<<

It is the set mode and standard setting!
It does not permit a middle!
There is no conception of a middle!
The prevailing culture and cosmology is- ‘You are either for us or against us”…to such a degree that agnostics are “Bible bangers” if they don’t toe the party line.

There is not just ‘disbelief in’ or ‘rejection of’ the God pov around here…there is endless contempt for and hostility towards ‘religion’ even from an historical perspective (contribution to art/music/science).


“ but ad homs are wrong period. I hate seeing "religion is a mental illness" meme as much as the "fundamentalist atheist" meme.”

Then drop the “meme” and start examining the behaviour!

There are four dozen posts from atheists rejecting the grammatical or definitional validity of ‘fundamentalist’ and you’d be dammed lucky to find >two< that are honestly prepared to examine the behaviour that prompts the meme.
If Christ appeared floating above Time Square tomorrow I’m dammed sure there would be a dozen of you going “Yea!?.....>Define< eternal life”!
…..and the rest would be going “Bingo”!...”Gotcha”!


“For better or worse, I and my fellow atheists have a right to post in this forum and saying that we are "ruining" this forum is a form of censorship and very much related to how Bush and Co……”

OOOOOOOh…..Bullshit.
I can’t see anybody questioning or challenging or “censoring” anybodies “right to post in this forum”.
But as a liberal progressive left leaning agnostic from Oz I’ll tell ya straight up sunshine….the prevailing testosterone driven, undergraduate, substance free sarcasm dripping and pointless hostility to >anything< religious makes this a disturbing place to visit.

"ruining it".?

YES!

There is way more bigotry, hostility and disinterest in the others pov from (many) in the atheist camp than any such like behaviour from believers.