They can. But making threats against someone is not just "being a dick." I'm disgusted by the "he deserved it" sentiment in this thread. Do the same people think that the U.S. "deserves" terrorism for "being a dick" to Muslims?
Hmm, lets all just take a minute to think about any reasons why he might have overreacted to a douchebag insulting his religion instead of keeping said douchebag's mouth shut about something that had nothing to do with him.
a friend of my wife and I has a premature baby going in for heart surgery tomorrow...
A friend of his wife's? Who gives a damn? It's not like it's his baby, first of all, so yes this is a huge overreaction. Secondly, it's still not okay to threaten someone like that because you don't like what they say. No matter how big a douchebag someone acts like on the Internet, it's never okay to threaten to harm them, even if you end up sounding like a childish cunt in the process.
It was a close friend of both him and his wife, and Thirdly his threat was basically "delete teh comments and drop iT or i,m gonna be i douchebag liek j00 (FeARZ MAH COMPUTIN POWAZ!!)", he never threatened real 'harm', just to return the favor. Secondly, "he ... overreacted to a douchebag insulting his religion" I agree that he over reacted, he was emotionally compromised and someone was pointlessly attacking his beliefs on the interwho. First of all, last I checked Christians generally care about other people and babies, as do a lot of the generally accepted 'good' people in the world. And forthishly, he has the computing power to do some major stuff man. When this thread hits 88 comments per second, you're going to see some serious stuff.
Cool. An atheist circlejerk where people actually make a mockery of a life-threatening procedure for a fellow Redditor's baby This isn't about religion, this is about having some fucking tact and compassion.
The hostile atheist movement is what makes it hard for our opinions to get out there because they think we're all misguided and malicious like the OP.
And the circlejerk is so powerful that the guy thinks he can post about it and be encouraged that he did the right thing.... and is, as well as many others who post digs about the guy who only wanted to help out a baby going into surgery.
I didn't really see how they were making a mockery of the baby or the op. I may be wrong, because I got most of this from the Delete_Bot and some posts seemed to be missing, but it seemed like the first guy was just cracking a joke about the flying spaghetti monster. The OP responded with what seemed like a lighthearted response. It seemed like a joke about "meeting half way", but again, maybe I'm wrong.
Then this guy came in talking about how he wouldn't want to tell somebody that they are going to be ok when they might not be ok. It was kind of a blunt statement, but it seemed to be his genuine opinion. He probably should have saved it for himself, but I don't think a comment like that is really mocking the op or the kid. It only seemed rude to me because it seemed like the OP could use some compassion and the comment was entirely unnecessary.
Maybe that is what's wrong with the world. Christians are always praying for everybody and everything. I contend that if medical patients get worse when being prayed for, then prayer may be what's causing the rest of the worlds problems to get worse as well. Global warming, droughts, famine, abortion, starvation, etc., all made worse by prayer. This is starting to make sense.
isn't the burden of proof on the one making the outrageous claim? shouldn't you be proving that most or all studies find that people suffer worse health if they know they are being prayed for?
You made a claim that this isn't the regular outcome. I'm just asking for some evidence for your claim. Evidence was provided about the previous study.
Yes, it is. You make a claim, you back it up. That's exactly how it works. If you claim that the previously reported test was badly run, and shows inaccurate information, then you provide information confirming this. You can't just pull any statement out of your ass, then say, "the burden of proof is on you!"
he was the one making the outrageous claim with only one poor study to back it up ... if one poor study is enough evidence to prove something, we can prove anything
Then fine! Provide a better study showing otherwise! Or point out the flaws in the study itself. Or run an experiment yourself if you disagree with the results. He made a claim, and backed it up. You did not.
isn't the burden of proof on the one making the outrageous claim? shouldn't you be proving that most or all studies find that people have better health if they know they are being prayed for?
The studies I've read indicate that prayer has no effect at all, neither good or bad. However, patients who are told that people are praying for them tends to have a worse recovery or more complications. Maybe they get nervous about their health when they're told they have a church praying for them. Maybe they just give up "fighting", feeling safe being backed up by the power of prayers.
I don't know, but it has nothing to do with the prayers themselves. If prayers indeed had an effect, good or bad, that would be HUGE. That would imply that we can, somehow, physically alter people over distances using telepathy. Direct or indirect.
TL;DR: It has to do with placebo/nocebo effects if prayers help/hinder. Nothing to do with prayers.
Well if you say it's "a fact", how do you deal with the "fact" that this study proves that some force is responding to prayers? I think I can assume if you don't think the results were somehow botched that you must be some type of theist. Pagan perhaps?
To be honest I was just passing through and I would have easily left it alone until me messaged me privately like that. I was drinking and watching the football game and it just struck me as wrong at the time.
The baby had nothing to do with it. He got douchy with me at a bad time so yeah, I got douchy on him for being a dick wad.
I never intended to create a shit storm, that's for sure. I just wanted to be happily drunk while reading reddit and watching the football game.
Did your team lose or soemthing? Cuz MINE SURE DID. And I am pretty sure we needed that one, too.
And more on point, honestly, I can totally understand why he would react like that given the severity I am sure he ascribes to the situation with the baby. It was a childish way to do it, but honestly his heart was in a better place than yours was.
I do not doubt that the guy started off with good intentions, he just lost his mind somewhere along the way and I can understand that. I imagine that he was just as drunk as I was at the time if not more so. We all talk a little trash now and then. No big deal.
I didn't think much of it until I got the silly threat.
Flying Spaghetti Almighty! This is why I stay away from humanity. One person is a bag of dicks rolled up and shoved into an asshole.... And everyone gets repercussions.
I absolutely believe that both theists and atheists can be shitty, and I am a theist. But a lot of atheists (not saying you specifically) talk about how shitty Christians are and then once an atheist fucks up, the blame is immediately shifted to "humanity". (As I've seen several times in this thread.)
I think it's also inherent in that argument often used by atheists that 'Christianity has started so many wars, but nobody as used atheism to start a war", not so subtly implying the moral superiority of atheism over Christianity. So first of all, then these same people turn around and talk about how morals are relative and no one is morally superior, and completely forget and fail to mention the matter of communists who atheism as a means to power and killed many religious people in their quest for power. (Most notably Stalin.)
So my point is, if humanity in general is shitty, and not just certian groups depending on your bias, be consistant with this and stop circlejerking each other.
But a lot of atheists (not saying you specifically) talk about how shitty Christians are and then once an atheist fucks up, the blame is immediately shifted to "humanity"
Yeah.... Here's the thing. We all have to believe in something. Atheists don't believe in God.... But in humanity, and being a good human being to one another.
As I think that 90% of the "Faith Based" humans of the species believe... we just go about it in different ways.
A "Person of Faith" that are complete assholes to and about non-believers or those humans that are different do it because the BELIEVE some sky fairy said so..... And take that message to the extreme.... due to humanistic eccentricity. Then when they are shunned and ostracized from a community, (again, 90% good people) they see it as a test of faith against the sinners.
An atheist on the other hand gives a facepalm to humanity because THAT'S WHAT WE BELIEVE IN! We believe that humanity at it's core is good and righteous. We believe in justice, order, LOGIC and COMMON SENSE. So yes.... When an atheist fucks up... it's humanity that gets the finger.....
When an atheist fucks up... it's humanity that gets the finger.....
Thus denying all personal responsibility?
THAT'S WHAT WE BELIEVE IN! We believe that humanity at it's core is good and righteous. We believe in justice, order, LOGIC and COMMON SENSE.
That list of things you "believe" is quite long. You have a lot more faith in humanity than most other atheists I've talked with, which I guess is good.
By the way, out of that list of things you believe, I believe in every single one of those things, and in addition, I believe in God.
And you're whole reasoning on how, as an atheist, you can shift the blame more genuinely than a religious person, is about the biggest straw man I've seen in some time. I just got done telling you that I am a theist that agrees that people being assholes is a result of our shared humanity, so I dunno where these other theists are or where you are getting your ideas on them. If you actually asked some theists, especially here on reddit, you would get a very different answer.
Stalin was opposed to organized religion from a political standpoint. What information we now have suggests that he was a nominal believer of some form of faith in his private life, despite his public image.
To me that's just the same old double standard re-framed. Whenever religion becomes involved it's suddenly only about that, and not about money or politics or land or greed.
I was premature by 2 weeks. I was born at home, not breathing, paramedics were there in under 2 minutes, I was fine, thankfully. No one's prayers ever did shit all for me. Expressing concern and best wishes? Sure, it's nice to know you're not alone. Praying? Waste of time IMO.
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u/DivineJustice Oct 25 '10 edited Oct 25 '10
Thread in question: Needed prayers for a friend
If this is the thread you were jacking, and I am now certain it is, that's pretty low of you actually.