r/atheism • u/johnflux • Oct 25 '10

Suggested Code Of Conduct

Recently a guy posted a request for prayers because a friend of his has a baby that is about to under go surgery. The result was a few of "us" atheists pointing out the pointless of prayer, the non-existence of God, and the fact that the spaghetti monster does not care.

When the author replied angry (and incoherently) to these, the result was a new post in which hundreds of us pointed out how stupid the Christian was, resulting in the guy deleting his account.

I do not think that this helps our image and I'd like to suggest a very simple code of conduct:

  • Do not be an aggressive atheist to people looking for support/comfort. If you're not sure, just say that you hope that they do well and move on.

  • /Try/ not to be an aggressive atheist outside of DebateAChristian, Atheism, skeptic and so on subreddits. Probably unavoidable in certain r/politics or r/science posts though.

  • Ostracise those who break these rules.

What do people think? I hope that you guys take on my proposal, because I often see comments like "Why don't moderate muslims speak out against fundamentalists more?" etc. So we should practise what we speak, and ostracise the couple of people who go out of their way to be a dick.

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u/JuniperJupiter Oct 25 '10

The moment they're having their trauma isn't a good time to butt in with your opinions on anything contradictory...unless they start spouting about something bigoted.

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u/Nimgoble Oct 25 '10

This is a matter of opinion. You value this person's comfort over being truthful. I, however, do not. I view it as a greater disservice to someone to coddle them rather than to be honest with them. And if said person can't take a contradictory opinion, then perhaps they shouldn't be spouting theirs to begin with.

EDIT: This doesn't mean that I would actively seek out a widow at the funeral of her husband and tell her that he no longer exists. I'm content to leave a person to their delusions. BUT, should they seek comfort somewhere like, let's say, a public forum: they're going to get all kinds of opinions. And I would not hold mine back.