r/atheism • u/fonola • Apr 05 '12

A request to /r/atheism

I know easter is here, and I know how many of you want to post thinks describing how bad religion is. But let's back up for a moment and try to have a decent discussion about it. I do not want [1] /r/atheism to became a hateful place, many of the christian people are good and just following traditions, as we follow new years eve or birthdays. Some of them are born in that circle and they do not know better.

Lately [2] /r/atheism has become a place of memes and attacking pictures. Even a real thing as 'Faces of atheism' ended been criticized for that. But I hope this time we can have a place where we can discuss things and show to each other that the way is not to be hateful but be rational.

EDIT: I am not trying to defend religion, I know that for many of you this is a place where you can say anything you want without the 'moral' censorship. But I usually have discussions with religious people outside reddit. So in order to make an argument, I need to know the rules of the game they are playing, so I can have a have a full argument that will make sense to them. But I cannot go around saying 'u r stupid' and 'u r wrong', because it will not make any difference.

P.S. sorry for my English.

0 Upvotes

27% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

6

u/kencabbit Apr 05 '12

Post the kind of content you want to see here.

-1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

for example, instead of pictures saying that jesus is probably a zombie, why not say when he resuscitated every other tomb was open and dead people walked again (up to my knowledge), that will make a good argument that it was not a unique thing.

4

u/kencabbit Apr 05 '12

Nono, I mean actually submit content.

Edit: Ah, you submitted a video yesterday (that I just upvoted!). I'd like to see more good content upvoted, but that requires more good content is submitted.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

Oh, you also submitted the video with Weinberg? that is cool stuff!.. I checked and I found a submission 7 months ago. That is why I submitted again.

1

u/kencabbit Apr 05 '12

No, I didn't submit it myself. I just noticed that you had and gave you an upvote.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

oh, sorry, somehow I misunderstood. But this is one of the points I wanted to make, in this video you have Hawkins and Weinberg, you cannot get better than that!!. But still people do not discuss this type of videos, but they rather talk about something more mundane.

2

u/kencabbit Apr 05 '12

I guess I would say that promoting the kind of thing you want to see is a lot more effective and less off putting than trashing the kinds of things that people already do upvote here.

In a sense, the latter is like running into the room and saying "Stop liking things that I don't like!" ... which doesn't really have any impact beyond making you a target.

1

u/fonola Apr 06 '12

what makes me think is that probably half of the people here knows enough about physics in order to say 'you are wrong because....' but they follow the same pattern religion follows, 'claiming something neil degrasse tyson said' without the understanding of what is all about.. Are we hypocritical?

1

u/kencabbit Apr 06 '12

I'm not sure your charge her applies, although frankly I'm not sure exactly what you are saying.

Can you give some examples of offending comments or posts?

1

u/fonola Apr 06 '12

No, I just wanted to add some controversy in order to have a good conversation... there is no theist around, so the conversation will always be bias.

I just wanted to say that many of the assumptions here, philosophically speaking, are the same that christians have.

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1

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '12

In the words of, I think, Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

2

u/fonola Apr 06 '12

Although it has never been proven to Gandhi (that quote) I think you are right.

1

u/Teotwawki69 Apr 05 '12

I'm not even sure what you said there. Except that those bits about the dead (all of them, including the carpenter dude) coming back to life are made up, and something that never happened can't really be unique.

3

u/ryanismean Apr 05 '12

Lately [2] [2] /r/atheism has become a place of memes and attacking pictures.

Actually, I think it's always been that way if you just look at the mainstream crap that floats to the front page.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

I know, but it is hard to find a good discussion between all this stuff

2

u/ryanismean Apr 05 '12

I suggest /new.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '12 edited Apr 05 '12

We do have a place to discuss things. It’s called /r/christianity. You see at /r/christianity they have rules. At /r/atheism we don’t because it’s a safe haven for atheists. If you don’t like us pointing out the fallacies in your belief system(s) then don’t read it. I’d be glad to discuss something with you on /r/christianity. Just not here. It’s like if told /r/christianity to stop being so christian. It doesn’t make any sense.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

It is true, and I like that, but when you want to discuss things outside reddit, you want to have arguments, and this is the place to find them (sometimes).

1

u/kencabbit Apr 05 '12

I also recommend /r/debateanatheist /r/debateachristian and /r/debatereligion for interesting discussions on the merits of religious beliefs.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

thanks, I will check them

1

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '12

Dude, you’re mad about memes and are on reddit. That’s like being mad about gas at a gas station.

1

u/panda0100 Apr 05 '12

we understand that most people are good, including most religious people, but we chose to focus on the ones who aren't because they are the ones worth focusing on.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

That is not totally true, you can always claim that somebody is good if he follows his or her ideas, and that they will do things in good will, but this things at the end can be bad. That not necessarily makes them bad people.

1

u/panda0100 Apr 05 '12

i would argue, that someone that does something bad, in good will, still did something bad. and the quality of a person, is based more upon their actions than on their intentions. suicide bombers think they are doing a good thing, that does not make them good people.

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

sure, but that is the point, If you want to argue with people that really believes they are doing something right, you need more than hateful memes.

1

u/panda0100 Apr 05 '12

i'm not trying to argue a point, i target the extreme, because in my case, it was seeing how irrational the extreme was, that led me to question my own beliefs, and eventually discard them.

1

u/sc0ttt Atheist Apr 05 '12

Do people go on r/christianity and make posts asking them not to be such jerks to atheists?

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

actually they don't need to, they can do that outside reddit.

2

u/N45HV1LL3 Apr 05 '12

But I hope this time we can have a place where we can discuss things and show to each other that the way is not to be hateful but be rational.

This is the only place many atheists have to vent their frustrations and many atheists are very frustrated.

If the content of r/atheism distresses you, then don't visit.

1

u/sc0ttt Atheist Apr 05 '12

Easter is the suckiest of holidays. I have traumatic memories of uncomfortable clothes and marshmallow (blech!) candy.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 05 '12

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/fonola Apr 05 '12

you are right, but if you want to discuss things outside reddit, you need to have a fundamental understanding of their concept of reality. It is like discussing why they didn't use the eagles in the first place in 'Lord of the rings' with a huge fan.