Bah Humbug! Or have yourself an atheist holiday season

... And where exactly in my post did I say that it wasn't? Or are you just trying to assert that Atheists who attack religion are only acting "in defense?" After all, the last sentence in my post is this:

—>"37 million Americans know MYTHS when they see them" is religiously intolerant, aggressive, and no better than someone proselytizing, accusing others of "living in sin" or the like.

I've seen way too many examples of Atheists attacking religious people for no reason to see it as a defensive thing. Intolerance leads to aggressive behavior on both sides, and hijacking displays with snarky "Belief Makes You Stupid" advertisements is aggressive, not defensive.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:41:23 PM by TrevMUN

...I think it's fair to say that religious people started it and are more vocal and visible than asshole atheists/anti-theists.

Who started it isn't really important, though. Free speech means we couldn't do anything about it, unfortunately, but...

@Trev: And I've seen way too many examples of religious people attacking atheists for no reason. -shrug-

& I see more of the opposite, actually. But that's beside my point; my point is that there is no "defensive" behavior on display here, from believers of any stripe.

This is pure intolerance. When people cannot tolerate and accept that other people hold different beliefs than theirs, that's what leads to these aggressive "Holier/More Rational Than Thou" attacks.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:47:44 PM by TrevMUN

Exactly. Which is why religious people need to come off it with the attacks on our lifestyle. They can't take what they dish out.

Too late. Ignore.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:50:03 PM by DisasterGrind

Please quit with your showboating, "defensive" mindset. You aren't helping matters when you insist that people on "your" team only make such nasty remarks when "provoked."

Especially with that sneering "non-atheists can't take what they dish out" smugness. That says a lot about you.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:50:30 PM by TrevMUN

I would prefer if both sides stopped, yes.

And I also prefer the lottery system to the pseudo-democratic system, actually. The pseudo-democratic system isn't conducive to separation of church and state, IMO.

Oh, that's funny. Really funny. You should be a comedian.

I'll stop with the defensive mindset when Christians let go of their intolerant belief structure.

Yeah. It means that I have a huge fucking chip on my shoulder. I'd be far more tolerant if the majority of Christians that I interacted with hadn't supported my father abusing me as a child.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:51:36 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Oh wow. And now you're stereotyping all Christians as having an "intolerant belief structure."

Nevermind, there's no sense in debating this with a fundie atheist.

@DG: To be honest, I've never, ever seen something on the level you describe, in terms of the religious being intolerant of atheists. I'm really starting to believe you've just had a very abnormal reference pool. Your response seems extremely aggressive.

And so the thread goes down in flames.

Oh well.

@Ultrayellow: Go to the Bible Belt of the US sometime.

The defensive mindset is annoying as shit, be you religious or irreligious. I think the only thing that bothers me more are those with an aggressive mindset, be you religious or irreligious. My brother is absolutely terrifying to have around religious people. I almost wanted to go home and cry when my family brought him to the wat because I was afraid he would make fun of the people there for being religious like he does to pretty much everyone.

Both "sides" really need to drop their shit. Sadly this isn't likely as people tend to be retarded as a whole. I will do what I can to fix things though and get them to what I would like them to be. Religious people and irreligious people all together in one place having nice calm chats about the subject.

Generalizing is also just as annoying.

edited 16th Dec '11 3:53:20 PM by Aondeug

You guys need to calm down. That debate is really interesting so don't ruin it. Please stay civil.

Not sure I like the Christmas decorating in stores so quickly. This is mostly because I find Christmas decorations tacky though as opposed to some nature of religious issue. Note I tend to find the Santa related decorations tacky. I tend to like the non-colorful religious decorations quite a bit as I think they look nice. That and I really like Mary. I've grown to hate Christmas music over the years, but mostly because I think it sounds annoying as opposed to religiousness.

I like what's done downtown in Riverside for Christmas. They decorate the place really neat and have ice skating. It's awesome. Not religious though. It's secular.

Only been to one religious service for Christmas. Some manner of Protestant faction. Must find another church this year to explore for curiosities sake.

Really miss celebrating Channukah though.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:02:29 PM by Aondeug

Fair enough. In any case, I support the atheist displays and I'd like to see more of them around. Either that, or getting rid of all but generic winter displays would be fine my me too.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:02:28 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

That's been my big complaint about this time of year, too. The kind of Christmas music piped in stores tends to be so twee my teeth turns into cavities from all the sugar. I like the Christmas music that's more ... I dunno what word I'm looking for.

And I do agree, I never fail to get wigged out by how it feels like stores throw up their Christmas decorations and sales earlier every year.

Someone oughta take running bets on when they'll start doing it in July!

I like the old English and German stuff. "Go Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," for example, is IMO incredible.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:11:25 PM by Ultrayellow

The moment they replace all the Halloween crap with their Christmas crap in October I will kill the world.

Funny you mention that, there's always a Christmas in July sale around here, complete with pictures of Santa chilling out at the beach put up all over the place.

Too late. It's starting to happen up here at least. The Halloween display was tiny this year. D:

edited 16th Dec '11 4:13:06 PM by DrunkGirlfriend

Ugh, Christmas music. The ultimate victim of overexposure.

Some of the songs were pretty good, too... or at least, they were the first five or ten times...

@Aon: Nah, their backs are against the wall there. The only holiday that's more pointlessly commercial is Halloween.

edited 16th Dec '11 4:13:48 PM by Ultrayellow

I am sorry DG but your state must burn. Only one pointlessly commercial holiday must exist and it must be the only one with a good aesthetic.