# Badchad **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 27, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743 "2006-12-27T15:20:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/1 "2006-12-27T15:20:35Z")
From [this manifesto](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8093491&postcount=169): > [@Badchad](#): > > People can say badchad is too mean, badchad is too blunt, badchad is too abrasive. But all I have done is treat most respected version of Christianity here (the liberal kind) with the respect it deserves, which is none. I treated these beliefs with the same respect other rationalists here treat beliefs in psychic powers, Scientology, and werewolves, and for that matter the same way many liberal Christians treated the beliefs of their fundamentalist brothers. I took who was arguably the most popular, most eloquent, and most influential Christian one these boards (Polycarp, made him my project and fucked his shit up. I took his well worded bullshit and pointed out that it was merely bullshit. I took his beliefs apart (not straw man versions either) piece by piece. Some Christians here realized it, I figure most atheist here do, and Polycarp definitely knows it . I did this in part because I thought he was the strongest and best defender of his type of faith, and in part because I thought he deserved a taste of his own medicine. All he can do is hope that I get banned or bored and that the membership of this board has a short memory, because since I have returned a few months ago his theology has again become a non factor. It’s a pity you won’t be responding to this. You’ve been a very consistent little Hobgoblin about ignoring me completely. But I’m sure your defenders will protect you, and it isn’t like you _can’t_ respond. So you appointed yourself the resident GOTT (_Guardian Of The Truth®_), and embarked on a mission to destroy a man and his ideas. Your motivation, according to you, was to give him a “taste of his own medicine”. You stalked him for no other purpose. It was therefore personal everywhere you did it, including Great Debates. I wondered why you ignored me, especially in the early stages of your mission, since I was shredding your argument to pieces and you were just letting my responses go unanswered. I suppose it’s clear now. Like a Borg drone, you were singularly focused on one task, oblivious to the ship blowing up all around you. It would almost be funny if your stated purpose were not so ignoble. Instead, it’s rather pathetic really. You targeted a man whose kindness and empathy for the feelings and views of others (including yours) are legendary. You wanted to destroy his morale. Prove him wrong. Shut him up. Give him the thrashing you thought he deserved. And now that your hubris has blossomed into full blown self-worship, you believe that you “won”. What you’ve won God only knows, but you seem to fancy yourself the victor. I don’t know you from Adam and don’t care to, but I do know Poly. A few years ago, my wife and I visited him at his home near Raleigh. He and Skulldigger (his wife) were struggling with expenses, had no reliable transportation, an obsolete computer, and were about to lose their Internet connection. It was Christmastime, and we weren’t in great financial shape ourselves, but we (along with many others) responded. I’ve never made this public, but just to give you an idea of the scope of our response and his plight, we gave him $1,200. Others gave him cash also. Still others gave needed supplies, like food and clothing. One person I know gave a new computer. His home was as humble as any I’ve seen. As best I recall, there were four rooms, no central heat or air, clutter everywhere from lack of storage, and extremely modest furnishings. But the love. Oh the love. Their smiles and gratitude, their genuine humility, their tears — we were touched in a way that we’ll never experience again. Our only wish was that we could have given more. And we have since been rewarded, incidentally, many fold. We believe God works like that. Though we sought nothing in return, our fulfillment (personal and financial) was complete. Now, the reason I bring all this up is so people can see that you did not attack the giant that you perceived. You tilted at a windmill that did not exist. We took Poly and his wife out to dinner that evening, and I can’t count the times that he stipulated in the course of our conversations that he might be wrong. We discussed more politics than we did religion, but that same self-effacing humility is as abundant in one thing as another. You were not attacking the guardian of liberal Christianity. You were mugging a man who would have given you the loot if only you had asked. Despite his meager means, he is generous with everything he has. He has taken in kids that other people called problems, and given them a loving and nurturing home. He measures his success not by material, not by arguments won, not by souls saved — but by the richness of the lives of those he helped. Yeah, I know you think that your mission was important. And your defenders will doubtless point out how critical it is to fight ignorance. Y’all surely do seem to believe that you are Cecil’s little minions, carrying his torch. But with friends like you, Cecil doesn’t need enemies. A great contemporary philosopher, Daniel Dennett, said, “There’s nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.” And that’s what you are for Cecil — a half-cocked sniper rifle with a faulty scope. You would be the last weapon he would reach for in his arsenal, and then only after he had tried pulling out his teeth and firing them from a slingshot. That’s because you are so profoundly ignorant about so much. During your Rumsfeldian delusions about defeating the Ogre while adoring crowds tossed you flowers, you lacked certain knowledge that so many other people had. Knowledge like social skills, debating tactics and strategies, human emotion and response, planning an attack, selecting a target, and winning the hearts and minds of bystanders. If you had been half as smart as you imagined yourself to be, you would have attacked an asshole like me. Or a blithering poet like Tris. Or an emotional wreck like Siege. Instead, being the knuckle head that you are, you attacked a man beloved by nearly all, atheist and theist alike. I suppose you thought that your victory would be sweeter if you could lick the blood of the biggest wildebeest in the herd. But the fact is that you didn’t even make the kill. All the arguments made against you that you ignored in your reckless quest still are there. Unaddressed. Standing against you like Hoover Dam against the river. You failed. On almost every level. Because even if you had destroyed him, you would have destroyed something the world so sorely needs: compassion and goodness the likes of which you cannot even comprehend. Not only have you not proved Poly wrong, but now that you’ve revealed what an empty, pointless, and quite frankly psychotic goal you pursued, you’ve revealed yourself as nothing more than a polyp in the board’s rectum. I don’t know whether your admission of trolling (surely deliberately targeting a man and stalking him in Great Debates for nothing more than personal amusement is trolling) will get you banned or not. And I don’t know whether you’ll ever take me off your ignore list. But I do know that Polycarp is the victor in your war with him. You’ve shot yourself in the foot. You now have the status of a misfired sperm. Your cause was never anything more than a personal vendetta, poorly conceived, laughably executed, and a waste of everyone’s time. At this point, there’s nothing to be done about any of that, but in the future, could you kindly confine your intellectual masturbation to the Pit where it belongs? Thanks loads. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/2 "2006-12-27T15:40:20Z")
I’m glad you’re back, Liberal. That was refreshingly coherent and nicely devastating, if it were directed at someone whose skull could be penetrated by the cognitive products of other people. Some links to the unanswered arguments might be nice, if you have them handy. ---
**Author:** ![Omegaman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e480ec/32.png) [@Omegaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omegaman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/3 "2006-12-27T15:52:51Z")
**Liberal** Thanks for sharing that . ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/4 "2006-12-27T16:08:12Z")
I think you miss **badchad** ’s point, **“Liberal”**. As I see it, **badchad** is saying that **polycarp** may be a nice chap, but the residual mumbo-jumbo that attaches to polycarp’s “god-of-the-fewest-spooks-and-magic-tricks-I-can-get-away-with touchy-feely almost mainstream christian” stuff makes his position untenable. Poly tries to offer a way to be a thinking Christian and not be a nutjob or an arsehole. badchad’s claim is that he fails. You claiming that Poly is a nice guy is beside the point. badchad thinks poly is christianity’s beard. ---
**Author:** ![Ensign\_Edison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ab992/32.png) [@Ensign\_Edison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ensign_Edison)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/5 "2006-12-27T16:15:22Z")
[QUOTE=hawthorne] I think you miss **badchad** ’s point, **“Liberal”**. As I see it, **badchad** is saying that **polycarp** may be a nice chap, but the residual mumbo-jumbo that attaches to polycarp’s “god-of-the-fewest-spooks-and-magic-tricks-I-can-get-away-with touchy-feely almost mainstream christian” stuff makes his position untenable. Poly tries to offer a way to be a thinking Christian and not be a nutjob or an arsehole. badchad’s claim is that he fails. You claiming that Poly is a nice guy is beside the point. badchad thinks poly is christianity’s beard. [/QUOTE] I think you’re missing most of the point. While badchad is wasting time with bizarre personal vendettas against strangers on message boards, Poly is out being a decent fucking human being with a sense of proportion and priorities. Just by taking up the despicable mantle of “internet stalker” – _with pride_, no less – badchad automatically loses no matter what his point is. ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/6 "2006-12-27T16:53:14Z")
**Liberal** , welcome back. Thank you for “misfired sperm”. It is now the phrase that I will substitute whenever I read the user name **badchad**. **badchad** ’s continued presence on this message board makes me wonder about the actual importance of what is supposed to be rule number one here: don’t be a jerk. This is not the first time he has freely admitted that his purpose here is, in part, to diminish or eliminate **Polycarp** ’s participation. I’ll reiterate my [previous assessment:](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=7920288&postcount=731) [QUOTE=Crotalus] **badchad** is not a troll. **badchad** is a jerk. His stated purpose for his relentless, partially informed and frequently rude attacks on various Christian beliefs is the noble fight against ignorance. I’m not appealing to authority to fortify my own beliefs, but I would like to state that this seems to mean that **badchad** believes that Garry Wills, William F. Buckley, J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis are or were ignorant. He probably does, and maybe they were, but all seem intelligent and informed to me. For me, **badchad** made the leap from pugnacious, half-informed punk to jerk when the following exchange took place: [QUOTE=Polycarp] Whatever else he may have accomplished in this world, he has made a place I derived great pleasure in repartee from for over six years into a place I tend not to spend much time in. I hope that accords with his goals in life. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=badchad] Believe me, it does. [/QUOTE] Someone whose goals in life include making a message board such as this a less pleasant place for one such as **Polycarp** meets my criteria as a contemptible jerk. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/7 "2006-12-27T17:08:33Z")
As an agnostic I am not taking sides in the current board religion war, but I do question one of **Liberal’s** metaphors, that of his target being a polyp in the SDMB’s rectum (a polyp after all can be benign and asymptomatic). A fissure in the board’s anus might be a more apt description from your POV. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/8 "2006-12-27T17:12:14Z")
It’s the starkness of the contrast that is so jarring. One the one hand, a man of meager means has done an amazing amount of good _on this board_ — from lifting the spirits of people deeply depressed to giving a few dollars that he couldn’t afford. On the other hand, a knuckle cracking Internet whore has made it his mission to rid this board of its most empathetic ear and generous heart. Badchad is like a piece of molten tar stuck to your thigh. Even if you remove it, the damage is done. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/9 "2006-12-27T17:18:09Z")
**liberal** , I’m reaaly glad you’re back. Before I continue, you must know that I regard **Polycarp** in very high esteem. He’s been most influential in allowing me to reorganize my belief system in Christ while at the same time freeing me from me perceived neccessity of regarding the bible as the infallible word of God, which is the essence of Christian fundamentalism. But one thing has been bothering me about **Polycarp**. It is the increasingly incessant attacks on Christian fundamentalists, and he never misses an opportunity to do so. If **Polycarp** showed some love and understanding for the mental prison that fundies are in, then I would put him up for sainthood if I could. I’m fairly certain that **Poly’s** attacks on Christian fundies is what drives **badchad** more than anything. He’s stated before that he has loving fundie parents who don’t deserve what **Poly** dishes out. If **Poly** wasn’t so hugely popular, adding temendous weight to hatred of fundies, **badchad** might have just ignored him, Yes, for **badchad** it is personal and I can’t say I blame him. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/10 "2006-12-27T17:23:47Z")
I agree with your point, and I’ve lobbied on behalf of fundamentalists myself — despite that I’m so out there that I make Poly look like a fundamentalist. But where Poly is different from Badchad is that Poly, when he sees this, will acknowledge the validity of the criticism, take it to heart, and make a change in himself. You need only bring it to his attention. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/11 "2006-12-27T17:37:34Z")
[QUOTE=Jackmannii] A fissure in the board’s anus might be a more apt description from your POV. 🙂 [/QUOTE] I am a fissure of men. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/12 "2006-12-27T17:38:56Z")
Greetings **Lib** Nice to see your name on the boards again. I didn’t read all the exchanges between **Poly** and\*\* BC\*\* Frankly I was surprised that **BC** was able to get to **Poly** in the way he did. I was surprised one relentless and annoying poster could get **Poly** to consider not frequenting the SDMB. I engaged \*\*bc \*\* a couple of times at length. Enough to realize that he is more interested in stroking his own inflated ego than so called fighting ignorance. He is more interested in manipulating the conversation and being in control so he can then do his delusional victory dance, than an honest and open exchange. Once I was convinced of that nothing he said or says makes much difference to me. He can do his one handed typing all he wants and it won’t keep me from enjoying the SDMB. Whatever nerve he hit with Poly was perhaps ready to be hit and I trust Poly has or will recover fully and maybe learn something about himself. Even though I don’t appreciate **BC** s technique I think he raised some interesting points and I learned a few things. Not from him , but from other posters being interested enough to offer their insights. I have to wonder if we would have got there at all without his pain in the ass, take no prisoners approach. Who knows? Maybe the extremists serve as instigators so those of us who are more laid back will participate more. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/13 "2006-12-27T17:48:13Z")
**Badchad** is a jerk, as \*\*Crotalus \*\*aptly observes. Best thing to do is ignore him. Link to this Pit thread if you feel some response is required lest lurkers think he has “won” any of the debates. I’m sure he’ll get banned eventually. And the more he’s ignored, the more his jerkishness will surface, hastening the process. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/14 "2006-12-27T17:58:38Z")
[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman] But one thing has been bothering me about **Polycarp**. It is the increasingly incessant attacks on Christian fundamentalists, and he never misses an opportunity to do so. If **Polycarp** showed some love and understanding for the mental prison that fundies are in, then I would put him up for sainthood if I could. I’m fairly certain that **Poly’s** attacks on Christian fundies is what drives **badchad** more than anything. He’s stated before that he has loving fundie parents who don’t deserve what **Poly** dishes out. If **Poly** wasn’t so hugely popular, adding temendous weight to hatred of fundies, **badchad** might have just ignored him, Yes, for **badchad** it is personal and I can’t say I blame him. [/QUOTE] I’ve never seen anything I’d describe as Poly’s attacks on fundamentalists. I have very conservative Christian relatives and close friends and they are lovely people. We have exchanged ideas in the past but for the most part keep it very minimal now realizing we won’t change the others minds. Even though I love them I have no problem discussing which beliefs I think are wrong and or harmful to others if the occasion arises. It’s not an attack to speak frankly. What constitutes relentless attack to you? If you’re talking name calling generalizations then I probably agree. That doesn’t strike me as very **Poly** like. Perhaps\*\* BC\*\*s misguided fervor comes in part from dealing with his parents. I don’t know. I do know his antics have convinced me engaging him is usually a waste of time and not what I enjoy about the SDMB. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/15 "2006-12-27T18:01:33Z")
[QUOTE=pseudotriton ruber ruber] I am a fissure of men. [/QUOTE] true dat. and we know which fissure. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/16 "2006-12-27T18:05:44Z")
Blithering Christian Poet checking in. 😉 I missed out on most of the stalking, and I am sorry to say I didn’t do much to defend one of men I admire most on the board. However, if it would help, please remember that among the Christians on the board, I am almost certainly the one who has the least intellectual gravitas to his faith. But, I don’t respond well to multiple posts with minimal informational content. I have to admit that **badchad** is evidently defined in my subconscious as “board noise.” I don’t recall much he has ever said. However, I almost always respond to my screen name, so, **Badchad** fire away! Prove me an inconsistent and intellectually bankrupt moron. Demonstrate to the world that I am a roadblock, or a detour through ignorance on the road to enlightenment and truth. Of course, I won’t mind much, which could make it less enjoyable for you. I promise to at least feign outrage. Oh well, blither blither, bless you all. ## Tris Oh, look, butterflies! I want to cry out aloud. But you knew that, right? With apologies to Isa. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/17 "2006-12-27T18:54:26Z")
[QUOTE=John Mace] **Badchad** is a jerk, as \*\*Crotalus \*\*aptly observes. Best thing to do is ignore him. [/QUOTE] Also good advice for dealing with pesky evangelists. If you find that ignoring them is too difficult, play dumb instead. ---
**Author:** ![cards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@cards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cards)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/18 "2006-12-27T19:15:33Z")
**Liberal** is back? Boy, you miss one meeting. Let me be quick to agree about badchad (that name isn’t not worth bolding), his treatment of **Polycarp** was virulently mean, a true jerk. He sounds like the kind of guy that has his own animal testing lab, except it’s one that never benefits humanity, he just tortures kittens for his own gratituitous pleasure. That or he has a really small dick. Probably both. For the record, I’m an atheist and don’t agree with **Poly’s** theism, but do find common ground with him on many other things. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/19 "2006-12-27T20:38:13Z")
[QUOTE=cards] Let me be quick to agree about badchad (that name isn’t not worth bolding), his treatment of **Polycarp** was virulently mean, a true jerk. He sounds like the kind of guy that has his own animal testing lab, except it’s one that never benefits humanity, he just tortures kittens for his own gratituitous pleasure. That or he has a really small dick. Probably both. For the record, I’m an atheist and don’t agree with **Poly’s** theism, but do find common ground with him on many other things. [/QUOTE] I agree entirely. While I think the evidence points away from the existence of a God, I think that: 1. Objective truth ain’t worthy of worship either–it’s a good thing but not the goal of existence; and 2. I could well be wrong about God; and 3. **badchad** illustrates **behavior** that’s shitty–and behavior is far more important than objective truth, in my opinion. Point 3 is why I object to fundamentalists when I object to them. Their beliefs don’t bother me. Their behavior very often does. I won’t object to a kindhearted and gentle fundamentalist, any more than I will condone a meanspirited jerkish atheist. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![Sarahfeena](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarahfeena/32/519_2.png) [@Sarahfeena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarahfeena)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743/20 "2006-12-27T20:48:35Z")
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness] I agree entirely. While I think the evidence points away from the existence of a God, I think that: 1. Objective truth ain’t worthy of worship either–it’s a good thing but not the goal of existence; and 2. I could well be wrong about God; and 3. **badchad** illustrates **behavior** that’s shitty–and behavior is far more important than objective truth, in my opinion. Point 3 is why I object to fundamentalists when I object to them. Their beliefs don’t bother me. Their behavior very often does. I won’t object to a kindhearted and gentle fundamentalist, any more than I will condone a meanspirited jerkish atheist. Daniel [/QUOTE] You are completely right in your point #3. I always find it amusing when people assume that ones’ friends must match their religious or political POV. After Peter Boyle’s death, I read a comment on another message board where the poster said they had always wondered how Mr. Boyle “got along” with Patricia Heaton on the set of Everybody Loves Raymond, since he was such a radical liberal, and she is such a religious conservative. This comment struck me as funny…why shouldn’t they like each other, be warm co-workers or friends, just because they disagree on these issues? I disagree with MOST of my friends on politics! So what? If they are good people, what do I care if they vote diffrerently from me, or don’t believe in God, or whatever? I assume, unless I have evidence to the contrary, that most peoples’ political views are motivated by good thoughts & intentions. I also assume that a belief or non-belief in God doesn’t tell me how “good” of a person someone is. I base these kinds of judgments on my interactions with people, and anyone who bases it on politics or religion is no better than a bigot, as far as I can see. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/badchad/385743.md?page=2)