I would like to agree with you on this, except that ultimately they work (as volunteers mostly) for a newspaper and they seemingly have to be extra-sensitive on intellectual property even when there is a lot of gray area.
Jim
Well, ISTM a newspaper ought to have an investment in freedom of information and free speech. I’m not expecting them to give away the farm but newspapers would be in a lot of trouble if they rolled over for every iota of a chance of a frivolous lawsuit.
I agree, but don’t you get the feeling the directive to be diligent about copyright issues is coming from at least the Ed Zotti level or above?
I am just holding the mods blameless in this. I do not know what their guidelines are, but if you are going to do the job, you need to follow whatever guidelines are set.
Jim
This is completely untrue.
I really don’t know if it’s a straight directive or something that just built up into the mod culture from a few early decisions. That magician thing was pretty wacky (and in my darkest of hearts, most amusing).
Anyway, I don’t really want a poll on that question necessarily. Just curious of other peoples’ perception of Board/Mod biases.
I haven’t see any evidence for it, and won’t take Lib’s assertion on faith, as it conflicts with too much that I know empirically. I hope he reassesses his belief and retests his perceptions…
Okay, but what was the magician thing? I missed that one.
Thought you would’ve heard about it - don’t know why I assumed . 1 2 3 4
Oddly, I had to search for those. Thought I had them saved somewheres, lol.
Well here’s my generalized take on the situation, whether you want to hear it or not.
It seems the consensus, at least among atheists, that there is no institutionalized prejudice against us, and as a population here, while we may not be the majority, our population is highly over representative. What as I and others have noted is that for the most part our beliefs are not treated poorly, but on a rational basis Christianity (particularly the liberal/nominal version) is treated with far too much respect, at least when compared to other equally irrational beliefs such as Scientology, Islam, psychics, dowsers, fundamentalist Christianity, etc.
Now I know a few will protest that some Christian beliefs are as unfalsifiable much as are leprechauns, fairies, and the flying spaghetti monster, and as such are beyond reproach. To this I answer that just because a belief isn’t falsifiable does not mean it isn’t patently ignorant. Especially, when said belief has piggy back rode on a mountain of already falsified claims. I mean really, the bible has been proven incorrect right, left, and center, and yet people actually believe it can be trusted when referring to the resurrection of room temperature, 2 day old, exsanguinated dead man? Give me a break. And we should remember that the goal of the straight dope is to fight ignorance, not to fight ignorance only when we perceive it serving our immediate selfish needs. Sure it is true some god’s can’t be proved not to exist but that does not mean it’s not incredibly ignorant to believe in any of them, especially ones riddled with contradictions, such as the problem of evil, or a system of justice necessitated on the impossible concept of free will, to name just a couple.
The straight dope is a good website, and one of the best I have found for finding good information and the debunking of bad information. Newcomers come here and say, “damn theses guys know there shit and ideas that are condemned, sure look like they deserve to be.” However with the overly good treatment that rationalist give Christianity, a newcomer will look and think “hey, this Christianity isn’t treated quite like Scientology or psychic surgery, there must be something extra-good about it.” “Christians who witness in favor of their beliefs get more respect, thus it must be it for some reason.” “The atheists who criticize it are often berated by other atheists for their intolerance, which isn’t demanded for Scientologists.” “There must be a good reason for it.” Whose fault is this? It’s not the Christians, for their (hopefully) compartmentalized stupidity/delusions really makes it so they know not what they do. Rather it is the fault of the silent and apologetic atheists here who selfishly give the superstition of their friends and family a free ride, when in fact it is quite true that there is no argument Christians can make in favor of their beliefs which we can not shoot down handily with knee jerk responses (problem of evil here, no free will here, this guys revelation is incompatible with yours here, supporting evidence is far insufficient for a given claim here, Jesus contradicts himself here, Jesus really wasn’t that loving or wise here, etc, etc, etc). The atheists here might not be a majority but they are a large enough minority to have a far greater influence than they do now. When new people come here they could, and I say should, see the wishy washy liberal Christian get his hat handed to him in a pileup the same way a fundamentalist does and the undecided lurker might think “goddamn, those beliefs are stupid” the same way onlookers think when they read a 6 day creationist get reamed.
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.
Now if I can do this single handedly the collective work of other atheists here can do a lot more. Sure people might were mean in the short term. To which respond “fuck you were right” and it’s time we start acting like it instead of giving pretence to the toleration and respect of stupidity. So in short, I am saying to the atheists out there who think we deserve to speak proudly of our disbelief, not just on an anonymous message board but in public without fear of censure, and to those who think we should not be troubled by discriminatory practices based on outdated religious moors is:
START PULLING YOUR WEIGHT!
QUIT COMPLAINING ABOUT CHRISTIANITY GETTING A PASS, AND STOP GIVING IT A PASS!
Thanks, that happened a year before I got here and it looks like it was small potatoes compared to some other controversies. I am sad that they think the policy has to apply even to magic tricks.
I got shut down on a question about a product that never violated an existing law, but that the RIAA had successfully nuisance suited the company out of existence. I got an apology it was closed, but at the same time told it could not be asked.
badchad, I choose the opposite approach, when someone berates an illogical belief, I ask them to treat the believers like they would treat any mainstream believer.
Keep fighting your good fight, but remember you cannot convince others when foam is coming from your mouth. 
Jim
Sorry, thought I’d pick that out. It might get a little lost in the middle of that layout but it seems to me your central point of the post and in general … please correct me if I’m wrong.
So your position boils down to “won’t someone please think of the children who might be reading this message board?”
Frankly, any newcomer who thought this place was endorsing Christianity simply by not suppressing it to the degree you seem to want is too dumb to hang around here, anyway.
Incidentally, do you think Judaism is given an equal pass? We’ve had numerous threads about Jewish ritual and several posters who prefer to type “G_d”, yet I’m not aware of any moderator crackdown, which to you apparently implies tacit support.
Well, now that we know the great and powerful badchad has singlehandedly nullified the theology of our most influential Christian -and using only kneejerk reactions!- I guess we can consider to this poll to be moot.
What hubris! How can so much arrogance fit in so small a container?
Y’know, the sad thing is bad in a way has the right attitude about silence in the face of obnoxious ignorance. It’s a shame he doesn’t put his own ignorance in that category. And that’s a sincere statement of regret. I came to this board to fight my own ignorance along with any other type I found, and I’ve benefitted greatly from that. Had I come here convinced that my way of knowledge was the only one acceptable, I’d have gained nothing -and given nothing.
Well that’s a little creepy. That post made Caridwen’s head hurt.
Did you ever think about taking a little breather from the religion posts?
Then that makes you more delusional than I, doesn’t it? I mean, here you are attempting to reason with a man who is, in your view, an irrational liar.
And where is the objective evidence of your assertion? What proof do you have that you’ve lived my life and know about my experience? Or is it another case of applying different standards to yourself than you apply to others?
You have yet to show by what objective criteria the evidence you accept is superior to the evidence I accept. Two jurors at the same trial may vote opposite verdicts having heard and evalutated the same evidence. I’m afraid that, too often, we think that the juror who agrees with us is the one who is smart and who evaluates evidence correctly.
Really? So far, I’ve been called delusional, a liar, deserving of nothing more than a dismissal and a sneer, living in a dream world, believing what I believe without any evidence. And what else? Oh, that I should be banned. If that’s a total pass, I’d hate to see resistance.
Then what’s the difference? If I’ve imagined my experiences with God — or with you, for that matter — the effect is exactly the same. I have the memories, the emotional and intellectual responses, the physical consequences, and the comprehension of significance.
The difference I suppose, is that I was under the impression that you felt God was something outside of yourself, as well as within. Nothing in your list of things you’ve gained from God offends my intellectual sensibilities in the least. It’s only if you think we share a God that we would differ in opinion.
Nah. I don’t really give a shit. Those who have examined their faith have found what they believe to be a substantial, if not scientific or rational, basis upon which to continue it or have abandoned it. Those who are not interested in examining their faith won’t be swayed by anything I say. So here’s how I play it. I don’t want people coming up to me demanding I re-examine my position on religion all the time. So, in the greatest tradition of non-religious based ethical behavior, I don’t do it to other people.
You want to do the atheist equivalent of knocking on people’s doors early on the weekends with handfuls of leaflets, go for it. Don’t be suprised when people don’t answer the door, or occasionally turn hose on you. Demanding other atheists join you in your early morning weekend excursions is seriously laughable. One of the biggest perks of being nonreligious is sleeping in on the weekends!
Enjoy,
Steven
Well then, I guess it’s a good thing my beliefs don’t contain any Christian-style lardbrained mularkey.
Out of curiosity, who here aside from you is doing this?
What’s to crack down on?