No.
People here question unsubstantiated claims, and religion doesn’t get a “buy”.
I think there’s a subtle distinction to be made.
The SDMB is not where intelligent skeptics gather.
The SDMB is where people who think they’re intelligent skeptics gather. Whether or not they’re right is wholly irrelevant. Atheism appeals to rational elitists.
So saying that unbridled hostility is prevalent on this board is just plain wrong, then. Right? I mean, even *overt *is not unbridled.
If you want to say people can’t use God to back up a claim, why not use the term God instead of “sky fairy?”
How do you know he’s not a sky fairy?
Would you object to “your deity of choice”?
I’ve been thinking about this, and I think that the SDMB probably just isn’t a comfortable environment for someone who is really deeply involved in religion, particularly in certain types of religion. It’s not that there’s so much overt hostility to religion here - honestly, there’s really not, unless you consider questioning someone’s mystical claims to be hostile, which I don’t. It’s just that, for example, I hang out on another message board (parenting-thematic) where there are a lot of very openly religious people, and lots of them have Biblical quotes in their sig files, and there are constant threads for “prayer requests” for this, that, and the other thing, and I think that that is a comfortable, welcoming environment for someone who deeply believes in all this stuff. If you’re the type of person who likes to post prayer requests and frequently reference God’s influence in your life in posts, you’re not going to find a lot of that at the SDMB, so maybe those people just go elsewhere. I don’t know.
I also think, on the topic of the Internet being more atheist-populated in general, that it’s a lot easier for some people to be open about being atheist online than it is in their personal lives. I speak from some experience here.
I don’t care if people say “sky fairy” or not, it’s just that using a term like that is a slam against believers.
Yeah, but it has long been a marketing tool for christianity in the US to present itself as “threatened” despite the incredible wealth of churches and the overwhelming majority of professed believers. Just because someone derives some benefit from assuming a particular position does notmean that position deserves respect.
Not to pick nits, but I believe you meant “bye” - unless you are talking about the likes of Jimmy Swaggart, Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, etc. ad infinitum.
Because you’re trying to show the other person what they’re actually claiming. Can you actually identify any distinction at all between a sky god and a sky fairy? The intention is not just to be gratuitously insulting, but to show how irrational baseless a given claim really is by using synonomous language. “God” is a euphemism. We are removing the euphemism and pointing out what a given claim really amounts to,
Criminy. I’m in the South. Do you have any idea how many times a week I have to put up with commercials, TV shows, proselytizing check-out girls, and door to door missionaries basically telling me I’m going to hell for my sins? And believers can’t take a little name calling that wouldn’t cause a tear on a first grade playground? They need to grow up and join the real world.
Nit righteously picked. Thanks for the correction.
I’m pretty sure many religious people would say the term “sky fairy” is insulting , it does not matter if you think it’s the correct way to call God. Why use a term that is going to get people upset when there is already a standard word in the English language to use?
I don’t think that atheists are overly hostile here. We’re just uppity and don’t know our place.
I can believe that many theists find the SDMB hostile, whether it is or not. Many people in the US go through their entire lives without their basic belief in some sort of a god being challenged, even if some details are. 99.9% of politicians of both parties assume a god, our money mentions it, and lots of those who do not attend church still just assume some sort of a god. Around here not only do they get people who question the very existence of God, but the majority of people do.
Theists who do well here either believe in unfalsifiable spiritual deities, claim belief from experience, or just don’t talk about it.
This perceived hostility seems very similar to those who think Dawkins etc are just so mean to even question religion in an actual book.
I personally do not perceived prevalent overt unbridled hostility. I do perceive overt unbridled hostility by at least one poster that is tolerated by other posters and helps set an overall tone for me that that is acceptable here. That leads me to believe that some believers would not be comfortable here, and some would be uncomfortable outing themselves. Therefore, there are probably less believers here than there could be, and probably more closeted.
And this is better than, or the other side does it, is not really a good defense. “But Mom, he was picking on me first!” isn’t an excuse I think is acceptable from my kids, much less the intelligent adults on this board.
Why get upset when a human being uses the mildest of derogatory terms to refer to The Master And Great Creator Of All Things? Surely God could not be offended by such a puny remark. Why should anyone else?
This. I’ve had more than one person take my (solicited) statement of nonbelief* as hostile in and of itself.
*Nothing more offensive than, “I don’t believe in god”.
I think you lose credibility in an argument when you use words that are not standard, just my 2 cents. You can make a lot of great points and still use the word God.