This sore is still festering?
It’s the athiest thread that ever athied!
I think I’ve seen athier.
I wonder if any of the theists here think there are any tolerant atheists on the dope…
Certainly not you, you intolerant bastard. 
I’m just wondering because the religious threads here usually become very hostile. So I’m wondering what the perception is. Are the atheists who engaged in such thread generally perceived as hostile? I could see how such a notion could acquire traction - after all, I have the impression that quite a few threads start something like this:
OP: Christians only, according to your beliefs, does the bread during holy communion turn into the flesh of Jesus, and is it salty?
P1: Impossible, God isn’t real
P2. Nope, Jesus never existed
P3. I like baloney
P4. It is neither rational to believe that bread becomes flesh or to believe in God
P5. The holy sauce has moved through me, all praise his noodles
etc, etc
Maybe I’m wrong, but I have the suspicion that many of our theistic dopers pretty much assume this is how a thread will unwind.
Well, they should have a little faith.
I assume that there are tolerant atheists on the dope - or more accurately, non-asshole atheists. This is because in the real world, I know atheists who don’t give a damn about my religion. I also know a couple that would fit in well with some of the personas seen here on the 'Dope.
I assume that a gathering of atheists, like a gathering of any other group, will have a given percentage of assholes. It is usually around 5% based on what I have seen among parents of soccer players, gatherings of professors, members of any given denomination, or message board participants.
Athed. Learn to thpell.
Could you perhaps provide a link to a thread that shows this problem? It’s not that I doubt you, but examples of this sort tend to exaggerate whatever problems are being pointed out, and the conversation from then on proceeds from the exaggeration instead of reality.
I’ve noticed what Meatros is talking about occasionally happening; generally by the type of poster who eventually gets banned. However, I’ve seen more threads where the religious types seem to think that is happening, when in fact all that is happened is they posted something based on religious assumptions not held by others (who may or may not be atheist).
This isn’t really true. Look at this thread for example. Naxos is the sort of asshat you are describing, and half the thread is basically dedicated to atheists telling him to go fuck off because he’s being, well, what you’re describing.
In general, atheists treat religions discussions appropriately - some do as you say, but they’re generally mocked and corrected by the rest of them.
On the plus side, I see that Naxos was banned, so that’s nice.
Dude! That was Deep. Like… Deep Ellum, man!
Aha! Yes; he’s one of the guys I was thinking of, but I was blanking on the name.
I think I might have been conflating boards a bit - I flit between several of them and some are a lot worse in terms of this sort of thing (BB.com “misc” for instance). So, yes my perception is probably exaggerated a bit.
I was thinking about it and there are some religious people here who know their stuff, but they don’t seem to participate in religious threads anymore (ex. I can’t remember the last time Polycarp weighed in on a topic - even though I think he still posts here). Now, I fully admit that this could simply be because of a selective reading of threads - I don’t read all of them (or all the religious ones), so I could simply be missing them. Still, I was wondering if it might be due to a board wide perception that the only atheists who participate in such threads are hostile ones.
I don’t think you mean it this way, but what you wrote could be construed to suggest that as long as atheists are apathetic and don’t discuss religion, then they are non assholes. This isn’t what you meant, is it?
Actually you do have a point here since the poster boy that I immediately think of is BadChad who was banned long ago.
If for this board perception isn’t matching reality there isn’t much atheists can do about it…unless the goal is to have the SDMB contain only “good” atheists that know their place. It seems to me like “militant” and “intolerant” are coupled with the word “atheists” far too easily, and mostly for opinions that wouldn’t even bring up those labels if atheism wasn’t involved in the first place.
Militant Christians carry guns and fight wars against other religions.
Intolerant Christians attempt to(and often succeed in) passing laws supporting their beliefs to the detriment of other beliefs and non-beliefs. They have been known to write hate mail threatening violence against those who dare to oppose their beliefs.
As I look through this thread and others on this subject, the amount of disconnect on the part of some posters simply astounds me sometimes.
Yes, there are more christians doing fucked up stuff. But there are also more christians than atheists. In a larger group of people, you are going to end up with more assholes and idiots.
I really don’t think that’s the only factor. Atheists also don’t have a mandate from an unquestionable authority to “save” religionists from themselves.