you’re about as funny as Dennis Rader performing a marionette show
It’s funny because it’s true (You work in retail long enough and someone will launch into a “You know what’s wrong with this country?” spiel, which it is imperative you do not engage them in).
Is this really what happens in America? Is everybody just shouting at each other telling them what to believe?
Really? How long have you been on this board? Someone starts a religious thread and one of our numerous atheists jump in and threadshit, ridiculing the OP as being delusional for worshiping an invisible pink unicorn or some other rude thing.
I have no problem with atheists. Hell, my son is one! But he doesn’t make fun of his friend who plays guitar at Sunday services. Some of the people on this board think its not only OK for them to make fun of religious people but they take great pleasure in trashing the threads.
And then they wonder why people tell them they’re going to hell. If they are, it’s more likely that they are for being an intolerant jerkwad than for their (lack of) religious beliefs. :rolleyes:
I have a distant relative who was on Facebook with me, and I unfriended him because he was posting memes that basically advocated a Christian holocaust, and he was posting other things that, if they were about Jews or Muslims, would have law enforcement knocking on his door. He’s also gotten into trouble at work for “preaching” to co-workers. :rolleyes:
That sentence makes more sense if you substitute “Der Trihs” for “one of our numerous atheists”, although Condescending Robot has been noisier lately. CR only seems to be mostly angry at liberals, though. It’s just gravy if they’re also religious.
It’s a vicious cycle. Most atheists respond that way because they’ve been told they’re going to hell, repeatedly, their entire lives. So, there’s definitely a “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” aspect to why that all happens.
Perhaps it’s unpopular to hold the opinion that the only proper response to any mentionn of religion, especially here, is ridicule. If ignorance can’t be fought, at least it can be laughed at.
I wasn’t talking about the board, because if a question gets asked then naturally the arguments are going to go back and forth. But in day-to-day living is that what goes on? Are all sides just shouting at and ridiculing each other?
Because where I live in the antipodes, Atheists stay pretty quiet about their atheism. And though Christians can get a little bit annoying when they knock on your door of a weekend handing out leaflets, generally they’re pretty quiet about their views too.
It’s much more preferable to what you’re describing.
If someone asks a religious question, lets say about comparing different sects of Baptists or particulars about something written in the Bible, is the proper response laughter? No, it is to answer the person’s question. When asking a question that requires a factual answer (what was Luther’s problems with the papacy, for example) don’t be an ass and say, “Luther was just another delusion person who believed in something unrealistic,” or even worse. If you have nothing constructive to add, don’t post to the thread. As my mom used to say, “If you have nothing nice to say then don’t say anything at all.”
This is the problem I have with atheists. The “holier than thou” attitude. Proselytizing religious people will say you’re going to Hell because you don’t believe like them. Extreme atheists will say you’re a moron because you don’t accept what you are saying. Sure, it’s faith vs fact, but it can be done politely. If I just mention that I like singing in my church choir that doesn’t give you the right to say how stupid I am for believing in something unrealistic and impossible.
I changed my religious beliefs because of a Facebook or message board post, said nobody ever.
:dubious:
Here’s an opinion that may be unpopular: I think Derek Jacobi is a bad actor.
Here’s an opinion that’s not unpopular, because most people agree with it, but it does tend to turn a thread incendiary.
I think those school anti-bullying policies and programs are a bunch of crap.
I’ve never heard this view expressed, so my thought is that it is an unpopular opinion. Either way, it is one that I agree with somewhat.
I think bullying is a horrible, bad thing. I often have a hard time owning up to the bad feelings I experienced growing up, but yeah, harrassment sucked and I wish none of it had happened.
But I do think it made me tougher in a lot of ways. It pushed me to develop a sense of humor and to “show them”. (I also think it kept me from thinking my shit don’t stink…but I think I would have learned this on my own eventually).
I also think negative peer pressure is an effective way of discouraging anti-social behavior. Bullying definitely crosses the line, but what about teasing? If someone catches you picking your nose and eating the boogers, is it such a bad thing for them to laugh at you? Maybe instead of expecting people not to laugh, you could, I dunno, just stop eating your boogers. Maybe boogers aren’t a great example, but there are other annoying behaviors that can be nipped in the bud because of a well-placed snide comment. I’d hate for this “polishing” process to be ruined by anti-bullying measures.
But I only agree somewhat because I think kids DO need to be taught how to be nice. Kids can be so cruel but they don’t HAVE to be.
Monstro, there’s a big difference between someone suggesting that inappropriate public behavior can be done in private, and abusing someone because they engage in it.
In addition, the policies’ enforcement is often erratic, and depends on who’s doing it to whom, and how much money the bully’s parents have or if they or their siblings are champion athletes or related to someone famous.
And that’s okay because it’s what they believe? Who cares what the reason is? It’s still obnoxious and rude as shit, just as much, if not more so than the atheists who aren’t being “polite.” I’d much rather someone I disagreed with think me a moron (which I’d undoubtedly think in return), then tell my kid that they’re facing eternal damnation. No wonder some non-believers are so strident.
Maybe you have a point. I’m sure if someone came to the SDMB and asked in all seriousness, “How many lightening bolts can Zeus hurl down in an hour? Is there a limit, or do the other Gods have to take over after some point?” Everyone would debate the question rationally and with due respect to his sincere beliefs.
The longer this thread continues, the likelihood it will become the worst thread ever on the SDMB approaches one.
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I think there ought to be reparations to blacks at the federal level. I think the U.S willfully failed to stop disenfranchisement of black people by the States, especially post-1900. The reparation payment should be the monetary equivalent of forty acres and a mule in today’s dollars plus 1% of the total economic output of slaves prior to the Civil War (some federal accountant can figure this out). Payouts would be dispersed over the lifetime over the black person after the 21st birthday. To ensure that payments do not exhaust the Treasury and precipitate a collapse of the country as well as to showcase our benevolence, reparation payments would not be allowed to exceed 10% of the GDP. Also, direct deposit would be available.
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I think Andersonville is a tad bit Chicago is overrated.
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I think the IRS budget should be increased.
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We should make a human/chimp hybrid.
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The Governor of Wisconsin looks like he has Down’s Syndrome.
- Honesty
Since we’re on the subject of religion, whenever I hear about a high school megajock who claims to be Christian, I have always thought, “Christian, my ass.” Not my foot, my ass. This is based on the way kids like this treat the people who aren’t part of their rarefied social circle, and how they act in other ways off the field, or at least the way they did at my school.
I wonder how many of the boys in the recent Steubenville case claimed to be Christian. 
Every single person to whom I have said this over the years has told me, “If you say ‘Christian, my ass’ to the wrong person, you could get yourself in some really big trouble” but nobody has ever actually disagreed with me.