The opposite of “atheist” is “theist”, yet you folks always want cite “religion”, as if it only applies to theism. What do you think religion actually is?
This is actually an example of the problem you present. "You folks"? It's not that you forgot who you're talking to, but that you, like anyone else, have a finite number of tools in your rhetorical kit. "What do you think religion actually is?" you ask, but it's actually a fascinating discussion for those willing to have it. It's
easy enough to miss↗, around here, but one thing that stands out about such discussions is the idea that they might make any atheist so nervous as they do around here.
Meanwhile, your snip is a change of subject:
You see, anyone who can think for themselves will know that an atheist cannot know what theism is. That is logically impossible.
The only way a theist can become an atheist, is to forget God. An atheist cannot understand that.
So from a theist perspective, an atheist is some who has ultimately forgotten God, by their own efforts.
Not every theist sees it that way. Inasmuch as it's
your perspective, it seems more a rhetorical turn styled relative to some necessity you perceive in the moment.
So if we rewind to consider what you left out:
However, if one intends to criticize, perhaps they ought to know something about the object of their criticism.
Thing is, whatever your reason for skipping over that part in order to preach on about whatever, one of the effects is, well, okay,
nearly. Colloquially, this is where people do that thing sucking air lightly through grimaced teeth and then say, "So close."
When you said, "always want cite 'religion'", you were, indeed, very close to the point you skipped over.
Because it's true. Simply living one's life and not thinking about God at all is what it is, and one needs know nothing about religion in order to tell the evangelists to stop knocking on their door.
However, the atheist in that particular story happens to include crackpottery in his critique against religion, requiring a redefinition of the word, "religion", that is even more reckless than your pretense to represent theists. That's actually what makes him a good example. If he's just going through his life and, well, whatever, and happens to be an atheist, then the answer to his question is he doesn't really need to know a thing about religion. To the other, if he intends to soapbox and tell us what's wrong with religion, it really doesn't seem unfair to expect that he has a clue, or that what he has to say isn't crackpottery.
Or, perhaps, imagine two similar misrepresentations of Scripture by which someone has come to demand that believers commit acts of harm. If I ask you the difference between the two, it doesn't actually matter on this occasion that I haven't told you how the misrepresentations work; they can actually be the same argument. In this case, the difference between the two is that one of the zealots pushing religious crackpottery is an atheist, so that means he's right even if he's misrepresenting the source. And I wish that was a dumbassed joke, but circumstance is not nearly so accommodating. Still, the difference also highlights a point; another ahteistic version of that argument involved state-sanctioned violence, which is generally considered less unacceptable than advocacy of terrorism. And you know that other one because, like I said, if Jan Ardena is scoring a point, the other is doing it wrong.
But here's a quandary: These are allegedly smart people. They claim to know what they're talking about. That would mean they
know they're misrepresenting scriptural sources. Why would they knowingly misrepresent, or what are the implications of such accidents?
One aspect, though, of us folks is that despite some other people's (¿political?) confusion, you're not unaware of that basic orientation. And I've kind of been
explicit about it↗:
When it comes to "the point where their unsupported beliefs start having detrimental impacts on other people", I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to get through to [a particular zealot] or her congregation, but perhaps [someone] might explain just how it is [they] think asking her to submit to [an atheist's] judgment per mocking, fallacious, self-satisfying criteria, will do anything useful toward attending the harms she might bring to herself or others.
And,
inasmuch as religion, religious beliefs, and religious people can present a threat of harm, certain responses just aren't helpful, and can become part of the problem.
But that's also one thing that seems pretty common, perhaps even essential, to an ongoing back and forth between religious zealots: Consider the propositon that one might happen to agree with Principle A, disagree with subsequent Action B, and, furthermore, find Justification C problematic; and then take a moment to wonder why this very idea might confuse anyone.
You make that sound like a bad thing. As though I'm the one with the problem.
Well, the one thing about you that actually seems sincere is your provocative insincerity. Compared to once upon a long ago, when pretenses of rational discourse allegedly mattered, you've never really made the cut. But inasmuch as we might pretend to worry about suppressing political views, it's true there comes a point at which the most part of religious advocates at Sciforums would have failed to make this or that cut.
But if I might chuckle at an atheist pathetically mislabeling you in order to fit the desired criticism, it's not exactly a great mystery, in some cases, why that happens. You're noncommittal, vapid, self-centered, and truculent. In all your time here, if people still don't know what you affirmatively stand for, it's because you still haven't bothered with making any of that clear; it just hasn't been that important to you. And, yes, over the years, the pointless lack of integrity is actually problematic, a bad thing.
Like this:
If I said that a female dressed in scanty clad is an excuse for her to be abused and/or raped. You would probably conclude that the problem lies with me, rather than the scantily clad woman.
The problem of their stubborn mind-set is their problem. Not mine.
There may at some point in the future, one person who stumbles upon what I'm saying in these forums, who may comprehend what is being said, which may cause him /her to think for themselves.
It's easy enough, sometimes, to disagree with others about what someone said or how to read a string of words, but then there are times when, no, it's absolutely clear what someone said.
• "If I said that a female dressed in scanty clad is an excuse for her to be abused and/or raped. You would probably conclude that the problem lies with me, rather than the scantily clad woman."
Yes, actually, the problem does lie with you. Did you mean something different? Were you trying to bait someone with a provocative word game?
There isn't really much question about what you said: "If I said that a female dressed in scanty clad is an excuse for her to be abused and/or raped". I would absolutely say the problem lies with you if you are willing to say that a female's attire is an excuse for sexual abuse and rape. You can try telling us you meant something else, but that is what you wrote.
In fact, trying to use that particular point was such an extraordinarily stupid decision we cannot help but wonder what is wrong with you.
But, to circle 'round, that's actually part of that one point. The "intelligent community"? The "science site"? Actually compelling you to get a point might require some of your detractors to put more effort into figuring out when and how you are completely full of shit; as it is, like I said
a couple years ago↗, you're one some folks think they can take in a fight. A community given to rational discourse has no real obligation to endure your manner of provocative insincerity, which, in turn―... yeah, Jan, you're an example of what we traded the "intelligent community" for. And whatever people think of those results, they have every reason to have even less confidence in you.
Try it this way: If we rewind to
#1454↑, in re
#1452↑, which we follow back through the drama to your post at
#1423↑, yes—(
"I dropped links where in some parts of the world men's persecution of witchcraft outnumbered the women's. Why was that if it was misogynistic?")—that, again, was an extraordinarily stupid decision. People disdain your behavior, Jan, because it reeks of bad faith. And, let's face it, nigh on twenty years in, people are accustomed to not expecting any better.
What makes you think she is performing?
History.
(I know she's smarter than that.)
Meanwhile, 'tis also true it probably is a little more obscure, and thus not something others are necessarily explicitly aware of, just how poorly I regard you, Jan. Some things, one way or another, are best left unsaid. But those who might think my whipping idol critique goes too easy on you should observe that within that framework you're nothing more than other people's pathetic excuse. Y'know. Just, for instance.