Governments turn up the heat on atheists: report

[yortsed snacilbuper]

Amid a global decline in religious belief, some governments are stepping up efforts to portray atheists and secularists as a danger to society and even as terrorists, according to a report issued on Wednesday.

http://news.yahoo.com/governments-turn-heat-atheists-report-000649423.html

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, we're harder to control than churchgoing people

who can be told they'll go to hell if they speak out about injustice. And they believe it.

[Cartoonist]

2. I'm glad I don't live there.

13 states, all of them Muslim, had made apostasy or blasphemy against religion a capital offense.
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In some countries – like Russia, where communist ideology has been replaced by Orthodox Christianity which dominated before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution – any public expression of atheist views can be equated with blasphemy and criminalized.
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Meet the new boss.

The two quotes from the article show there is no real difference among religions.

[trotsky]

3. Well, take a look at DU.

Some of the most vocal and self-righteous individuals think that outspoken atheists are just as bad as fundamentalists who kill people.

[edhopper]

4. You mean they are talking about

those militant, fundamentalist, anti-theists?

[trotsky]

5. Correct!

You know, the ones like Richard Dawkins!

[RussBLib]

6. I have to say...

and you have probably heard this before...but some of the comments and "attacks" that several of you are getting from the theists are, in some ways, brought on by your own attacks on the theists.

I rarely go into the R room, but on the few occasions I have, I have seen some of you here being pretty mean and rude to the people in the other room. Not always, but backlash is predictable. I think you are bringing some of it on yourselves.

I understand the impulse to tweak the theists, but we atheists do not have a monopoly on the truth. I would hope that everyone would exercise a bit more tact in this particular environment. What do we expect to happen when we whack a hornet's nest?

Slam me if you like, and I may be wrong, as I have not been in this group for all that long, but that's my impression, FWIW, which ain't much.

[trotsky]

7. Oh undoubtedly.

There's been a long history here of nasty behavior, there are no clean hands. But the people who are pretending their hands are clean are some of the worst poo-flingers, and also the most subversive by trying to equate Dawkins with a religious fundie proposing death to infidels, for instance.

What it often comes down to is not the claim of a "monopoly on the truth," but the ability to recognize that some claims are more truthful, more valid than others. See Asimov's brilliant essay The Relativity of Wrong for a great explanation of this.

But I just want to say I appreciate that we can have these kinds of open discussions about tactics and behavior, whereas that kind of reflective analysis doesn't often happen elsewhere. I don't mind anyone pointing out issues they have with my posts or posting style.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. Although you are right

about the way some atheists seem to ask for attacks by the things that they post in the other group, this has not been a one-sided attack. There is a lot of history behind the problems that some posters have with other posters. The "offenders" could "turn the other cheek" every time that they have been demeaned or had mean and rude comments made to them, but few people are at the level of tolerance that this requires.

That door swings both ways, and unfortunately, it seems too late to stop the madness. Neither side seems willing to be civil to the other, and it feeds on itself. It is a game of "be nicer" then "you first", no "you first".

But you are not wrong that there is a lot of animosity shown---by both sides of the issues.

[Arugula Latte]

9. If they'll believe a dude from Mecca is the prophet of the omnipotent ruler of the universe

or a carpenter zombie from Roman-controlled Judea is going to come back to save mankind, they'll believe anything the government has to say.