I have a problem with a Religion host

[TM99]

477. I am not ignoring you

hence our continued conversation on this.

I am simple in my communications. I could have gone on with more examples and enough were given to make my point. And as I have said repeatedly, there is lot of wood to burn. Saying "I see you are working on improving the tone in this group" could be construed to have multiple connotations as well, couldn't it?

This is the Religion forum. The keyword is religion. It is a place to discuss religion. It is not a safe haven so anyone with a beef against religion is able to come in and express that disgust, rancor, and their own personal issues. They don't have to post here. There are actual safe-havens where they can vent no matter how venomously without worry of recourse.

They choose to post here. They seem to derive great pleasure in acting the way they do. Some emotional need is being fulfilled. And as long as they continue to do so, then there will be those like myself who will point out the very real differences between the individuals in question and other non-believers in their attitudes, their posting habits, and their interaction with other non-believers and believers alike.

It may be difficult in a Religion forum to see the same actions I am seeing from select anti-theists, however, I have no problem in stating bluntly that if I saw or see the same kind of behavior against all non-believers as a group as these toxic anti-theists portray with the religious, I will communicate as harshly as I am now with those individual believers.

I can think of several members that I have conversed with who are also atheists and agnostics. They are able to express concerns, fears, misgivings, personal problems from their pasts with regards to religion (especially of the more fundamentalist flavor) etc. without resorting to name calling (religionistas, apologists, etc.), without having to equate mental illness with all religions, without having to make jokes at believers expense, without having to call believer's deity 'psychotic', without the constant need to 'debunk', etc. etc. etc.

Where are the individual believers constantly making posts full of dark humor at the expense of atheists' beliefs? Where are the individual believers constantly equating immorality with atheism? Where are the individual believers calling all atheists by derisive and insulting names? Where are the believers constantly having to debunk atheism? And when in the history of DU, has Admin had to warn the believers as a group to stop saying such things?

This isn't ultimately about believers or non-believers at DU. This is about a toxic few individuals who bully and belittle, convincing others that it is discourse or reason. It is neither.

It is not about perspective either. I am an ignostic. I have experienced all the same things. I have been called a sinner and a devil worshiper. I have been told I will go to hell. I have been told I can't possibly be a moral or ethical person without a belief in god. You don't think it was ever noticed that I never met with a chaplain or attended any type of worship services while in the military? I may not have grown up in a repressive religious household (thankfully!) but I did grow up in the mountains of Western North Carolina within spitting distance of the PTL Club.

And I have been around some amazing men and women who were in a variety of different religions. I had a psychology supervisor who was like a father to me, and besides being a psychiatrist, a Reichian analyst, and a clinical sexologist, he was also a Lutheran minister. I have spent 30 odd years around countless Buddhists - a religion without the need for god or gods. As a college student I worked with a Jew and an Anglican as activists to sponsor an AIDS symposium, the first of its kind at our campus, during the dark early days of AIDS in the 1980's. I have seen both the good and the bad sides of numerous religions. The common denominator is not belief or disbelief, it is the character and personality of the men and women alone.

I can handle anyone's pain and past hurts. I have devoted my professional life to helping many heal those wounds. But this is not the therapy office nor is it a group therapy session. DU has been likened to being more like a bar. And if the owners won't kick such toxic people to the street, then some of us will stand up to it as we each can for as long as we feel necessary. Sometimes I will ignore and other times I will try and converse. Perhaps it is a personal flaw of mine, and I have never been able to tolerate bullying behavior or toxic individuals. I have and will fight it.

I have played ruby in college. Whether scrumming in the mud and snow or sitting in the fire as I have used as a metaphor, the difference between those and toxicity should be apparent. I have gotten harsh and definitely bitten back when provoked. I have also owned up to making mistakes when my communication crossed a line. I don't have a history on these boards in any forum of being toxic in the majority of my replies or posts with regards to any one specific or particular group like these anti-theists do.