Texas on the front lines in a religious war on history?

[skepticscott]

17. Fail on all counts...typical

It seems to me that the argument at hand is about the issue of using ridicule as sound method of debate, not about me ridiculing anyone, or that the earth could be 6000 years old.

Uh, no...the argument at hand concerns claims that are so far out of line with demonstrated fact (and have been shown to be so more times than can be counted, so that a "defense of your own ideas" is ludicrously redundant) that they don't even warrant being "debated" with the evidence available, and whether such claims are unworthy of ridicule. (they are very worthy of it). And you're the one who tried to make the idea of you ridiculing someone part of the argument: "So then it's OK to openly ridicule certain views held by some atheists that I or others consider to be ridiculous?"

Bottom line: I do not nor ever have I claimed objective empirical evidence for the existence of deity. And I dare say that you cannot provide any evidence to the contrary. Unless of course, you design and define deity according to your own terms, therefore enabling you to disprove the idea that you yourself have created, which is your constant giant red herring argument.

No one in this thread claimed you did, so there's your red herring. And BTW, everyone here is on to your dodge of now calling any question you're afraid or unable to answer a "red herring". It ain't working.

And as far as ideas "that are as ridiculous" - just by what standard do you gauge the degree of how ridiculous something is?

Probably in a similar fashion to the way you gauge the degree of how "oppressive", "potentially harmful", and "extremist" something is as compared to something else.