New Interfaith Group

[skepticscott]

After much discussion last year, the new safe haven group for religionists has been started, apparently intended to be more inclusive than the current Christian Liberals and Progressive People of Faith.

Be interesting to see if this one gets more traffic, and any meaningful discussions.

[trotsky]

1. Well, it's been announced with expected holier-than-thou fanfare.

No surprise there.

[Rob H.]

3. Yep

I loved the irony of mentioning "repercussions for uncivil behavior" when there are at least two hosts in The Group That Must Not Be Named who regularly participate in the atheist-bashing and rarely call anyone else on it, either. Classy.

[trotsky]

4. I wonder what repercussions someone might face in the new group for saying things like

"WOW!! 1976. You couldn't find any more recent dirt?" in response to someone unresolved questions in a religious leader's past.

Or posting a picture of a box of Kleenex when someone says they weep for humanity.

Nice and civil.

[skepticscott]

5. My suspicion is

that the new group will be SO "civil" that, after the novelty wears off, they will find it rather boring to do nothing but tell each other how wonderful each other's faith is, and how much everyone respects everyone else's beliefs. Deep down, I think the people who started the new group like a good argument as much as anyone, and I'm guessing that in a few months, the group will be no busier than the current Christian Liberals and PPF.

We'll just have to see.

[trotsky]

6. I strongly suspect your prediction will come true.

In my experience, only right-wingers like echo chambers. Look in our group here - we've had plenty of contentious threads and disagreements and we get the fuck over it.

The biggest arguments in Religion always seem to come when believers are put in the position of having to defend beliefs and religious practices (even those that aren't their own). They aren't accustomed to it, they don't like it, and they resent and personally attack those doing the questioning. Thus atheists are demonized as the problem, and the solution to creating a "civil" place for discussion (or as you so aptly put it, a place to tell each other how wonderful their faith is) is to get rid of the non-believers.

Problem is, some of the least civil and most intolerant people in that group have been theists. Should be interesting.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. To quote a conentious article of on the religious left...

... "Kumbayah is not a story."

They may play in the little sandbox a bit, I'll bet dollars to donuts the same people crying about "incivility" will still find the time to flame atheists in the religion forum.

[A HERETIC I AM]

2. I had the distinct pleasure (honor?) of putting up the first thread!

And that will be the last post I'll put up in there.


Most likely, anyway.

[progressoid]

14. That was nice.

I doubt I will visit it either.

Although if it shows up on the greatest page, I may respond to something. That could be a problem since sometimes I'll post something without realizing what forum it is and piss people off.

[A HERETIC I AM]

15. Thanks.

I kind of felt a wee naughty doing that, to be honest! I saw the thread in the ATA forum and Skinner said the group had been created at 11AM on Thursday.

I was actually surprised that by almost a quarter to 11 that evening, no one had put anything up!

So I did.

I figured a nice message from the ol' Heretic I Am would be ...well....funny, if nothing else, insofar as an Atheist would put up a blessing as the first thread.

I really have no desire to post in there. You can see how little I post in THIS group. I, like many I suppose, have had all these arguments before, so many times in so many forums and formats it has gotten tedious over the years. And I'm not talking about just DU either, but long before DU was even a twinkle in David Alsops eye.

Once in a while a post or thread comes up in one forum or another on DU that I feel compelled to participate in, but at the end, it is always the same. Me telling someone who is convinced of something that they have it wrong, and them telling me the same thing. It's gotten old.

Hell, I had long thought about putting up a thread in here - sort of a "Here's where I stand, here's how I got here and why" sort of thing, but I thought it would be entirely superfluous. Nobody needs to suffer through yet another treatise on "How I became an Atheist", to be sure.

I have a good, solid grasp on how religion entered the human experience and how it has commandeered the critical thinking processes of most humans. I don't expect I will EVER convert one single solitary fervent believer, no matter how hard I might like to try.

So I'll just leave them be.

[ZombieHorde]

26. I liked your post. I thought it was nice. nt

[mr blur]

7. Be interesting to see which particular faith becomes "first among equals".

Though, perhaps, not a surprise.

[skepticscott]

19. It's also interesting to see them

admit to things that they would never openly acknowledge in Religion. Many of them would rather avoid speaking what they know to be true, rather than see an atheist proven right.

[Curmudgeoness]

8. I have no desire to intrude on their safe haven.

I wish that they felt the same way about ours.

I would ask why this group was even needed, since there are groups that seem to fill that same niche, but I know that there are no answers.

[Gore1FL]

12. They wanted a "Religion" forum except without non-believers posting.

whatever keeps them safe.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

9. I honestly don't care if it gets traffic or meaningful discussions

It's their sandbox, they can play in it how they want (or not play in it at all).

[skepticscott]

11. At the very least

It will leave no more room for complaints in Religion about how the mean ol' atheists hijack all of those Serious Discussions that the religionists try to have about Serious Theology and issues of Deep and Abiding Faith. Now they'll actually have to have them.

[uriel1972]

13. May they schism and schism and schism away to nothing nt

[skepticscott]

16. Somehow, I don't think that will happen

I think it's more likely that it will simply come to not be very active, just like the current such group has not been for years.

This recent comment there pretty much sums things up: If you're hurting anyone's feelings with your comments, this just isn't the place for that kind of thing.

Frankly, there's only so much that can be said and so much that can be accomplished only saying things that offend absolutely no one.

[Ron Obvious]

17. "Serious discussions"

My local NPR station ran promos for some show called "The Three Interfaith Amigos", in which a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim don't walk into a bar but have "serious discussions" on Heaven and Hell apparently. I don't get it. I mean, what's the point?

Either:

A: I believe X on faith
B: Hey me too!

Or:

A: I believe X on faith
B: MY faith tells me something different. How very interesting your faith is! ("Die, Heretic!&quot

[skepticscott]

18. Well, the people who SAY they want to have "serious discussions"

refuse to acknowledge that everyone can't be right on all matters of belief. They have to undergo serious cognitive dissonance in order to have the kind of fuzzy-wuzzy conversations they need.

[dimbear]

20. I think it will work out just great. For any really serious discussion, first pick out the folks

who are best informed and then exclude them.

[awoke_in_2003]

21. i dont mind them having a safe haven...

as long as ours remains. Let them all huddle around and wax poetic on the greatness of their sky daddy. When they fuck with us here I will get pissed.

[skepticscott]

22. I don't think anyone minds

them having a safe haven. Especially since they've been complaining so much about not having one (even though they kinda did). The question is what they'll actually do with it once the newness wears off, and whether they'll start to feel persecuted in their little enclave.

[awoke_in_2003]

23. Of course they will...

they are the poor, persecuted majority.

[skepticscott]

24. And wow

The OP announcing the new group has already been scrubbed, to lock down any more comments...

[EvolveOrConvolve]

25. Yep, I think it was getting a little hot in the kitchen

Gotta control the narrative, you know?

[trotsky]

27. Bwah ha ha

Exactly. Someone got a good taste of their own medicine, and found it oh-so-bitter.

[Evoman]

28. Ha. In a couple of weeks, no one will be posting there.

The truth is, fighting threads always have the most replies. Because everyone agreeing is boring....either the thread will have a bunch of +1 or nothing at all.

Unless there is some sort of disagreement, then there is almost no reason to post. Supposedly, people can disagree but have to do it in a "civil" manner....the problem is, with religion, ANY disagreement is considered uncivil. So either you don't argue, or you all agree and play your little game of grabass for a few days before it gets old.

I don't hope that it fails. I hope that religious people get everything they want from their new group. I just doubt they will.