Atheist Forum

Hi I just want people's opinions from my experiences in richard dawkins chatroom.
For people that do not know, richard dawkins is the author of 'The God Delusion'.
I think that is the most incredible book ever, but that the chat doesn't live up to its standard.

I was on there once and a religious person was kicked off simply for the reason of being religious and saying why. I defended him and it all calmed down eventually and he came back.

But today, this happened again. Bearing in mind, the mod that did this had been calling someone a dick earlier.
The mod asked them a question and gave them 2 warnings for not answering. The person was called "fundie" and they did not know he was religious, but disliked the name. Fundie apologised as he had lag. Fundie was then kicked soon after he said he was a christian, apparently for abuse, while everyone was shouting abuse at him, and they received nothing. Also, Fundie was new and had no idea what was going on.

I said that it was unfair, to kick someone just for their religious beliefs. The mod said that they couln't be bothered to talk to a religious person because they didn't want a religious debate. I said that it wouldn't be a good reason to kick someone, just because of their beliefs. I was kicked, came back and asked why I was kicked. Another mod said for questioning a mod. I said ok, I was going to look for a different place where people were tolerated. I was kicked again.

I want to know 2 things then from you lot:
1. Do you think this was fair of the mods, or unfair?
2. Do you tolerate people's beliefs? That does not mean respect they do not deserve. It simply means, do you delete posts for someone questioning your beliefs? I don't want another find like that chat.

It's no wonder you have many religious people. They take one look at the atheist forum and receive abuse. No-one would ever want to be an atheist if that's the only contact they'd had with them.
Until the richard-dawkins-chat-atheists stop being so arrogant, we're gonna get no-where.

*atheist chat i meant not forum

I can't seem to be able to edit it.

Richard Dawkins is a great writer. I'm not so sure if I'd say the same about him as a person. Same thing applies to his followers.

For someone who is supposed to be a professor for "the public understanding of science", I don't think he really understands the public that well.

The debates I have seen him in, he has presented a good case, but refuses to see anything from the opposit side. His books are much the same but ,I must stress, they are superbly writen.

I doubt very much he refuses to see anything from the other side, mainly because there is nothing to show. When it comes to God, there is nothing to present as evidence, and when it comes to I.D, there is nothing either.

I could present some arguments for the existence of God if you like, althought they're logical arguments, rather than scientific arguments.

So you admit that there is no scientific reason for God? Or you just haven't managed to find any scientific evidence for God yet?

I think I've heard every single "logical" argument for God in the book, but it is flawed logic based on assumptions and lack of human knowledge. Every logical argument I have heard can easily be debunked.

I think this is totally unfair! I think a big part of atheism as a wolrd view is the fact that it is or should be very liberal. If we start doing what religious people are doing such as kicking people out of chat-rooms we are not going to 'raise conciousness' as Richard Dawkins was trying to do with his books. No agnostic who has some religious convictions is going to want be a part our community. I have noticed this trend of serious discrimination against religious people in many different atheist forums and I think it is wrong.

Mostly it happens like this: An atheist and a theist would be debating bringing up good points and then some idiot new to the site would just jump straight in and abuse and offend the theist. I did that when I first started on Atheist sites and just felt like a knobend after I realised what I had done. I think Richard Dawkins would say 'Let's sit down and talk about it' but abuse isn't talking.

To answer your second question is CERTAINLY. We have to. If we don't tolerate those beliefs then we will become everything we are trying to oppose in the first place.

It ALMOST happened again.

There was a theist discussing with me (no-one else was) about whether there would be as many massacres without religion. It was a completely open-minded unbiased discussion, with both of us willing to change our minds, and indeed doing so.

Then a mod started name-calling. This was the same mod as before. The second mod (the same as before as well) came into the chat, and was different from last time: he told the atheist mod off instead of the theist

I do get annoyed because I would call these people without open minds that are atheists "religious atheists". I think that people should only be atheists, because we think and realise thats that what the evidence points to. We should be willing to change our minds if the evidence changes, and we should keep our eyes open and not shut them when someone of a different opinion comes in.

By the way, there are some mods that I don't think would have acted that way.