The Religion-Free Zone

Either God wants to abolish evil and cannot, or he can but does not want to.
Is God willing to prevent evil but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

--Epicurus (341-270 BCE)

"As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated,
but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice."

--Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), a good example of religious perversion, Munich, April 12, 1922

This is a community for those who consider religion one of the biggest blights on the face of human history. We don't hate the religious, just what religion has done to them (and everyone else). Hate the religion, love the religious.

This community exists to discuss anything and everything free of religious proselytising. That is the primary requirement of this community, though religious persons are welcome here. But over time some other requirements have arisen. These are rules, and must be followed.

Failure to follow these rules will be addressed on a case by case basis, with banning as a last resort. Everyone except obvious trolls will be given at least one warning. The goal here is not confrontation--it's freedom from religion. The Government of the United States was founded on the principle of freedom of religion, freedom of religious belief or non-belief. This community, however, is founded on the principle of freedom from religious belief, so there is no entitlement to proselytise here.


Antitheism General Declarations

We believe religion to be evil, and we wish to see it ended. But we will not commit evil to end it. Two wrongs do not make a right; a good end does not justify evil means.

This means no illegal behavior, criminality, or violation of Law will be tolerated in this community, whether directed at religious or non-religious persons or their property. Nor will advocacy of same.

This community does not have an official "topic". Nothing is "off-topic". There are two main reasons for this:

1. That we may say whatever we like about religion, free of religious influence. This may mean ranting, this may mean statistics, this may mean a book review, this may mean a news story about another religious atrocity. (They do still happen!)

2. That we may post about anything at all free of religious influence. The example that always comes to my mind is that of someone in crisis who needs to discuss it without receiving religious advice, but really that is only a most extreme example. Recently we had a post on UFOs, and it was nice to be able to discuss them scientifically.

So:

This community exists not only to rant about the evil that is religion, or to work out personal issues regarding religion, though one may do so freely here. As the paragraph at top states, the only restriction in this community of content that is legal elsewhere is that no religious proselytizing is allowed.

(Members tend to be united in opposition to organized religion but may discuss anything they wish free of religious influence. As such, feel no hesitation to post about anything you like.)

Bannings have been infrequent, but they have happened. From 2004 through 2008, they were all but yearly. In 2009, as we became more popular, some nuts came out of the woodwork, and we actually reached a record three bannings in one day on May 9, 2009. When I ban someone, I will record the banning in a public post, to be created ASAP. In this post I will announce and explain my action, for more than one reason:

1. Bannings are "teachable moments" to explain what is expected of all members.
2. Public posting resolves the mystery of a member's sudden disappearance.
3. Public posting provides notice of relief to members who suffered due to the former member.

I hope this helps.


Your Friendly Neighborhood Moderator

Creator (ouch!), maintainer, and moderator: Robert Peate (rpeate), rpeate@gmail.com (670) 285-0870, who from 2004 to 2005 wrote a play with which to challenge Christianity, and which he hoped would help to change the World for the better. By giving the World something to think about and discuss other than dogma, he hoped to effect positive change. As you can imagine, the play has so far gone noplace.

Emergency Moderator: the lovely springsign, my wife, robinpeate@gmail.com, who is a night owl available at all hours most nights. She does not watch the community, but at a moment's notice she can step in for surgical action if and when I am not available. Please only contact her after failing to reach me, and only in emergency cases.

NOTE: Membership was moderated from December 29, 2008, through February 23, 2009. Membership is again moderated as of May 13, 2009. These decisions were made due to invasion by ill-mannered brutes.

Regarding moderated membership: if your account is less than a month old, if you do not have any posts in your journal, or if you are not a member of any other communities, I might ask you to tell me a little about yourself before I approve your membership.


Antitheism Community Rules, Revised March 30, 2008

1. Proselytising: No promotion of religion will be allowed in this community, in any way, shape, or form. Religious persons are welcome, as long as they do not proselytize. There are numerous religious communities; this one is meant to be a haven for those who do NOT wish to be inundated with religion any more than we all already are every day.

2. Courtesy: Any topic under the Sun is fair game here, but I do ask that you keep it friendly, even (and perhaps especially) when you disagree. We can be antitheist liberals or conservatives, for example, I have learned. dancewithoutme puts this very well:

For example: do atheists have to believe in evolution? Is it impossible for atheists to be Republican in the year 2008 (or even political at all)? Etc. Etc.

Of course the answer to these questions is a definite "no" because one can decide not to believe for no reason, and the Republican party isn't all-inclusive with religion. And of course the only sure commonality is the rejection of a creator or intangible force that is the cause of existence.

My goal with this community is to focus on what unites us. I ask that you do the same, if you can. I ask that you maintain a modicum of cordiality, politeness, courtesy toward those with whom you may disagree, or take it elsewhere.

Stated more succinctly: insults and personal attacks against other participants in the community can and will get you banned. If you engage in hostilities with another person or persons in this community, whether that person is or those persons are theist or antitheist is irrelevant. You are doing the cause of Reason and the community harm, and you will be dealt with by me.

This includes dealing with the occasional theist who will come here not to troll but out of curiosity. This is a good thing. Every interaction with a theist is an opportunity both to influence his or her view and to make a good impression. Innocent, confused, or otherwise sincerely inquiring theists are welcome here, and I ask that you treat them as such. Abusing them does not promote our cause. Opposition to their beliefs does not justify treating them cruelly or meanly.

3. Deleting: You may delete your own posts, but you may not delete, disable, freeze, or screen the comments of others. The only time comments other than your own may go away is when a post goes away. All or nothing.

4. Trolls: Trolls, those who come to our community to spam us, attack us, or otherwise disrupt the community, will be dealt with by me; if you feel we suffer one, bring that to my attention privately, in case I fail to notice it myself in a timely manner.

As for judging them trolls, I ask that you err on the side of innocence until guilt is proved. If you're not sure, bring them to my attention and I will investigate. That is my job as moderator, not yours. All you have to do is let me know and not engage in hostilities.

Calling someone a troll is considered a personal attack in this community. Why? Doing so is both an allegation of bad behavior and an insult of character. (For those who don't know, "trolling" is behavior designed to disrupt a community. This includes but may not be limited to nonsensical posts, spamming, antagonism, or verbal attacks on the community, its policies, or its leadership designed to disrupt the community.) Again: don't engage, report the person to me. If I deem him or her a troll, I will take care of it, don't worry. You are best off not engaging in hostilities.

On a related note: sometimes I am told, "So-and-so has done terrible things in another community, so you should ban him or her up front." I have never and will never ban someone for behavior outside the community. This is one reason trolls sometimes have fun here for a short time before being banned.

That said, behavior outside the community may be relevant if I am considering unbanning someone, for the obvious reason that no one may redeem him- or herself in a community from which he or she has been banned. I do believe in the possibility of rehabilitation, so, if you want to be unbanned, impress me with your good works elsewhere. I am always open to genuine remorse and change.

5. Intellectual Property: Copyrighted works may not be reproduced in their entirety in this community, out of respect for law and the copyright owners, who depend on sales and/or advertising dollars for their continued existence. If posting about an article, select a small part of the article for quotation. You may link to a full Internet article, of course, where it was meant to be read.

6. Posting Friends Only: Please make all posts public, unless you have some political need for secrecy, because we don't know who might be reading furtively, unable to admit his or her free-thinking in a hostile world. A friends-locked post requires membership to read, and membership could be dangerous for some. We owe it to those oppressed persons to make obtaining rational thought as easy as possible, by leaving our posts public for all to see. That said, if you find it risky to post publicly for some reason, it's okay with me. This is a delicate balance and requires a judgement call. I just ask that you not make posts "friends only" unless you feel you must. Anyone who flames our public posts will be dealt with. Thanks in advance.

Short version of this rule: unless you fear political persecution from family, friends, co-workers, or other associates, I ask that you make all posts public.

7. Posting Disturbing Imagery: If you're going to post (in an original post) images that might cause disturbance in members or bystanders, please place a warning before or in the LJ cut I think we all understand is necessary or desirable. If you're considering posting disturbing or otherwise NSFW imagery in comments, please don't.


Entertainment

By subweird:




Some key quotations from members:

" . . . For me, the idea that all these beautiful and wonderful things are products of chance and time and the forces of nature, and that the fact they even exist is against all probable odds, like an intricate and complex dance performed on the edge of a void, is incredibly more appealing than the idea of some childish dictator in the sky making it all out of dirt."

--mole_goddess, September 20, 2006

"To me, religion is like a spiritual used car lot, with hucksters selling bills of goods to suckers right and left. No, thanks."

--sunfell, October 16, 2006

"I remain underwhelmed by religious claims of relevancy to anything."

--rakehell, April 8, 2007

"Well, the Abrahamic religions are pretty much just BDSM relationships where one partner is invisible (made up). They love God because He has absolute control over their lives and fates, He can reward them or make them suffer, and if they don't worship Him correctly he'll whup their asses."

--mole_goddess, July 28, 2007

"I am of the opinion that religion is the single greatest threat to the continued existence of the human species."

--evil_genius, August 27, 2007

"I once knew a woman who would sincerely, honestly pray to God to help her if she couldn't open a pickle jar. Picture it: 'Lady, do you mind, I'm trying to run a universe here!' Talk about hen-pecked! At least Zeus only had Hera to nag him. Good old Yahweh has had millions of whiners hounding him for what, like 3,000 years now? I tell you, if there ever does turn out that there is a God, I expect it's the atheists who will go to heaven because we haven't been pestering the poor fellow for millennia."

--raven_moon, February 14, 2008

"My dissertation is on Church Crusade Propaganda during the thirteenth century in Europe (against those heretics and pagans), so I love insane propaganda examples. Everybody, Nazis and fundies included, just borrowed their propaganda outline from the Catholic Church, believe me."

--soup_of_the_dog, April 18, 2008

"If you do want to go around bashing religion, there's always this site. Otherwise, unless you intend to bring a lawyer along, you may want to go about your criticism carefully. Even polite criticism in the US is received with pitchfork-wielding bible thumpers."

--comanche_rider, April 29, 2008

"God's children believe that god has a plan for everyone. Although this includes holocaust victims as well as people who get crushed by world trade centers and swept away by giant tsunamis, the pastor will quickly remind us that bad things sometimes happen to good people because the lord works in mysterious ways, and then he will quickly change the subject back to the usual sales pitch about accepting the lordjesuschrist as your personal saviour in order to have eternal salvation. And then they'll pass the plate around so you can put some money in it, because even though god is all powerful, he still needs some money to do 'his work'."

--spoon_o_doom, June 11, 2008

"Also, let's not forget that the virgin Mary is yet another glaring example showing that abstinence doesn't work."

--rdmiller3, July 9, 2008

"I am glad I found this group. As someone who is still, sadly, intimidated by the social force of religion, and the anger it would have inspired in my grandparents toward me, it was a group like this which I needed to find to grow more bold in my Atheism and less intimidated by the idiocy and nonsense of the world which influences so many."

--sypher_2k3, July 17, 2008

"Even smart people are dumb."

--holyfilament, July 21, 2008

"There is only one good thing that can be said of the pope. She has got some pure FIERCE drag."

--jesus_h_biscuit, July 25, 2008

"When people say they'll pray for me, it always reminds me of that Carlin joke: why pray? If it goes your way, you praise God. If it doesn't, it's God's will. Well, if God's gonna do whatever the hell he wants anyway, what's the point of prayer?"

--marymusylisdead, September 11, 2008

"The symptoms of the faith virus bring them to their knees.
I'm immune to their spiritually-transmitted disease."

--granolademonic, September 13, 2008

"It seems to me that declaring that we're responsible for ourselves and to each other rather than some random supernatural entity is an essential first step to constructing a just society."

--pensivegargoyle, October 5, 2008

"Unfortunately, as I've been reminded many times, those born into a theistic view and without an acute sense of skepticism actually see a different reality than we do. Their acceptable authorities and causes are different from ours, as well as their instincts about the validity of (unfounded) belief. A much more profound change must take place before they can agree with us; their entire worldview must be torn down and rebuilt."

--rogerdr, October 9, 2008

" . . . I've just fucking had it with all of the religious idiots. There--I said it! Yes, I do really think that they are idiots!! Their belief system is just ludicrous! Why do I have to act like these unfounded, non-sensical beliefs are deserving of respect??? AUGH!!!!"

--figmint, October 22, 2008

"Any organized religion is about two things - abuse and force. They hunger for power, and controlling sexuality is a great way to control people in general. If you can convince them that an invisible man in the sky wants you to stop having sex with whomever you wish, then you can convince them of many other things that the 'invisible man' - aka you - want them to do or stop doing. Thus, control."

--mlfoley, November 12, 2008

"Real Christians like being eaten by lions. The rest? Posers."

--rpeate, November 19, 2008

"Praying is ridiculous, full stop. What's more, it would be even more ridiculous if it would help because that would mean that god would only help people that others pray for and he will let the people that aren't prayed for rot."

--slacknote, December 14, 2008

"One time I was at the beach with my sister and some lady started rambling on to us about how 'Jesus is the Lord' or something, and I just gave her a dirty look and shook my head no. And she was like, 'Really? Who is god then?' And I was like, 'No one . . . ' and then walked off."

--itsnotfairlaika, January 1, 2009

"As we learn how many other Earth-like planets there are, undoubtedly inhabited, our conceits will drop like a priest's pants for an altar boy."

--rpeate, March 18, 2009

"I'd feel sorry for any kid, Treacher-Collins or not, having to grow up brainwashed just like mummy! 'Yes, baby, God gave you no face but normal intelligence because of his wonderful mysterious plans!'"

--perdita_dream, March 18, 2009, on those who consider birth defects divine punishment

"Treasure your life and loved ones, because they aren't getting any divine protection."

--rpeate, April 18, 2009, after his mother-in-law was killed in an accident

" . . . It's equally possible that an afterlife can occur and that there's a flying two-headed neon-pink monkey in charge of Madagascar whose gaze gives me orgasms and whose fur has the power to cure polio."

--nealbailey, April 20, 2009

"I think the Christian promise of eternal life attracts a certain type of person who for some reason or another cannot accept the finality of death, so their beliefs promise them that it isn't really final. For us, it simply is final. We have had lots of practice with that, mulling it over for a lifetime and accepting it as reality."

--eracerhead, July 20, 2009

" . . . Even the slightest hint that I'm not religious will get me disowned."

--anonymous by my choice, July 26, 2009

" . . . We need neither God or Hell to motivate us to be good; we know why we should be good people already."

--_53, first written in 2008, posted to the community on October 2, 2009

"No one has ever said science provides certainty. When I was in high school, I was told that science provides reasonable assumptions that are constantly being refined, that theories are used until they fail, that they are then replaced by new theories, in an ever-improving process. What science tells us now is merely the culmination of everything we've learned up to now being refined to take everything into account--which it does until someone comes up with a better theory. Religion, on the other hand, tells us the absolute assertions of ancient shepherds. How anyone can equate the two is beyond me."

--rpeate, October 6, 2009

"Religious belief is like mosaic art. Individual observations are fit into a preconceived image like bits of broken tile making pictures of people and animals. Science works the opposite way. Science is about fitting the edges together according to their actual fit, like a puzzle, in order to find out what pictures they will make."

--rdmiller3, October 27, 2009

"If God is greater than reason, then he could certainly manage to make sense if he wanted to. Apparently, God doesn't want reasonable people to believe in him."

--rdmiller3, August 8, 2010

"I’ve read the Bible several times and studied it carefully. There is a lot of very nasty stuff in there. In its pages you will find violence and hatred and immorality and genocide and treachery and incest and human sacrifice. What you will not find are directions for creating a peaceful, just, and loving society."

--bill_sheehan, December 26, 2010

"The Savior, it is said, was hanged between two thieves. It seems he's still keeping the same company."

--bill_sheehan, January 22, 2011

"What are some classic jerk traits? (Lying, being a hypocrite, a bigot, a thief, or a drama queen, etc.)
Let's start with being a hypocrite. In Luke 6:26 we have Jesus telling us to love our enemies, do good to those who curse you, in Mark 16:15-16 we have him saying pretty much the opposite.
(For more WTF hypocrisy see: Matthew 5:16 vs. Matthew 6:1, John 14:27 vs. Matthew 10:34, 2 Kings 2:11 vs. John 3:13...etc, etc.)
In Matthew 15:22-26 we find traits of a bigot.
In Mark 11:1-3 we find workings of a thief and a smooth talking con-artist!
(for thievery, see also: Matthew 8:28-34)
Jesus being a melodramatic drama queen found here: Matthew 18:7-9.
(More Jesus-like douchery: Mark 11:15-16, Mark 11:12-14)"

--hollynoats, June 30, 2011

And helping us to rebut the "antitheists are humorless" fallacy on a daily basis is our official community comedian, vaelynphi.


Truth Studies

http://www.400monkeys.com/God/
http://www.positiveatheism.org
http://ffrf.org/index.php
http://www.theocracywatch.org
http://www.skeptic.com
http://www.atheist-experience.com
http://www.landoverbaptist.org
http://www.bettybowers.com
http://www.xenu.net
No, I'm Not a Christian -- Not Anymore!, by James Buckner
http://www.rationalresponders.com/


Fiction Studies

http://www.12apostlesofthecatholicchurch.com/
http://www.apostles.com
http://bible.cc/
http://www.godhatesfags.com
http://www.scientology.org

Please feel free to recommend sites for inclusion here, in both categories!


Other Communities of Interest

a_toon (Seriously funny!)
agnosticism
atheism
dark_christian


The Shrine to Stupidity (added March 24, 2008)

"I'm leaving this community of reprobates and hardcore atheists.
. . . I DO have a problem with you insulting the intelligence of a person who wants an honest and serious debate and gets a load of blasphemy in return."
--lady_pilgrim, honorary community Ignoramus at Arm's Length


Just for the Road, One More Quotation

"Religion is an insult to human dignity.
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things.
But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

--Steven Weinberg