There are those who honestly believe this.

If You Use Condoms You Will Not Be Raptured | Unreasonable Faith

Contraceptives are lies from Satan! Repent your human ways!

I love his “jacket microphone”.

Foreign policies be damned ? I fear for humanity if this woman gets elected.

(via willyb) (via Information is Beautiful)

I, for one, am having a fantastic apocalypse party on 12-21-12, how about you?

Tolerance and Toxicity

godisnotgreat:

Tolerance and Toxicity: By Astreja, Image by marcn via Flickr

Where do we draw the line between tolerating or attacking someone else’s weird ideas?

I ask this because, over the last year or so, I’ve become bored with the usual whack-a-troll slugfests here at ExChristian.Net. My weapon of choice, the Clue-By-Four™ (a rune-inscribed virtual cudgel, lovingly crafted from the very finest invisible oak), is staying under the desk most of the time as I struggle to actually communicate with evangelically-minded visitors.

I don’t have an enormous problem with Universalist Christians, the believers who think that everyone is already saved and that no one is going to Hell. I find their beliefs silly, but mostly harmless.

In a similar vein, I respect the many fine folks whose beliefs inspire them to work in the community, feeding and clothing the destitute among us.

But oh! those pesky trolls.

I simply can’t respect someone who comes here to tell us we’re evil… So evil, in fact, that their loving god is obligated to torture us for eternity.

Even though their all-powerful buddy “can’t be in the presence of sin.” (What’s up with that, anyway?)

And I can’t respect someone who tells us to say the Sinner’s Prayer in order to save ourselves from the wrath of their maniacal invisible friend.

I find it ironic that the same people who say “We can’t understand God’s will” also present themselves as official True Christian™ spokespeople for this poor, misunderstood omnipotent being.

And I never did grok that “innocent god-man died to erase your crimes” business. From where I sit, that doesn’t look particularly moral, or desirable, or even possible.

But the Rapture nuts are the very worst of the worst. These are people who are actually looking forward to the end of the world.

There are some things that can be tolerated… And some things that are toxic and should absolutely not be tolerated.

I think I’ll hang onto that Clue-By-Four™ a little bit longer. They are the poster children for mass insanity. Their delusion has the potential to endanger our very lives.

It’s a good question Astreja brings up here: “How far do we go with our criticisms?” When it comes to questioning, is anything too far, so long as it’s not offensively filled with expletives or the same level of crazy that we espouse against?

I hold the position that most criticisms are open targets for atheists, so long as it has a purpose. For me, those purposes are often the denouncement of behaviors, “morals”, and actions which I find damaging to society and humanity in general.

Astreja’s acceptance of Universalist Christians is harmless, and promoting charity regardless of the source is to be welcomed, but as soon as those groups start denouncing medical research and actively minimizing human rights (which seems especially prevalent in the US, though I haven’t experience with the politics of other countries), I feel as if the kid gloves should come off. Don’t make an ass of yourself if you can help it, but don’t let those things stand which, as Astreja said, “are toxic and should absolutely not be tolerated.”