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The problem really isn't that children couldn't opt out or anything like that, they were not forced (or most of them were not forced).

The problem is that by having a dedicated prayer time, the religion was endorsed by the school acting as part of the state.

Students having to participate or being able to opt out is mostly a non-factor, it's the endorsement of the activity itself that is the problem.

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

I was raised as a Catholic, and we said "grace" (prayed) before meals.

I don't know if its a universal Christian practice, but IME it's a very common one.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

They can, but it is not required by the new testament. Hence why I called christians praying brownie points, because they don't have to but if they do they might be seen in a better light.

 Ustrello wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

They can, but it is not required by the new testament. Hence why I called christians praying brownie points, because they don't have to but if they do they might be seen in a better light.

As a kid we got in trouble saying prayers loudly unless it was a group prayer. Otherwise we said it silently to ourselves because it was meant to be personal. So for me growing up prayer was never a public thing, most kids did not even notice. I would hardly call it brownie points.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Ustrello wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

They can, but it is not required by the new testament. Hence why I called christians praying brownie points, because they don't have to but if they do they might be seen in a better light.

As a kid we got in trouble saying prayers loudly unless it was a group prayer. Otherwise we said it silently to ourselves because it was meant to be personal. So for me growing up prayer was never a public thing, most kids did not even notice. I would hardly call it brownie points.

And then you see those crazy mega church things and I think "have you even read the bible?"

Well that is what is it basically. When you do things you are not required to do, you sometimes get viewed in a more favorable light.

I remember being in a school where everyone was christian, the school teams were themed around it, and it was a weird situation growing up. It's still like that in my hometown, as it's only been a few years. No this wasn't private school before you say it, we're talking about a public school. This stuff happens more than it should. (Luckily once in HS the school got in trouble and the faith tidbits were broken into after school clubs and totally avoidable if you ignored them.)

It makes me sad that the teachers aren't encouraging a young child to make his or her's own decisions. It's like when my teachers and my grandparents would smack my hand for writing with my left hand or questioning the things they taught. (This was the late nineties, so shouldn't of happened at all.) Then aagaaaain, I live in a place that is like the movie deliverance so that shouldn't have any bearing on this thread.

I agree the school in the op should be sued if they don't fire the staff responsible.

 Ustrello wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Ustrello wrote:
Prayer is not required by christianity, so offering a prayer is promoting christianity.

It is required. A Christian is meant to pray before every meal and whenever they feel the need to pray for help. They also pray before every service and after every service (which is not related). I know, I was raised one.

So if a school did a prayer before eating lunch (as required) then had an opt out feature it is simply allowing children to practice their religion.

Can you quote me some scripture on that? Because I have check and its not there.

That's more of a baptist thing I think though a lot of other Christian/Catholics do it too, I have read the scripture and I do not see that in their either but, I have encountered it a lot.

I think the "prayer before eating" thing is just a tradition, rather than an actual requirement.

It has just been around long enough that in some sects it has become part of the religion, rather than just something you can do to make sure the big man knows you're thankful for having some food.

 welshhoppo wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Ustrello wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

They can, but it is not required by the new testament. Hence why I called christians praying brownie points, because they don't have to but if they do they might be seen in a better light.

As a kid we got in trouble saying prayers loudly unless it was a group prayer. Otherwise we said it silently to ourselves because it was meant to be personal. So for me growing up prayer was never a public thing, most kids did not even notice. I would hardly call it brownie points.

And then you see those crazy mega church things and I think "have you even read the bible?"

Yea I noticed myself saying that a lot growing up too. Like using the cross as a symbol of worship was the one thing that got me the most. It's one of those clear things you are not supposed to do. But then it hit me after going preaching that people see so many different things in that book. Some see things in there to validate their actions and the list goes on. Sometimes it puzzles me what other people think they see in the bible. One guy came once to a service and said that the bible predicted a political event that happened. He had never been to a church before, he just randomly came. When he showed the passage I saw nothing to support his claim. Of course I said nothing as the elder or someone baptized was nearby who was more educated on the matter could step in. But it is odd what some people can find in the bible.

 jasper76 wrote:
The problem is, the United States is a secular nation with a plurality of religious backgrounds. Religious history is fine in schools, but any material that promotes a particular religion really has no place in our school public school system. And fortunately for religious minorities such as atheists, it is also unconstitutional.

Thank Dog

You heard the one about the insomniac, agnostic, dyslexic?

He stayed awake all night wondering if there is a Dog...

Badum dum. Thank you thank you. I'll be here all week. Tip your waitress and don't drink and drive.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.
If a teacher is allowed to say invisible men in the sky are real, using a the bible as "proof", I should be able to teach that Spiderman is real, using Spiderman comics as proof.

Enlighten me sir, guide me to the light! My mind is not empty like the sheeple around me, how am I to gain this enlightenment you have obtained over the masses?

Well, if you consider for a moment that there are what... 2 billion or so followers of Islam, around 2 billion followers of various forms of Christianity, and several million followers of Judaism, plus around a billion Buddhists (obviously, these are very rough numbers here)

And ALL of them (except the Buddhists) say, "Our way is the only way to 'heaven', all the others are false and will lead you to eternal damnation" And even then, you get Baptists saying, "if you're Catholic, or Mormon, you're not a REAL Christian, and you're going to hell" and then you get the Catholics saying, "those Lutherans, Baptists and Mormons... all going to hell" and then the Mormons saying, "we're Christians too!!!" And then you get the Klan members, or the Westboro people all saying, "what we believe in is the RIGHT way!!!"

How is it that, if you are one of 2 billion followers of a religion, that 5 billion people are wrong? Especially when those 5 billion other people tend to believe that THEIR religion is the right one, and it is YOU that is wrong.


Yeah... I don't very much respect religion any more.



To the OP: I think that the original teacher should be fired for sure, with the second adult involved possibly being fired as well. Especially since it is a PUBLIC school, not a private, Christian school.

That said, there IS a place for religion in school, and that is in a "World Religions" course wherein a teacher instructs students on the beliefs of various systems without holding judgement over them. Which is better taught by someone who practices no religion, or can clearly demonstrate an adherence to the separation of church and state.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Swastakowey wrote:

Yea I noticed myself saying that a lot growing up too. Like using the cross as a symbol of worship was the one thing that got me the most. It's one of those clear things you are not supposed to do.

That argument has been had since the earliest days of Arianism, and caused the split between what is now known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

What is it with kids bursting into tears when a classmate tells them they don't share their belief in God? Makes you wonder what things they've been told at home that makes this so tragic for them, probably something like 'well if little Timmy at school doesn't believe in God he'll just burn in hell'.

The way the teacher handled this was terrible. But this is what happens when people get self-righteous about religion or politics, it can override professional judgment. There's no way the child should have been punished for this let alone over several days. Isolation and humiliation are not ways to handle disagreements between children aged 7 FFS.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 jasper76 wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I'm fairly certain that the bible says that prayer should be a personal and private experience. You do it in your own time.


But what do I know, I'm an atheist.

.

That's what Jesus had to say about it. And I think he's the head honcho in Christianity.

But what do I know, I'm an atheist, too.

In the religion I grew up in prayer is something we did before every meal and before/after service plus the times we chose to do it ourselves.

Is this not the case for all Christians? I mean even on TV they pray before meals.

All christians pray before (and after) eating, but different groups do it different ways. generally, (Russian-)Orthodox prayer for example is much more ceremonial and ritualistic than Protestant prayer, which is often improvised while sitting at table. Also, Russian Orthodox often chant, rather than say prayers.

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.
If a teacher is allowed to say invisible men in the sky are real, using a the bible as "proof", I should be able to teach that Spiderman is real, using Spiderman comics as proof.

Enlighten me sir, guide me to the light! My mind is not empty like the sheeple around me, how am I to gain this enlightenment you have obtained over the masses?

Well, if you consider for a moment that there are what... 2 billion or so followers of Islam, around 2 billion followers of various forms of Christianity, and several million followers of Judaism, plus around a billion Buddhists (obviously, these are very rough numbers here)

And ALL of them (except the Buddhists) say, "Our way is the only way to 'heaven', all the others are false and will lead you to eternal damnation" And even then, you get Baptists saying, "if you're Catholic, or Mormon, you're not a REAL Christian, and you're going to hell" and then you get the Catholics saying, "those Lutherans, Baptists and Mormons... all going to hell" and then the Mormons saying, "we're Christians too!!!" And then you get the Klan members, or the Westboro people all saying, "what we believe in is the RIGHT way!!!"

How is it that, if you are one of 2 billion followers of a religion, that 5 billion people are wrong? Especially when those 5 billion other people tend to believe that THEIR religion is the right one, and it is YOU that is wrong.


Yeah... I don't very much respect religion any more.

And how are atheists any different in insisting that their way is the only correct one? It has nothing to do with religion specifically, you see the same in other things, it is just human nature to believe that "our way is best".
Also, not all christians believe their way is the only right way. Most modern christians believe that only faith in Christ is enough to receive His blessing, the details of how you worship being irrelevant, as long as your faith is good. Even non-Christians can be saved if they are good people, the Bible contains several examples.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Swastakowey wrote:

Yea I noticed myself saying that a lot growing up too. Like using the cross as a symbol of worship was the one thing that got me the most. It's one of those clear things you are not supposed to do.

That argument has been had since the earliest days of Arianism, and caused the split between what is now known as Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism.

iirc, the Great Schism was more of a power struggle between Rome and Constantinople based on whether one patriarch (the one of Rome) should have seniority over the other patriarchs or not. The actual doctrinal differences were rather small at that time and mostly served as an excuse.

 Iron_Captain wrote:
And how are atheists any different in insisting that their way is the only correct one? It has nothing to do with religion specifically, you see the same in other things, it is just human nature to believe that "our way is best".
Also, not all christians believe their way is the only right way. Most modern christians believe that only faith in Christ is enough to receive His blessing, the details of how you worship being irrelevant, as long as your faith is good. Even non-Christians can be saved if they are good people, the Bible contains several examples.

Atheists/Agnostics such as myself don't say, "our way is best"...... Sure, there are plenty of "militant atheists" as I call them, and they are certainly ones who do go out of their way to decry ALL religion as being evil, backwards thinking and that they are SOOOoooOOOoooo enlightened, and you should be more like their shining snowflake example.

Personally, I take what I said above... "What are the odds that ONE group is truly correct, and then there are 5-6 billion people who are 'wrong'... that don't sound right to me" But, as you said, "most modern Christians believe that only faith in Christ is enough...." that implies that Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists who don't believe in the salvation of Christ or have faith in him are still wrong. And that doesn't sit well with me.

I have heard recently that there's a "coalition" of Buddhists and Christians that meet up fairly regularly on the West Coast of the US, and have formed a sort of alliance, dealing with living good and avenues where the two ideologies intersect in everyday life.

iirc, the Great Schism was more of a power struggle between Rome and Constantinople based on whether one patriarch (the one of Rome) should have seniority over the other patriarchs or not. The actual doctrinal differences were rather small at that time and mostly served as an excuse.

My comment about Arianism was dealing more in the general sense, that "Christians" have been disagreeing with one another, ESPECIALLY in regards to icons, and as you say, the hierarchy of the church, basically since day one. Anyhow, according to Wiki, Arianism was "dealt with" at the First Council of Nicea, where Constantinople had drafted up the Nicene Creed of 325, which in part denounced Arius' writings and exiled all who would not only deny them, but also exiling those who wouldn't condemn the man. The other, main point of the Nicene Creed, was the relationship of the Trinity (Arius argued that The Son was subservient to The Father, while, as we know Constantinople and most others argued that they were in fact, on being coexisting)

 Swastakowey wrote:
Just give them a warning (Most places have a 3 warning then fired policy).

Teachers, like people, are dumb and do dumb things. I had an atheist teacher tell me my parents where a part of a cult and where actually worshiping Satan. Now I was about 6 and no idea what atheist meant back then but I was legitimately worried about being a Satan lover for a while. For the next few years kids thought I worshiped Satan as a result too (I had to explain a lot of times that no, I do not worship Satan etc). I hated that lady for a while.

Reminds me of the 3rd year after 9/11 and our teacher decided to give his opinion on the subject. Talking about oil and jihads and so on. Now this would have been fine if he didn't throw his opinion on how it was an inside job etc. I actually went home thinking America blew up their own towers.

Those are 2 times I remember a teacher being dumb in a way that effected me.

I don't think you can stop people doing silly things, but you can simply sack/warn them. Then teachers can learn to keep opinions to themselves. Ultimately that is all I think countries need to do. Punish teachers who don't teach from the book. In theory the Parents should also keep up to date with what is in the books too and then everyone is on the same page. Harshly punish any teacher who decide their opinion is important enough to shove down another kids throat, especially during a time where they are gullible.

we had a english lit teacher show the beheading of journalists in his class during school hours, we had another teacher refer to all marines as "baby killers" and the same teacher negatively graded students who went to see the Military recruiters when they came to our school. Eventually the one teacher got canned and the other was told that a repeat performance of Beheadings in an English Lit class would lead to his firing.

 Ghazkuul wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:
Just give them a warning (Most places have a 3 warning then fired policy).

Teachers, like people, are dumb and do dumb things. I had an atheist teacher tell me my parents where a part of a cult and where actually worshiping Satan. Now I was about 6 and no idea what atheist meant back then but I was legitimately worried about being a Satan lover for a while. For the next few years kids thought I worshiped Satan as a result too (I had to explain a lot of times that no, I do not worship Satan etc). I hated that lady for a while.

Reminds me of the 3rd year after 9/11 and our teacher decided to give his opinion on the subject. Talking about oil and jihads and so on. Now this would have been fine if he didn't throw his opinion on how it was an inside job etc. I actually went home thinking America blew up their own towers.

Those are 2 times I remember a teacher being dumb in a way that effected me.

I don't think you can stop people doing silly things, but you can simply sack/warn them. Then teachers can learn to keep opinions to themselves. Ultimately that is all I think countries need to do. Punish teachers who don't teach from the book. In theory the Parents should also keep up to date with what is in the books too and then everyone is on the same page. Harshly punish any teacher who decide their opinion is important enough to shove down another kids throat, especially during a time where they are gullible.

we had a english lit teacher show the beheading of journalists in his class during school hours, we had another teacher refer to all marines as "baby killers" and the same teacher negatively graded students who went to see the Military recruiters when they came to our school. Eventually the one teacher got canned and the other was told that a repeat performance of Beheadings in an English Lit class would lead to his firing.

Had the same problem not in HS but, actually in college. It never makes any sense.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.

Then there's this. sigh.

Requesting clarification.

Your bigotry permeates your post.

I object. Bigotry implies that what he said was somehow unfairly or irrationally intolerant. However, calling a spade a spade is neither irrational or unfair. There is literally zero credible evidence for the existence of a god, and the Christian god is frankly impossible. All the evidence is from one unreliable book which has been heavily edited (as a matter of record) and which was written generations after the events it describes, events which not only aren't corroborated, but contradict more reliable sources. And contains stories that appear to be directly lifted from Babylonian mythology. Hell, even god's own country Israel, means the Land of El, El being a Zeus figure from the Canaanite religion, who appears to be distinct from Yahweh. The Yahweh figure himself having a chequered history before his followers eventually started pitching him as "the one god of the universe".

How anyone can believe all these stories, which apparently started out as completely different stories, but have slowly been amended and changed throughout the centuries, usually as a response to political events such as the Babylonian captivity, and the Roman occupation. How anyone can believe that after all that messing about, these stories could retain any truth (if there were any in the first place). It's completely absurd.

God is only a "possibility" on an extremely philosophical level, in the same way that everyone else being robots is a possibility. But back in the real world, it's 100% BS, and calling it what it is should not be a crime, even if it does offend a few gullible believers.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:
Comparing the Bible to a comic book just shows the depths of his bias/ignorance.

True. Comic books are more entertaining, better stories, clearer separation between canon and fanon, less continuity errors and retcons... and this is telling!

 Iron_Captain wrote:
In any case, religion has a place in school

Not in France, thanksfully.

 Swastakowey wrote:
English is the language of my country and so is Māori, we are educated on both English and standard Māori (If I knew how, I could hand in an essay in Māori and pass etc). However I am not told how to speak Malaysian or Spanish etc because those subjects are not relevant to my country. It is the same as religion. I am more versed in christian teachings than I am in Muslim ones, because my nation is Christian. We are also educated on Maori myths, because it is a part of our past. To give all religion equal coverage is not a good idea, just like giving languages equal coverage is not a good idea. It makes sense to teach the kids the religion of their nation and they have the option as they get older to move on to another religion in more specialized classes, just like language.

How are you missing the elephant in the room that languages are not contradicting each other and that there is not only one true lan,uage (or zero)? One learns languages to be able to communicate with people, so the value of the language is linked to who you will be able to communicate with. This is regional. One learns religion to find some universal truth, that is totally not regional. That is, unless you teach religion as culturul myths and legends with no truth attached to them...

 Swastakowey wrote:
Fair enough, but then a school offering a prayer for a majority of Christians but allowing atheist children to opt out is not supporting a religion, it is giving all the kids the option to freely practice their religion.

Certainly not. It is allowing Christian children to practice their religion. In no way does this allow Sikh or Zoroastrian children to practice theirs. You would need special accomodations for literally every religion to do so. With the obvious problem demonstrated just below.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Ustrello wrote:
Prayer is not required by christianity, so offering a prayer is promoting christianity.

It is required.

Would anyone really want the state to be in a position where it has to arbitrate doctrinal debates? Or should we accept any gak because "this is my personnal doctrine"?

Some schools here are based on a religion, almost always some form of Christian. There are Catholic schools and Church of England schools, but there will always be a secular school in the same area. These will probably do similar to the report states, and every child there is expected to be of that religion.
But, it is the parents that get the child into that school, and often go to great lengths to get them there. I would expect to (very quietly) hear about some kind of punishment or 'extra teaching' if a child did as the report's non-believer did. Nothing to this level, but a few 'quiet words' would be had.

Schools are supposed to be a place of learning, and learning about people and what they believe should be part of that. Building the teaching around a certain set of beliefs is where it goes wrong, though.

I'd be furious if I found out one of my colleagues did something like that to a kid. I'd hit the roof.

Whatever our personal beliefs, it is totally out of order to do what those teachers did. The right thing to do is to neutrally arbitrate between the two kids and help them come to an understanding. Otherwise one kid goes away thinking they were bad and wrong, and the other goes away with their beliefs confirmed.

When I taught in the UK, the RE teachers had a "god bus" come in and basically preach at the kids. I found out that they were telling the kids that evolution was not based on evidence and was not true. As a science teacher I requested the right of reply, but I was refused. Then I had to deal with kids derailing biology lessons to spout the crap they had heard on the god bus at me. Argh.

Also, I've seen some americans often differentiate between Catholics and Christians. Surely Catholics ARE christians, as in, they believe in Christ? Is this some sort of america specific thing? Do they mean "protestant" when they say "christian"?

The question of who is a Christian is not as simply resolved as one might wish.

KId'll go to hell for not believing.

Teacher will go the same way for presuming Gods will.

Why the earthly punishment?

Well, that's really weird! I grew up Catholic and we always considered ourselves Christian. I'd say anyone who believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God who came to die for our sins and all that malarkey is a Christian.

Seems a bit insulting if others claim Catholics are not "real" Christians, but whatevs. I suppose it's just as bad to call others heretics.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.

Then there's this. sigh.

Requesting clarification.

Tips Fedora...

We need a ork happy face for this.

Why is it that, by being an atheist, it immediately means you're a fedora-tipping neckbeard? I swear, I'm beginning to get afraid of even stating I don't believe in any of that religious stuff simply because I'll get shunned as some sort of neckbeard.

Quite ironic this is happening on a forum about playing war with little plastic men, really.

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.

Then there's this. sigh.

Requesting clarification.

Tips Fedora...

We need a ork happy face for this.

Why is it that, by being an atheist, it immediately means you're a fedora-tipping neckbeard? I swear, I'm beginning to get afraid of even stating I don't believe in any of that religious stuff simply because I'll get shunned as some sort of neckbeard.

Quite ironic this is happening on a forum about playing war with little plastic men, really.

Being an atheist is fine. Being an atheist is simply not believing in a higher power yes? I did not ridicule this guy fro his atheism, but more for his stupidity and comment.

See when people make something their identity so much, they see anything said against them as attacking their "identity". So when someone laughs at what someone says and they get defensive about it being 'against their belief", you can normally tell they have made the belief as way too much of their identity. Maybe being atheist is too much of your identity, so when you say dumb things you attribute the criticism to your belief instead of the dumb thing you said? That's what it sounds like anyway.

Clearly mate... I was making fun of him for being the stereotype 14 year old "angry atheist" by spouting hatred. Ironically when talking about hatred from the group he clearly hates. It may surprise you to hear I too am atheist... (or the one who hasn't decided, an almost atheist?). People like him are an embarrassment, regardless of belief, when they spout stupid things like calling the majority as humans around him as people dumb enough to believe in spider man (yes, he said that). Frankly he needs to go to the sensitivity camp mentioned earlier.

If you say you are an atheist nobody cares. Say you are an atheist and call most the planet a bunch of morons and the world will see you as a nut job (and rightfully so). It's that simple.

 Swastakowey wrote:

 thenoobbomb wrote:

 Swastakowey wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:

 Frazzled wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
Just get this fething mythical BS out of schools, dammit.

Then there's this. sigh.

Requesting clarification.

Tips Fedora...

We need a ork happy face for this.

Why is it that, by being an atheist, it immediately means you're a fedora-tipping neckbeard? I swear, I'm beginning to get afraid of even stating I don't believe in any of that religious stuff simply because I'll get shunned as some sort of neckbeard.

Quite ironic this is happening on a forum about playing war with little plastic men, really.

Being an atheist is fine. Being an atheist is simply not believing in a higher power yes? I did not ridicule this guy fro his atheism, but more for his stupidity and comment.

See when people make something their identity so much, they see anything said against them as attacking their "identity". So when someone laughs at what someone says and they get defensive about it being 'against their belief", you can normally tell they have made the belief as way too much of their identity. Maybe being atheist is too much of your identity, so when you say dumb things you attribute the criticism to your belief instead of the dumb thing you said? That's what it sounds like anyway.

Clearly mate... I was making fun of him for being the stereotype 14 year old "angry atheist" by spouting hatred. Ironically when talking about hatred from the group he clearly hates. It may surprise you to hear I too am atheist... (or the one who hasn't decided, an almost atheist?). People like him are an embarrassment, regardless of belief, when they spout stupid things like calling the majority as humans around him as people dumb enough to believe in spider man (yes, he said that). Frankly he needs to go to the sensitivity camp mentioned earlier.

If you say you are an atheist nobody cares. Say you are an atheist and call most the planet a bunch of morons and the world will see you as a nut job (and rightfully so). It's that simple.

I've sadly seen way too many times people replying with "*le tips fedora*" shenanigans simply when someone states he doesn't believe in a higher being.

I believe the term you might be looking for is "agnostic"? As in "I don't know if there's anything or if there isn't anything"?

Way out of line, a honest question was asked and the kid gave a honest answer to the question.

If the other was upset, a quick talk on that people have different beliefs and that just because they do there not a threat to to you.

And deal with the two kids and get them to understand and to not punish anyone but basicly deal with any issue before it gets worse

It's not the belief the joke is meant to make fun of, but the delivery or superiority complex in the delivery of said belief. Of course some people take jokes too far as with all jokes, but I have yet to see someone make fun of someone online merely for being atheist. It's when you act enlightened or superior to the majority of the world and insult what is likely going to be many people reading the text where people start to ridicule. It's all in the attitude.