an antagonist to find purpose in their beliefs otherwise what's the use of having a god nobody can see? If you make up a god you have to have a reason for it like filling in all the knowledge gaps and protection from the unknown. If a person is so used to having all the gaps filled without knowing what the answer is, that person would feel pretty alone and empty if that was removed. If a person is used to having eternal protection from all that is "bad", they would be pretty fearful without absolution from the eternal badness they have created. Bring in facts and the lack of them and you jeopardize their beliefs thus their dreams of security.

Theists have to defend their beliefs with vengeance because by definition they can have no facts to back up their faith. The only thing atheists have are facts and facts defend themselves. It's no wonder that those who refuse to accept reality but instead live out their life through myths would find atheists to be their ultimate earthly antagonist because theists have everything to defend and everything to loose. We non-theists have nothing to defend... but ourselves.

how much you wanna bet they call themselves Christians?

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/dallas/Local-Charities-Ready-If--265072171.html

Yeah, I'll just bet they call themselves a bunch of God-fearin', flag waving Christians. I wonder how many of their churches will be donating the collection plate money to these kids?

these people - not one word of compassion or concern for those kids - it's disgusting

Man, some people.... the stupid burns.

these are terms used by racists / bigots who fail to see people primarily as human beings, preferring instead to refer to them in terms of a technical status they can use to pretend "those people" are a lower species, undeserving of humane treatment

This are CHILDREN... some as young as 5 years old. What the hell do they know about politics or national boundaries?

they're no better than insects in the minds of conservatives

Up here in northern MI the churches pack 'em in! So very Christian!

I was working at a bakery, really bone grinding work cause the focus was pies. Yeah, many 50#boxes of fruit, 100# bags of sugar etc., handled per day. The little clique that called the shots did not like my religious views but kept quiet through the summer festival here where we were doing 12 hour days and it was brutal. Right after that shit I had hit a year there I was called to manager's office and let go because I "just wasn't a good fit".

A couple weeks later I got a job at a much better company that is unionized. The two main co-workers I spend my time with could not be more different than me but we manage to get along all right. Of course I keep my atheism to myself but that's mostly so I can throw bible quotes at them when they do their typical hypocrite bullshit.

Nobody scares as easily as the damn believers. Fucking cowards. And yeah trolls,that includes you and your alert stalking bullshit.

Assholes all.

Julie

Living in the northeast one forgets just how fucked up and huge the Bible Belt is and how difficult it can get for The Damned to live there.

Where atheists are welcome with open arms! Right?

overt hostility.

When I read stories like yours, sometimes I forget that we non-believers are actually a big mass movement who are busy oppressing religious believers all over the place. At least I read that somewhere...

More seriously, sometimes I think about all the harassment non-believers get that we don't hear much about. Stories like yours. Or couples who don't marry or break up because religion gets in the way. Or people who disown their kids because they de-convert.

It's not just the Bible-thumping, flag-waving Xians who don't like us, either. As many of our posters in here have noted, articles bashing non-believers are fairly common in the left-wing media. These are especially common during election cycles, when we're accused of costing the Dems votes.

For our newer members - a few years ago, Raw Story ran a story openly calling for atheists to be purged from the Democratic Party. There was a huge blow-up here on DU, since a couple of Raw Story writers frequently posted here.

Incredibly (at least to me), Raw Story doubled down and refused to apologize for that piece. It was an amazing display of just how much antagonism there is toward us. From EVERYBODY, not just the usual suspects on the Relgious Right.

Link to original story from 2006, with the charming title "The Left's Own Religious Whackjobs" by Melinda Barton:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/The_lefts_own_religious_whackjobs_0422.html

The religious nutballs on the extreme right have kept us rational lefties so busy that we've neglected an important although onerous duty -- cleaning the atheist whackjobs out of our own attic, the extreme left...

Why face off with the atheist whackjobs? Because extremism is extremism is extremism. No rational movement dedicated to intellectual courage and honesty should maintain a relationship with those for whom intellectual laziness, dishonesty, and cowardice are a way of life. Doing what must be done to insure the integrity of the left will require identifying our extremists, countering their mythologies, and acknowledging the dangers they pose to a truly liberal society...

It just gets better from there. /sarcasm

Link to one of the DU archived threads on the subject. You'll probably find more with some searching on the site:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1007330

Still don't read rawstory. The fact they just doubled down on it was horrible.

"Well it must hit home if it bothers you so much."

That club is still wielded by many here.

which has a lot of what you mention. I still have resentment toward WillPitt for this.

Add all of that to the Jason Leopold fiasco, and I can't believe anyone still reads Raw Story. Well, I can, but they shouldn't.

I too have ignored RS ever since. I never click on their links.

Found this old post of mine. Depressing how little has changed.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1035510&mesg_id=1036562

And some old posters no longer with us. "sigh"

Fucking cowards. And yeah trolls,that includes you and your alert stalking bullshit.Assholes all"

Perfectly put

that they have never faced discrimination, therefore no atheist has ever faced discrimination, and if they did it was because they were a militant ANTI-THEIST and not because of their atheism.

Then again, it's easy to not be discriminated against when you're an unemployed nomad living in your own little self-selected group of affluent intellectuals who dare not associate with "those people" (you know--the ones who have to work for a living and don't have the gumption to pull themselves up by their boat-shoes and Sebagos and live the simple life of residence on 50-ft sailboats in private marinas and hike it to South America for the tax breaks, like they could do if only they were self-respecting and had good self esteem)

Sorry...was that harsh?

that hole should have won an oscar

I'm dyin' here...