this is hugely embarrassing for regular atheists

[Fred Kite]

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I'm new here, but, I just registered to speak on behalf of atheists who are extremely embarrassed to have the term "atheism" associated with the vicious and vindictive comments and incessant whingeing from so called "atheists" upset about Richard Dawkins website, because I notice that a lot of you are on here. Some of you are even writing press releases to spread the embarrassment even further!

What are you thinking?

I don't claim to be an expert on the whys and wherefores but one thing is very clear - regardless of the whys and wherefores the online reaction has been exceptionally embarrassing for atheism.

Even if Dawkins and his web team did something horribly wrong, the viciousness and rabidness of the reaction is completely unnecessary.

What's upsetting for me and regular atheists is that it's being reported as the 'largest online atheist community'. I have visited Richard Dawkins . net and it was not an atheist community. It was a website for fans of Richard Dawkins to congregate and discuss ideas online. There were theists, atheists, jews, christians and many others on the site and forum.

Some of you are reacting in the same way a teenage pop fan would react if a singer decided to leave a well known pop band. It's childish. It's petulant and it's hero-worshipping at it's worst and I can only imagine how embarrassed Richard Dawkins must feel at this moment.

[Animavore]

The members of RDF aren't regular atheists?

[Rum]

What are you talking about? 'Regular atheists'??? It isn't a community. Its a group of people who don't believe something!

The anger is about lumpen, inconsiderate, unfeeling, insensitive and badly managed behaviour. That is about human beings treating each other badly, period.

[virphen]

Far canal.

Why don't you read the threads concerned and take notice of the hundreds of well thought out and rational comments on what's taken place that do not resort to personal vituperation (or only very mild comments)?

Then you can have the right to nag people. Until then, shut the fuck up. You don't speak for anyone but yourself.

[95Theses]

Well sorry for expressing my opinion on something if it happens to offend someone who also doesn't believe in God.

Whatever next?, I'd better be careful not to say anything that fellow a-santaists disagree with too.

We aren't claiming to speak for all atheists, and you also clearly have no clue about what actually happened or what is being lost.

[Babel]

Who's coming to our weekly nonphilatelist convention? Forget to bring your stamps!

Besides, not all RDF-members were atheists.

[Feck]

Who's coming to our weekly nonphilatelist convention? Forget to bring your stamps!

Besides, not all RDF-members were atheists.

Or fanboys of the man himself .

[DMac]

I don't claim to be an expert on the whys and wherefores but one thing is very clear - regardless of the whys and wherefores the online reaction has been exceptionally embarrassing for atheism.

Even if Dawkins and his web team did something horribly wrong, the viciousness and rabidness of the reaction is completely unnecessary.

Oh? Exactly where are you seeing this viciousness and rabidness? From the completely erroneous Times articles? From the erroneous Dawkins post?

I'd never visited RDnet or this forum until a few days ago when I got curious about what was going on. But anyone who actually researches it can tell whose reaction has been completely out-of-bounds, dishonest, and irrational. That's Dawkins, Timonen, and Chalkley. If you don't believe me try reading something other than disingenuous versions of events.

As a "regular atheist" the conduct of Dawkins et al is the one that pisses me off. Those who champion rationality should act rationally rather than hypocritically. Any currently burning houses were lit by them, not the people here.

[David M]

I'm new here, but, I just registered to speak on behalf of atheists who are extremely embarrassed to have the term "atheism" associated with the vicious and vindictive comments and incessant whingeing from so called "atheists" upset about Richard Dawkins website, because I notice that a lot of you are on here. Some of you are even writing press releases to spread the embarrassment even further.

Yeah, a dozen people were rude about an incompetent website admin on a completely different website half a day later and a few hundred were just as upset but generally polite. That's such outrageous behaviour.

No one here is writing press releases, information is being put out in the internet to counter misinformation such as the claim that the forum needed to be locked due to horrible comments that were made half a day after the forum was locked down.

What's upsetting for me and regular atheists is that it's being reported as the 'largest online atheist community'. I have visited Richard Dawkins . net and it was not an atheist community. It was a website for fans of Richard Dawkins to congregate and discuss ideas online. There were theists, atheists, jews, christians and many others on the site and forum.

Looks like you need to do some fact-checking, or you never actually read the forums properly. It was the largest online atheist community, there were thousands of atheist members in that community.

[95Theses]

I'm new here, but, I just registered to speak on behalf of atheists who are extremely embarrassed to have the term "atheism" associated with the vicious and vindictive comments and incessant whingeing from so called "atheists" upset about Richard Dawkins website, because I notice that a lot of you are on here. Some of you are even writing press releases to spread the embarrassment even further.

Yeah, a dozen people were rude about an incompetent website admin on a completely different website half a day later and a few hundred were just as upset but generally polite. That's such outrageous behaviour.

No one here is writing press releases, information is being put out in the internet to counter misinformation such as the claim that the forum needed to be locked due to horrible comments that were made half a day after the forum was locked down.

Erm, actually I was trying to get someone to write one

I'm trying to get information to news outlets before they end up just running with Richard's made up little story, as the OP here appears to have done.

[David M]

I'm new here, but, I just registered to speak on behalf of atheists who are extremely embarrassed to have the term "atheism" associated with the vicious and vindictive comments and incessant whingeing from so called "atheists" upset about Richard Dawkins website, because I notice that a lot of you are on here. Some of you are even writing press releases to spread the embarrassment even further.

Yeah, a dozen people were rude about an incompetent website admin on a completely different website half a day later and a few hundred were just as upset but generally polite. That's such outrageous behaviour.

No one here is writing press releases, information is being put out in the internet to counter misinformation such as the claim that the forum needed to be locked due to horrible comments that were made half a day after the forum was locked down.

Erm, actually I was trying to get someone to write one

I'm trying to get information to news outlets before they end up just running with Richard's made up little story, as the OP here appears to have done.

Ok, I'll clarify that to be "No one here has written any press releases yet".

[Fred Kite]

What are you talking about? 'Regular atheists'??? It isn't a community. Its a group of people who don't believe something!

The anger is about lumpen, inconsiderate, unfeeling, insensitive and badly managed behaviour. That is about human beings treating each other badly, period.

The anger being displayed online is not coming from atheists, it's from fans (or ex-fans, as the case may be) of Richard Dawkins who are upset at whatever happened over the last week with his web team. Period.

The incessant whining and vicious comments being made about Richard Dawkins and his web team are completely unnecessary, has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with the relationship between Richard Dawkins, his webteam and Richard Dawkins fans.

Most atheists I know are civilised, rational-thinking, liberal-minded and decent human beings who don't see the vicious vendetta and personal attacks on Richard Dawkins and his webteam as rational-thinking, civilised, liberal minded or decent.

[95Theses]

What are you talking about? 'Regular atheists'??? It isn't a community. Its a group of people who don't believe something!

The anger is about lumpen, inconsiderate, unfeeling, insensitive and badly managed behaviour. That is about human beings treating each other badly, period.

The anger being displayed online is not coming from atheists, it's from fans (or ex-fans, as the case may be) of Richard Dawkins who are upset at whatever happened over the last week with his web team. Period.

The incessant whining and vicious comments being made about Richard Dawkins and his web team are completely unnecessary, has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with the relationship between Richard Dawkins, his webteam and Richard Dawkins fans.

Most atheists I know are civilised, rational-thinking, liberal-minded and decent human beings who don't see the vicious vendetta and personal attacks on Richard Dawkins and his webteam as rational-thinking, civilised, liberal minded or decent.

Oh nonsense.

He's guilty on his own website of quote mining and falsely representing the actual words of thousands of members of his site. What should we do? sit back and take it in case we offend someone else who doesn't believe in god too?

You're taking a tiny minority of quotes against Josh, some of which were taken out of context (thats a quote mine) and all of which were in the heat of the moment to represent us a bunch of frothing at the mouth lunatics.

it is clear you have no idea what happened or why we are angry about it, and I struggle to believe you are even actually reading all the comments being made about this.

[floppit]

The members of RDF aren't regular atheists?

It's nigh on impossible to have both a self selected and representative group - regardless of shared 'cause'.

[David M]

What are you talking about? 'Regular atheists'??? It isn't a community. Its a group of people who don't believe something!

The anger is about lumpen, inconsiderate, unfeeling, insensitive and badly managed behaviour. That is about human beings treating each other badly, period.

The anger being displayed online is not coming from atheists, it's from fans (or ex-fans, as the case may be) of Richard Dawkins who are upset at whatever happened over the last week with his web team. Period.

The incessant whining and vicious comments being made about Richard Dawkins and his web team are completely unnecessary, has nothing to do with atheism and everything to do with the relationship between Richard Dawkins, his webteam and Richard Dawkins fans.

Most atheists I know are civilised, rational-thinking, liberal-minded and decent human beings who don't see the vicious vendetta and personal attacks on Richard Dawkins and his webteam as rational-thinking, civilised, liberal minded or decent.

Complete steaming cow-patties.

The anger online is coming from atheists, among the people here that came from RDF theists and agnostics are rarer than hen's teeth. And a lot of people at the RD forum were not "fans" of Richard Dawkins, they were just members of a forum.

Yeah, criticism of demonstrable admin incompetence and lying is whining and being vicious. Do some real research before you spout any more nonsense, then stop insulting the members here.

To paraphrase something oft said to creationists "We have the screenshots and logs, We win".