Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Strange Happenings and New Trends

Lately on Richard Dawkins' website, www.richarddawkins.net , there has been an over abundance of theists just popping over. There used to be only one or two a week and now there are at least several a day. I'm wondering what has caused this surge in their efforts. They might be coming about as a result of all of the things Richard has been involved in lately. With the release of the paperback version of TGD, he's been making a lot of appearance in the Western World. David Robertson has also caused quite a stir about several things in Britain, so maybe that has something to do with it as well. Whatever the cause, it's been a bit irritating to me, at least because rather than having intelligent, useful discussion among ourselves, it seems that the atheists there have been wasting their breath (or typing skills) refuting the same arguments over and over and over and over and over again. I haven't been posting anything there lately because I've been quite busy and when I post, I want to engage in some intelligent debate about something other than the nonsense that the theists believe. When there are a group of people discussing something who've all gotten past that, the discussion generally proceeds at a higher level (most of the time, occasionally there's discussion of beer, tea, etc). At any rate, I'd rather that they go away. They are simply taking up bandwidth and nothing that any atheist says to them there is going to change their minds.

Another trend that I've noted with the theists is that they continually accuse the people on RD.net of not engaging in intelligent discussion. It seems that this is the new form of the old argument "well, you're just as bad as we are". If they had bothered to read any of the thread discussions that had taken place before the masses of theists began flooding the site, they would have seen that there was plenty of very intelligent discussion that sometimes is even over my head (I know, can you believe there's anything that's over my head? ;-), but that would just be too much to ask. They can't even be bothered to read the entire Bible, so why would we expect them to read older threads?

Anyway, my proposal if anyone is listening is to begin ignoring the theists until they have shown that they have actually done their homework. Until then, don't expect to be answered and don't whine about it, either.

In other news, someone with whom I used to be friends and still maintain some contact with recently sent me a link to a Christian radio website. At first I just laughed at how ridiculous it was to try to send something like that to me of all people, but then I started thinking about it and it started to irritate me. First of all, the person in question is someone who has avoided taking responsibility for things in their life for as long as I've known this person. At first, after recent developments, I felt sorry for the person and on some level, understood the person's decision to turn to Christianity for comfort, but on further contemplation on the subject, I realized that this was just the same old thing after all. This person was/is using "God's will" as an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for not having their life together. So now I'm just annoyed because I always maintain some smidgen of hope that this person (who is very intelligent and has the capacity to be a great person) will snap out of it and come to their senses and I realize that this is only more of the same. I'm also annoyed because if this particular person wants to turn to Christianity and not accept responsibility for their life, that's not my decision, but I'd prefer if I weren't a target for conversion. A general annoyance brought up by the whole situation is that perhaps if religion didn't exist anymore, people would have to take responsibility for their actions rather than being able to cop out. Maybe that's why some people are clinging to it so desperately; without it, they'd have to admit that they'd screwed up their own lives and perhaps others, too.

Completely unrelated: I ran my first 10K the first weekend of April and it was a blast. There were about 30,000 people in the race, so it was really cool to be running with all of those people. I was about 30 seconds short of my goal. I ran it in an hour and 21 seconds. And guess what? I did it all by myself. I did all of the training. No god(s) had any part in my success! Yay me!

8 comments:

Jonathan said...

Anna-

I suspect a lot of these theists are the same guy constantly changing his name, but you're right, it does tend to get a little annoying. I'm thinking all the publicity around "Expelled" might be something to do with it, but there's no way to know for sure.

And there's nothing wrong with talking about tea! :)

"there was plenty of very intelligent discussion that sometimes is even over my head (I know, can you believe there's anything that's over my head?)"

Surely not! You lie, Anna! ;)

"This person was/is using "God's will" as an excuse to avoid taking responsibility for not having their life together".

This kind of thinking often comes about when you're taught that God has "a plan" for you and is always "watching over you". It sometimes seems to me that it's actually encouraged for believers not to rely on themselves, since that might make them realise that maybe they don't "need" God quite as much as they thought they did.

I'll probably talk a little about this in my next post on the subject of relationship with God.

I'm glad that the 10k run went well. You should do the London marathon, give some athletes a run for their money ;)

Anna Banana said...

Sometimes I think it is the same person, but surely all of them aren't the same person.

I know there isn't anything wrong at all with talking about tea. Apparently it offends the theists. ;)

I will be looking forward to your next blog post.

I would do the London Marathon if I could afford to get there!

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean about deferring responsibility. It is something thatI was reminded of last week. Someone whom I never want to see again got in touch via facebook. This person had been forgiven several times (much to my stupidity). The last time she caused a great deal of emotional damage. Rather than trying to sort it out, she contented herself with seeking god's forgiveness and disappeared for a few years. That of course does not help the injured party. The only person that benefits is the believer and allows you to ignore your role in the situation. This is something that she has a history of doing. I was warned (by her friends no less) that she leaves a trail of carnage where ever she goes.
The other problem is that as a then believer, my faith left me open to this re-abuse. I think I may have mentioned this before, so wont bore you with it. Rant over.

Well done on the 10K and hope your allergies clear up

Anonymous said...

PS I tend to let theists prove themselves on RD.net now before I respond, because I have wasted too much time on trolls who never return.

Anonymous said...

We have had an admission from one of the cut and run theists that he was redirected to the rd.net site by a link off the "Expelled" site. Whether this is true for them all I wouldn't know.

I thought you were short? Isn't this why things go over your head?

Anna Banana said...

epeeist,

I didn't realize that. I've been a bit busy with work and I've also been sick lately, so I haven't been able to be as involved in RD.net as I'd like to be.

And indeed, being short sometimes leads to things flying over my head. ;-)

Anna Banana said...

Billy,

It is quite unfortunate that you've been tangled up with someone like this. Fortunately for me, I've never been romantically involved with anyone like this, only friends, which is bad enough. The person to whom I was referring in the post has a similar dating history to the one you've described. I always felt sorry for the people who got involved with this person. All of the people who were friends with this person did.

At any rate, I'm sorry for your misfortune and glad for you that you are rid of it.

Similarly, though, I dated a guy for 4 years and we had a very unhealthy relationship, but I kept going back to him because I kept thinking that "it was meant to be" or some such nonsense. If I had already given up on religion completely then, I may have wised up a bit sooner.

Unknown said...

Congrats on your 10K! I assume it was Cooper Bridge... Any more races completed?

BTW, I became a convert this year...from Sprint to Oly! ;^)

Regards,
Dart