Jesus lads.....lighten up a bit.It's a fine day.

padohaodha

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

Speedwell

Do you also go into the forums on diabetes and cancer and tell them they're miserable whingers for participation in a forum dedicated to dealing with chronic illness?

padohaodha

Q.E.D.

idnkph

Speedwell wrote:

Do you also go into the forums on diabetes and cancer and tell them they're miserable whingers for participation in a forum dedicated to dealing with chronic illness?

Chronic illness such as diabetes and cancer are actually real things where religion and beliefs are made up so your comparison is ridiculous.

aphex™

Do you guys ever stop thinking about the Iona institute?

How about spending the same amount of time to oppose the importation of Islamic Extremism into Europe instead of thinking about pointless snipes about Lolek ltd?

You know, something useful?

Captain Chaos

idnkph wrote: »

Chronic illness such as diabetes and cancer are actually real things where religion and beliefs are made up so your comparison is ridiculous.

They are made up but they are very real in that they effect us directly in various laws in our day to day lives.

Bristolscale7

padohaodha wrote: »

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

Why are you here trolling?

padohaodha

I'm not trolling ...I'm giving my honest opinion.btw aphex's point is spot on.It seems that some posters I have seen recently on here are more anti-catholic than atheist.Apologies to those posters who I might disagree with but whose posts I enjoy on an academic level.

Speedwell

idnkph wrote: »

Chronic illness such as diabetes and cancer are actually real things where religion and beliefs are made up so your comparison is ridiculous.

Is the Catholic Church a made-up thing? Is religious ignorance a made-up thing? Are all the social and mental ills resulting from the application of religious dogma made-up things? Are stupid "get over yourselves" New-Age feel-good preachers made-up things?

One eyed Jack

padohaodha wrote: »

I'm not trolling ...I'm giving my honest opinion.

There's plenty threads here though that are packed to the rafters so to speak with interesting stuff, and then there's always the funny side of religion thread, couple of good 'uns in there, there's the feedback thread if you'd like to make suggestions for the forum, or, well, you could always start off an interesting topic for discussion yourself!

But complaining that everyone else is the problem? How is that actually any different to what you're complaining about? It's actually making a negative contribution to the forum, not a positive contribution!

aphex™

Captain Chaos wrote: »

They are made up but they are very real in that they effect us directly in various laws in our day to day lives.

Assuming you are a man in Ireland, what laws affect you on a daily basis now?

Apart from the fundamental rights of man which were originally derived from Christian ethics and beliefs.

Speedwell

aphex™ wrote: »

Assuming you are a man in Ireland, what laws affect you on a daily basis now?

Apart from the fundamental rights of man which were originally derived from Christian ethics and beliefs.

Which of the ancient Greeks were Christians, now? Sorry, I'm an American, they skipped that part of my religious indoctrination education.

padohaodha

One eyed Jack wrote: »

There's plenty threads here though that are packed to the rafters so to speak with interesting stuff, and then there's always the funny side of religion thread, couple of good 'uns in there, there's the feedback thread if you'd like to make suggestions for the forum, or, well, you could always start off an interesting topic for discussion yourself!

But complaining that everyone else is the problem? How is that actually any different to what you're complaining about? It's actually making a negative contribution to the forum, not a positive contribution!

I didn't say everyone else was the problem.I take your point,well argued.But it's at variance with a lot of other posters here who just attack.

smacl

padohaodha wrote: »

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

G'wan out of that ya miserable shiite. Sure isn't the laughs section on here one of the funniest places on boards, still loving this one;



Not exactly a bundle of laughs on any of the other religion related forums now is there?

padohaodha

As I previously said....the standard has dropped.

smacl wrote: »

G'wan out of that ya miserable shiite. Sure isn't the laughs section on here one of the funniest places on boards, still loving this one;



Not exactly a bundle of laughs on any of the other religion related forums now is there?

Mark Hamill

aphex™ wrote: »

Do you guys ever stop thinking about the Iona institute?

How about spending the same amount of time to oppose the importation of Islamic Extremism into Europe instead of thinking about pointless snipes about Lolek ltd?

You know, something useful?

Opposing christian/catholic extremism isn't useful?

eviltwin

padohaodha wrote: »

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

You don't have to read it or you could post some threads yourself.

Most of the posters here, if you look at their posts in other forums, are funny and entertaining. Obviously as this is A+A the focus will be religion and as this is Ireland the RCC will be the focus. It's not like we have a Muslim think tank like Iona in the media regularly or a Rabbi giving his opinion on social issues on the evening news. It can be frustrating and this is a place to vent and discuss.

aphex™

Speedwell wrote: »

Which of the ancient Greeks were Christians, now? Sorry, I'm an American, they skipped that part of my religious indoctrination education.

If you want to go back to the greeks fair enough.

Must have had a classical schooling? Full of myths and Gods and made up stuff.

Bit like you might say religion is.
Interesting.

Tell me how

padohaodha wrote:

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

I must say I agree with padohaodha. I've dropped in to threads several times to back away quite quickly because they usually seem to consist of repetitive venomous barbs.
I've often thought, "They'd be in trouble if there was no religion as they'd have nothing to complain about".
I don't, generally, post on those threads as I appreciate it's "their" forum.

Bristolscale7 wrote:

Why are you here trolling?

I don't think the OP is. As I've said I've genuinely thought the same thing.
I've felt that some threads seem to be driven by an almost pious (ironically) fervour to find blame with religion and particularly the Catholic Church.

padohaodha

I personally think Islam will have a bigger effect on our grandchildren than Catholicism will.Catholicism in Ireland is following the same route as Anglicanism in England.Surely its more beneficial to society to protect ourselves from a more extreme religion .Id love to see a few Muhammad pictures up here for example instead of the easy no consequence Catholic ones.

eviltwin wrote: »

You don't have to read it or you could post some threads yourself.

Most of the posters here, if you look at their posts in other forums, are funny and entertaining. Obviously as this is A+A the focus will be religion and as this is Ireland the RCC will be the focus. It's not like we have a Muslim think tank like Iona in the media regularly or a Rabbi giving his opinion on social issues on the evening news. It can be frustrating and this is a place to vent and discuss.

eviltwin

padohaodha wrote: »

I personally think Islam will have a bigger effect on our grandchildren than Catholicism will.Catholicism in Ireland is following the same route as Anglicanism in England.Surely its more beneficial to society to protect ourselves from a more extreme religion .Id love to see a few Muhammad pictures up here for example instead of the easy no consequence Catholic ones.

I agree with you but it's not quite there yet. I'm sure if there was a high profile campaign to introduce Sharia law here this forum would be all over it. Day to day it's Catholicism that is more visible in the media and daily life here. Most posters would be from Catholic families so have to deal with things like the baptism question or hear talk about why certain laws shouldn't change because of religion etc. There is also a large Catholic community here which leads to more debate, there is no point trying to debate unless you have people to debate with.

Eta: Catholicism is an easy target. There is no problem taking the Mick out of it. I doubt the same humour around Islam would be allowed here. One thing about our Catholic posters they are well able to take criticism and defend their corner through debate.

One eyed Jack

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Opposing christian/catholic extremism isn't useful?

I've always thought that a curious approach myself tbh. I mean, there's definitely some truth in what the OP says, but I don't think it's at all as prevalent as they're seeing. I think the standard of discussion has dropped overall, but there's still plenty of interesting reading, and I think that's what makes a positive forum, rather than trying to read a thread which simply consists of "attack, attack, attack!!".

I guess I've seen better results from positive campaigns rather than campaigns where extremism is used to counter extremism. That just comes off a bit like this:

Mark Hamill

One eyed Jack wrote: »

I guess I've seen better results from positive campaigns rather than campaigns where extremism is used to counter extremism.

Who is doing what now?

aphex™

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Opposing christian/catholic extremism isn't useful?

Doesn't seem like the most pressing concern at the moment. Certainly not the biggest threat facing Europe if you didn't notice.

gctest50

aphex™ wrote: »

If you want to go back to the greeks fair enough.

Must have had a classical schooling? Full of myths and Gods and made up stuff.

Bit like you might say religion is.
Interesting.

Hmmm the Romans had it sussed - underfloor heating, running water and any Christians that got a bit uppidy , they nailed the tedious f**kers to a cross

Just didn't know how good they had it, but we've progressed now and tolerate them instead

Dial Hard

aphexâ„&#162 wrote:

Assuming you are a man in Ireland, what laws affect you on a daily basis now?

A silly assumption to make.

I'm a woman in Ireland. Shall we talk about reproductive rights?

Mark Hamill

aphex™ wrote: »

Doesn't seem like the most pressing concern at the moment. Certainly not the biggest threat facing Europe if you didn't notice.

This is an Irish-centric forum, not a European-centric one. The vast majority of posters will post about religion in Ireland (including both A&A posters criticising religion and religious posters coming in to defend it), hence mainly catholicism gets a mention. So it makes sense that most of the threads will be about catholicism/christianity. There simply isn't many posters at all with enough experience of Islam to either defend or criticize it at length.
There are only 4 topics dealing specifically with Islam in the 50 most recent topics on the forum, and one of those topics is asking were the Islam forum went (merged into World Religions forum as even it didn't have enough discussion on it to keep going by itself).

One eyed Jack

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Who is doing what now?

Those people who oppose extremism with extremism.

20Cent

One eyed Jack wrote: »

Those people who oppose extremism with extremism.

Who is doing that?

Harika

aphex™ wrote: »

Do you guys ever stop thinking about the Iona institute?

How about spending the same amount of time to oppose the importation of Islamic Extremism into Europe instead of thinking about pointless snipes about Lolek ltd?

You know, something useful?

There is a term for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Why can't we leave IONA alone, in Africa a child is starving. Why can't we talk about both at the same time?

mass_debater

padohaodha wrote: »

Recently I have come to the conclusion that the atheist forum is the most miserable forum on boards.I have seen nothing constructive on it,mere bickering,whining and moaning about the Catholic church.The excellent arguments that used to be here have shrivelled into boring diatribe by at times,tbh,seemingly miserable people.Time to lighten up!

Go the computer forum you'll find posters with tech problems

Speedwell

aphex™ wrote: »

Must have had a classical schooling? Full of myths and Gods and made up stuff.

Did you miss the part where I said I was an American? We didn't get classical schooling unless we went, ironically, to a Catholic private school.

Notwithstanding that, I am unaware of a classical schooling program that attempts to turn out believers in Zeus and Apollo. My boss evidently went to a classical schooling program that was dedicated to Vedic literature, but I am pretty sure that was not the sort of classicism you had in mind.

Nevertheless, how do you, personally, differentiate someone else's "made-up stuff" from the "made-up stuff" you believe in?

Lurkio

padohaodha wrote: »

I personally think Islam will have a bigger effect on our grandchildren ...............

.....another one.

psheaser

You'll generally find atheists are miserable and going nowhere in their lives, hence the urge to play it all on " it's just the way it is "

My father once said " the only good atheist is a dead one "

Speedwell

psheaser wrote: »

My father once said " the only good atheist is a dead one "

I rest my case.

sheesh

OP has a point there is Atheism and there is being anti religious and they are not quiet the same

Speedwell

sheesh wrote: »

OP has a point there is Atheism and there is being anti religious and they are not quiet the same

That actually was not the OP's point, but I will agree with your point that atheism is not identical with anti-religious activism. Naturally, neither exist in a vacuum.

Pherekydes

padohaodha wrote: »

I personally think Islam will have a bigger effect on our grandchildren than Catholicism will.Catholicism in Ireland is following the same route as Anglicanism in England.Surely its more beneficial to society to protect ourselves from a more extreme religion .Id love to see a few Muhammad pictures up here for example instead of the easy no consequence Catholic ones.

You want to oppose extremist religion, but we're a bunch of dry sh1tes for opposing extremist religion?

padohaodha

Pherekydes wrote: »

You want to oppose extremist religion, but we're a bunch of dry sh1tes for opposing extremist religion?

Nope.just the arguments recently have been of a poor standard.

aphex™

Harika wrote: »

There is a term for that: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism Why can't we leave IONA alone, in Africa a child is starving. Why can't we talk about both at the same time?

Because it's teetering on the bizarre. Do people think about the Iona Institute while they're on the toilet?
Looking at this forum, yes.
That's not normal.

One eyed Jack

Pherekydes wrote: »

You want to oppose extremist religion, but we're a bunch of dry sh1tes for opposing extremist religion?

Neither Christianity nor Islam actually is extremist though. There are religious extremists alright, just as there are anti-religious extremists, and neither make a very good representative example of their respective points of view.

I don't agree at all with the OP that Islam is "the greatest threat to Europe" (hyperbolic argument, an example of extremism in itself), and I don't see Christian extremism as an issue that's actually all that prevalent in Ireland either.

Speedwell

aphex™ wrote: »

Because it's teetering on the bizarre. Do people think about the Iona Institute while they're on the toilet?
Looking at this forum, yes.
That's not normal.

... therefore God exists? :rolleyes:

aphex™

Speedwell wrote: »

... therefore God exists? :rolleyes:

I never said what I believed in.

Speedwell

aphex™ wrote: »

I never said what I believed in.

Not in so many words, no, but some of us are not the idiots you pretend we are.

aphex™

Speedwell wrote: »

Not in so many words, no, but some of us are not the idiots you pretend we are.

I never said you were an idiot. Very defensive aren't you.

Like putting words in other people's mouths and then labeling people in your mind in posts you make don't you.

Speedwell

aphex™ wrote: »

I never said you were an idiot. Very defensive aren't you.

Like putting words in other people's mouths and then labeling people in your mind in posts you make don't you.

I recommend you re-read your previous posts in this thread, which speak for themselves.

Stealthfins

This used to be a forum full of great discussion and debate about religion, god's,spirituality and miracles.

Now it's gone more political and there's an undercurrent of sniping on both sides.

I remember the banter with JC and others great insightful stuff it kept the light on here.


I was a true believer.
I'm more agnostic now due to opening my ears and looking outside the box.

Coming from being a believer before balancing on the fence, it's hard putting up with the we're more intelligent than you,you're delusional etc can feel deflating.
As insults are a form of immaturity and lack of self esteem and can mess up a discussion

So being a believer and turning more agnostic helped me to be more diplomatic and empathetic.

Bring back JC lol

yellowlabrador

Stealthfins wrote: »

This used to be a forum full of great discussion and debate about religion, god's,spirituality and miracles.

Now it's gone more political and there's an undercurrent of sniping on both sides.

I remember the banter with JC and others great insightful stuff it kept the light on here.


I was a true believer.
I'm more agnostic now due to opening my ears and looking outside the box.

Coming from being a believer before balancing on the fence, it's hard putting up with the we're more intelligent than you,you're delusional etc can feel deflating.
As insults are a form of immaturity and lack of self esteem and can mess up a discussion

So being a believer and turning more agnostic helped me to be more diplomatic and empathetic.

Bring back JC lol

and biscuits

Lurkio

Stealthfins wrote: »

This used to be a forum full of great discussion and debate about religion, god's,spirituality and miracles.

Now it's gone more political and there's an undercurrent of sniping on both sides.

I remember the banter with JC and others great insightful stuff it kept the light on here.


I was a true believer.
I'm more agnostic now due to opening my ears and looking outside the box.

Coming from being a believer before balancing on the fence, it's hard putting up with the we're more intelligent than you,you're delusional etc can feel deflating.
As insults are a form of immaturity and lack of self esteem and can mess up a discussion

So being a believer and turning more agnostic helped me to be more diplomatic and empathetic.

Bring back JC lol

Careful now.

The Randy Riverbeast

I do think standards have dropped, a lot of people are obviously trolling and some people go a bit far. Lots of threads like this one though which end up with people complaining about the very thing they are doing. They are free to start threads about Islam but then they will be doing the very thing they are complaining about.

robindch

One troll has been banned. More moderator action will be taken if the "time to lighten up" brigade continue to post drivel.