HelenM

I just ran across this:

You may be a fundamentalist atheist if...

Rhea

Is this George W's web page?

SanDiegoAtheist

I'm impressed...really.

Some of those are actually what I would consider to be true (I guess they got slipped in there just so they'd have a few points where someone could show the list to an atheist and actually get the atheist to agree "yeah, I see it that way".)

Most however appear to be complete and egregious strawmen. Interestingly enough, a lot of them appear to be completely contradictory strawmen, but then again, consistency is one of those bugbears that JP Holding's site isn't exactly known for.

Of course, it is a humor list - the sad thing about it - unlike most other 'you may be a xxx' lists, I actually know many Xians (oops, used one of the "You may be a fundyatheist if you..." lines there) who actually BELIEVE those strawmen to be reflective of atheist beliefs.. Maybe I'll take a few hours later tonight and 'reconstruct' the list with a few strawmen of my own.

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

Janaya

Well, gosh darn peeple! We jus maht hafta to take a look see at thet thar 'scientifical evidence'.

Honestly I couldn't really stomach any more.....blech.

Edited to add: Haha Rhea you beat me to it....and your line is much funnier than mine sadly.

Ojuice5001

Unlike an atheist, I believe that Yahweh exists, and is no different from Moloch and Baal (who also exist). So if I am referring to the being who actually exists, I call him Yahweh, because he is not the kind of entity Christians are implying when they use the word "god" as if it were his name. To do otherwise would be to imply that Yahweh really is the one true god. I do not see this as making me into a fundie; the concept that Yahweh is a god like any other is crucial to my paradigm of him.

However, if I am reporting the beliefs of Christians, I refer to the Christian god as "God."

SanDiegoAtheist

Defamation! I don't 'hint' that Yahweh is no different from Moloch or Baal (or Zeus, or Odin, or any of the other 50000 deities humanity has created)

I flat out state it.

Yahweh is NO different in kind, just in specifics, from any other human created deity.

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

Ojuice5001

I agree that the gods are all the same kind of entity, but why do you think humanity created them? Thinking Yahweh's similarity to other gods proves atheism ignores the viable option that they are equally real rather than equally unreal.

Jayjay

Some of them are good. I didn't read the whole list, but it seems that it started out as "friendly" humor but evolved (quite possible in hands of other authors) into a mean-spirited rant against atheism. Look at all those "think about it!" comments that start appearing at one point. And the end of the list is filled with direct insults. That's not funny anymore... the point of a list like this is a certain level of subtlety and irony rather than just name calling.

SanDiegoAtheist

Well, I don't want to hijack this thread, but I think you have my reasoning backwards.

I first concluded there is no real evidence for the existance of any entity vaguely resembling the definition given for "god(s)(esses)".

My second conclusion, AFTER deciding that atheism was more likely than theism, due to the lack of evidence mentioned above, is that humanity created these "god(s)(esses)" as a means of social control and to explain unknown phenomena.

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

HaysooChreesto!

Great thread. I like reading stuff like that because I like being made to think. I'm not afraid of it. I'm even prone to some pretty serious self-deprecating humor, but this... this... It's just so bad on nearly every level.
There are a few nuggets in there, but there's also still digestable food in fecal matter as well.

It starts out light-heartedly but turns into an angry rant.

I won't even quote. I don't know where to begin. There's so many assumptions and deliberate mischaracterizations. But then again as atheists we often do the same. I guess that's what I'll take from it.