Demosthenes

I was curious, why did you come to the Internet Infidels? I'm aware that you had some nasty run in with the Atheist Network, so after that, what made you decide to continue interact with atheists?

Amie

Hi Demosthenes
Oh my gosh "nasty run in" is putting it mildly
While I was at the AN I really tried to take each member on their own merits but ultimately I just had too many problems there.

I recall one member saying that his dad was undergoing cancer treatment and that his mother would tell him to say a prayer so he thought it was time to let his mother know he was an atheist. So i said I would pray with his mom. I meant nothing antagonistic by it and I have prayed for him even now I continue to do so. And when I told him I was praying he called me an "arrogant bitch" so I guess that was the absolute wrong thing to say but to me it was a sincere gesture.

Shortly after that I left because I felt I was becoming the AN punching bag and some of my atheist friends over at Christian forums told me I should come here and that this place is very different than the AN. I remember one of them saying "atheists are not all like those guys at the AN. There is a difference between and atheist and an anti-theist" They were right. Plus my friend Tony (Secular Future) was also having a lot of problems at the AN and was not treated fairly so he and I left around the same time. .

To those of you who post there, good for you. It just was not for me.

Interestingly enough before I was at the AN I was posting regularly on Christian Forums. I had been at CF for a few months and then I was banned. It was during the time I was banned that I went to the AN. At first I went there for their science forum and then I ventured into the other forums. Reggie the infidelguy was always a sweetie to me and he would say that he wanted other theists there. However the theists are not treated very well so they don't usually stay. I really don't know why I stayed so long. Towards the end it got pretty brutal and I just was fed up and responded to the posters pretty horribly. lifes too short for that. Then I joined Randy's board as well with the other AN castaways. Interesting enough all of my favorite posters from the AN are now active members at the Graveyard of the Gods...

One night while I was in a debate at the Atheist Network (a couple weeks before I left) I got a pm from Annabel at CF and she told me a member named "Nick loves Abba" was trying to find me, and that he had opened a thread looking for me. I had been gone from CF for 3 months at that point and Nick is a good kid and I knew if he was looking for me it must be for a good reason. It turned out 2 of his best friends had just been killed in a car accident and he was having a hard time coping. He knew when I was 19 I was in a car accident and I was the only survivor and my 4 best friends from college were killed. So basically I logged out at the AN and went over to CF. I went right into his thread using another user name and I said "I am right here kiddo" because he knew me as "amie" and now I was logged in with another handle and I wanted to make sure he knew it was me. I sent a pm to Erwin, explained that I was in a debate on another site and that I was informed he was looking for me and I just came over to try to help him, so Erwin posted "welcome back you have my permission to stay"

so I stayed although I dont post there very often. I like some of the people and missed my friends (unworthyone, seebs, Brimshack, s0uljah, Freodin and others) there however I have always been drawn to people who think very differently than I and for some reason I gravitate towards those who are opposites from myself.
I like to know why people think the way they do, what makes them believe the things they believe in, and so on and so forth...That and I had already known Infinity and he suggested I should start posting here so I did...

and here I am...

Thanks for asking Demosthenes
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me anything...well almost

Amie~

seebs

In short, Amie is not the kind of person to write a whole group off just because *some* of them are mean. It's why we all love her.

Infinity Lover

For a group of Atheists, the people over at the AN sure are into religion and talking about Jesus and the Bible a lot. Amie was so getting picked on, it wasn't funny anymore. And stepping up in her defense was a sure way to get picked on too. (Amie perhaps would get a good giggle out of me mentioning JesusIsACorpse along with the word "Klootzak", or Chinacat with "Stomme teef", but both names leave kind of a dirty taste in my mouth.)

While Amie was posting over at CF, getting somewhat anoyed by the unfair moderation there, I told her some members there (Seesaw, SecularFuture) had signed up here, so she ended up coming back here to say hi to them in their welcome threads, and kinda stuck around in miscelanious discussions after that...

...and sure enough people here were glad to have her around.
(En ik natuurlijk ook lieve schat )

Hugo Holbling

Seconded. I wonder if anyone can think of another group that perhaps we shouldn't write off because of the actions of a minority?

Thanks for being a proof by counter-example, Amie.

Sephiroth

Thirded.

DarthMom

Hey there amie..I too and amy..angel75 over at CF. I too want to thank you and people like Seebs for reminding me to not be so judgemental against all christians. Lately I have tended to be as bad as the fundies who hate all us non believers...well anyway just wanted to say hello!

Demosthenes

Amie, thanks for replying! I'm always a sucker for people's stories and it struck me that you were still willing to interact with atheists even after being treated pretty lousy by one of the factions out there on the net.

seebs

Hmm. Perhaps Christians; I don't think the occasional friendly folks who claim to be Christian should get in the way of universal hatred of everything that Christianity has ever stood for.