Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Automaton · 05-19-2002, 03:45 AM

<a href="http://petitecute.home.att.net/atheismp.htm" target="_blank">http://petitecute.home.att.net/atheismp.htm</a> (Thanks to Krieger for the link.)

It saddens me to think that people this dull witted and hateful could actually exist. To deconstruct this little diatribe would be almost to give it more merit than it is worth, but I will do it anyway.

Prologue

Quote:

�And the people bowed and prayed to the neon god they made.
And the sign flashed out its warning in the words that it was forming.
And the sign said, �The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls, and whispered in the sound of silence.��
Paul Simon
�The Sound of Silence�

When Rhymin� Simon wrote the above words, he was envisioning a society of empty people, people who wouldn�t listen to others, people content with accepting at face value the status quo. Those with insight, those who broke away from the mundane norm, were pushed out of the mainstream, their words reduced to the status of graffiti.

Atheists�those who say they disbelieve in the existence of a Supreme Being�often are convinced that they are living in such a society. They see themselves as the lone voices of reason in a population that is every bit as deaf, dumb and blind as those depicted in Simon�s poetic lyrics.

Wow, she starts her off with a bang! A thinly veiled accusation that atheists have a persecution complex reveals the insecurities in her own belief system. Indeed, if this were just a sick distortion of the way the world really is, perhaps she'd like to wear a t-shirt declaring atheism, just for one day, as she walks through the Bible Belt, or a country run by Islamic fundamentalists. Why do the majority of Christian forums, especially those that lean to the right (almost every forum run by creationist organizations, Baptist Board, I Love Jesus, etc. etc.), consistently ban and censor any and all opposing viewpoints, whereas the majority of atheist forums remain as totally open to the public as possible? Why are these true-believer Christians so afraid to hold their cherished beliefs up to any scrutiny, whereas atheists invite any and all discourse? The answer, to anyone with a glimmer of reasonableness, obvious.

Quote:

That was what I expected to find when I first ventured into the world of atheist message boards.

It's good that she knew exactly how atheists were going to think and act before she actually had contact with them. It's amazing how the cult mindset works.

Quote:

My mission was to learn everything I could about atheists�their beliefs, their attitudes, their general outlook on life.

Why bother? When Abby Aaron and Abby Aaron alone has the absolute set of the Truth(tm), what would be the point of learning about the poor deluded fools who have chosen to deny this Truth?

Quote:

I discovered my initial impression was right;

It can't be your initial impression if you conceived of it before you even encountered the atheists.

Quote:

they do, indeed, cast themselves in the roll of the righteous minority.

Quote:

But I was surprised�startled, in fact�at what else I learned. In the series of commentaries that will follow, I will attempt to describe to you the world I encountered.

"Describe" is one word you could use... "Obfuscate" and "distort" would be particularly more accurate.

Quote:

Before we go any further, I feel it�s important for you to understand that I am not a reporter; I am a commentator. I express opinions based on what I see and hear. I don�t toss the reader the results of my research and ask him to decide for himself. The only evidence I present is that which is necessary for you to understand my point of view, not necessarily agree with it. This is especially relevant in this series of commentaries.

You are trying to persuade people do adopt the viewpoint that atheists are crazy, evil people, without so much as a scrap of evidence. This is not commentrary, it is vicious propaganda.

Quote:

Internet message boards aren�t inhabited by public figures. It would be cruel and unfair to name names and to directly quote material from their posts, which might also cause legal problems. Instead, I will describe my experiences in general terms and, when the need arises, paraphrase the words of people to whom I am referring. For the same reasons, I will also refrain from revealing the names and URL�s of the boards I visited.

How incredibly convenient. You expect us to swallow these extraordinary (not to mention libelous) claims that everyone at atheist forums wants to rape and murder you, when you refuse to provide any scrap of evidence at all?

Quote:

I met some very nice people on those boards. I made a few friends and, as you will soon see, lost a few. Upon the posting of these commentaries, I might lose a few more. But I�m confident that the majority will understand and appreciate the fact that I must tell it as I saw it.

And I can appreciate your need to lie. And lie you do...

Quote:

The atheist owner of one of the boards I visited once said, �The purpose of this site is to please atheists, not Christians.� Well, the purpose of my site is to tell the truth, regardless of who it might or might not please. There�s nothing in these commentaries that I would not say to atheists on their own boards, and in most cases, I�ve already done just that.

Now who's being persecuted? The brave and mighty Christian soldier Abby, fighting off the evil atheist hordes who want to destroy the TRUTH at any cost.

Quote:

Years ago, a reporter asked a popular confrontational talk show host if he felt the guests on his shows were accurate representatives of average citizens. �No,� he answered, without hesitation. �Take, for example, a teenaged girl who is dating her recently-divorced, fifty-year-old step-father. In the first place, such relationships are rare, so you�re dealing with a very small pool to begin with. Secondly, very few of them would admit that such an affair was going on. Thirdly, only an extremely small fraction of them would be willing to go on national TV and talk about it. So, already, you�re three degrees away from the average person.�

Oh, the immortal words of Jerry Springer.

Quote:

Likewise, it would be unrealistic to say that the atheists who frequent Internet message boards are representative of atheists around the world. Yet, they are the ones who have stepped out of the closet and have made themselves available for public scrutiny. For that reason, I would like for you to remember that the conclusions stated herein are based on those atheists, alone. Hereafter, when I refer to �most atheists,� please remember that I am speaking about most of the atheists I have encountered on message boards.

Actually "most atheists" refers to some bizarre caricature of an atheist she had dreamed up in her head, and has little, if anything, to do with the ones in real life, or even those that choose to voice their opinions on a message board.

Quote:

Now, please come with me as we check out the subway walls . . .

. . . Ignorance awaits!

Automaton · 05-19-2002, 04:46 AM

PART 1 - The Message Board Jungle

Quote:

I think it might help your understanding of this series of commentaries if I were to give you a brief description of the nature of message boards on the Internet.

I assure you, your site does nothing to help understanding. Abby, you are truly clueless.

Quote:

If you already have experience reading and posting on such forums, you�ll know what I�m talking about.

Well I have, and I still don't know what you're on about.

Quote:

If you�ve never done those things, the best advice I can give you is: don�t.

Why not? The only reason you offer is a sham, and it exposes the sinister truth of why you wrote this tabloid-quality article in the first place - to demonize atheists as much as possible. You're afraid that if enquiring minds actually do go and visit the forums you talk of, they'll see that atheists are nothing like what you portray them to be, and everything you write is basically a lie. Then, heaven forbid, they might to start thinking for themselves (the ultimite sin in Christian doctrine.)

Quote:

I�m not trying to frighten anyone, but message boards can be unpleasant places and, in some cases, dangerous. Visiting one is sort of like walking into a bar in an unknown town. All kinds of people are there, people you don�t know. The guy you cuddle up to might be the friendliest fellow in town�or the resident psycho. On Internet forums, he might even be both. This is because most message boards have no way to prevent people from posting under different names.

This is incredibly stupid! There is no inherent physical danger from visiting and posting on a message board at all, unless you willingly choose to reveal personal information about yourself! There is simply no comparison to actual physical contact with other human beings. If you reveal your personal information willfully, it is your own fault if it gets into the wrong hands, not the message board's.

Quote:

One day, early in my experiences on forums, I jumped into the middle of a verbal fist fight between a young Christian girl and a handful of mean-spirited and foul-mouthed atheists. The latter seemed more interested in hurling obscene insults and vulgar propositions at the girl than debating with her. When I stepped in, the men seemed surprised that I would defend the girl. Even more puzzling was the fact that they seemed to be sending coded signals to each other, and that the girl seemed less than appreciative of my coming to her aid. It was finally revealed to me that the girl was not really a girl, but another guy�a guy who wasn�t really a Christian, either. He was one of those types who get their jollies by pretending to be people they aren�t.

Ahahahahahahahaha!

This is the funnient stuff I have read in a long time! I can't believe how ridiculous this is. If one is to believe Abby, there was a group of male atheists, abusing and sexually propositioning another male atheist, who was pretending to be a Christian girl, when they were all fully aware (But "talking in code". She probably thought all the LOLs and ROFLs resultant at her stupidity were some evil form of evil atheist nazi crypto-communication.) that "she" was really another atheist male. WHY?!?

Why would they do this? Was it just a massive conspiracy to bait Abby into an evil homosexual heretic orgy? It just boggles the mind that anyone could actually think this way. And that's not even the best part. Her incredible ignorance gets even funnier, as we delve into how the incredible detective "smoked out" the evil-doing liar!

Quote:

This was confirmed to me through something called an ISP number.

An ISP number!!! Hahahahaha! It's an IP number, there is no S! IP (internet protocol) is totally different to ISP (internet service provider). The former deals with the protocol in which messages sent over the internet must conform to, and part of this is providing a unique number to every computer connected to it. The latter is the service that an individual computer uses to connect to the internet (as doing it directly is impossible, for technical issues that I won't go into here.) This is some quality scholarship.

Quote:

When you post on an Internet message board�or sometimes when you are merely visiting one�the site makes a quick note of your ISP number. That�s a series of digits that identifies you as being a customer of a particular Internet service provider, i.e., AT&T, MSN, AOL, etc.

Wrong, your IP number deals with the subnets at differing levels, and also the unique number assigned to your own connection (usually, it is something like country.ISP.arbitrary - your computer.arbitrary - your computer, but it can differ depending on the size of your country and ISP, and other factors.) Unless one knows the ISP subnet numbers by heart, the only way you can know what ISP the person is on from their IP is by accessing dns servers. This reveals the hostmark, which will be something to the effect of number.number.network.ISP.com.

Quote:

Your ISP number is sort of like a fingerprint�it doesn�t indicate your name, but when the numbers are fed into a special program, it can reveal the name of your Internet service provider and, sometimes, your geographic location.

This "special program" simply does a dns lookup, then parses the hostmark for identifying characteristics (for example, the top level domain name will usually reveal the ISP).

Quote:

The number follows you around the World Wide Web and doesn�t change-

Follows you around... *snort*... er, interesting... terminology there.

Quote:

even if you use a different computer�provided you continue to use the same Internet service provider.

Nonsense. Very few people are awarded static IP addresses (even if you're on broadband), the only reason to have one would be if you're running a server of some kind, which isn't the average Joe of course.

Quote:

There�s nothing sinister about this; Web sites use the number to help identify you and keep others from stealing your identity.

Wow, those sure are helpful web sites! Shucks, and I don't even have anything to give back to them for being so nice and helping stop people from stealing my identity!

Quote:

Most message boards will keep your ISP number private when you post, but some of them will print the number right along with your message, where everybody else on the board can see it. The board on which I battled to defend the Christian �girl� was one of those that posted ISP numbers. A quick examination revealed that �her� ISP number matched those of some of the other men on the board�which confirmed to me that �she� was a phony.

Hahahaha, good job, Sherlock! What you failed to note, what with your incredible powers of deduction aside, is that ISP's like AOL give out completely random IP's (except for the AOL subnets of course), so it is impossible to figure out whether or not two IP's belong to the same user! So you didn't reveal anything dark secrets after all.

Quote:

(Note: I do not see�nor have access to�the ISP numbers of people who visit my Web site or leave entries in my guest book. Those numbers are kept under lock and key by AT&T. I might also point out that every piece of e-mail that you send contains your ISP number, which is often in plain view of the person who receives your message. This is a good thing. If you ever receive a threatening message, the authorities can sometimes track down the culprit by tracing the ISP number on the offending e-mail.)

Some more Handy Hints from the Abby Aaron School of Computing Knowledge.

Quote:

The �girl� I defended on that message board later threatened to rape and murder me. Several atheists on other boards have made indirect threats against me, telling me what they�or �somebody else��could� do to me �if they wanted to,� i.e., stake out the homes of my friends until I show up to visit them, or torture them until they reveal my whereabouts, etc.

I hope you alterted the authorities then. Stuff like this shouldn't be taken lightly. Oh, yeah, I forgot the police don't look too kindly apon people blatantly and flat-out lying.

Quote:

I mention these instances only because I want you to know the kind of things you can get involved in when you enter the realm of Internet forums. I was never in any danger, but most young girls who frequent message boards and chat rooms don�t have the kind of security I do. That�s another reason I would advise against posting on any forum or message board.

Fear mongering is so easy, isn't it?

Quote:

So, the important things to remember about Internet forums as you read these commentaries is: (1) you never know if the person with whom you are conversing is who he says he is; (2) you leave an ISP �fingerprint��visible or invisible to others�every time you post; and (3) you run the risk of being physically threatened.

You'd probably get more respect if you treated people like adults that can look after themselves instead of little children who can't make informed choices.

Quote:

Since atheist message boards are places where heated, emotionally-charged debates often take place, the above three points are especially relevant.

Oh yes, of course. Blame it all on those nasty, emotionally-charged male pervert atheists.

missus_gumby · 05-19-2002, 05:15 AM

<a href="http://www.geocities.com/midwesternsunset/abbieairhead.htm" target="_blank">Abby Airhead</a>

Automaton · 05-19-2002, 05:17 AM

The rest coming soon...

Automaton · 05-19-2002, 05:43 AM

ROFLMAO missus_gumby, that is damn hilarious!

godlessheathenpagan · 05-19-2002, 05:56 AM

Scanned through the whole thing. Didn't have time to read it because I have a toddler who demands my attention.

So, Miss Abby thinks we all do drugs and brag about doing them. I have looked at these forums for a while and have seen no refereces to drugs. Have I missed them?

I have never done drugs in my life, however most of my friend who are either christian or nominally christian have. Can I draw the broad conclusion that ALL christians do drugs from my personal information? If I did that, I would be burned at the stake.

Also, because a few priests have abused children, can I draw the conclusion that all priest and religious leaders abuse children? No, I can't. Because I don't know all priests or religious leaders personally or anything about thier sex-lives. (BTW, I am very sorry for the victims of the abuse and wish the people who did these things tothem would rot in jail for a long time.)

With these two examples, I cannot even conclude that most christians do drugs or most preists abuse children. They are just individuals and not representative of the whole classs of people.

However, Miss Abby thinks that because a few athiests talked about drugs on the forum or where ever, "Most atheists" do drugs. She does not even provide proof that atheists talked about drugs. How convenient.

As most of my friends say when someone says something totally stupid and off the wall:

Huh.(Not a question)

And they leave it at that.

GHP

JL · 05-19-2002, 06:11 AM

I skimmed the first half dozen pages or so of the site... it's so sad to think this lady is for real I can't even laugh. I'm waiting for your commentary on the rest Automaton, I see you've only scratched the surface.

Gar · 05-19-2002, 08:24 AM

I'm going to throw up. It is depressing that someone could be that moronic. The part about science really got to me. The classic argument of the unwashed masses that if most people do it, it must be right.

And according to her, most people in the world understand how science works, and therefore god does not contradict science.

Disgusting

Oxidizing Material · 05-19-2002, 08:39 AM

Quote:

So, Miss Abby thinks we all do drugs and brag about doing them. I have looked at these forums for a while and have seen no refereces to drugs. Have I missed them?

Yes. But that's okay, you were probably blinded while thinking of homosexuality over listening to evil secular music that screams of how to rape young Christian girls.

godlessheathenpagan · 05-19-2002, 08:48 AM

Me:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, Miss Abby thinks we all do drugs and brag about doing them. I have looked at these forums for a while and have seen no refereces to drugs. Have I missed them?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oxidizing Materials:

Yes. But that's okay, you were probably blinded while thinking of homosexuality over listening to evil secular music that screams of how to rape young Christian girls.

I forget, is it burn, pillage rape, or the other way around?

Seriously, I wish some of these people would look at what they are saying and substitute "Odin", "Zeus" or any other god, as see how silly they are.

GHP

Thread Tools	Search this Thread
Show Printable Version	Search this Thread: Advanced Search

05-19-2002, 05:15 AM	#3
missus_gumby Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: UK Posts: 1,898	<a href="http://www.geocities.com/midwesternsunset/abbieairhead.htm" target="_blank">Abby Airhead</a>

05-19-2002, 05:17 AM	#4
Automaton Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 717	The rest coming soon...

05-19-2002, 05:43 AM	#5
Automaton Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 717	ROFLMAO missus_gumby, that is damn hilarious!

05-19-2002, 05:56 AM	#6
godlessheathenpagan Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 12	Scanned through the whole thing. Didn't have time to read it because I have a toddler who demands my attention. So, Miss Abby thinks we all do drugs and brag about doing them. I have looked at these forums for a while and have seen no refereces to drugs. Have I missed them? I have never done drugs in my life, however most of my friend who are either christian or nominally christian have. Can I draw the broad conclusion that ALL christians do drugs from my personal information? If I did that, I would be burned at the stake. Also, because a few priests have abused children, can I draw the conclusion that all priest and religious leaders abuse children? No, I can't. Because I don't know all priests or religious leaders personally or anything about thier sex-lives. (BTW, I am very sorry for the victims of the abuse and wish the people who did these things tothem would rot in jail for a long time.) With these two examples, I cannot even conclude that most christians do drugs or most preists abuse children. They are just individuals and not representative of the whole classs of people. However, Miss Abby thinks that because a few athiests talked about drugs on the forum or where ever, "Most atheists" do drugs. She does not even provide proof that atheists talked about drugs. How convenient. As most of my friends say when someone says something totally stupid and off the wall: Huh.(Not a question) And they leave it at that. GHP

05-19-2002, 06:11 AM	#7
JL Regular Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Mawkish Virtue, NC Posts: 151	I skimmed the first half dozen pages or so of the site... it's so sad to think this lady is for real I can't even laugh. I'm waiting for your commentary on the rest Automaton, I see you've only scratched the surface.

05-19-2002, 08:24 AM	#8
Gar Regular Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Boston, Mass Posts: 347	I'm going to throw up. It is depressing that someone could be that moronic. The part about science really got to me. The classic argument of the unwashed masses that if most people do it, it must be right. And according to her, most people in the world understand how science works, and therefore god does not contradict science. Disgusting

05-19-2002, 08:48 AM	#10
godlessheathenpagan Junior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: St. Louis, MO Posts: 12	Me: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, Miss Abby thinks we all do drugs and brag about doing them. I have looked at these forums for a while and have seen no refereces to drugs. Have I missed them? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oxidizing Materials: Yes. But that's okay, you were probably blinded while thinking of homosexuality over listening to evil secular music that screams of how to rape young Christian girls. I forget, is it burn, pillage rape, or the other way around? Seriously, I wish some of these people would look at what they are saying and substitute "Odin", "Zeus" or any other god, as see how silly they are. GHP

Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The archives are read only.