Atheists Suck!

Atheist Suck! Yikes, that's insulting isn't it?

I was googling some topic yesterday and it took me to a blog of this title: Atheist Suck! It turns out, this band of young Christians were "fighting back" and "re-claiming YouTube" (good luck with that).

Apparently, one of their chief gripes is that when they engage in conversation with Atheists, they are invariable "cussed out." This blog took time to quote examples of such cussing, including asterisk and pound sign replacements for the middle characters of the curse words, which, apparently, reduces the sin of typing such morally charged ASCII.

I think one thing this young band of Christians over looks is that their name calling "Atheists Suck!" or using terms meant to demean the intelligence of the atheists, is right on the same level - just without the agreed upon curse words. It's just insults with the same purpose as being "cussed out."

This brought to mind a couple of points might escape the online neophytes.

When people believe something strongly, but they cannot articulate why, it causes frustration. When poked, the inarticulate must say something, so out comes an insult or some other enthusiastic ad hominem remark. I've seen it in my own children.

It's easy to hope and ask atheists and Christians to converse with more civility, but actually, we need to educate them. Address the root of the issue. Educate them to want to change minds with more knowledge and less force.