Andy Schlafly #fundie

Andy Schlafly #fundie conservapedia.com

Atheist bullying is a problem in many public schools, where student populations are becoming increasingly atheist or non-religious and are less likely to keep their lack of faith out of school discourse. Atheist students are commonly engaging in persecution of Christian students, encouraged by the out-spoken nature of the growing number of adherents of New Atheism, such as Richard Dawkins.

In serious cases, atheist bullying has lead to Christian students being pulled out of public schools to undergo home-schooling or private tuition, as their academic life has become intolerable.

Many school shootings are thought to be related to atheist bullying. The most infamous, the Columbine shooting, was partly perpetrated by an atheist.

It is feared that the rising number of militant atheist students will lead to more frequent - and deadly - school shootings in the future.

116 comments

old comment by Not Today

I'm in my 10th year of teaching and in that time I've had two students that were "out" as atheists. This is in Texas where being the wrong version of Christian is often enough to get you blacklisted so I'm sure there were more, but these were the two confident enough to let others know if asked. Those two students were two of the nicest, hardest working, and most ethical I've taught.

Over the time I taught these two students we talked several times about their thoughts on religion. Both had the attitude that they didn't really care what someone else believed as long as those beliefs didn't impose on the beliefs and rights of someone else.

Not saying that this proves that all atheist students are this way, but at least one like this proves that not all atheist students are bullying Christians.

old comment by shadkat

Ah...right. You know, I've never observed atheist bullying. My school was pretty cool about it all, I guess.

Once, my best friend stood up one day in Trig, and out of nowhere announces that there are plenty of signs in the Bible that the end times are growing near. (I wish I were making this up.) No one immediately started yelling obscenities or derogatory terms. No one beat her up after school. No one even complained to the principal. In fact, we all just looked at her, nodded uncomfortably, and when back to our classwork. The teacher didn't even say anything, just smiled vaguely. I think the worst my friend got were a few weird looks. Hell, she was even proud of herself, saying that God gave her strength to stand up and announce her faith like that.

I can't think of a more prime opportunity to engage in some so-called atheist bullying, and yet, nothing. I know not every place is the same. But still.

old comment by Mudak

I'd like to run with the Columbine shooting for a minute. There was an urban legend (that actually turned out not to be true) about one girl who was asked if she was a Christian and she said yes before Harris shot her in the face at point blank range. Even though the story turned out to be a fabrication, she is often -- even now more than a decade later -- praised by fundies as a near martyr for her beliefs.

While I don't believe either shooter ever formally declared himself to be an atheist, they weren't fundamentalists either, and their rage and depression that led up to that tragic day came from the ostracizing they got from the likes of those fundie students.

In other words, Mr. Schafly, the sweating of your soul can't wash the blood off your hands.

old comment by Cy

A genuine occurrence from my recent university seminar, where we were discussing a book with religious themes:

Tutor: Out of interest, who here is religious?
(The tutor raises his hand. One student raises her hand)
Religious Student: ... just me, then?
A Non-Religious Student Sitting Beside Her: Looks like it. Sorry.
(Tutor proceeds to discuss his thoughts on religion and literature for about 5-10 minutes, not actually saying anything offensive to the non-religious but skirting quite close at times)

Yes, how terribly we non-religious folk bullied that poor religious student! Daring to not believe in religion so that she was the only one putting her hand up!

old comment by breakerslion

It's gotten to the point where first, I just count the "weasel words".

"many" (Used twice. Meaning, "more than three" without proper examples or statistics.)

"are becoming" (As the great Miyagi-san might say, "they either are, or are not.")

"In serious cases ..." (Using anecdotal evidence admittedly outside the statistical norm.)

"It is feared" (By whom?)

Next, I try to construct a model of what he is describing. This one looks like:

"Mommy! I can't go to school any more because they're mean to me when I try to proselytize! I'm persecuted! I wanna be home schooled!" (smirk)

Last, I try to understand the faulty mental processes that could foist such drivel on the gullible.

Andy, I'm not normally concerned about pathological liars and their warped justifications and motivations, but... have you been tested for Trichinosis?

old comment by Xotan

"Atheist bullying is a problem in many public schools, where student populations are becoming increasingly atheist or non-religious and are less likely to keep their lack of faith out of school discourse."

=== Can I have sources for this information, please. I cannot simply take your word for it.

"Atheist students are commonly engaging in persecution of Christian students, encouraged by the out-spoken nature of the growing number of adherents of New Atheism, such as Richard Dawkins."

===As above.

"In serious cases, atheist bullying has lead to Christian students being pulled out of public schools to undergo home-schooling or private tuition, as their academic life has become intolerable."

=== Ah yes, 'home skooling'. That is probably why you spell 'led' as 'lead'. Get some spelling lessons - or do you think that spelling has something to do with that evil wizard Harry Potter? BTW, you still need to give sources for your assertion.

"Many school shootings are thought to be related to atheist bullying. The most infamous, the Columbine shooting, was partly perpetrated by an atheist."

===Cite, please. Oh, state your reasons why you think that it had nothing to do with the obscene love affair some Americans (many fundamentalist)have with the gun.

"It is feared that the rising number of militant atheist students will lead to more frequent - and deadly - school shootings in the future."

===Using the impersonal mode ("It is...") does not lend gravity to you contention. Sources would make it more worthy of attention. As it stands, it is valueless.

old comment by Em Finn

"New Atheism" is a term coined by the fundies and their carers for those atheists who aren't inclined to shut up and back down when faced with the superior numbers of the religious ignorant.

Any atheist who responds openly to a religious claim with accurate rebuttal and/or due mockery is covered, as are all atheist authors who mock the religious fairy tales.

As are any who call for legal accountability for rank upon rank of paedophile enablers in the catholic hierarchy.

Dawkins and PZ would be the names most users of the term would point to as examples, but every atheist on here who would openly tell a YEC nutjob that they aren't allowed teach their idiocy in a public school science class would qualify.

Essentially, "New Atheist" means "Atheist who believes atheism is a more accurate/sustainable./valid/rational world-view than zombie-mythological-Jew worship".

old comment by Burning Stake

I would say that all bullying is a problem in schools-many of the bullies being themselves Christians.

Look at the documented school-shootings on this page and tell me that all of these shootings were caused by atheists.

*sigh* There's a reason I've been gone from this site for so long-yelling at people I've never met on the Internet and knowingly raising my stress level probably isn't really a productive use of my time.

Posting arguably useful links with comments, OTOH... ;)

BTW: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone who celebrates it!

ETA: shadkat, if I may be so bold: Does this friend still believe that we are living in the End Times, do you know, or has she changed mind after leaving high school and maturing? I know not everyone changes their views after moving out in the world, but some do.

old comment by Pule Thamex

All who are havering about their religious convictions need only be encouraged to consider this obvious tripe when they want to make a decision one way or the other.

In all seriousness, if you want to be an atheist you need only peruse this Conservapedia page to see the blatant lies flow so effortlessly before your eyes. Just observe the desperation of unethical and immoral dunderheads.

Evangelism is now in a sorry state and the blatant lying, the hopeless jumping through hoops, the despicable spinning and blundering fatuousness tell a tale of forlorn helplessness dying in the withering light of truth and honesty. There has never been a better time to turn aside from the miserable path of darkness and to hold your head high as an atheist.

Come one, come all, throw off all your doubts and let humanism be your guiding light. Do not be beholden to these asinine men who would beguile you into their deluded and ultimately deranged world of mysticism.

old comment by Prayster

PRAYER FOR THE DESPERATE

O Lord please help us, your thick plonkers, as we flail helplessly in the mire of mystic codswallop and are reduced to the dismal level of the brazenly lying schoolboy by the harsh light of reality.

Dear Floating Father our threats of an eternity spent in your torture chambers fail to convince because we have no credibility and behave continually as morons.

Believe me, O Mighty Invisible Saviour, we always work hard at disseminating untruths and in displaying ourselves as cretinous beasts who slaver and snarl angrily at the slightest taunt. O Magisterial Cloudster, we beg thee, despite our cowering and slavish demeanor to your slightest grunt, we are not making any headway with the atheist horde and fear for the stagnation of your unwholesome word as it causes either disgust or laughter at its hearing.

Dear Dad Of Infinity, I am a suitably filthy low-life, and a particularly craven tosspot, and it is my wish that the general mass of humanity sink to my abysmal level of mystical dross, that we may all cavort with the worms and look up in envy at the belly of the mighty serpent as we waste away our lives dreaming of one day being dirty creeping bacteria in your anal crater. O Heaven and Wonders. O fabulous poignancy. We are saved.

Amen

old comment by Football guy

As the varsity quarterback for the school football team, and also track star, I was constantly bullied by the nerds. Believe me, the chess club is absolutely ruthless, and on more than one occasion, I was convinced not to give them swirlies through the power of logic and reason. Another time, one cornered me in the hall with a chess board, and proceeded to checkmate me in less than 20 moves. The entire fucking school watched and laughed, nobody lifting a finger in my defense. And don't even get me started on the math club! Once, I integrated when I should have differentiated, and I never heard the end of it! "ha ha, he doesn't even know an asymptote from a hole in the graph!" I still have traumatic memories.

So I can imagine the atheist bullies have done to Christians what all the nerd bullies have done to the jocks...

old comment by dionysus

Atheist bullying is a problem in many public schools, where student populations are becoming increasingly atheist or non-religious and are less likely to keep their lack of faith out of school discourse. Atheist students are commonly engaging in persecution of Christian students, encouraged by the out-spoken nature of the growing number of adherents of New Atheism, such as Richard Dawkins.

In serious cases, atheist bullying has lead to Christian students being pulled out of public schools to undergo home-schooling or private tuition, as their academic life has become intolerable.

Challenging Christian beliefs=/=bullying otherwise witnessing counts as bullying too as you're questioning other people's beliefs.

Many school shootings are thought to be related to atheist bullying. The most infamous, the Columbine shooting, was partly perpetrated by an atheist.

It is thought? By who, you? And so what if Columbine was done by an atheist? One person=/=every atheist in the world otherwise I can claim that a few pedophile priests means that all Christians are pedophiles.

It is feared that the rising number of militant atheist students will lead to more frequent - and deadly - school shootings in the future.

I just want to say FUCK YOU here. I hate propaganda, but this is the most vicious type there is; one where you make your sheep fear another group and threaten their children. That's when atrocities are committed because people feel justified stamping out a threat. If anything, it'll be the fault of people like you when there's a school shooting where someone preemptively kills as many 'dangerous' atheists as they can. FUCK YOU.

old comment by Doubting Thomas

student populations are becoming increasingly atheist or non-religious and are less likely to keep their lack of faith out of school discourse.

Becoming outspoken about your atheism is not bullying. But to Christians, anyone demonstrating a lack of faith is persecution.

In serious cases, atheist bullying has lead to Christian students being pulled out of public schools to undergo home-schooling or private tuition

Most likely due to overbearing religious parents who are afraid little Johnny isn't going to get the proper religious indoctrination in his school and/or exposure to kids who don't believe the same way his parents do.

Many school shootings are thought to be related to atheist bullying.

In this case many = 0.

The most infamous, the Columbine shooting, was partly perpetrated by an atheist.

No, it was not. That famous story about the girl who was shot after she told the gunmen she believed in Jesus was made up.

It is feared that the rising number of militant atheist students will lead to more frequent - and deadly - school shootings in the future.

By idiots who don't know any different and want to deliberately lie about atheism being the cause of school shootings.

old comment by Dr. Shrinker

@ Kay

Relying on science to answer questions instead of ancient, superstitious drivel IS a superior way to acquire and apply knowledge. Case in point, the computer you used to make your post. It didn't come about from prayer.

As for the rest of your post, you claim not to be a Christian, but you are clearly as self-righteous and blind as any fundamentalist I know. You seem repulsed by the idea of gay couples having children. Care to tell us why other people's families are any concern of yours? As a non-Christian, you can't even rely on the tired, insipid line about how God made Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve.

And as far as Christian families being more stable, don't make me laugh! Have you ever checked the divorce rates for evangelical Christian families? Have you ever researched the amount of spousal and child abuse in fundamentalist families? Try doing so and see how far fundamentalist propaganda diverges from reality (and recall that reality versus superstition thing I mentioned in my first paragraph).

old comment by Anon-e-moose

@kay

"im not a christian but I completly support christians because of their mral values."

There's Christians who are commenters here in FSTDT. And I support them (just as there's LGBT people here whom I support, even though I'm straight). Precisely because they're not like fundies, and like we Atheists, call out said fundies on their bullshit. The old saying 'Those who don't want their beliefs laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs' exists for a reason. Said Christians here in FSTDT know this, and don't feel their beliefs are threatened by such. They're secure in their faith. Because they're not fundies. And more power to them, says I.

"Athiests do bully people of different religion because they think they are superior in knowledge."

I hereby challenge you to find just one quote in all of FSTDT's quote archives by a Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Buddhist, Sufi Muslim etc, even a Freezoner (non-LRH Co$ $cientologist, or 'Squirrel'). If you can't, then you've destroyed your own argument.

"IF the christian world speaks out against athiesm then every other religion will follow in their footsteps."

The Quakers, Unitarian Universalists, Church of England, Sufi Muslims etc haven't to date. They're still here. They don't bother people, they're not bothered by other people. Like I say, there's Christians here in FSTDT. You do the maths.

"atheism has no mral values"

'Treat others as you would want them to treat you'. 'Commit acts of gratuitous kindness'. 'Be good for goodness' sake'.

I wouldn't like to be killed/harmed, nor have my property stolen/damaged, so why should I want to do the same to others?

And obeying the laws of the land. See? All the morals you'll ever want. Certainly Humanistic and Atheistic. No religion required.

"in their house there will be gays, lesbians and two dads or two mums. while in a christina household their will be a mother, a father and brothers and sisters which will be a stable family for children to grow up."

Homophobic bigotry and non-sequiturs for Jebus much, mm-kay? And if you're not a Christian, why so much concern for Christian 'morals'*, mm-kay kay?

*- Christian 'morals':

Jim Bakker (stealing)
Jimmy Swaggart (adultery)
Ted Faggard (hypocrisy)
Kent Hovind (tax evasion)
Tony Alamo (repeated child rape)
Timothy McVeigh (terrorism)
Scott Roeder (murder)

Oh yes, shining examples of 'Christian' morals, alright! [/sarcasm]

But then, someone whose command of English spelling is like yours, who thinks your 'opinion' is worth being listened to, is seriously mistaken. As they're clearly not intelligent enough to formulate a valid opinion in the first place. It certainly calls into question your initial claim that "im not a christian".

Poe/troll much, mm-kay kay?

One more thing, kay: calling fundies out on their lies and bullshit isn't 'persecution'; certainly not 'bullying'. It's impossible. How can it be, when it's merely stating facts that contradicts (and destroys) said fundies' lies & bullshit? After all, I've met and talked with a survivor of the Nazis' ultimate death factory: Auschwitz.

You know nothing of 'Persecution'. Least of all 'bullying'.

old comment by Angua

Look, I'm pretty sure that sometime, somewhere, an atheist bullied another student for holding religious beliefs. I say this mostly because when taking every student who has ever been in a public school for all the time there have ever been public schools into account, you end up with a fairly long amount of time and a lot of people. In all those people, I am willing to bet that there has been an atheist stupid enough and nasty enough to bully a fellow student for believing in God.

However, I think that most atheists would condemn that action. Bullying others is simply wrong, plain and simple.

I remember being afraid to admit I was an atheist when I was in middle school and for the first few years of high school because I was afraid of losing my friends.

The only bullying I ever witnessed was carried out against students because they were fat or because they were gay (or at least other students thought they were). Now, tell me that the bullying of gay students in America has absolutely nothing at all to do with certain interpretations of the Bible. And do it with a straight face. If you can do that, you are either one of the best liars in history or one of the most hopelessly naive people on the face of the Earth.

old comment by Adrian

@Mycoid Mike:
"Sparkly Vampire students are commonly engaging in persecution of Lycanthrope students, encouraged by the out-spoken nature of the growing number of adherents of New Sparkly Vampirism, such as Stephenie Meyer.

My version is equally plausible, Andy."

Hell, more plausible: Twilight fanatics are famous for being downright vicious (and even sometimes physically abusive) toward those who don't give a crap about/don't like their precious wankfiction....

@kay:
"im not a christian but I completly support christians because of their mral values. Athiests do bully people of different religion because they think they are superior in knowledge."

Well, my understanding is that verifiable/provable/demonstrable knowledge IS superior to "I believe this because my imaginary friend in the sky said it to illiterate goatherds thousands of years ago", yes.
It still isn't very nice to make (unprovoked) personal attacks against the delusional or the brainwashed, but there are jackasses in every group, particularly among teens/kids.

old comment by Adrian

"IF the christian world speaks out against athiesm then every other religion will follow in their footsteps."

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Reality check, Kay: the moderates of every religion would ignore your call to an anti-atheists crusade/inquisition, and the fundies would soon be killing each other over who should lead. And if you did manage to get something started, well, congratulations, you're now a terrorist: send me a postcard from Gitmo when you get there... :P

"atheism has no mral values,"

Proof, once again, that even stopped clocks are right twice per day: indeed, atheism has no moral values, because atheism is a position about the existence of gods/a god, nothing more or less. Even if your claim that you are not a christer is true, you betray a religious mentality, arbitrarily linking morality and religiousness.
Just because atheism doesn't provide a moral code doesn't mean that atheists do not follow one: you can't really function in society without one. Simply, our moral code is usually a secular one founded on reasoned ethics. I, for one, find this infinitely superior to blindly following a mess of time-distorted tribal traditions and customs and rules made up for their own benefit by whatever group used to be in power and calling it "moral" or "Gawd's word".

"in their house there will be gays, lesbians and two dads or two mums."

And that's terrible. Nearly as terrible as Lex Luthor stealing 40 cakes.

"while in a christina household their will be a mother, a father and brothers and sisters which will be a stable family for children to grow up."

See Dr. Shrinker's rebuttal. Some families will be stable and loving, some won't: it has nothing to do with the faith(s) or the sexual orientation of the members of these families, and all to do with the individuals.

Well, I guess that's not entirely true: fundamentalism has a well-documented tendency to create pretty fucked up families... (cf. the Phelps clan)

old comment by Anon-e-moose

@Adrian

"And that's terrible. Nearly as terrible as Lex Luthor stealing 40 cakes."

image

When everyone was looking, Ranpha Franboise took forty cats. She took forty cats. That's as many as four tens, and that's a lot of pussy.

X3 =^_^=

(sorry, but couldn't resist it!)

"Hell, more plausible: Twilight fanatics are famous for being downright vicious (and even sometimes physically abusive) toward those who don't give a crap about/don't like their precious wankfiction...."

The anime series "Rosario to Vampire" & "Dance in the Vampire Bund" and the manga "Chibi Vampire", "Tsukuyomi - Moon Phase" & "Vampire Doll" >>>>> "Twiglet" (as film reviewer Mark Kermode refers to "Twilight"). Deal with it, fangirls!

old comment by Canadiest

"The Virginia Tech massacre was a school shooting that took place on April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States. Seung-Hui Cho shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others"

I remember Christian Groups, sites and christian tv hosts going all " Victims of the Atheistic society" and "yet again, a shocking example of kids in this secular society" immediately after the shootings. Before any concrete evidence or details had been released they immediately went into rumour-mill propaganda to lay this at the feet of Atheists or non-Christians.

By 2007 they had already seen that most school shootings had involved Christian raised kids in the most religious states and had begun damage control as fast as they could on any new ones. And yet again, days later came the evidence that Cho had been raised in the church and many months later that he had a Jesus complex.

It works for them to, years later and most the fundie flocks think all school shootings are directly related to some God-free education practices and that Christians never act out scenarios like this. No amount of evidence, court records or notes from the shooters will sway them because their preachers and fundie personalities have told them it's anti-God mindsets every time.

Andy Schlafly #fundie conservapedia.com

116 comments

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