Can we agree on this? Biggest problem in the world today.

[teh_gunslinger]

People. Very simple.

But seriously, nationalism and patriotism. It's poison in the form of words and ideas. Anyone who defines himself as a patriot is dangerous.

/very black and white statement.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Maybe we are fooled by the fact that the English language does not capitalize the word as it does every other creed. The Buddhist, the Hindu, the Christian, the Anglican, the Taoist, are all corrected and capitalized by my word automatic corrector. Not the atheist. This small "a" gives him the illusion that he is not "like the believers", that he is of a different, more mature breed.

mate, do you have any idea how unbelievably retarded that statement is, holy crap the spell checker is conspiring against religion!! You are an idiot.

Taking what someone says out of context and then pretending to not understand the message conveyed in it is somewhat rude. Unless, of course, you didn't understand what I was saying, in which case your best course of action would probably be to ask me for clarity.

 

[traceur_]

Maybe we are fooled by the fact that the English language does not capitalize the word as it does every other creed. The Buddhist, the Hindu, the Christian, the Anglican, the Taoist, are all corrected and capitalized by my word automatic corrector. Not the atheist. This small "a" gives him the illusion that he is not "like the believers", that he is of a different, more mature breed.

mate, do you have any idea how unbelievably retarded that statement is, holy crap the spell checker is conspiring against religion!! You are an idiot.

Taking what someone says out of context and then pretending to not understand the message conveyed in it is somewhat rude. Unless, of course, you didn't understand what I was saying, in which case your best course of action would probably be to ask me for clarity.

as you wish, I request clarification.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

Maybe we are fooled by the fact that the English language does not capitalize the word as it does every other creed. The Buddhist, the Hindu, the Christian, the Anglican, the Taoist, are all corrected and capitalized by my word automatic corrector. Not the atheist. This small "a" gives him the illusion that he is not "like the believers", that he is of a different, more mature breed.

mate, do you have any idea how unbelievably retarded that statement is, holy crap the spell checker is conspiring against religion!! You are an idiot.

Taking what someone says out of context and then pretending to not understand the message conveyed in it is somewhat rude. Unless, of course, you didn't understand what I was saying, in which case your best course of action would probably be to ask me for clarity.

as you wish, I request clarification.

The post centred on the fact that atheism, today, doesn't see itself as a belief system. To most atheists, it is simply the belief that theology isn't accurate in anything more than a symbolic way, and that religion and belief is not a part of their lives. But to some, it is viewed as a kind of 'cleansing' of what is an (according to these types) anachronistic and backward way of thinking that is ultimately destructive to the person holding the beliefs. This is why they aggressively try to bring everyone around to their way of thinking, because they have the absolute knowledge that they have it all right and anyone who thinks anything different need to be 'saved' from their own foolishness.

The only difference between this kind of person and the fundy Christians telling me I am on my way to Hell [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.103826.1648540] (which as you can see, I find equally distasteful) is the particular belief system in question. I was just saying it in a more flowery way earlier. I wasn't saying Websters has a conspiracy against religions or anything.

 

[oktalist]

War, poverty, food shortage, preventable disease, energy crisis, climate change, moral vacuum... all these things are the results of capitalism, which is therefore my "biggest problem in the world."

And then there are all the people (myself included) who would try to use these convergent crises to argue for a restructuring of the world's political and economic system. Unfortunately the ones shouting the loudest are the ones in it just for themselves, the ones who would seek to control the rest of us. So maybe that fact is the biggest problem.