7 killed in Sikh temple shooting in Wisconsin

Point taken.

Hawaiian Shirt wrote:

Jay/Cris wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

C'mon, wouldn't you like to confirm that Fred Phelps is gay?

No. That would make me feel sympathetic for him, and I'd have to start seeing him as a complex human being. I'd rather keep him as an inherently stupid and grossly, inhumanly insensitive villain.

Hey man watch it are you saying gay people can't be inhumane villains?

bonus: Hell I'd argue that he's a complex human being as he is now. I mean shit how much psychological damage does a single person have to have to be that damn angry at EVERYTHING? Constantly too, the fucker doesn't let up.

Of course he is. Royally fucked up, I'd say. However, his current level of complexity, I can still relatively easily vilify him in my head. If I knew he were closeted, I'd have a harder time doing that.

myeerah wrote:

Chris91 wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

(c'mon, wouldn't you like to confirm that Fred Phelps is gay?)

In order to be gay, he'd have to be capable of loving someone else...and deep down, I don't think he even loves himself.

Sexual attraction =|= love.

This. He's got a couple of sons who were ejected from the family (one of whom is gay), and having read interviews with them, he abused his wife and children constantly, and it seems fairly clear that he viewed her as someone who should remain pregnant and in the kitchen. I doubt he's capable of actually loving anyone (even the children who still side with him) I read an interesting article (wish I could remember where) where the writer suggested that WBC hatred of everyone includes hating themselves, because they realize, deep down, that they're bigger sinners than the people they hate. His oldest daughter, who's now leading the movement since Fred's getting up in years, had an out-of-wedlock child, yet somehow, she was given a free pass and allowed to remain part of the church, whereas the sons who openly disagreed with him were disowned.

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Pat, Pat, Pat. How could you have lived this long and no realized that Atheists don't hate God-they simply don't believe in him? And as the article pointed out, the vast majority of White Supremacy Groups consider themselves 'Christians.' Though I think they tend more towards the Old Testament-type Christianity, where God was perfectly okay with you going out to smite your enemy if he was different from you. They certainly don't qualify as 'Christian' from a New Testament standpoint (what with Jesus talking about loving everyone and turning the other cheek)

Rabid Badger wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Pat, Pat, Pat. How could you have lived this long and no realized that Atheists don't hate God-they simply don't believe in him?

This attitude arises from people who genuinely can't comprehend how anyone can not believe in God. The concept is so alien to them that they don't think it's possible. Even some more moderate people think that everyone has some innate "need" for God and religion on some level, and that some people just don't acknowledge it.

Anon wrote:

Rabid Badger wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Pat, Pat, Pat. How could you have lived this long and no realized that Atheists don't hate God-they simply don't believe in him?

This attitude arises from people who genuinely can't comprehend how anyone can not believe in God. The concept is so alien to them that they don't think it's possible. Even some more moderate people think that everyone has some innate "need" for God and religion on some level, and that some people just don't acknowledge it.

Of course, people like this batshit atheist don't help matters.

Lady Anne wrote:

Anon wrote:

Rabid Badger wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Pat, Pat, Pat. How could you have lived this long and no realized that Atheists don't hate God-they simply don't believe in him?

This attitude arises from people who genuinely can't comprehend how anyone can not believe in God. The concept is so alien to them that they don't think it's possible. Even some more moderate people think that everyone has some innate "need" for God and religion on some level, and that some people just don't acknowledge it.

Of course, people like this batshit atheist don't help matters.

You get extremists in any group. There are batshit insane people in all religions, and the same holds for people who don't believe in God. Their looniness is no more connected to their non-belief in a supreme deity than The Westboro Baptist Church is representative of all Baptists.

Also, that author seems to be one of those people who exists under the delusion that being autistic (even mildly so) makes you a super speshul snowflake. I've got a good friend who's a high-functioning autistic and has days he can't even leave the house because of a variety of phobias. I have no idea whether he believes in God or not, but he doesn't believe that being autistic makes him special in any way, and mostly, he wishes he could read social cues and interact with people, and not have massive panic attacks every time he goes to the grocery store.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Anon wrote:

Rabid Badger wrote:

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

Pat, Pat, Pat. How could you have lived this long and no realized that Atheists don't hate God-they simply don't believe in him?

This attitude arises from people who genuinely can't comprehend how anyone can not believe in God. The concept is so alien to them that they don't think it's possible. Even some more moderate people think that everyone has some innate "need" for God and religion on some level, and that some people just don't acknowledge it.

Of course, people like this batshit atheist don't help matters.

You get extremists in any group. There are batshit insane people in all religions, and the same holds for people who don't believe in God. Their looniness is no more connected to their non-belief in a supreme deity than The Westboro Baptist Church is representative of all Baptists.

Exactly. The problem, of course, is that the batshit ones get tons of attention. Few people notice my calm, sane Baptist friend who spends lots of time doing good works, but everyone notices people who gather at funerals and scream that God hates fags.

For my part, I'm an agnostic, based on my unswerving faith in the idea that I don't know everything. Since this is constantly being proven, I will continue to believe this. Meanwhile, my sister and brother-in-law are UCC ministers whose 3-year-old daughter goes to a Jewish preschool, my best friend refers to God as She, my openly lesbian TA last year helped found the school's Christian club, the church I grew up in has Passover dinners with a local Muslim group, and an old friend from college believes she's a 3,000-year-old goddess of love with a mission to bring economic development to the 3rd world.

Lady Anne wrote:

Pat Robertson is blaming atheism for the shooting.

He blames everything for the shooting except the shooter.