Several years ago I used to participate in a few forums by atheists and allegedly for atheists. I don’t do that anymore. In fact, I kind of dislike them now and can’t spend more than a few minutes at a time on them.
Why?
The rape discussions started by theist men.
How many times do I, a woman and mother to a daughter, have to read a “sincere” post allegedly about objective morality where the curious theist always ask why he should refrain from raping women and girls, the latter of which he routinely disguises as “children”?
I know the majority of atheists are men, but unless you grew on a fucking tree somewhere you have a mother and Mr. Theist wants you to tell him why raping your mother is wrong. Hell, some of you even have daughters. Why in hell do you not consider having someone demand that you explain to him in objective terms (wouldn’t want to be called ‘sensitive’ now, would we?) why he shouldn’t rape her to be deeply disturbing and unacceptable???
And it’s not like these boards allow “sincere” discussions about specific crimes against other marginalized groups. I’ve tried posting such questions on the boards that allow discussions about the rape of women and girls. Not a one has went through unless you count being banned without comment as getting through.
So, what the fuck gives? Why is it okay to have “sincere” moral discussions about the rape of women and girls, but the height of impropriety to talk about committing violent crimes against non-women (aka: men)?
It makes me just want to start punching shit.
0 Responses to What the hell is wrong with some atheists?
salient October 27, 2008
Interesting phenomenon. Were these guys trolls or were they serious? Atheism is a rallying cry for religious fundamentalists.
I have often observed that those who bang on most about Biblical Moral Absolutes probably do so because they have an impaired moral sense. That is, those who scream that we cannot be moral without the Bible, do so because *they* could not. To recognize that women and children deserve fair treatment would require that these men could see past their own desires.
Kai October 28, 2008
Honestly, nothing in atheism says you have to be 1. smart or 2. progressive. I’ve had to stop reading a few of the more popular atheist blogs because the sexism just achieved nauseating, ridiculous levels that I could no longer stomach. (Lecturing on the moral superiority of vegetarianism while simultaneously spamming with pictures of scantily clad women just for the sake of some superfluous titillation? Classy.) It’s sort of an “old boy’s club” in some senses, where sexism is barely a blip on the radar and if you try to call it out as you see it, you get dogpiled for being “too PC” or “too sensitive” or some other bullshit.
The rape thing in particular strikes me as hilarious to use for an argument about objective morality, since I’m pretty sure rape is openly condoned several times in the Bible and apparently isn’t a serious enough offense (unlike disrespecting your parents or working on Sunday!) to even make it onto God’s “Top 10 Sins” list. But yeah, if I saw even just one post on that topic which wasn’t immediately dismissed with a “Because women are PEOPLE?!” then I’d be inclined to quit reading the blog as well.
KC October 28, 2008
@Salient
It’s something I’ve noticed over the years & seems to be common enough that there’s an article over at Internet Infidels written by Michael Martin who, IIRC, put together that huge book of arguments against the existence of God.
So, I don’t think all of the rape obsessed theists are trolls. I’m more disgusted that these discussions aren’t shut down, especially since you can’t have a sincere discussion about the objective reasons you can’t commit specific crimes against certain groups of men.
KC October 28, 2008
@Kai
I wasn’t even thinking about blogs when I wrote this post & now that you mention it, I think I know which blog you’re talking about. I get so pissed off at him sometimes. It kind of sucks because he does post some interesting things.
salient October 28, 2008
I see what you are saying, KC. Yes, appropriate moderation would be ideal.
I don’t know how you define trolls, but the Internet does attract a lot of people whose sole purpose seems to be to upset others — it gives them a perverted sense of power. I take it that you are saying that these guys honestly believed in what they were saying. That’s worse!
Yes, rape is openly condoned in the Bible. There are at least two similar Old Testament tales. One is of a host who, in order to protect his male guest from being “known”, tosses a concubine out to the pack of locals. So, females are disposable and males are sacrosanct.
It appears that the Bible was written by the direct ancestors of the pro-rape nasties.