Can we please have an irrelevant policy "sticky" removed?

Originally posted by TheCaucasianAmerican
reply to post by lonewolf19792000

 

I laughed when u said jesus is the adult santa clause.

Couldn't be more true in my opinion.

The only difference is that you have to sit on your own knee when u ask him for stuff.

The religious have more hate than non religious people I seen that time and time again.

We do not hate people, we just do not agree with the things they do and we are commanded not to. Furthermore we do not have to ask him for anything for ourselves, he provides for us. If disagreeing with people is what passes for hatred nowadays, then agreeing means we love them? You have some strange notions of what love and hate are! This is one of the reasons why the world is in the state it is, everyone must agree with eachother and condone what they do (unless you're christian, everyone hates us and then accuses us of being the haters) or they are haters. So now we have thought police? God forbid the day we become brainless little drones who are only yes men!

Originally posted by Benevolent Heretic
reply to post by adjensen

 

I've seen you post things that some would judge as just as "bashing" toward other beliefs... I'm sure it seems to you that your posts aren't hateful, but to the person you're disagreeing with, they sure could seem that way.

When I "bash" someone's belief, it is because I have demonstrated their factual error numerous times, and they have chosen to ignore facts that fly in the face of their beliefs.

I am not an evangelist -- I don't care what people believe. If someone says "I am an atheist!" I have no issue with that. But if someone says "Constantine wrote the Bible, you stupid Christians!" I have an issue with that, because it is a factual error.

That is the very purpose of "Deny ignorance", no?

Let the mods handle it. As a group, they have a more balanced view and can edit as they see fit. As individuals, it's hard to see things objectively. Just keep your cool the best you can and if you get upset, leave the thread for a while.

Some people have very negative experiences with religion. Expressing our opinions about our experiences is what ATS is all about.

The policy is highly relevant.

No, it is not, because any Christian in that forum will tell you that it is not enforced, or that it is selectively enforced. Therefore, it is not a relevant, or at least not a fair, policy. This is not about religious discussion in general, or debate on the subject of religion or non-religion, it is about very specific threads and posts that serve no purpose other than to denigrate people's beliefs, which that policy says is not acceptable.

Haters gotta hate. I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with the pretense that it is not allowed, when it clearly is.

Originally posted by geobro
what ever happened to turning the other cheek & forgive them for they no not what they do ?

That would entail me first being offended. I never have really cared what others thought or said about me, never really had an ego for them to step on.

It doesn't matter what your persuasion happens to be, threads that are started to troll/bait other members should not be allowed. We should have a higher standard here than the common forum. This was the main reason I joined years ago and left other less mature websites.

reply to post by adjensen


This is just another attempt by Christians to limit, silence and isolate as irrelevant or blasphemous, those that disagree with them. There is no end to threads, here on ATS, by Christians bashing Masons, Atheists. Spiritualists, Wiccans, New Agers, Evolutionists and Ancient Alien enthusiasts. They are quick to site scripture that comdems others as truth, and justify their exaggeration of that condemnation through their indignation.

Then we have Catholics bashing Protestants, Fundamentalsts bashing Catholics. Heck, they even bash each other over various interpretations of their own Bible.

When I "bash" someone's belief, it is because I have demonstrated their factual error numerous times, and they have chosen to ignore facts that fly in the face of their beliefs.

So, when you do the bashing it's okay, because it is justified by your frustration?

I've seen how you debate. You argue semantics and offer obtuse ignorance, pretending not to understand basic concepts, to derail and confuse the real subject at hand. I have never seen you factually demonstrate anything that didn't require your interpretation of the scriptures.

You often believe that you have "check mated" the OP or some poster, when often. your logic makes less sense than the person your trying to discredit.

Here, let me help you, I'll hold the reins while you dismount from your high horse. You can borrow my Windex too, as your halo has some smutz on it!

Lets talk business 101.

If you have a website that is a forum, you likely are going to drive hits in one of two ways:

- search results drive in traffic
- members click away while creating content for you to put on search engines to bring in more traffic

Now, my understanding here is that ATS only generates revenue off of hits that are not us members sitting here clicking away all day (unique hits are what generate revenue). Regardless, the amount of activity that a forum sees is obviously linked to the amount of ad revenue it will receive.

No one does work for free. Not me, not you, and not the Three Amigo's. This is their business, and they intend to monetize it. Plain and simple, and exactly what we all try to do with our efforts. To be honest, they have done it in a fairly good way that is unintrusive and retains the integrity of the site....but my digression aside....

...you write the policy because not doing so shows that, as a site, you support the values of hate. At the end of the day, no matter how it is enforced, the site can point back to the aforementioned policy and say, "See...we don't support hate. Look at our policies".

Having said that, we all know controversy drives interest. And interest will drive activity. Activity drives ad revenue, and that is the name of the game.

Yes, you are correct to expect that ATS will abide by its policies. However, remember this: it is a convenience. Yours and my feelings on how the site is run do not matter in the end. What matters is how the site is monetized, and how that monetization performs. Obviously, the way we feel about the site matters to an extent...and that is why the policies are in place. But they will only be enforced to the degree that it maximizes revenue.

adjensen...a solid poster who I have had excellent interactions with personally (despite my non-Christian status). But we all seem to forget that our past time here at ATS is someone else's bread.

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by adjensen

 

This is just another attempt by Christians to limit, silence and isolate as irrelevant or blasphemous, those that disagree with them.
]

Absolutely not, good debate is why most gather here. What this is an attempt to curtail is the threads made for the sole purpose to troll/bait other members. When those threads are made no mature discussions come about and they rapidly denigrate into flame wars. That's not fun for anyone except the people here for the purpose of trolling.

reply to post by NOTurTypical


Troll/Baiting threads are already against the T&C's of ATS. Perceived blasphemy is not. Attempting to censor ATS from perceived offensive titles in the Religious Forums is an attempt at silencing the of opponents of Christianity.

It is important to put Christianity under the microscope from time to time, as it has great influence in politics, education and medicine here in the USA.

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by adjensen

 

This is just another attempt by Christians to limit, silence and isolate as irrelevant or blasphemous, those that disagree with them.

Absolutely not, as you are well aware, I enjoy a good debate, and don't simply smear people who don't agree with me.

When I "bash" someone's belief, it is because I have demonstrated their factual error numerous times, and they have chosen to ignore facts that fly in the face of their beliefs.

So, when you do the bashing it's okay, because it is justified by your frustration?

I put "bash" in quotes intentionally there. I do not use profanity, hatred or misrepresentations of opinion as facts to refute someone.

I've seen how you debate. You argue semantics and offer obtuse ignorance, pretending not to understand basic concepts, to derail and confuse the real subject at hand. I have never seen you factually demonstrate anything that didn't require your interpretation of the scriptures.

This thread is not about me, but I rarely argue from scripture, unless that is the topic of debate. If you think I do, you're thinking of the wrong person.

We have many members here that are frankly too sensitive. That is on both sides of any given issue. Be it religion, 911, UFO's, etc. They see anything that is against their own personal stance as something that is offensive. From another BB&Q thread:

There can be many reasons why the thread is active. 1- The staff is unaware of it, thus the Complaints button. 2- The staff has seen it but it's under discussion. 3- The staff has seen it and it was determined that the topic is OK. Just because you don't think so doesn't mean that the topic isn't valid. We are guided by the T&C and that will determine the outcome.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Just because you, generic "you", think that something is offensive doesn't make it so. The staff here is diverse. From around the world. Ages from 20's to 60's. We have conservatives, liberals, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Agnostics, etc.

On that note this thread is closed.