<Yournamehere>'s personal Cthulhu wrote:

"Machque" <machque@mail.com> suddenly spluttered:

What is the purpose of alt.atheism?

Alt.atheism was created in 1990 as a place to discuss atheism and
atheist topics, including:

* Whether it is reasonable to pretend to be religious in order to
avoid upsetting your family
* Prayer in schools
* Discrimination against atheists
* Sunday trading laws
* The Satanic Child Abuse myth
* Whether you should be an overt atheist or 'stay in the closet'
* How religious societies prey (sic) on new college students
* How to get rid of unwanted proselytizers
* Whether religion is a danger to society and/or the individual
* Why people become atheists

Of course, inevitably alt.atheism tends to attract evangelical
Christians looking for someone to convert. Most readers of the
newsgroup don't want to be preached to, although

<confession>

a few seem to derive
perverse pleasure from tearing apart particularly ill-considered or
uninformed postings.

</confession>

Guilty as charged, except I'd hesitate to use the word 'perverse'. The
pleasure is derived from accomplishing something I think needs to be
done. If we all killfied them and ignored them, they'd go on thinking
their views were beyond question, when in fact, their views are beyond
reason.

Of course, those such as Duke who continue to maintain that view even
after being corrected thousands, maybe tens of thousands of times,
deserve the killfile
I wonder how may times Duke has actually had his delusions corrected?

"shadow" <shadow@sun.org> wrote in message news:437d0bce$1_2@x-privat.org...

the hunger,
wars, killings and other 'devils works'...

All these things you mention are caused or defined by religion. Why we
would want the social control of a bronze age semi literate society impinged
on a 21st century technological civilisation is beyond me!

shadow wrote:

"Machque" <machque@mail.com> wrote in message

* The Satanic Child Abuse myth

what in the hell is that?

The claim that children at day-care centers and some schools
were being routinely sexually abused in Satanic rituals. The
accusations were eventually refuted, but people went to jail
because of them.

"Elroy Willis" <elroywillis@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:sauon11fs3d8vnr6tkbg0jkinrl4qvth34@4ax.com...

Machque <machque@mail.com> wrote in alt.atheism

Alt.atheism was created in 1990 as a place to discuss atheism and
atheist topics, including:

* How religious societies prey (sic) on new college students

Haven't seen that discussed much around here. What's the story?

My first week at a (UK) university - quite a few summers ago! - saw young
'evangelicals' going round the dormitory blocks in groups of two or three
and trying to get freshers -- 18-year-old kids in a strange city, knowing
nobody, and away from home for the first time -- to come to 'a meeting' to
'get to know other people' in 'a friendly atmosphere' and 'talk about issues
that affect students'. When you got to this meeting, there was coffee and
pop music and cheese straws and lots of laughing and flirting and talk of
parties and trips and friendships -- and then you were suddenly told that if
you wanted to be part of it all then you had to agree that homosexuality was
wrong and that the 'bible' was the 'word of god', and that if you didn't,
you weren't welcome and so you'd just have to just walk out of the room
while everyone else watched.

I believe such things still happen. The group was called the 'Christian
Union'.

Katt.

My first week at a (UK) university - quite a few summers ago! - saw young
'evangelicals' going round the dormitory blocks in groups of two or three
and trying to get freshers -- 18-year-old kids in a strange city, knowing
nobody, and away from home for the first time -- to come to 'a meeting' to
'get to know other people' in 'a friendly atmosphere' and 'talk about
issues that affect students'. When you got to this meeting, there was
coffee and pop music and cheese straws and lots of laughing and flirting
and talk of parties and trips and friendships -- and then you were
suddenly told that if you wanted to be part of it all then you had to
agree that homosexuality was wrong and that the 'bible' was the 'word of
god', and that if you didn't, you weren't welcome and so you'd just have
to just walk out of the room while everyone else watched.

I believe such things still happen. The group was called the 'Christian
Union'.

Katt.

Elroy Willis <elroywillis@swbell.net> wrote in message

Machque <machque@mail.com> wrote in alt.atheism

Alt.atheism was created in 1990 as a place to discuss atheism and
atheist topics, including:
* How religious societies prey (sic) on new college students

Haven't seen that discussed much around here. What's the story?

My first week at a (UK) university - quite a few summers ago! - saw young
'evangelicals' going round the dormitory blocks in groups of two or three
and trying to get freshers -- 18-year-old kids in a strange city, knowing
nobody, and away from home for the first time -- to come to 'a meeting' to
'get to know other people' in 'a friendly atmosphere' and 'talk about issues
that affect students'. When you got to this meeting, there was coffee and
pop music and cheese straws and lots of laughing and flirting and talk of
parties and trips and friendships --

and then you were suddenly told that if you wanted to be part of it all then
you had to agree that homosexuality was wrong and that the 'bible' was
the 'word of god', and that if you didn't, you weren't welcome and so
you'd just have to just walk out of the room while everyone else watched.

I believe such things still happen. The group was called the 'Christian
Union'.