Why are so many people offended by my signature?

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I like your signature.

Meh, people like to be offended as they're overly sensitive about matters that people shouldn't take so seriously.

If people just didn't get so obsessed about such vain things or opinions on religion, race, gender, mentality, etc then things would be better off. Everyone is unique and everyone has equal rights, entitlements and capacity to choose whatever they want to do. But people also have a right to an opinion too, regardless of what it is, as that is freedom of speech. Sure I don't like what some people say and find it offensive, but I'm not going to hound them to death in harass for their opinion. I choose to just not care that much, and not take it too seriously if the opinion is rather too broad, obviously a mindless insult or ridiculous in my opinion.

Why are so many people offended by Autism Speaks?

That is an equally valid question.

Doesn't Autism Speaks advocate euthanasia, abortion, controlled breeding... that type of stuff, in order to rid the gene pool of autism? Or are they a magic potion group or something else?

Are people offended by euthanasia, abortion, and forced breeding? Why would these things offend anyone who is not hysterically crazy?

LOL!

Honestly, I have no idea what's offensive and what isn't. It's a big secret everyone is keeping from me, I think. Everybody's pretty stupid if they don't want me to know about offensive things.

it is offensive because it shows no respect for someone elses beliefs or lack of beliefs, a long answer is not necessary to explain that.
you should stop wasting your time disliking people for what they believe or not and take care of your own life. if there is someone that offends you because you believe in god that means that person has also no respect for other people´s beliefs, but the answer is not to disrespect back, because that person will not be the only victim of your lack of respect.
do you think someone is wrong? you tell them what is right. don´t be as wrong as they are.

Wrong as who? I am not disrespecting anyone here. I just want to know why people get offended by stuff & junk. No need to upset with me. I can comprehend why the sig was offenseive. And I can also comprehend why euthanasia, abortion, and forced breeding are bad.

Doesn't it drive you crazy when people are purposefully obtuse?

Athiests drain wisdom. Wisdom that gives hope.
"They wish to cure us...and I say we are the cure" - Magneto
Athiests are people who have lost faith & imagination therfore have no character.
"I believe in Spinoza's God", Einstein

I think you're trying to make a valid point, but I think that atheism and theism are more complicated than you think. For example, I believe that I am both atheist and theist and it's valid and logical. The way that that is true is dependent on how you define God or god. So, define your terms: exactly what is it that the atheist doesn't believe in. If we're talking about the guy that was described in my catechism from grade school, then I'm an atheist, and this expresses my intelligence, so your comments could be offensive to me, because intelligence engenders hope. But, I believe that I have also experienced God, in this way: To me, being with "God" is the opposite of when you are talking b_ _lls_ _ t. You know inside that something isn't ringing true. When you're walking with the Truth, EXACTLY as it is, then you are walking with God and this is totally different than a childish story of some man with a beard sitting in the clouds. When you continually try to experience the exact truth, then you have a chance to be reborn again moment after moment, so in this way, you, and the universe are "created" by God. (Disclosure: I'm Buddhist, so that's a Buddhist description of God--or "Buddha" if you will, same thing to me).

In the end, it is best to try to find a way that expresses your opinion clearly but doesn't offend other people. Keep going in your own direction, but don't oppose others. Cherish your beliefs, but don't put them in opposition to others so that there is disharmony, or, carried to the logical conclusion, war.

But I know how you feel. My brothers and sisters are atheists and they think I have sold out, but just don't realize the breadth of possibilities in how one can understand or experience God, and in that way I think they have lost imagination, but if they mean that they don't believe in superstition or magical incantations or the sins of religion (like war), then they have a valid point. Their point and yours could be mutially respected, if everyone would just define their terms better.

Last edited by WonderWoman on 03 Jun 2008, 1:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'd guess that the statement-"Athiests drain wisdom..." could be construed as offensive. There are people who take the attitude that all athiests are like Madelyn Murray O'Hair. Making a prejudicial statement against an entire segment of society? Yeah, that could be upsetting to some.

Not that I'm athiest, but I feel their point of view is as valid as any other member of society.

I'm new here and I don't know you at all, so I'll try to answer your question on the little I've seen of you on this thread.

So, if I understand correctly, you are asking us why we think other people may be offended by your signature, which reads:


Let's look at the four statements comprising your signature. Firstly, The first part of this statement claims that atheists drain wisdom from an implied object. The second part of the statement tells us what good that wisdom was to the object that possessed it. Even if you leave aside speculation as to what the implied object might be, the first statement makes an emotive claim against atheists that they indulge in a harmful activity. The second part of the statement makes this clear: if you take away wisdom, you also take away hope. Hope is something almost everyone agrees on to be a good thing. Who can have wisdom or hope? People. Is it a good thing to rob people of either? - No. Therefore, atheists are harming people by directly reducing their wisdom and indirectly reducing their capacity to hope.

The first statement is an accusation against a group of people, i.e. atheists, that they are harmful to society.

Now lets look at your second statement, I'm not an X-Men fan, I've only watched the films, so please excuse my ignorance if I misunderstand your statement. It seems to imply that the group you belong to, which is being defined in opposition to the atheists, has knowledge of a certain kind which the atheists lack. In defining the group you belong to through simple opposition to atheism, you are saying that you are a theist, and that you are right regarding something, that you possess something good that the atheists want to take away from you, and this something is in fact what will rid our society of its problems (the cure).

The second statement is another accusation against atheists that they are trying to harm society, again by taking away something beneficial.

The first two statements are directed at the activities of the atheists, while the third statement is directed at their person:

The first part of the statement seeks to define atheists as people who have lost faith and imagination. It implies that atheists were once people who had (a) faith and have now lost it. The second part of the statement implies a logical conclusion from the premiss that atheists have lost faith and imagination, namely that said loss has led to a lack of character.

The fourth statement is an attempt to subvert the whole argument of atheism by proposing that a remark made by an eminent scientist seeming to support the argument of theism weakens atheism. The premiss of this argument is that it if an eminent scientist can be shown to believe in God, then the theists have won the round, for they have shown that even scientists can be believers, famous ones too. Therefore, the fourth statement claims that if an eminent scientist like Einstein can believe in God, then the atheists have no leg to stand on as their arguments are based on science alone.

So, to recapitulate, you're saying that:
1. atheists are harmful to society because they rob us of wisdom and hope
2. atheists are harmful because they are trying to take away something good
3. atheists are bad people as they have lost faith and imagination thus having no character
4. an eminent scientist believed in God so atheism is false.

Pardon me if I'm wrong but I think what you're basically saying is that atheists are very nasty people. Is it then really a surprise that people are offended by that?

Well said.


M.