Richard Dawkins in bitter web censorship row with fellow atheists
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...-atheists.html


Dawkins is getting tough on his forum.

"The prominent atheist faced a torrent of abuse from outraged fans after he announced that all further postings to the discussion forum on his website would be tightly moderated to ward off what he called “something rotten” in internet culture. "

“Thousands of loyal, intelligent, rational forum members have been misrepresented as a bunch of foul-mouthed, vitriolic thugs by the man who so inspired them.”

Is money making Dawkins right to censor who he thinks are wrong-uns?

If I was an athiest I'd go and see how it is.

Why the use of the term money making, obviously you disagree with some of his opinions, but why throw in that denigratory term. Is it to try and undermine his opinions in your and other peoples minds?

He explains "Imagine seeing your face described by an anonymous poster as a ‘slack-jawed turd-in-the-mouth mug,” in a blog

Dawkins had also been described as "a suppurating rat’s rectum inside a dead skunk", he said. Another user had expressed "a sudden urge to ram a fistful of nails" down his throat

Is it wrong to want to remove comments like these and if the offender is persistent ban them from the forums?

Obviously not, its fine to express an opinion even slightly ridicule a person however comments like those have no place on most forums do they?

The comment about thousands of loyal, intelligent fans comes from a former moderator on the site, wonder what axes if any he has to grind with Dawkins

Or do you think its fine that the atheist is insulted in this way? Loved the comment at the end "Christian groups have seized on the row as evidence that the Dawkins community is not as free-thinking as it makes out. " So they allow comments like those above on their websites?

In the end its quite simple if you dont like the way a site is run, dont use it.

He's right. Some people think they can go onto Internet forums and behave how they please under the guise of free speech (not referring to this forum btw).

The basic problems are that people can be anonymous on a forum saying things they normally wouldn't in real-life, and also that posters don't have an admin/mod's perspective on how difficult it is sometimes to moderate discussions.

Thanks Leather, very informative. I take it you will miss those forums then eh?

Hey you dont think that Josh bloke was an undercover god botherer, do you?

Or maybe it was the result of a few theists getting their heads together and asking the old man to close it.

I find the whole atheist forum a bit lol

all full of folks thinking that they are the most rational people, the ones who know, the scientists, the "they wont pull the wool over my eyes" freedom fighters..

hoho

LOL I know lots of scientists who also believe in God.

There are people on both sides of the arguement who believe absolutely that their belief is the correct one. Guess you will find out the truth one way or the other one day. Or maybe not.

correctamundo

Sorry but this sites comments made me laugh, love the god and America bit at the end. so I hope people who dislike dawkins will be thanking the owner of the site and of course God too.

http://christwire.org/2010/02/christ...ns-net-forums/

Prayer works

:joker:

1-0

Simply praying for something to occur, and that thing occurring is no proof of the power of prayer. Nor is it proof that god cares about what atheists get up to

But I dont mind if you prove it to me, lets say ask your god to cause a heatwave in Northern Scotland between now and Summer to save some old peoples lives.

Or you could decide what you want to pray about and if its not something thats likely to happen , then hummmmm we will see eh?

proof

lol

True James
it is Common Sense.

I would say that a few thousand Christians at the very least must have prayed for the Haitian earthquake victims, so if prayer works, should everything be sorted over there?

After all they would have joined together(so its a group prayer), its not for selfish reasons, its for the betterment of others etc. they get nothing out of it, just knowing they prayed for all the right reasons for others should be enough.

Nope just checked things are still pretty crap if you are poor and live in Haiti.

Maybe the god most christians pray to isnt a caring sharing forgiving god who cares about people, maybe he is a god who hates atheists and likes to give them a hard time eh? Maybe he only responds to pray if its to the detriment of some people.

Prayer is how we communicate with God and that is all. God decides what will and has been.

We are told by Jesus to pray "Thy Will be done"

I see, so that line out of the Lords Prayer dictates what is and isnt worth praying for?

Doesnt that mean then that its not really worth praying for anything for ourselves or others given thats its Gods will we want.

If its Gods will it will happen anyway and if it wasnt his will he isnt going to let it happen anyway?

The fact that God knows the future does not imply that our futures are fatalistically determined any more than our knowledge that the sun will rise causes the sun to rise.

Everyone, try not to argue / insult?

Posts deleted.

I wasnt talking about predetermination and free will actually. What an illogical comparison. There is a physical realtionship between a star and its satellites(the earth in this case) incidentally the sun does not rise. The effect of the Earth turning causes the viewer to think the sun is rising. Could a similar sort of illusion be responsible for the cause and effect misunderstanding of prayer the religious hold?

thank you

no

i shall never say

"my dear what a beautiful effect of the Earth turning has caused me to think the sun is rising"

it aint romantic

May not be romantic but its factually correct.