Morontheists Playing Nice

[Thurisaz]

Heya,

 

(this may possibly fit in better in the coliseum or lion's den, I admit I'm a bit undecided - mods move it if you think it's appropriate)

 

after just having run across another one of this particular brand of morontheist, I feel like I have to post about it. Don't we all know that...

 

...theist pops up somewhere (say, in usenet), acting very polite, presenting some arguments and kindly asking you and your pals about your point of view.

 

You say "well, what the heck, he can behave" and reply, pointing out the fallacies in her arguments (that is, if you don't know this spiel well enough already to know better).

 

And soon... maybe immediately after your rebuttals, maybe some few posts later, theist shows her true face, hurling insults left and right - revealing that all the politeness was just a sham of your typical average run-off-the-mill morontheist (can't those mills run them over, just once?! ).

 

What I find particularly interesting is the perverted mixture of 80 % kindness but already 20 % vile insults in the "transition phase" before morontheist totally freaks out as usual... sentences like "You see, you might not believe that, considering that you've always been nice to your fellow humans, but to gawd you're just a filthy pig and deserve to burn like the rotten sinner you are". Dunno, maybe it's just me, but... this mix seems ten times more abominable to me than the common fundie "you dirti faggotts wil burrrrrn in hel!!11!!1!!!!".

 

Or maybe it's really just me? How many of you know this phenomenon? And some of you, back in your fundie times, might even have acted the same way. If so, can you remember what made you do that, especially this "mix phase"? What makes a morontheist think this kind of disgusting behavior is ok? Is it just the standard holier-than-thou "I got gawd on my side so everything I do is okay!" or is there something more/else to it?

[Antlerman]

Or maybe it's really just me? How many of you know this phenomenon? And some of you, back in your fundie times, might even have acted the same way. If so, can you remember what made you do that, especially this "mix phase"? What makes a morontheist think this kind of disgusting behavior is ok? Is it just the standard holier-than-thou "I got gawd on my side so everything I do is okay!" or is there something more/else to it?

Here's what I think. You may be seeing several things, but one in particular to point out is that people who are prone to intolerant, black and white thinking are attracted to cults that are built on this. These churches appeal to personalities who are insecure and need rigid structures in their otherwise out-of-control worlds. The veneer of "niceness" is an artificial adoption as part of the "do's" of that subculture, but it doesn't come from some sort of attitude shift within their personalities. So when they first approach others with their doctrines (I say this deliberately rather than belief), assuming this face of niceness is easy enough, but once the doctrines are challenged on any real level, the face that is behind why they joined in the first place emerges. It's a face that is frightened to have challenge their rigid structure they adopted.

 

What all this says to me is that they adopted the doctrines of religion out of fear and desperations, and their reactions betray that they truly don't have a meaningful relationship with what they claim to believe. Simply put, to them you're threatening to kick their crutch out from them, not simply expressing a difference of opinion. Different opinions are a threat to them.

[Thurisaz]

Makes sense

 

Any other takers?

[Taphophilia]

I think this has to do with their own emotional immaturity. Telling someone they are going to burn in hell for all eternity is emotional abuse. Going from a pleasant face to an abusive one simply because someone disagrees with you is emotionally unstable. Chrisitanity appeals to emotions that are disguised as reason, so Christians have never learned how to separate the two. For Christians their emotions are reason. Look at all the pastors who elicit emotional responces from their members. The more emotion, the more successful the church. I often wonder if Christianity is so emotionally dysfunctional that it's members cannot experience emotion other than extreme highs and lows.

[Thurisaz]

Aaah yes, that one.

 

If you ever get the chance, compare your average morontheist church service with, say, one in a mainstream German church. I guarantee, if you wouldn't hear the same names in both you would categorically deny that these could belong to the same religion

 

(That's based on my personal experiences with German christianity and on the madness I can observe by watching TBN. Thinking of it, I'm quite sure that there are somewhat "reasonable" churches in the US too...)

[Mankey]

Aaah yes, that one.

 

If you ever get the chance, compare your average morontheist church service with, say, one in a mainstream German church. I guarantee, if you wouldn't hear the same names in both you would categorically deny that these could belong to the same religion

 

(That's based on my personal experiences with German christianity and on the madness I can observe by watching TBN. Thinking of it, I'm quite sure that there are somewhat "reasonable" churches in the US too...)

Yup.

[מה טבו]

Interesting coincidence that you're German, because your fundie reminds me of one Martin Luther.

 

Perhaps you're familiar with him - drunk, woman-hating douchebag. Batshiat crazy, vile excuse for a waste of human skin. Of course, you also know I'd be most familiar with him as one of the most notorious anti-Semites in history. "On the Jews and their Lies" lives in infamy. The case could be made that the Holocaust could not have taken place - or at least not had the success it did - without Luther's influence.

 

So why do I point this out? Luther's early works. See, to start with, Lou was all about compassion for the Jews. He'd visit and witness, and tell the church to be nice - the poor perfidious things just didn't know better.

 

Of course, after a few years when he didn't manage to gain any converts, his attitudes changed.

 

That kind of Christian can only see good in 2 kinds of people: Christians and those whom he considers to be potential Christians. These are the only two classes of people whom he sees as fit to be treated like human beings. Someone like that can start off being nice because they see you as a potential convert - somebody who just doesn't know better - hasn't seen the light. Awww, you poor little misguided thing! Once it becomes clear to them that you're not going to be won over, their entire view of you changes, and far from being the poor dumb little heathen, you're the spawn of Satan himself. You're now the enemy incarnate, and they go on the attack.

[Thurisaz]

The case could be made that the Holocaust could not have taken place - or at least not had the success it did - without Luther's influence.

 

Quite right, as far as I can tell. Of course the jebus cult wasn't solely responsible for the historical "tradition" of antisemitism... but it surely helped big time via the tired old "dem ebil jews killed our lawd - burn them all!!1!!!11!!!" crap.

 

So why do I point this out? Luther's early works. See, to start with, Lou was all about compassion for the Jews. He'd visit and witness, and tell the church to be nice - the poor perfidious things just didn't know better.

 

Of course, after a few years when he didn't manage to gain any converts, his attitudes changed.

 

Always the same with the fanatics... no matter when, where, or of what cult.

 

That kind of Christian can only see good in 2 kinds of people: Christians and those whom he considers to be potential Christians. These are the only two classes of people whom he sees as fit to be treated like human beings.

 

Yup.

 

But of course "we" are the ones "without morals", the racists, the hatemongers...

[♦ nivek ♦]

Yo Thuri...

 

 

 

Something to use with them, there...

 

 

k

[Thurisaz]

Good one