Actually, if you don't have any thing nice to say, 'shut up' works very well .
ONO is a great person, but like all the others who have left this forum, sometimes it gets too much.
Comments like: I believed in a god once. Then I turned 12. are the cause.
I have about given up as well, it's very hard to have a discussion when you are assumed to be ignorant and delusional to start with.
I wonder what would happen if all the religious folks stopped posting? If atheists have no targets, do they stop posting as well?
Well luckily for all of you, Bill will never stop posting.
Perfect, b! It was veiled but you got to it in the first sentence. The message from the religious here and elswhere has always been: "Shut up and if you don't then go away!" or "What more do want from us, we tolerate your existence, so show some respect and shut up or else!"
This thing that so many of you complain about now with us is the new normal, b. We won't shut up. We're not ever going to go away and we're not going to back down. You see how "live and let live" RP reacted to Ono's comments.
The idea that religion and the religious can't be criticized or questioned is pernicious to societal health and probably the greatest protection that religions have enjoyed against legitimate criticism and exposure to external ideas and proof. But no more.
If you don't want to participate in a conversation or spirited exchange with an atheist, cool. But why are so many of you trying to stop us from speaking our minds? If you (the religious) are right, in order to prove us wrong you're going to have to engage in a dialogue. We atheists are VERY comfortable with that prospect. I don't get that same impression from theists. In the end, it's always been theists who must walk away from the conversation. I wonder why?