As you may have noticed, I set up a new forum called "Our Best" and I don't want members posting in it because it is supposed to serve as a sort of visitor's guide. However, as I analyzed which topics attracted the most attention from visitors, I was surprised at what I found.

1. It seems people are very interested in having a batch of sources all in one spot.
2. It seems people are very interested in truth.

Here's a question to start our discussion if anyone is interested in taking me up on it:

Does religion do what it is supposed to do, i.e. make the world a better place? These forums are owned, administrated, and visited by atheists, as well as conservative Christians (see Who Are Our Visitors). It makes sense that Christians are alarmed when atheists are fighting their religion. What should concern Christians, in my opinion, is that atheists care enough to fight.

For some perspective. Christians keep talking as though they were a persecuted minority. According to adherents.com, Christianity is by far the largest religion in the world. Here are stats: Christianity makes up 33% of the human population, Islam (Muslims) makes up 21% of the human population, Nonreligious people make up 16% of the human population. There are at least two Christians for each atheist in the world (not all nonreligious people are atheists). Christians have a Divine Mandate to proselytize. Atheists ask only to live and let live. But they do ask to be allowed to live.

Atheists consider life to be a human right. They may or may not be pro-lifers re abortion but for full-term human beings who have been born they claim a right to life. They may also claim a right to die; atheists probably vary greatly on their views of death but an afterlife is not something they contend with.

With Christians impinging on these two basic rights--the right to live and the right to die, atheists and other nonreligious people can feel driven to fight religion. Christians insist that their beliefs are superior to ours and that they rule the world and that we submit to them. They claim the right not to produce evidence for their beliefs other than the Bible.

At the same time, fundamentalist religionists--Muslims and Christians--are fighting each other for heaven. See the part on Model of Religion in Refuting the Myths on the Good Ol' Days & The World is Getting Worse, while most nonreligious people are asking only for the right to live and die in peace. On these forums, God, Bible, and fundamentalist religion are VERY IMPORTANT for visitors even though many are atheist.

Exactly what does it mean when you can rouse atheists this much about God, the Bible, and fundamentalist religion? If you think it is because their conscience is bothering them you might be right--but my conscience is not bothering me about hell. It is bothering me big time that lies are being taught to children as truth in science classrooms. It is bothering me that people are dying of preventable illnesses because religion stands in the way of scientific progress.

Remember, it is the squeaky wheel that gets the oil--and the world's trouble-makers who get the attention. So let's begin with the question: Does religion do what it is supposed to do--make this world a better place? If you think so, please explain why you think so. If you don't think it does, please explain. We'll see where this goes. Or feel free to post your own question either here or in another thread.

Just now I found a blog entry that seems relevant. Godless Grrl talks about Angry Atheists, and the reasons we are angry. In another entry she suggests the anger may be more in the theist making the accusation that atheists are angry than in the atheists being targeted.

WARNING: Christians may find these to be uncomfortable reads.

She says of today's generation of atheists:

Furthermore, the latest crop of vocal atheists have done one thing which atheists in the past have not done: dared to criticize religion. Relentlessly.

Not since the feminist movement of the 19th century has there been the same degree of criticism leveled at religious faith as there is today. Ladies such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Mary Wollstonecraft vigorously attacked religion for its debasement of women, and rightly so; but somewhere in the early 20th century, religion fought back. Fundamentalism emerged as a religious movement, gaining power as time passed. By the 1970's, with the rise of the Religious Right, religion moved from being a matter of private belief, and entered the political sphere. For some reason, religious belief has been regarded as beyond reproach. But with the attacks of 9/11 and the impact of the Religious Right, we can no longer afford to be so generous.

The New Atheism, as some call it, has removed religion from its untouchable, exalted position. Religion is no longer immune to question, challenge, or criticism.

FROM: Angry Atheists: A Response to Pastor Marty Fields, posted by Godless Grrl on Feb. 15, 2008.

Okay, I'm not sure how these blog entries are relevant to this thread except that they address an item of theist-atheist relationships. Theist-atheist relationships are central to the theme of this thread, I guess, because having a discussion without some kind of relationship is not possible.

It seems Christians have the idea that atheists are angry. Godless Grrl thinks we are no more angry than is normal for humans and I agree. But, she seems to be saying, if this makes Christians happy--sure, maybe we are angry. And if we are it's not without reason. But Christians are totally wrong about the reasons and things we are angry about. However, here's the real reason in case you're interested.

Then she spells it out for the world to see.

As stated, these blog entries are hardly comfortable reads for Christians.