Amen zultar (see what I did there). But in all seriousness, I agree with you.

@zultar - This is a private site. There is no freedom of speech. You are confusing a freedom granted for public purposes with something that doesn't exist, a "freedom" to speak anywhere and everywhere. Try coming into my house and spouting communism and you will find I wash you mouth out with soap and then put a gag in your mouth until it is time for you to leave. Freedom of speech is, much liek freedom of the press and religion, a guarantee that the government won't infringe upon your right to speak your mind in a public forum or your own home. It does not grant you the right to say anything anywhere, including someone else's home. As far as this site goes, it is Kestas's and any freedoms you or I have here are at his mercy and whim.

LOL we have freedom of speech to mock him. Do we not?

We shouldnt even have daily bible readings. But I cant stop it so whatever.

Oh, and that same freedom of speech... Assuming it did exist, would also protect those who mock and ridcule him. It works both ways, dude.

LOL! +1 Riphen. Same thought at the same time (roughly).

^Yeah! What...what they said...yeah!

I think zultar is just expressing disappointment that the world has not matured enough that we can't be nice to theists on the internet. I don't think he's actually implying that the other threads should be locked, he's just telling the bullies that maybe they should cool it, even if they're not breaking the rules.

Well, I think he needs to take his own words to heart and realize that whatever may be said in any of the threads, both sides have the priviledge to speak their minds equally in any of the threads, so telling others to essentially "STFU" is both counterproductive and not in keeping with a free and open discussion of ideas.

Draugnar, freedom of speech is not legally guaranteed on a private website, but that doesn't mean it's an incoherent concept or an ideal not worth striving for.

Moreover (responding now to your most recent post), zultar was merely pointing out hypocrisy, which in fact does exist in this case. It's perfectly consistent with the free exchange of ideas to point out to one group that they're being jerks and hypocrites.

There is an obvious lack of respect directed a Mujus and that to me is the heart of the issue.

Exactly.

It bugs me that people are so rude to him just because he is a theist. It's not like he's a troll.

-1 Draug. I gotta side with Thucy on this one. It's not a matter of telling the others to simply shut up, but to simply be considerate. The other threads were not created because someone simply wanted to share something on the forum, they were created as a joke or as an attack on the original thread. Most of these people that start these types of threads would not say the same things to someone's face, and so it begs the question about why do it on a website?

I behave the same on this site as I do in person. I respect other individuals and I try to be mature about everything I post. I ask that others simply do the same.

@Tom:

Plenty of people found my threads to be as laughable or absurd as Mujus'...

And I dealt with it.

Sorry, that's part of the deal of putting yourself and your ideas out there--

You're allowed to speak your mind and ideas and say whatever you want however you want to, but other people ARE allowed to treat your ideas and yourself with ridicule and contempt.

You don't automatically just get a free pass from mockery and criticism because it's impolite.

A position or person doesn't automatically receive respect...they EARN it--and part of that is dealing with detractors.

I mean, it's not as if we're even mapleleaf-trolling Mujus here, just criticizing his views and playing off them as a political cartoonist would jab at political ideas and people they disagreed with.

I think at some point, the general volume of "Daily" threads went from mocking Mujus to mocking the general volume of "Daily" as meme unto itself. That's certainly the intent of my recursed thread, which offers a place to daily start threads that post daily about a random subject matter.

Besides, if someone has freedom to post something, others have the freedom to post mocking that person and even you have the freedom to post defending that person.

I think we can all agree that obiwan was being sincere and is actually always looking for any excuse to post about literature. After all there is no way obiwanobiwan of "This time on philosophy weekly..." fame could be satirizing someone's forum posts.

The rest of you though, no excuse lol.

And yes yes yes yes we get it we have the freedom to post and to mock posts and to mock mocking and to suggest that we should have no freedom and to retort that we still have freedom of speech so shut up and to mock the same and to mock the mocking mockers who mockingly hinted that they favored using free speech to advocate against free speech.

Jesus. They really do eat people alive down here.

Yes, it's a mistake to assume that the creation of all these threads comes from a lack of respect for Christians. While some of it is probably rooted in contempt for what is being seen as attempts to proselytize (not that that is actually happening) I think a lot of it is just bored people posting rubbish. I know that's what mine is, anyway.

But, as Sylence said a while back, just look at the outpouring of creativity that has resulted from this! It's truly a miracle of human ingenuity that something so benign has turned into such a splendorous wellspring of variety.

Also, please don't take the internet too seriously. You'll ruin it for everyone.

oh believe me idgaf

its just that despite what some people think, the internet is actually real

I'm pretty entertained by the concept that this is a private site.

A site anyone of any age can get to (no age filter), can register for free with nothing really stopping them (no cost or password to register), is somehow a private site. I don't buy that. This site is more of a public forum than, for example, a pay porn site, which actually keeps people who don't pay out.

That's really all beyond the point - but if you're just annoyed and don't want to look at the posts, don't look at the posts. It's really not that hard. IDGAF if it's about religion, culture, color, whatever else. It really doesn't matter all this much to go through all this mess.

It's private in that it is owned by one person who can shut it down or alter it whenever and however he sees fit.

Ahah, this thread's so hardcore, two IDGAFs in the last three posts and shit.

HYPOCRITICAL, surely not..........but then again I even heard tell that some atheists take time off work and celebrate Christmas. They even have several websites where they debate whether this is the right thing to do: http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/AtheistsXmas.htm. Should they, for example, sing carols or not, what a dilemma.

Meanwhile their leader spreads even more confusion on the issue: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1100842/Why-I-celebrate-Christmas-worlds-famous-atheist.html

And why not have your Christmas cake and eat it too. :-0

Oh yeah and before you atheist guys steam in on the ''pagan festival'' routine remember you are supposed to be without belief in any divinity. Unless, of course, you focus your disdain on particular targets. Indeed, I strongly suspect that many of you are not so much atheists as anti-theists, the latter being, of necessity, a belief system of itself.

Guys, thanks for defending my right to post freely on this site, subject to the owner's enlightened policies of course. And believe me, I don't feel bad about being mocked. I'm pretty sure it's not me that's drawing the lightning, but Jesus' own words.

"Freedom of speech" to Christians means bowing down and kissing their ass whenever they say anything about their 'religion'. Just like 'freedom of religion' for them means using the government to force their religion on everybody else without anyone daring to object.

"but then again I even heard tell that some atheists take time off work and celebrate Christmas"

Hey genius, did you realize that Christians themselves had contempt for Christmas for hundreds of years? In Scotland it was banned for 400 years. The early American colonists banned it. The Swiss Protestants banned it. Christmas is a secular, unbiblical feast day devoid of any religious significance. It's about capitalism, not Christianity,

You are unbelievably narrow minded Putin. You realize that there are 2+ billion Christians and you paint them all the same when it comes to ideas like freedom of religion.

Paint them all of the same? Listen to yourselves in these threads. No end to the whining about how we're mocking the fundies on here and somehow undermining their freedom of speech, and this is from the so-called 'moderates'.

Who do you mean by yourselves? Because if you mean Christians, this is exactly what I mean when I say you paint things with broad strokes. I don't consider myself a Christian yet you group me there because I am defending a Christian. Its almost like you feel the need to group people two distinct categories on every issue.

When does mockery give way to admiration for the value of the meme?

And yes, this is a private site which acts like a public space. Just because the owner of a house allows it to be used for public gatherings and discussions, doesn't chamge the legal status. Though i guess it does chamge the social value - by use you create a public venue. And I guess by using this venue for biblical studies you are chaning it's essential quality.

Not so surprising that some people dislike this. It's also not surprising that members of the gay community don't like the new meaning associated with the word gay which now implies 'crap' or without value. How and Ever, things change, and you can do little to stop that.