The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!

Hi... I have a potentially contentious question/suggestion right off the bat...

(Feel free to look at my Profile for a bit about me and I'm an open book if ya wanna ask more.) That said, the reason I found you guys was a recent post on a United Church of Canada site called Wondercafe.ca. This post noted your (my?) Nexus home page proudly announcing your exclusionary practice: "As many of you know, we work hard to keep spammers and theists off of Atheist Nexus". The only reason I found was that plenty of other sites debated theism (or sumptin' similar). The post at WonderCafe (WC - lol) ended thusly:

"Isn't it interesting, that here at WC we welcome the participation of atheists in a reasonably well behaved and open discussion, while the largest atheist networking site obviously does not. So who is more open-minded?"

The idea of exclusion came up with obc before and my comment (I can likely find it) was something along the lines that wouldn't this make us like the worst of theists and that it painfully reminded me of:

“All three of our major religions in Britain -- Christianity, Islam and Judaism -- have a hateful idea at the very core. That idea is Exclusion: the "othering," if you like, of the unredeemed.” -- Matthew Parris

So while this is my first post, I'd like to suggest that you remove this restriction and if the real issue relates to talking religion, conversion or similar, that you make *that* the reason for banning. I'd also be interested in a more logical reason for banning ASAP, unless I get banned RFN. Thanks in advance. Brett (BrettA on pretty well any forum.)

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Permalink Reply by Luke on July 12, 2009 at 7:04pm

I just read that page. I didn't want theists here before and I really do not want them here now. I don't want to come here if crap like that is going to be served up daily. I don't care if the bible says I'm a fool and whether the bible was slightly mistranslated. I don't want to talk to people who are standing around, doe-eyed, waiting to die. I want to talk to people who are living in this world and trying to make this world a better place. There should be more Jones Town cults so they can fu(#off to more quickly and leave me alone.

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Permalink Reply by Krista on July 14, 2009 at 2:48pm

Many people get enough debate and proselytizing at home and work. It feels good to come home and have a place where you are guaranteed a break from it. There are SO many places where the atheist/theist debate is open, why should this place be too?

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Permalink Reply by Shamar on July 13, 2009 at 4:35am

Y'know, I enjoy debating theists. I do it on many sites.
It's fun to tear their logic apart sometimes, and there are many sites where we can debate like that.

This site is specifically for atheists to meet and converse with other atheists, and I have no problem with that....if I want to debate, then I'll go to one of the other (and there are many) sites to debate theists.

I like this one being a closed community....it's the only one

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Permalink Reply by AcesLucky on July 13, 2009 at 7:58am

Hey Brett -- check this out, right here on A/N (Banned from Rapture Ready) http://atheistnexus.org/forum/topics/just-banned-from-rapture-ready.

That post by Doug made me think of you.

Just letting you know you're in my thoughts and continuing to wish you god speed in your battles with the ~~deceivers~~ er, believers.

Peace be with you.

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Permalink Reply by Franklin Bacon on July 14, 2009 at 1:49pm

So often an atheist discussion board will become filled with theological arguments that it becomes of little use to atheists. I would hope that somewhere, sometime, there could be a forum where atheists are there to help atheists overcome religious hangups, without having religious people there to moralize against actual freethought ideas.

So many of our societal norms are based on religious ideas, it is unusual to have a discussion based on ideas free from religious tradition, even if it may not be based on dogma, doctrine or creed. That is what I would hope to gain from having a "nontheist only" type of discussion forum.
It seems like 90% of discussions elsewhere have theistic participants who try to impose their own agenda on others. It's time for atheists to start directing their own agenda among themselves, because we know from past experience that including theists will fill our time with religious debate.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer E. on July 14, 2009 at 6:25pm

I agree with the book club analogy. People start clubs with specific guidelines for joining all the time as a way to connect with people who have similar interests, ideas, etc. I love that there is a place on the internet just for nontheists, where we are safe from proselytizing, and, if we so wish, don't even have to discuss religion at all.