Here’s a perfect example of a religious pork-barrel scam.  I live within walking distance of this monstrosity.  The part about everyone holding up their tithes in front of the camera is a great tactic to guilt the sheeples into buying tithing their way into heaven.

75% of the time I’m here because there’s a feature built into browsers allowing urls to be stored as a file, so that when you click on a particular icon in the browser menu, the webpage is accessed immediately. It saves having to remember the url. The other 25% of the time I use the Blogroll on my own site because I just happen to be there. It does basically the same thing, and automatically opens in a fresh tab for my convenience.

Oh, sorry. A little too much atheistic literalism for one day.

Brock: If I have to ask for a “foaming at the mouth fundie� to visit my thread, it just isn’t the same somehow. If you really cared, you’d just come on in and and foam away.

Nothing like genuine foamy squirrely wrath. 

come on in and and foam away.

I’ll never think of a foam party the same way again.

“I will kill you all
Nothing you can do about it
I will kill you all
Nothing you can do about it
Squirrely wrath
Squirrely wrath
You’re all gonna die
You’re all gonna die
Squirrely wrath
Squirrely wrath.” Squirrel Songs

Achtung!  Thread drift!  Thread drift!  This thread is headed for the rocks!

Brock, I can’t offer foam (most days) or fundamentalism, but you are certainly in my top ten of posters here.

*** said: I tend to avoid the discussions here that have devolved into “Religious folks are a bunch of retards!� “Oh, yeah? Atheists are a bunch of ... um ... godless retards!� simply because there’s no signal there, just noise.

Oh, yeah? Too mature for a food fight, are you?  Are you insinuating something about the rest of us retards?

the Lord spake: No one here is exactly what he appears.

Or: what it appears.  Buahaha!

Well I come here for the Nachos.

Seriously though, I think I have a pretty good idea why a lot of the people who hang out here choose to do so including the True Believers™.

Indeed, in some cases it does appear to be little more than a misguided attempt to convert us heathens or a way of feeling superior, but those folks actually tend to be in the minority and they don’t tend to stick around for long.

In the case of Ellie I think she’s here because she’s honestly, if somewhat haphazardly, trying to find her way to the Truth. As frustrating as her views can be I don’t think she means any harm and I’m actually kinda glad she’s here.

I think Theocrat is here to test his theories and ideas under fire and I think he’d probably find it even harder to fit in on some religious sites than here. We’re used to hearing from folks with some pretty off-the-wall ideas.

As ***Dave pointed out, he and I have more in common than we do in difference it seems. The same is true for JethricOne who pops in from time to time. When I use the term “True Believer” I’m not generally referring to folks such as these two who can have their faith and still put up with the likes of me. In many ways I think they’re actually good for me because they often remind me when I’m over generalizing which is a very human thing to do. They help balance me out when I let my frustrations with the True Believers™ boil over a bit too much.

For a lot of other folks I think it’s morbid curiosity. Sorta like being unable not to gawk at car accidents. The name of the site just pulls them in and the number one question I get is: Why do you call you/it Stupid Evil Bastard? Why would ANYONE call themselves/their site that?

You may be right about Theocrat not fitting in on religious sites. I do hang out on some and atheists are usually not worth more than an afterthought - it’s their misguided brothers and sisters they hyperventilate about.

I got here ‘cos I should’ve taken a left turn at Alberquerque!

Maybe the fundies were googling “naked boobies”?

We’re still the No. 3 link returned for that search term on Google, I’m proud to say.

Tish, I’ll meet you at Pismo Beach!

Les, it might be safe to generalize that those that come here to learn, stay through the fire, but those who actually come for the fire, get burned and don’t stay long.

I did a search on naked boobies for amusement, and you were number 1 Les.

Les. Number 1 on naked boobies.  Do we want to know what this means?

I vote for a companion Stupid Evil Boobies website!

I arrived after a search for “The Star Wars Kid”. Liked what I saw and decided to lurk in the weeds.
Have tried to draw in others, mostly people who have invisible friends. It’s a great site for them to test their faith. You might as well sleep through life if you are not going to think about what makes you a believer.

eldritch said, about true believers: it’s their misguided brothers and sisters they hyperventilate about.

Getting exercised about those who believe almost as you do has a long and honorable history, of course- Protestants and Catholics, Sunnis and Shiites, Atheists and Quack Nostrum Salesmen…

About hyperventilation:
1) Bertrand Russell once said (I can’t remember where, sorry) that the louder the argument, the less factual basis it has.  Suppose you’re at a party, he said, and someone there claimed that Iceland was on the equator.  Would you get red in the face and scream “No, Iceland is not on the equator”?  No.  Why not?  Because you simply know it’s not.  If you have to scream, it’s likely in hopes that volume will make up for the lack of support you have.

2) As kids, we used to amuse ourselves with this little-known trick: get someone to hyperventilate, by breathing deeply and rapidly, say fifty breaths, and to hold the last breath.  You stand behind them and while they’re holding their breath, hug them tightly around the diaphragm and lift them, compressing the air in their lungs.  Let go after a few seconds.  They take a breath, start to say “so what?”, and the next second their knees give way and they’re on the (hopefully soft) floor.  Very surprising.

I was impressed by the quality of the posts and comments, unlike other sites.  I get annoyed with some of the clueless commenting at slashdot, and if you don’t comment while the story’s new, you may not get a reply.  I’m at the point I just read the articles and skip the comments.  Hell, if it’s a big enough story, it may end up here anyway!

Not to mention I’ve learned a few things about debating from this site.

But the site could use more naked boobies and cowbell.

I don’t remember how I ended up finding this site.  It’s Google’s fault in any case.

I’m glad somebody agrees with me about the need for more cowbell.

More naked boobies? meh I see too many “naked boobies” here as it is.

Brock- I think you’ve confused “boobies” with “goonies”, as in those birds that keep flying into jet engines.  But perhaps I’m mistaken.  Wouldn’t be the first time, as Laurie Anderson says.

BTW- what is “cowbell”?  Do I want to know?

I come here because I learn all kinds of things.

The topics are interesting.

most people are pleasant to read.

My area of interest is “people’s behaviour” and this site often debates on how us humans could or should behave.

zilch:  http://snltranscripts.jt.org/99/99pcowbell.phtml

More Cowbell!

OB- thanks.  But why didn’t you guys say that “cowbell” means “cowbell”?  That I would have understood.

I’m pretty sure that I first found this site from doing a search for ‘sacred cows’.  I saw a link that said, “Sacred cows make the tastiest burgers,” and I knew I had to check it out. 

Book of Skippy 4:21-27: Lo, and the internet did part before me, and I beheld a marvelous site.  The Way was revealed, and I passed into a land of dissent and discourse.  I did find many there who spoke of Truth, and many who felt that Truth was an illusion.  For in conflict and honest discussion may a man come to truly understand his own mind, and thus am I made better. 

Behold, I say unto you, seek not those who parrot, or cluck with the wisdom of fattened barnyard chicks.  Seek not the supplicators, or the lickspittles who only wish to be patted on the head as lapdogs for doing their master’s bidding.  Only in the fires of argument may you forge the steel of your resolve, and the strength to support your spine.

Amen.

That I would have understood.

But would you have, zilch, and do you?

Thanks, OB. Now if we could just find a clip online. That script doesn’t do the skit justice.

Here amd don’t say I never gave you guys nothin.

http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/12491/

I got a fever! And the only prescription… is more cowbell!