The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

http://blog.reddit.com/2013/07/new-default-subreddits-omgomgomg.html

http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1ihx2p/ratheism_removed_from_default_subreddit_list_not/

Apparently, it was removed from the defaults because of 'subpar quality'.

Good.  That's like having a Not-Sports-Fans forum.

^^^ If sports affected the way people treat each other the way religion does, I'd buy that comparison...but they don't, so I can't. ;)

Uhm...the point of this is what?

It's interesting. Dave is a redditor, from my recollection, so, I leave all this up to him if he knows any better.


/r/Atheism had been there from the beginning. I'd been active there in the past, arguing and such.

If you read the threads, apparently the quality went from decent, open-minded, irenic discussions, to constant attacks and nastiness.

It's just interesting. I see that phenomenon in other places. The reverse is true too, where Christian forums (notably those at reasonablefaith.com) become overly-defensive, etc.

I find it strange that people everywhere are becoming fundamentalist, to an extent.

/r/atheism is pretty bad, in terms of discussion.  It's a lot of trolling a memes.  There is some actual interesting discussion about news and such, but it has definitely de-evolved.

For atheists, it's a double-edge sword.  It was nice to have it as a default, because I see so many "I grew up a conservative Christian and thought I was all alone in my beliefs until I found this place."  ...and for r/atheism to be a support group for people going through struggles.  People ran across it that might not've sought it out.  On the other hand, it became a lot about mockery of religious people, because you had so many more people on there.

I guess we'll just have to see how it goes.  I believe that reddit is not attempting to make a religious statement by taking it off (I would be fine if they took it off for that reason, though...reddit doesn't need to be advocating one religious view over another).  I just think that r/atheism is no longer up to the standard of the homepage.

When you and I agree on something, it has a 200% chance of being correct.

To expand on this, r/atheism had some really good content, if you were willing to wade through the crap for it.  There was a lot of support from both atheists and religious people (mostly Christians) that gave advice on how to best cope with differences.  ...a lot of stuff about how to explain to your parents what you believe OR how to be OK with your parents still being Christians and it being OK -- it doesn't mean that they're dumb, for example.  The spirit of r/atheism at its heart was a very positive community.

But the stuff that got upvoted was a lot of garbage, where some Christian (who also happened to be a small minded moron) would write some over-simplified crap on Facebook and then there'd be a screen-cap with people mocking it.  I think there's a place for that kind of stuff...but not the homepage of Reddit.

Personally, I've sought out some other subreddits.  r/trueatheism seems to be better as well as r/atheistparents that acts as a support group for parents, in terms of answering questions about death, life, and coping with a society that might find you or your children evil.

The reason r/atheism was removed is that a few weeks/months ago there was a major falling out with one of the mods there.  New rules were implemented, and tons of people left the sub.  It has since devolved into a cesspool of infighting about the new rules and the direction of the sub itself; it is a disaster.  Like Dave said, it's full of trolling, memes, and hateful discussion.

That being said, when it was first formed years ago it was a great place for the curious but still-religious people to come.  It has freed thousands of religious people from the shackles of religion because of the open, free-thinking discussion and information it used to provide.  It was easy for people to ask questions about religion and have rational, though-provoking conversations.  The past few years, like most other popular subs, it has become too watered-down and filled with hate and useless links, thus leading to it's slow death and the rising of other atheist subs.


On a personal note, judging by your religious-related posts over the past year or so on this board, one can't help but notice the personal religious conflict your are going through.  In its prime, r/atheism would have been a great place for someone like yourself (ie a lawyer who likes to read, find out information, and argue it) to go and find quality discussion about the things that have been bothering you. 

Tony, the same is true for you, on the older reasonablefaith.org boards. Nowadays - I don't know.



*The* purpose of forums like that, I thought, was irenic discussion: Hey, we can disagree and be cool abt it.

Nowadays - man... it's creepy out there, folks.