worked faster than my brain (not uncommon with me)....my wife counsels me on these sorts of things "if you haven't got anything good/positive to say, just shut up" (wise woman, my wife!)

It just made me very upset. And why was it allowed to stay. If I posted something about religion I guarantee you it would have been hidden.

This place is Outrage Underground.
People come here for their daily Two Minutes Hate™.
(myself included)
I thought that OP and most of those responses were just silly.

Don't get upset over what strangers on the internet do.
It will lead to you being upset every minute of every day for the rest of your life!

What bothers me also is the fact that it was allowed to stay in GD. If I were to post something pro-religion in GD it would be locked in a few minutes.

They inevitably turn into religion bashing threads, giving some members the opportunity to say whatever ugly things they want about believers, generally without any consequences.

My opinion is that they are the ones that come off looking badly, not you.

I don't blame you for being upset and I personally think the thread should be locked as inappropriate for GD. It was intended as flame bait and it got exactly the response it was aiming for.

I am used to these GD religion posts that become insulting but this one just bit me the wrong way. And people I like saying nasty things was upsetting.

It's hurtful, I know, but you are better than that silly thread.

Turn the other cheek, justin.

Remember Braveheart?

Braveheart a good movie but too long.

But I was referring to the mooning scene just before the first big battle.

For people who claim to be rational, they sure have overly emotional reactions to everything religious.

I call them evangelical atheists. They can't stand the fact that someone might believe in a deity or deities, and they're on a crusade to make sure everyone agrees with them, to the point that they'll say things that are demonstrably untrue.

But I can't ignore the room because I am a host in it.

You are a true asset to that room and I hope you will not stop posting there.

want the hassle of a thousand responses ready to explore every angle of what I have just said.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got on this site was to not let them know they could get to you. That came from a wise DU administrator.

People come here to interact and some people interact by starting a fight.

Another good piece of advice I got early on was to reward good behavior and ignore bad. This was particularly helpful when my kids started having temper tantrums. Responding at all just reinforced the behavior, lol.

When I tried to point out that people such as Stalin and Hoxha pushed atheism by force in exactly the same way that Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain pushed Catholicism by force, I was told that No True <strike>Scotsman</strike> Atheist would do such a thing.

They'll make claims that are demonstrably untrue.

When I saw the OP, I figured pretty quickly it wasn't going to be worth my time to read, that the poster types it would attract are not the ones I want to read to begin with.

I did think that the OP is someone that doesn't yet comprehend the concept of headphones

Arsonists don't upset me.

It's surprising how often they don't.