Those peace loving White Supremacists are at it again

[unixman]

Unless he is completely insane, the shooter is a murderer. It doesn't matter what else he is, or claims to be, or what his job is, or who he voted for. He might have been wearing a blue shirt. Some in here would advocate taking action against all who wear blue shirts. To sad even for a scornful LOL.

[Paddy]

Looks like a christian lunatic was also the perpetrator:

His apparent MySpace page is even more cryptic, featuring just a photo of a dog and a Sunkist can and the following song from the Christian metal band A Thousand Times Repent

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._metal_artists

and...

Charleston shooting suspect Dylann Roof was given a gun for his birthday | Daily Mail Online

[Eirikur]

What if Jesus told him to do it? like to hear what the relifreaks would have to say in that case

[vetran]

he was a nutter they exist in all religous flavours and colours.

pretty tragic really

[Gibbon]

Given the moronic responses from people like MicrosoftBob, I wonder how long it will be before some atheist nutter goes amok due to their irrational hatred of anything religious? (If it hasn't already happened).

Has it happened yet? We have thousands of years of killing in the name of God, have we any concrete examples of an atheist version of a crusade or jihad?

Probably not because most religously inspired killings are rooted in some sort of offence or ridicule against the said faith. You can't offend the beliefs of someone who has none.

Also atheist is wrong term to describe a person of no faith as it does have connotations of being against religion which could lead to hate. Given the lack of violence seemingly carried out by 'atheists' purely on anti religous grounds the correct term would be the latin nullifidian, a person of no faith.

To ridicule religion is not the same as irrational hatred, it is a rational response to superstitious nonsense.

[Paddy]

Has it happened yet? We have thousands of years of killing in the name of God, have we any concrete examples of an atheist version of a crusade or jihad?

Probably not because most religously inspired killings are rooted in some sort of offence or ridicule against the said faith. You can't offend the beliefs of someone who has none.

Also atheist is wrong term to describe a person of no faith as it does have connotations of being against religion which could lead to hate. Given the lack of violence seemingly carried out by 'atheists' purely on anti religous grounds the correct term would be the latin nullifidian, a person of no faith.

To ridicule religion is not the same as irrational hatred, it is a rational response to superstitious nonsense.

Exactly. Moreover, religion is based on fear that if a person displeases their god, they will go to hell when they die hence why they will commit atrocities out of fear of going to hell or reward of going to heaven.

Atheists do not have that fear and instead will make the most of life with respect to other human beings.

Religious people can not accept that when they die, that is the end.

[unixman]

Hi Gibbon nice theory but the sort of "atheist" trolls you get on the internet are at least as intolerant and insane as the worst religious cult, and just as bloodthirsty. Check Twitter. Worse, they believe that they have "science" to back up their mad eugenic visions.

All is not lost however. These trolls are I think not actually atheists, but just trolls who have chosen atheism as a vehicle for their all-too-human failings. And there you have it. The source of the evil is not religion, or atheism, or the bogey man, it is inside is. Any you can use almost anything - politics, religion, atheism - to ventilate it.

[unixman]

I understand the oldest murder victim was 87. An 87 year old woman, saying her prayers.

[NotAllThere]

...
To ridicule religion is not the same as irrational hatred...

True. But espousing discrimination against people holding religious beliefs is not ridicule - and may well be rooted in irrational hatred. Some individuals on this site (MicrosoftBob is one example) seem to have an irrational kneejerk antipathetical response toward anything religious. I.e. just because it's anti-religious doesn't mean that it's not irrational.

Politically atheistic regimes in the 20th Century totted up millions of deaths. Extreme ideologies of any kind result in mass murder. Religion is just one particular flavour. I'd contend that the idea that religion naturally leads to murderous ideology is not proven. Rather I think an ideology becomes murderous either when the ideology is considered to be more important than individual people, or when the ideology labels non-subscribers to be less than human. The latter might indicate that while ridicule and lampooning should generally be tolerated, there is a point where it can become dehumanising, so even ridicule isn't unrestrictedly a good thing.

Ridicule might well be born out of irrational hatred.

[WordIsBond]

What if Jesus told him to do it? like to hear what the relifreaks would have to say in that case

What if Charles Darwin told him to do it because blacks are a lesser species and holding back evolution?

Oh. Charles Darwin didn't tell him to? Well, then my question is as ignorant and pointless as yours.