Citizen Tom

Occasionally I write a post that keeps on getting hits. When that happens, it is usually because someone took an interest and started referring others. Such is the case with Reviling Christian Fundamentalism. As it happens there is a certain website out there that enjoys ridiculing fundamentalists, Fundies Say the Darndest Things (FSTDT). Whether you want to visit FSTDT is up to you. Some of the language is crude.

I think FSTDT a dubious enterprise. FSTDT linked to my post and quoted its favorite sentence. Since then some of FSTDT’s visitors have started commenting on this quote (at FSTDT), and a few of FSTDT’s visitors have actually visited my post (to see the quote in context). So I suppose FSTDT may inadvertently do some good. Nonetheless, the purpose of this website is to encourage people to go out of their way to ridicule others.

After visiting FSTDT, I started wondering. Does anyone have an “Atheists Say the Darndest Things” website? So I googled and I got 236 hits. Here are some of them.

• The Science Forum created such a post just to be fair (here).
• Penraker claims Richard Dawkins is a fundamentalist (here).
• Then there is the Anonymous Atheist Complaint box (here).
• Unitarian Universalist Young Adults has a community (here).
• Atheist-Stooges.com takes itself so seriously it is funny (here).
• The Far Wright proves genius atheists say the darndest things too (here).

I could go on, but it appears the Internet has no shortage of people who have made it their business to prove other people wrong. Sometimes such criticism is necessary. When people are trying to force us to do something we do not want to do or when they are hurting themselves or others, we must act. Such is also necessary to protect our freedom, but criticism is not the point of being free. Just to criticize others, we do not need free speech.

If what you love is not more important to you than what you fear and hate, then you are not yet truly alive. Free men and women do not want to be held back by their fears and their hatreds. Free men and women want to be free to pursue their dreams.