{"id":2158,"date":"2011-03-17T08:41:27","date_gmt":"2011-03-17T13:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2011-03-17T08:41:27","modified_gmt":"2011-03-17T13:41:27","slug":"assuming-the-worst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2158","title":{"rendered":"Assuming The Worst"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts that I plan to comment on. I want to make sure that I am not creating a straw man argument. I want to make sure that I am assuming the best in what the theist is saying.<\/p>\n<p>In my view, their best usually paints them in a bad light so I have no problem doing it. I think that the Abrahamic position is ridiculous, so I am willing to give theists the rope they need, so to speak. When they say, \u201cAtheists believe X\u201d or \u201catheists do X\u201d my first assumption is that they mean \u201cmany atheists\u201d or \u201catheists in general\u201d and not \u201call atheists.\u201d Sometimes they do mean \u201call atheists,\u201d but I would want them to clarify that point. But when I say \u201cmany Christians\u201d or \u201csome Jews,\u201d they frequently respond by claiming that I am making a sweeping generalizations and lumping \u201call\u201d together.<\/p>\n<p>It sometimes amazes me at how quickly a theist will misrepresent what I write in such obvious ways that it seems like they are often projecting what they would do on me. I really go out of my way to try to understand where the theist writer is coming from, but I rarely get that type of response from theists when it comes to my writing. It\u2019s frustrating sometimes.<br \/>\n<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><br \/>\n<a onclick=\"return addthis_sendto()\" onmouseover=\"return addthis_open(this, '', '[URL]', '[TITLE]')\" onmouseout=\"addthis_close()\" href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=dangeroustalk\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=dangeroustalk\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><br \/>\n <!-- AddThis Button END --><\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em;\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thehumanistchallenge.wordpress.com\/2011\/03\/06\/%25e2%2580%259catheist-v-theist%25e2%2580%259d-%25e2%2580%2593-a-humanists-response\/\">&#8220;Atheist v. 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[Poll]<\/a> (teenageatheist.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"http:\/\/camelswithhammers.com\/2011\/01\/11\/being-personally-moral-is-not-enough-atheists-need-a-coherent-metaethics\/\">Being Personally Moral Is Not Enough, Atheists Need A Coherent Metaethics<\/a> (camelswithhammers.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px; height: 15px;\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: medium none; float: right;\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=30f6f1f7-e246-4a67-b500-518de9f94d46\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" \/><\/a><span class=\"zem-script more-related pretty-attribution\"><script src=\"http:\/\/static.zemanta.com\/readside\/loader.js\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/?p=2158\"><\/div><script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I find that after I write an article of blog entry, Christians tend to be the first to misrepresent something I said and assume the worst. When I read a theist article (even one which I know I will comment on critically or write an entire response to), I tend to read carefully the parts [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n<script>\n<!-- \/\/LinkWithinCodeStart\nvar linkwithin_site_id = 317364;\nvar linkwithin_div_class = \"linkwithin_hook\";\n\/\/LinkWithinCodeEnd -->\n<\/script>\n<script src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/widget.js\"><\/script>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/\"><img src=\"http:\/\/www.linkwithin.com\/pixel.png\" alt=\"Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...\" style=\"border: 0\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[310,589,725,133,488],"tags":[2215,1625,37,2216,1350,1264,659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dangeroustalk.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}