Case in point: Andrew Sullivan noted that Blair Scott, a spokesman for the American Atheists, Inc., was subjected to over 8,000 death threats and other violent rhetoric after appearing on Fox News.
Some examples of the "brotherly love" shared by Fox News viewers and friends that grew like a malignant cancer on its Facebook page:
"i say kill them all and let them see for themselves that there is God."Nice, huh? On Facebook one cannot use anonymous handles. No problem. These folks were totally cool with spewing hate in front of God and everybody using their real names and, in some cases, showing their portraits. For a time, Fox's Facebook page was overrun with these missives. One is tempted to ask, what part of "Thou shalt not kill" don't these lunatics get? But, as Bill Maher might put it, faith for these folks is clearly about "making a virtue out of not thinking."
"Shoot them. Shoot to kill."
"stupid athiests, I hope God kills them all." (this from a woman)
"TOO ALL AHEIEIST DIE AN GO TO HELL HAHA IF I COULD ID SHOOT ALL OF YOU IN THE HEAD WITH A 12GAUGE."
That said, I don't happen to agree with Maher on religion. Spirituality, I think, is not quite as binary as he portrays it. Even the (open-minded) rationalists among us leave a little wiggle room for it given our thimble full of knowledge about the greater universe. Besides, I suspect most good Christians sensibly regard their religion as "less of a theory and more of a love affair," as writer G. K. Chesterton phrased it. But Maher has a point when he opines that religion "allows human beings who don't have all the answers to think that they do." The Facebook messages shown above are proof enough of that. Such behavior may explain why Mohandas Gandhi was once moved to remark: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Too many are, indeed.
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