Atheist billboards mock Romney, Obama religion

[Moonwalk]

32. Actually, no, it doesn't fit the textbook definition nor does it fit Westboro....

And haven't you just called the kettle black? In accusing these athetists of being just like Westboro you've actually fufilled the textbook definition of a bigot, and by your own definition, if you don't admit this, then you're also as bad as the Westboro baptists. Ironic, no?

(1) There is no textbook definition about being a bigot against a philosophy--and disagreeing with any philosophy, even rudely, isn't bigotry (it's being a dick, perhaps, but not a bigot). Textbook definition of bigotry is that you judge a person by a misperception. For example, that a person who is Jewish is rich, or a black woman is a welfare queen. There is no relationship between the religion of Judaism and being wealthy, but the bigot has made an unsubstantiated connection between the two and so all Jews are Shylocks. YOU made an unsubstantiated connection between these atheists and Westboro church, so you are a textbook bigot. Meanwhile, they made assertions about what certain religions and religious texts say (observations about certain philosophies and belief systems, but not about those who believe in them)--thus, they are not textbook bigots.

(2) Westboro church may be bigoted and not see it, but that's a pretty thin connection between the two if you mean to label these atheists as the same. By that definition anyone who has some bigotry that they don't recognize is equal to Westboro--you included as you seem bigoted against atheists If you are going to accuse the two of being the same, then the atheists have to be doing the same things Westboro does (or very similar) in order to achieve the same ends. I don't see atheists crashing funerals, do you? Nor do I see them supporting laws to take away anyone's rights. They're not arguing that religious believers should be imprisoned or killed so far as I can see...so where is the similarity?

Hence, you've created a false equivalency in a thinly veiled attempt to people to avoid this group for fear of being Westboro-like. This is similar to when certain pundits call Obama a Nazi in hopes that everyone will run from Obama because they don't want to be a Nazi. It's hyperbole that is, ultimately, nonsense and doesn't lead to any real discussion of why this group is not a good group--in and of itself, not by comparison to anyone or anything else.

These billboards argue is that believing the things that these religions preach isn't a good idea. Anyone can argue that without being a bigot. Everyone here argues that what teabaggers believe isn't a good idea, right? And I can argue that it's not a good idea for climate change deniers to believe what they believe; I can even mock what they believe. This doesn't make me a textbook bigot--i.e. would I refuse to let a climate change denier get married and make laws keeping them from that right? Would I, as true bigots do, try to make sure climate change deniers could only live in certain parts of town, get only certain jobs, etc.? If not, then I am not a textbook bigot any more than the democrats here are bigots against republicans. And we're certainly a long way from being anything equal to Westboro however much we may hate Teabaggers.