Just from surfing other posts on the religion, God and Theology forum, it seems (especially on the post about atheist pics) that atheist feel they have to prove their point by posting hurtful comments, and pics of christians.

While i see those comments, i don't see christian posters berating atheists. They either get references, or try to give ppl information while atheist just post pics of anti-christianity. As you may have guessed, im Christian, but my best friend is agnostic, so im in no way not going to be mean to atheist.

anyone else have any thoughts on this?

I've done my fair share of berating atheists.

Your God's crueler than us harsh atheists:

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/cruelty/long.html

This is true to some extent, though not universally. The best explanation I can give you is that your average theist thinks they have all eternity to say 'I told you so' - atheists have only the here and now.

lol. Yeah me too. Also, I was going to bring up in the other thread that you stated that you were giving the atheist threads 1 star. I died laughing because I have been doing the same thing. For the exact same reasons that you mentioned

To the OP. I think that if it is done in good fun, none should take offense. There are atheists here that really mean nothing by it. But there are those that would just like to hurt people. It is important to differentiate.

Haven't seen any reasons (link?) but at first glance this is both unfathomably petty and faintly ridiculous - who pays attention to the thread ratings? I know I don't.

Apparently the petty atheist do....and they had the gull to point the pettiness of the theist(who apparently also pay attention to thread ratings).

Sorry, what?

Atheists tend to be more passionate about their beliefs on average, I'd guess. There aren't as many moderate atheists as religious people.

Theists like Stu and Jib think a lot about it and are equally invested in the debate, and in cases like that you'll see vitriol shooting from both sides.

There actually is a good explanation for this...

These "hurtful" comments and pics you refer to are attacking a belief system and not individual people. They should not be taken as personal insults. Just like when people laugh at those who believe they saw UFOs or those who still believe in Greek Mythology, the ridicule is directed at the beliefs and not the person doing the believing. The popularity of a particular belief should not matter.

When it comes to atheism however, there IS NO belief system to attack. The only thing you can possibly know about an atheist is that they don't believe there is a god. The rest is assumptive. So any insults hurled at atheists would have to be personal ones.

On the contrary you can't gloss over all atheists because they all come in different flavors and humans can operate from different motives and attitudes.

Some atheists do have beliefs that are agenda like and tied to their atheism.

If you are a staunch supporter of Dawkins, Hitchens and Harris then mockery is a staple and mockery is usually not meant nicely.

Also Harris has a "conversational intolerance" policy that he advocates. See his wiki on it.

I've even seen atheists write things that imply they like the arguments to get combative though I'll leave them unnamed.

I'm not sure I really buy this, for the same reason I don't believe that arguments against anarchists would have to be personal attacks as there is no proposed governmental structure to attack.

LOL. I liked this one.

Conversational intolerance is not about advocating hostility toward religious people.

This is a classic example of the verbal gymnastics that theists use to create dogma out of atheism.

Who is staunch supporter of these speakers? Does somebody actually "worship" them?

Speaking for myself, I tend to pick them apart. There are some things they say that I agree with and some things I disagree with. You cannot say the same thing about your relationship with God. Disagreement gets you burnt for a long time.

Aside from that, if someone were to post a pic of Hitchens nailed to a cross with comic blurbs above it, do you honestly think an atheist would personally be offended in the least?

How would you attack someone who doesn't believe Elvis is still alive? Or someone who thinks unicorns don't exist?

with a couple of exceptions (pletho comes to mind), i agree with op.

atheists that are interested in hearing about other religions should back off a bit some times if they want theists to stick around

By proposing that they do exist.

I agree to an extent. While some atheist attack the idea of religion, the ppl on 2+2 attack ppl imo. You have to admit, when you say a negative comment about something you know is sensitive, there is definitely some motivation to make it sting.

I think atheism is a belief system, you believe to not believe in a god/s. Not saying religous ppl are totally innocent in not attacking individuals, i just feel its more atheist targeting religion.

Then that wouldn't be a personal attack, would it?

It's like this...

George Bush Supporter: GWB is the best!
Opponent: [posts pic of Bush acting dumb next to a monkey or something]
George Bush Supporter: *insulted* You're a jerkoff!

Please tell me you see the difference between Opponent's "insult" and GWB Supporter's insult.

As a Christian, what compelling reason should I have to use intentionally hurtful tactics?

It's sort of like how all parents eventually lose their cool when dealing with their 3 year old child. You can only stay level-headed for so long before snapping at them.

Rinse and repeat.

Actually, theists are usually the ones that start with the insults because the arguments they're making often don't make any sense. They get frustrated because they generally can't provide references for the stuff they're backing up.

The typical atheist insult towards a theist is a criticism of they're ability to think logically, and is almost always valid.

While we have theists like Big Erf saying stuff like we're lucky he doesn't practice voodoo because if he did he'd be bending Hopey's leg back the wrong way. (lol)

I just had to quote this by itself because of how ridiculous the claim is.

There is one specific thread that's full of pictures that are funny to atheists, and maybe some theists.

Your statement implies that pics are the atheists main way of responding to theist, and that is absolutely 100% false.

Setting that one pic thread aside, I'd guess pics make up less than 1% of the responses from atheists. And 95% of those are the facepalm pic.

a big reason it seems like atheists pick on theists is just because the population is very skewed...there are dozens of active atheists posters (some more active than others) and probalby 4 or 5 more extreme theist posters...

the theists also all believe different things so if they are criticized it may seem personal when it really is not...

On Mondays I berate the atheists who deny the existence of God/gods.

On Tuesdays I berate the atheists who have no belief in God/gods.

On Wednesday I berate the atheists who believe God/gods do not exists.

On Thursday I berate the atheists who disbelieve God/gods exists.

On Friday I berate the strong atheists.

On Saturaday I berate the weak atheists.

On Sunday I tell my pastor that sermons are like baking...they both require lots of shortening.