The lack of religion isn’t a religion. What is so difficult about this for the religious to grasp?

I’m not sure who you’re arguing with. I was trying to make sure people aren’t handing out respect and trust willy nilly.

I guess I need to clarify that you give courtesy until and unless someone gives you an obvious reason not to. I thought that would be assumed and understood, guess that’s on me.

Courtesy should always be given. Respect and trust are earned.

Did you skip the second sentence of my comment?

Am I religious if I say there isn’t a marble at the table? Or a walnut? I don’t see one, I have no reason to believe one is there, based on how the world works elsewhere there isn’t anything there.

But you’re telling me I need to faith to avoid these beliefs in small generally round objects. I say it is you who is using faith to assume the existence of one particular type of thing there and you’re claiming I am the person operating without any evidence.

It’s ridiculous.

What you wrote doesn’t even pass the mildest smell test: there is ample evidence that forming babies hear and react to stimuli from outside the womb, for just one example.

But even if there were no evidence of a world outside the womb, I wouldn’t expect a baby to think one existed. Nor would I threaten that baby with damnation were they not to believe me without evidence.

Atheism isn’t faith-based. If you show me reproducible evidence for the existence of a god, I’ll change my tune no problem.

You are not clear on what faith is if you believe atheism to be faith-based. Atheism wouldn’t even exist if religion did not. Because religion and unfounded beliefs are so common, there is an actual name for not believing in a god. There aren’t a lot of specific terms for a lack of belief in other things without evidence.

Here, let me rephrase what’s written above:

Because an invisible pink sky elephant cannot be disproved or proved with any non-supernatural intervention, you must grapple with the imaginary to address the issue.

…

That’s not how the world works. We don’t spend any time grappling with things for which there is no evidence.

There are millions of small companies and shops that need engineering help. Many will actually talk to you like a person because they haven’t been enshuttified to death.

STOP WORKING FOR THESE GIANT HELLHOLES.

Why are you applying to that soulless shitshack??

My young friends are forgetting the days of IE where we really did almost lose the web. It’s been a constant struggle, always, against the corporate interests who only see the internet as a money printer.

I am more excited about the web today, with the fediverse for example, than I have been in a long time. Maybe since those days, when the future of any browser but IE was in doubt.

Nothing needs an app.

I’ve definitely arrived at a place in my online life where I do not need to be on some company’s corporate advertising mill website.

I left, and I know I’m just one middle aged dude pining for the internet before the companies turned their roving eyes to it, but I have no interest in going back, regardless of what they do at this point. I offer this because maybe more people will start to think “do I really need to be a part of a community of millions, or even hundreds of millions? or maybe is it more healthy for me to find the right community online that is a bit more like a mid-sized city? We can share news across these little islands, so we don’t all need to fit in a single corporate container.”

I mean, they’ve definitely lost people to the fediverse, the majority here at this point are probably reddit refugees.

They may have gained in total users for all I know or care. This place just feels more like the old internet I like. Really looking forward to the slow decline in people here caring about what’s happening on Reddit, regardless of how big and successful or how terribly failed it is.