This past week, a Christian missionary named John Chau was slain by the Sentinelese tribe, a hunter-gatherer group of people who live on North Sentinel, an island in the Andaman sea. The Senintelese do not take kindly to foreigners and will attack with arrows if they are approached by outsiders. The Indian government has forbidden people to see go to the island.
Naturally, John Chau and a group of missionaries to which he belonged thought it would be a good idea to go there and try to convert the tribe to Christianity.
The tribe shot arrows at the group and Chau managed to survive the first attack, but he tried again the next day and was slain.
Now, onto the part that relates to my title. There are at least three threads in r/Atheism that are responses to this event. Here are two of them.
Thread 1 title: "Extremely annoyed at this vulgar display of religious arrogance"
In thread one, the OP expresses annoyance (and disgust) at the family of the slain missionary for forgiving the Sentinelese tribe for killing him.
The OP equates the modern missionaries of today with the missionaries of the past who preceded the massacre of natives and the destruction of civilizations.
The OP's primary argument for why he is angry is that the missionary likely carried diseases that would have (and might still) destroyed the Sentinelese.
Thread 2 title: "Despite what the fundies day, John Chau wasn't killed for being a Christian missionary. He was killed by his own stupidity. He was a fucking criminal who flagrantly disregarded the law and put the health of an isolated tribe in jeopardy to further a bullshit ideology. I don't feel sorry for him."
The OP of this thread reiterates that the missionary risked spreading illnesses to the Sentinelese. He also stresses that the missionary was a criminal for breaking the law, which I think is the weakest part of his argument, since I believe that it's appropriate to debate the morality or benefit of someone's actions rather tha whether or not they broke a law.
The last sentences of the thread are: "This fucking moron got what he deserved. Do stupid shit, enjoy shitty consequences."
Now, I'm not saying that these people in r/Atheism don't have valid concerns. What I am saying is that these people are practically celebrating the death of this naive Christian missionary.
Each of these threads was guilded three times, which means people spent real money to reward them.
While I agree that the missionaries should not have gone to the island to try to convert the Sentinelese tribe, I strongly disagree with the vicious remarks from many of the people who frequent the r/Atheism subreddit.
Frankly, despite them subscribing to the rational, empirical position regarding the supernatural, these Reddit atheists can be aggressive, arrogant, and immature.
Calling god an "imaginary sky daddy" doesn't make them seem smarter. It makes them sound like snarky, pompous, assholes.
When I was reading these threads, I imagined the OPs looking like this:
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Naturally, John Chau and a group of missionaries to which he belonged thought it would be a good idea to go there and try to convert the tribe to Christianity.
The tribe shot arrows at the group and Chau managed to survive the first attack, but he tried again the next day and was slain.
Now, onto the part that relates to my title. There are at least three threads in r/Atheism that are responses to this event. Here are two of them.
Thread 1 title: "Extremely annoyed at this vulgar display of religious arrogance"
In thread one, the OP expresses annoyance (and disgust) at the family of the slain missionary for forgiving the Sentinelese tribe for killing him.
The OP equates the modern missionaries of today with the missionaries of the past who preceded the massacre of natives and the destruction of civilizations.
The OP's primary argument for why he is angry is that the missionary likely carried diseases that would have (and might still) destroyed the Sentinelese.
Thread 2 title: "Despite what the fundies day, John Chau wasn't killed for being a Christian missionary. He was killed by his own stupidity. He was a fucking criminal who flagrantly disregarded the law and put the health of an isolated tribe in jeopardy to further a bullshit ideology. I don't feel sorry for him."
The OP of this thread reiterates that the missionary risked spreading illnesses to the Sentinelese. He also stresses that the missionary was a criminal for breaking the law, which I think is the weakest part of his argument, since I believe that it's appropriate to debate the morality or benefit of someone's actions rather tha whether or not they broke a law.
The last sentences of the thread are: "This fucking moron got what he deserved. Do stupid shit, enjoy shitty consequences."
Now, I'm not saying that these people in r/Atheism don't have valid concerns. What I am saying is that these people are practically celebrating the death of this naive Christian missionary.
Each of these threads was guilded three times, which means people spent real money to reward them.
While I agree that the missionaries should not have gone to the island to try to convert the Sentinelese tribe, I strongly disagree with the vicious remarks from many of the people who frequent the r/Atheism subreddit.
Frankly, despite them subscribing to the rational, empirical position regarding the supernatural, these Reddit atheists can be aggressive, arrogant, and immature.
Calling god an "imaginary sky daddy" doesn't make them seem smarter. It makes them sound like snarky, pompous, assholes.
When I was reading these threads, I imagined the OPs looking like this:
