Sniveling Cowardly Christians

From PZ I learned today that MySpace is run by religious bigots who have deleted atheist users, groups and content:

Early this month, MySpace again deleted the Atheist and Agnostic Group (35,000 members). This deletion, due largely to complaints from people who find atheism offensive, marks the second time MySpace has cancelled the group since November 2007.

[…]

“MySpace refuses to undelete the group, although it never violated any terms of service,” said Bryan Pesta, Ph.D., the group’s moderator. “When the largest Christian group was hacked, MySpace’s Founder, Tom Anderson, personally restored the group, and promised to protect it from future deletions.”

What a bunch of sniveling cowards this Christian group must be. Rather than engage in debate with the atheists, rather than show some evidence to back up their beliefs, or even just ignore the atheists, they had to start an organized campaign to have the group deleted. Because Christians only feel safe when no one allowed to challenge their delusions. It’s a sad commentary on their pathetic excuse for a religion that their god is so frightened of a few atheists that even an atheists’ MySpace page can’t be allowed to exist. Remember this the next time you hear Bill Donohue’s professional victim act, or The Christian News Wire whining about some imagined insult. Remember this the next time someone tells the “New Atheists” that we need to be more accommodating to Christians, less aggressive, more understanding of the “moderate” Christians, or whatever. Where are the “moderate Christians” protesting the atheists’ group’s right to exist? This act shows the religious mindset as it really is – intolerant, authoritarian, cowardly and vindictive.

Other Sources

The Cleveland Plain Dealer: MySpace deletes hacked Web site for atheists and agnostics

Wikipedia page on The Atheist and Agnostic Group.

February 2, 2007 – Update

Podblack reports MySpace have restored the group.

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Comments

[genewitch]

myspace is run by "News Corporation";
are we surprised that the dissenting viewpoint and voices are being oppressed and suppressed?

I'm not. if anything, the atheist group should reform every time there's a deletion. and grow in size each time. that's my take.

[Laurel]

If "reform...and grow in size each time" were the plan, I might actually join MySpace.

[genewitch]

Laurel, without knowing how many there were the first time it's impossible to say. Although i'm sure i can browse groups today and see how many members the new group has. Not that anyone would care that a large media corporation were censoring a large group of people, but still. it might make a good point sometime in the future when the god fearing society tries to spread into the god-fearing fearing society. >.<

[John]

Behavior like this brings to mind the Internet antics of communist China in their attempts to squelch free speech there.

[Ryan]

I am a strong atheist and a member of the MySpace Atheist & Agnostics Group.

There is no evidence to suggest that the group (which is back up and running) was deleted as a result of religious intolerance. The group was hacked in late 2007 because Mr. Pesta's profile was phished by a single individual (not deleted by MySpace as has been intimated).

There is no evidence to suggest that the hacker was part of some vast Christian conspiracy or that News Corporation/MySpace has it in for atheists because they were slow in responding to requests by atheists. The largest Christian group on MySpace has been hacked several times and has been reduced to a group with a few dozen posts per day from a very fast paced group of over 80, 000...and has been that way for months. But I don't hear them squealing persecution or taking a slanted story to the media.

I am ashamed of the behavior of the Atheist & Agnostic group's moderator, members and any other "skeptic" who took this story at face value and all too happily assumed it was valid...especially those who then took it as an opportunity to badmouth people with a different worldview.

[Tom Foss]

There is no evidence to suggest that the hacker was part of some vast Christian conspiracy

No, but there is evidence to suggest that it's a Christian (the group was renamed "Jesus is Love" before the mass bannings and deletions began), and the previous deletion was most likely due to a Christian organization. It's hardly conclusive, but it's decent circumstantial evidence.

The conduct of MySpace, from what I've read, has been suspect at best. Has the story gotten out of hand and exaggerated beyond the truth? Almost certainly. But that doesn't change the strange conduct at the heart of all this.

Here are a couple of relevant links:
Bryan Pesta's MySpace page (his post on the subject is on the right)
Bryan Pesta sheds more light on the atheist MySpace group at Friendly Atheist.

[stavros]

Everything is run by religious bigots... Not only MySpace. I never liked MySpace, and if this story is true it only verifies how dogmatic and close-minded (most) religious people are.

[Peter Barrett]

Money rules in sceptic world. If ya own it its yours. fence out who ever you like.
If you don't like it, come up with a workable alternative or shut up