-Removed-It is a well known fact that religious beliefs are generally given special treatment. Does this apply to mockery in your opinion? ie if someone believes the position of the moon in a constellation of stars on the day and hour he was born affected what type of girl he likes (based on the day and hour she was born and the moons position at the time), then is it also reprehensible to mock someone for that belief?
What about beliefs such as touching wood, or throwing salt over your shoulder to ward off bad luck?
What about beliefs that aliens are going around raping people?
Are any beliefs worthy of mockery?
-Removed-Fair enough. So you object to mockery however ridiculous the belief someone holds.
I sometimes wonder how the mockers here, the internet tough guys, would fare face to face with those they mock. It's easy to be a mocker on the web isn't it.
It very much depends on the social situation. Strangers on the internet is a particular social situation and different people handle it quite differently. But even within the internet, people act differently depending on the context. I might for example want to uphold my reputation on this forum and thus refrain from bad behaviour, or I might not care, and behave badly.
I do admit that I have made fun of peoples beliefs face to face off the internet, though I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as mocking.
It gets awkward when I disagree with the beliefs of someone in certain contexts, for example, how does one politely say to your parents that you think their beliefs are ridiculous? To a large extent I avoid discussing religion with my parents for this reason. However, I am more relaxed with sisters and relatives, depending on age and social situation. As for children or nephews, or my sons friends, I am quite ready to make fun of them although it could easily be described as friendly banter rather than mockery.
-Removed-But are they worthy of mockery because their beliefs are ridiculous/stupid or because of who they are as people? Are they worthy of mockery because you think they should realize that their beliefs are stupid, and you feel they are being deliberately illogical? Or something along those lines?
For example if someone believes Obama was born in Kenya are they worthy of mockery regardless of how they formed that belief, or only if they believe it because of the party they belong to, or because they are racist, or if they don't believe it at all but are actually lying for political ends?
Ofcourse all this talk about mockery is not really relevant because the vast majority of the atheists regularly posting here (twhitehead, proper knob, sonhouse, agerg, stellspalfie, wolfgang, googlefudge, rwingett and others that I currently can't remember)* appear genuinely interested most of the time and clearly aren't just mocking for the hell of it.
At least that's how I see it. Most theists probably disagree. Having a feeling of being under attack, being discriminated against, being restricted in ones freedom, not being taken seriously and being made fun of is a trait that many theists seem to share.
I still wonder if divegeester feels his question in the OP has been answered yet.
* apologies to those on this list who don't consider themselves atheist.
(Completely oftopic: this is not the first time somebody refers to me as king rat as opposed to great king rat. It doesn't bother me, but I do wonder if it's a (sub)consious thing, that people don't want to call me "great". Not meant for you personally divegeester and certainly not meant too seriously. Just something I noticed)
Ontopic: in your OP you made a rather sweeping statement concerning the number of mocking atheists, basically saying almost all atheists' posts are "mocking smugness". You later partially retracted that statement. If you now look at the names that I wrote above, how many of those would you say post mostly for mocking reasons and roughly what percentage of their posts are mocking?
-Removed-Yes, you did, hence my request for clarification.
...although I know you are desperate for me to do so.
No, actually, I am not. I merely want to know what your view actually is on the matter. You may not even have thought it through completely or have a concrete view, I know I don't.
In your OP, you ask:
"But why do atheists spend so much time in a spirituality forum?"
One of the reasons I come here is to discuss issues like this one where psychology and behaviour are involved and it is complicated, and there are no clear answers. Discussing it helps me think about it as well as getting an understanding of other peoples views on the matter.
You have made me ask myself "Do I mock people, and if so why?"
You have also made me think about how my attitude to different posters differs and why.
I would never dream of mocking vistesd for example, so the question is why? Is it because I respect him, or is it because he is always polite to others and I reciprocate?
However I do think some people have silly beliefs but that doesn't mean I would attack them, but I would challenge the belief.
I think I take a more combative approach to people who have a stubborn attitude, or show signs of wanting to force their beliefs on others. Of course such and approach is not successful and not wise, but seems to be and instinctual response.