Thursday, March 11, 2010

Are Atheists Moving to Stage Five?

I started Atheist Watch by talking about the seven stage model used by the FBI to examine hate group development. All this time I have assumed that the hate group segment of the atheist community (which is by no means the only form of atheism in the that community)is stuck on stage four. Stage four is pre violence, stage five is the introduction of violence. We may now have reason to believe there's a transition to stage five.

Stage 4: The Hate Group Taunts the Target

Hate, by its nature, changes incrementally. Time cools the fire of hate, thus forcing the hater to look inward. To avoid introspection, haters use ever-increasing degrees of rhetoric and violence to maintain high levels of agitation. Taunts and offensive gestures serve this purpose. In this stage, skinheads typically shout racial slurs from moving cars or from afar. Nazi salutes and other hand signals often accompany racial epithets. Racist graffiti also begins to appear in areas where skinheads loiter. Most skinhead groups claim turf proximate to the neighborhoods in which they live. One study indicated that a majority of hate crimes occur when the hate target migrates through the hate group’s turf.15

Stage 5: The Hate Group Attacks the Target Without Weapons

This stage is critical because it differentiates vocally abusive haters from physically abusive ones. In this stage, hate groups become more aggressive, prowling their turf seeking vulnerable targets. Violence coalesces hate groups and further isolates them from mainstream society. Skinheads, almost without exception, attack in groups and target single victims. Research has shown that bias crimes are twice as likely to cause injury and four times as likely to result in hospitalization as compared to nonbias crimes.16

In addition to physical violence, the element of thrill seeking is introduced in Stage 5. Two experts found that 60 percent of hate offenders were “thrill seekers.”17 The adrenaline “high” intoxicates the attackers. The initial adrenaline surge lasts for several minutes; however, the effects of adrenaline keep the body in a state of heightened alert for up to several days.18 Each successive anger-provoking thought or action builds on residual adrenaline and triggers a more violent response than the one that originally initiated the sequence.19 Anger builds on anger. The adrenaline high combined with hate becomes a deadly combination. Hard-core skinheads keep themselves at a level where the slightest provocation triggers aggression.


Two men were arrested for starting chruch fires in east Texas. The two were arrested in connection with several fires. Investigators have not revealed a motive yet.



Dallas Morning News, March 11, 2010


"We're not going to get into motive at this time," said Steven McCraw, director of Texas Department of Public Safety. "The investigation is ongoing. But we have evidence to believe that they're also involved in the other fires and the break-ins. These are the two responsible for the 10 church fires and three break-ins."


Chron:


The outbreak started with a blaze at a church in Athens, and Crowley said another New Year's Day fire not far away has been added to the list of 10 suspected arsons in East Texas.

A fire in the Central Texas town of Temple brings to 11 the statewide total of fires authorities think are attributable to arson.

Authorities have said the federal investigation kicked in after two churches burned Jan. 11 in Athens. Less than a week later, four fires in five days were reported. The two most recent fires included the one that resulted in charges against Bourque and McAllister.

“This investigation is not complete. But today marks a significant milestone,” said Robert Champion, ATF agent in charge in Dallas.

David Mahfood, pastor of one of the Tyler churches that burned, said word of the arrests “puts a period on the paragraphs of our lives” but that residents still think they must remain vigilant.

“We're blessed that no lives were lost and no one was injured, but I don't think we let our guard down,” Mahfood said.


Several of the early accounts show that one or both were reading a book called Atheist Way. There were other books on atheism and demonism.


Meanwhile a chruch in North Dallas has been Vandalized with spray painted slogans of hate on the building an don vans and cars.

Police Chruch Vandalism a Hatecrime

DALLAS - Hateful vandals attacked a north Dallas church Sunday evening, police said.

When Pastor David Wilson arrived at Greater Cornerstone Baptist Church Monday morning to start the ministry work week, he found satanic symbols and ugly words spray painted across the building’s walls and windows.

“I was like, ‘Oh Lord, after all the good we try to do, the Devil is trying to kill us,’” Wilson said. “Anybody would be so disrespectful towards people and especially the things of God, it hurts my heart.”

Visual images on local news reports show slogans suggestive of atheist sentiments such as "Religion sux." "God is a lie" others reflected possible satanic involvement.

In the past I've argued that atheism has been stuck on stage four of the FBI profile of hate group development. Stage four is the one just before violent acts began. Stage four invovles gather in specific locations to verbally assault the target of hate (message boards). But stage five is where violence begins. It may be that this is a move to stage five. It may also be that these acts are fueled by satanist groups working among atheist. I have good reasons for suspecting the latter.

I have talked about the website  Holysmoke.org before.It's a pro Wicca website that boasts itself as a "skeptical site" and opposes religion. It's extremely hateful. In past encounters I've demonstrated their willingness to work atheist up into anger. The thing is atheists are so quick to try and calim all Buddism I even found an atheist the other day on CARM who tried to list Hindus as atheists! Atheists are so anxious to boost their numbers they try to include almost all non Christians as atheists in one way or another. They are so undiscriminating about who is an atheist and who is not, but I am looking forward  to seeing how quickly they move to disassocate thsemvles from these kinds of groups.

12 comments:

Rex said...

You DID do proper fact checking on the church arson story to see that there were also several BIBLES found in the suspect's house too right?

The suspect just seems a little whacked to me, no matter what books he had.

Besides, if he did it, he is a criminal, and no books in his house, even if they are church arson manuals, are going to justify his actions.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

I am not saying they are atheists. But let's the bibles led them to burn churches. Now the Bible leads you to hate Christianity right? So why would that not make them atheists if the Bible led them to hate Christianity too?

Anonymous said...

Yes,there are hateful individuals out there. You still haven't shown us that there is an organized hate group involved, even if these individuals were motivated by atheism (and even that isn't certain at this point, if they're into demonism then they aren't exactly atheists...and they also reportedly had Bibles in their possession...).

Church arson in general usually has the same kind of motive that any other act of arson does; covering up a robbery, personal grudges, mindless vandalism. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0208/p02s01-ussc.html

And trying to tie this kind of thing to people disagreeing with you on the internet is just silly.

If I were to argue that incidents of people being shot to death because they were atheists are proof that Christianity is a "hate group" what would be your reaction? Would you think that was a reasonable argument, or not?

http://volokh.com/posts/1136315930.shtml

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

Yes,there are hateful individuals out there. You still haven't shown us that there is an organized hate group involved, even if these individuals were motivated by atheism (and even that isn't certain at this point, if they're into demonism then they aren't exactly atheists...and they also reportedly had Bibles in their possession...).

I've clearly demonstrated an organized effort to foment hate. Otherwise how do you explain the fact that they all say the same things? to the word, they use the same slogans. It's all coming from some single source.

Church arson in general usually has the same kind of motive that any other act of arson does; covering up a robbery, personal grudges, mindless vandalism. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0208/p02s01-ussc.html

o right they have a grudge against 10 churches? Sounds atheistic to me.

about about the vandalism? that was not arson and their slogans were very atheist. In fact that chruch is not far from me.


And trying to tie this kind of thing to people disagreeing with you on the internet is just silly.

Now where did I do that?


If I were to argue that incidents of people being shot to death because they were atheists are proof that Christianity is a "hate group" what would be your reaction? Would you think that was a reasonable argument, or not?

Let's see the evidence? Your only means of making Christianity a hate group is to use groups that 99.9% of Christianity reject as even being Christian.

you cannot reject anyone from being atheist becasue by your own propaganda if they just lack belief in God they are atheists. that one guy even said Hindus are atheists so they don't even have to lack belief in God just not believe in the Christian God.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

if it was not for this blog no one would ever dare to even consider that there might be a hate group atheism. Every Christian on the net sees how hateful certain segments of the atheist world are, but no one ever dared to talk about it.

If it was up to Hermit and co. that would go on buried and remain a deep dark secret.

Anonymous said...

"I've clearly demonstrated an organized effort to foment hate. Otherwise how do you explain the fact that they all say the same things? to the word, they use the same slogans. It's all coming from some single source."

Who are you talking about? The people who set these fires? Where have you shown that they are in any way linked to anyone else? Some of the people you argue with on the internet read the same material, and each other's posts so yes they sometimes say the same things, but I don't see how you get from that to "hate group" and I certainly don't see any connection to this arson.

"o right they have a grudge against 10 churches? Sounds atheistic to me.

Why assume it was atheistic and not Satanic, or denominational, or racial?

about about the vandalism? that was not arson and their slogans were very atheist. In fact that chruch is not far from me."

What slogans? In what way are they atheistic? The only graffiti referred to in the article is an upside down cross (Satanic, not atheistic) and the words ""Little Hope was arson." Not exactly a rousing atheist war cry...

"Now where did I do that?

By posting this on your little anti-atheist hate blog. ;-)

"Your only means of making Christianity a hate group is to use groups that 99.9% of Christianity reject as even being Christian."

Which is why, unlike you, I don't try to use the actions of a few individuals to tar whole groups of people...

"you cannot reject anyone from being atheist becasue by your own propaganda if they just lack belief in God they are atheists."

1) We don't know if these guys were actually atheists.
2) Even if they were atheists the actions of a couple of self identified atheists shouldn't be used to tar all of us with the same brush.
3) If the KKK identify themselves as Christians who am I to say otherwise? Doesn't mean all Christians are KKK...
4) Christian groups have waged violent campaigns against other religions and other "heretic" Christians throughout history.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

I've clearly demonstrated an organized effort to foment hate. Otherwise how do you explain the fact that they all say the same things? to the word, they use the same slogans. It's all coming from some single source."

Who are you talking about? The people who set these fires? Where have you shown that they are in any way linked to anyone else? Some of the people you argue with on the internet read the same material, and each other's posts so yes they sometimes say the same things, but I don't see how you get from that to "hate group" and I certainly don't see any connection to this arson.


No you misunderstand. I am not trying to make any kind of claims bout the arsonists or the vandals. There is an organized effort to foment hate for Christianity on the net. But that is separate from these guys.

"o right they have a grudge against 10 churches? Sounds atheistic to me.

Why assume it was atheistic and not Satanic, or denominational, or racial?

I am not assuming anything. I'm just putting the info out there. I did consider the idea that satanists are creating the hate group effect.

about about the vandalism? that was not arson and their slogans were very atheist. In fact that chruch is not far from me."

What slogans? In what way are they atheistic?

the reflect an idea that there is no God and religion is pointless.


The only graffiti referred to in the article is an upside down cross (Satanic, not atheistic) and the words ""Little Hope was arson." Not exactly a rousing atheist war cry...


I talked about a tv report I saw where they showed the graphitti. Cant' you follow what's being said.

"Now where did I do that?

By posting this on your little anti-atheist hate blog. ;-)


I am expoing hate. You are the hater.

"Your only means of making Christianity a hate group is to use groups that 99.9% of Christianity reject as even being Christian."

Which is why, unlike you, I don't try to use the actions of a few individuals to tar whole groups of people...

where did I say that? I started the thing by saying "not all atheist."

"you cannot reject anyone from being atheist becasue by your own propaganda if they just lack belief in God they are atheists."

1) We don't know if these guys were actually atheists.

just as I predicted, even Hindus are atheists but not these guys because they did bad stuff. no true Scotsman. no true Scotsman fallacy. do you hear bag pipes?

2) Even if they were atheists the actions of a couple of self identified atheists shouldn't be used to tar all of us with the same brush.

duh really? unless they are Christians right? No true Scotsman!


3) If the KKK identify themselves as Christians who am I to say otherwise? Doesn't mean all Christians are KKK...

you think you can say these guys are not atheists.


4) Christian groups have waged violent campaigns against other religions and other "heretic" Christians throughout history.

and they've also saved them and died trying to protect them and ran the underground railroad and stated the civil rights movement.

Anonymous said...

Here 's what we know about the motive behind these arsons:

http://www.cbs19.tv/Global/story.asp?S=12026255

"Sergeant Davis says Bourque has said nothing to investigators. But, he says, McAllister confessed. "He did during an interview with us admit to being involved in several fires."

Still, he says, neither of the suspects has given a motive.

"You would think we would be able to come up with why someone would do this, but at this time, we haven't been getting any info from either of these guys."


Don't you think you might be jumping the gun just a bit?

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

Hermit I already told you that I was not making an accusation but merely asking a question and keeping the readership aprized of the situation.

atheists use that use that kind fo open ended innuendo against Christianity all the time and you think its' just fucking fine!

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

On message boards, atheists will say "Hitler was a Christian." When Christians go "are you saying all Christians are Nazis," they say "O no we didn't say that, but Hitler was a Christian."

so it's ok if atheists do that. any extreme or unfair tactic is fine in cause of destroying religion. But theists dare ot use it back at atheists. O so unfair, I'm such bad bad man.

Anonymous said...

"On message boards, atheists will say "Hitler was a Christian.""

Usually, in my experience, in response to some Christian saying "Hitler was an atheist" in an attempt to prove that atheism is a path to immorality.

Joseph Hinman (Metacrock) said...

On message boards, atheists will say "Hitler was a Christian.""

Usually, in my experience, in response to some Christian saying "Hitler was an atheist" in an attempt to prove that atheism is a path to immorality.

bull shit!