Self confidence

As should be no surprise, I've spent a lot of time over the last couple years going to atheist websites.  I've also spent a lot of time on theist sites as well.  I have noticed one stark contrast.  In general, atheist pages allow for feedback.  That is, on YouTube or Facebook or sites which allow users to comment and rate, atheists usually allow the rating and comments.  While, in general, theists do not.  The example that sparked this post is a video that a Christian group put out called "The Thaw".  You will notice that comments and ratings have been disabled.  There have been many responses to this video, but my favorite is this one.

Now, since I'm sure some of my readers will object, I need to clarify that I'm not making any sweeping generalizations.  There are exceptions.  But they are exceptions.  The general rule is that typically atheists do not block feedback and theists do.  There are some atheists who block comments.  There are some theists who do not.  But in general, theists block comments far more frequently than atheists do.  

Another thing that theists tend to do much more frequently is censor comments.  The censorship may be for various reasons.  Perhaps vulgarity is censored.  Perhaps any disagreeing comment is censored.  But, again, it is more typical of theists than of atheists.  I myself have censored many comments on my Facebook wall.  I don't censor anything on this blog, though (which you may verify by checking some of my posts with hateful comments, still visible for all to see).  In fact, I think my favorite comment was posted on this video.  It really made me smile when I read it.

I know you will remove this comment but I just want you to read it. You took Conrad away from people who truly cared about him you are wrong for taking advantage of such a twisted fragile demented creature. You with your to smart for your own good rubbish, you should be proud of your self for completely manipulating the one you say you love. You are a foul wretched existence forever may you writhe in the treacherous pit you have so manically created.

Anyway, I have noticed that censorship and blocking are far more common among those who profess belief in deity.  There are probably many reasons for this.  I'm sure a psychologist would be able to provide us with several.  It seems logical to me, though, that if someone is confident in eir own beliefs, then ey will not restrict criticisms of those beliefs.  That is to say, if one is truly comfortable with one's eir ideas, then ey will allow people to publish comments disagreeing with em.  When ratings are disabled on a video, that indicates to me that the person posting the video is afraid that ey will receive a large number of down votes.  When comments are disabled, that indicates to me that ey is afraid ey will receive a large number of critical comments.

Interestingly enough, I have seen some instances where the original content was copied simply to allow a place for comments and ratings.  That is, the original poster disabled comments but someone (typically of an opposing viewpoint) comes along and reposts it but this time with comments enabled.

I will propose another idea, which is that atheists are more open-minded, more open to discussion.  A theist considers disagreement to be blasphemy (eg, saying that there is no god) and will not listen to such talk.  An atheist is willing to listen to rational arguments and adjust eir viewpoint according to new evidence and logic offered.  Again, these are general rules, not absolute ones.  I've definitely had some discussions with very close-minded atheists.  But I can speak for myself.  I am open to changing my own ideas.  I may be wrong.  I offer my political views, such as in the last post, so that people may offer differing views and I may refine my own thoughts on the matter.  And I have changed many of my views in my life because my knowledge has increased and my reasoning skills have been honed.

Anyway, just for one last (IMO, rather comical) example, I submit the following.  NOM released an ad a few years ago about how gay marriage is a storm.  This video received roughly 95% down votes, only 5% up.  Many of the comments are negative (and even hateful).  A couple months ago, they released another ad.  Comments and ratings were disabled.