anybody remember alt.atheist?

[lazarus]

Back in the good old days, on Usenet, alt.atheist was the place to go for your debating fix. I spent limited time there, as the debates grew repetitive. Christians were constantly discovering "new" arguments and wading into the lion's den to take on the evil atheists.

Speaking of evil, that was, I believe, the origin of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy. I kept intending to join and get a number, but never got around to it.

[onager]

1. I remember it very well.

I think you are right about EAC. The first I heard of it was in that group, including the mystifying rubber chicken given to all new recruits.

The unofficial moderator who assigned those "atheist numbers" was saddled with a most unfortunate name - Michelle Malkin. I think I was #87, but that was a long time ago.

I even remember how the "number" thing started. Some visiting Xian said the group probably only had 2 or 3 members, who posted under different names to make the group look more popular. So we all got numbers to show that we were different posters.

And the real fun times - the big dust-up when the $cientologists tried to shut down any mention of their scam. They started by attacking a couple of "unofficial" alt.scientology groups. But since a lot of Co$ critics hung out in the atheist group, the fight inevitably spilled over.

Suddenly alt.atheism had a buttload of spamming sock-puppets, claiming they really, really supported freedom for everybody, including atheists. And by the way, we are a poor, struggling minority religion currently under attack...

That didn't fool anybody. At one point, the idiot lawyer for Co$ even tried to issue RM-group (Remove Group) commands, thru the various ISP's. She also sent out threatening e-mails, including a hilarious one to the Chinese govt. (The "sacred writings of Co$" were being hosted on a Chinese server, and about a million other places.) Her name was Helena Korbin, and Googling that name still brings up some of the history.

Do you remember Bruce? IIRC, he claimed that he almost died from masturbating, until he found Jebus.

Then there was the guy who would always come in and ask questions about science - sometimes in threads that went on for days. But after causing a lot of people to waste time explaining things to him, he would say science proved the Grand Canyon was formed by the Biblical flood.

Thanks for the memories!

[lazarus]

2. I missed all that, apparently

I did most of my posting on alt.tv.pol-incorrect. I did have one thread get cross-posted into alt.atheism. I had challenged a believer to reconcile all the gospels and Acts and come up with one coherent Easter story. That went on for months.

Good times.

[charlie]

5. Bruce or Brice?

Brice Wellington used to claim he lost a nut to whacking off. Then Jesus taught him to turn his shame outward, and he took up spanking his teenaged daughters' bare bottoms and checking their hymens with his finger. For their sakes, of course.

http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist2/bw-raw1f.htm
http://www.weirdcrap.com/recreational/faq.htm

[onager]

6. You're right, it was Brice.

Thanks for the memories...I guess. Ha!

How I could forget that doofus?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

7. Wow. Poe's Law is older than I thought. -nt

[frogmarch]

8. Wow, just wow!

Thanks for posting the links. I'd never before heard of Brice Wellington, but now I'm a DISCIPLE and TRUE BUHLEEVER! YAY-USS!

I'm in the middle of reading The Brice Wellington FAQ File, Part 2 http://www.weirdcrap.com/recreational/bricefa2.htm

He's for real? Not a Poe? Wow.

[trotsky]

3. I hung out there for awhile.

Darn tough to keep up, it was so busy. Plenty of laughs though with the constant supply of Christians coming over to present the ontological argument for what they KNEW must be the first time us ignorant atheists had ever heard or considered it!

[Skeeve]

4. I still drop by occasionally

There are still "founders" posting there. Remember Christopher Lee? Still there.
Michelle still posts as well. Stop in and look around, you'll see a lot of familiar names.

[laconicsax]

9. Hmm...

...the debates grew repetitive. Christians were constantly discovering "new" arguments and wading into the lion's den to take on the evil atheists....

Why does it feel like I'm reading about a http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=214">different forum

But to answer your question, no. I was a poor deluded soul back in those days.

[Codeine]

10. I still remember my a.a number

#1970

Some brutal flamewars in that group.