A touch of wind

For the last few weeks I've been haunting Twitter.

Not in the spirit for that's the last thing I anticipate I'd be. No, rather I mean that I've been haunting those god-botherers on Twitter who're unwise enough to stick their heads above the parapet for people like me to take a shot at.

In fact I'm not the first point of contact; usually some other atheist, trawling tweets for a suitable hashtag has found the victim first, put up a suitable tweet and, I assume, metaphorically stood back to watch the fun.

I find it hard not to jump in with both feet and I have to say I've made a chump of myself on more than one occasion. The jump has been too fast and to a wrong conclusion. Usually I can find the good grace to make some sort of apology and both parties move on. In one memorable instance this week, though, the person whose tweet I had misconstrued was such a smart arse I blocked them after two or three fairly acrimonious -- although very brief -- twitterings on both sides.

There are some very smart people amongst the atheist and agnostic Twitterers. Some mainly put up their own messages and stay out of the online dog-fights. Others clearly revel in battles with the faithful. These are the ping-pong matches I find hard to stay clear of.

It's hard to say what gets me going most: the complete idiot who clearly hasn't read most of his or her bible and has their religion passed down to them by (probably equally) ill-informed parents or the person who makes a life out of 110% commitment to the crusade.

What I find frightening about most of these people is their bigotry and, in many cases, lack of understanding of even quite basic scientific principles. What I found quite shocking at first -- although I've almost got used to it now -- is the violence of the language of the most intense of these people.

It's not uncommon to read messages of hate, of a desire to kill all atheists, of resentment at atheists polluting America (yes, most of these twits seem to be in the U.S.A.) and that contain a common assumption that all atheists are in league with the devil.

As I work in my garden, pulling out the weeds (and isn't that a nice link with the scriptural wheat and tares) I talk to some of these pudden' heads, putting them straight on a few details.

If my memory doesn't fail me entirely I intend putting a few of these points on this blog from time to time. I wanna rattle some cages.