Good early morning R.R.S. I am contemplating not sleeping this evening. It would be the first time in a while that I've done this.

The goal of this post is to share a bit of realization concerning something I noticed right off the bat when becoming active on this site.

I noticed right away that many posters were very impatient with theist newcomers. I found myself thinking, why is this? Initially I concluded that members of the R.R.S. dislike theists based on their ideologies alone and as a result treated them with disdain. If I may be so kind, as to point out, that I realize now that this was not caused by disdain for ideologies. I find that the impatience is more of reaction to the disdain that has been shown continually towards atheists previously by theists.

What led me to see the, in my opinion, reality of the often contempt between atheist and theist is not because of an initial rudeness/disdain from the position of the atheist, but rather, the initial rudeness/disdain that came from the theist position. Now granted, it may not be the particular theist who makes the initial rude gesture or insulting remark or judgment. Nevertheless, the rude gesture has already been presented against the atheist by many other theists before the particular theist poster. Therefore, the atheist impatient reaction is not necessarily a disdain for the theist ideology or individual, but most accurately, it is a defense mechanism to prevent the further onslaught of theistic rudeness towards the atheist position and/or person. Or in other words, the atheist impatience is not a proactive response, but a reactive response to a prior given gesture of rudeness and/or disdain.

I feel on a personal level that this is important to realize being a theist. My views have changed a lot concerning atheism since joining this site. I am very glad that this is now another one of those changed perspectives.

This all came about and materialized itself because of some rather disturbing displays of theistic attacks on individual members of this forum. These attacks were disgusting and saddening. I found that at this moment, I realized, that I no longer blame the individuals who come off affront when replying to some of the theist posts on this forum. These posts, coming from a stranger theist, who brandishes the same ideological label as someone who just 1 day earlier acted like a 3 year old who wanted to have his cake and eat it to, are viewed by the atheist as likely to be another unfortunate continuance of the violence which has been spoken to them repeatedly in the recent past.

Ultimately, I would like to extend a thank you for being as nice as you are to a majority of the first time poster theists on this site. Now that I'm beginning to see what you've gone through, and still go through, from the theist position generally, it truly makes me understand how hard it must be to not just shut off the receptors, and close down towards efforts in replying to theist posters.

May I raise a metaphorical glass *raises glass* to toast to the hope, that in the future, there may be less rude theists. *cheers*

Good luck R.R.S. I'm sure your patience is continually worn thin. May I just ask you, to stretch it just a bit further, relief is hopefully coming soon with a deserved dose of "less tension."