A Pact Of Ignorance

My ears had been burning: I just knew on faith that ol' jim had somethin' nasty brewin' over there! He'd been way too quiet lately. He's written a letter to Team Scarlet A, an open invitation to a pact of ignorance amongst the likeminded:

What I’d like to suggest is a pact amongst the likeminded – the ‘haters’ as cl surely would dub us – to simply ignore the guy. I know, I know! LOL! Easy to say, yes? But it’s become absolutely crystal clear to me that cl does not have the ability to play well with others. At least, not with those who seriously challenge him.
–jim, reason vs. apologetics

Well, where to start? First, I like the use of the word "likeminded" and think it's an especially useful adjective for describing Team Scarlet A. Second, jim saying that I lack the ability to play well would be hilarious were it not for statements like these from him:

You're nothing but a big baby, cl. Put up or shut up, ya wuss… Suck THAT ass, you internet miscreant. Grow some.
–jim, reason vs. apologetics

Does that sound like "playing well" to you? How about,

I wonder what color the sky is in cl's world. Wouldn't do much good to ask him about it, I suppose. He'd just lie.
–jim, reason vs. apologetics

And those are the nice ones! I mean, what planet does this guy actually live on, where malicious character attacks and libel are synonymous with "playing well"? Don't take my word for how out there this stuff is, though; read jim yourself. Here he is, ostensibly a grown man, making blatantly vulgar and libelous statements against little ol' me, all because he couldn't win some arguments online, or because I report on phenomena that challenge his precious little comfort zone.

Now, two years and hundreds of thousands of words later, jim and willing members of Team Scarlet A are apparently embarking on an, "IGNORE CL" campaign. No really; you gotta read this! Don't ask the guest scientist any questions; just IGNORE CL!

He actually wrote,

..all of us who complain about him have the power to end this shit. We can simply pretend he’s not there.
–jim, reason vs. apologetics

Well bravo for finally admitting that, but, on the other hand, I couldn't believe it and actually laughed aloud really hard when I read that. Yeah, that's the freethinking spirit! Ban 'em! Gang up on 'em! Insult 'em! Ignore 'em! Pretend they're not there! BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!

I couldn't help but to envision a bunch of flat Earthers scoffing at globes and math.

As it's the holiday season, I'm feeling a bit generous, so my next thought was, "I'm gonna make Team Scarlet A some official "IGNORE CL" campaign banners as soon as I get to a computer with Photoshop! Two weeks ago, jim was talking large about how, in his TWIM / RvA dialogs, he was going to expose my errors, even taunting me, saying, "..don't try to continue with this" because I would "only make [my]self look worse." One week it's, "[my] arguments are well worth being analyzed and responded to by the other side," then a few weeks later, "IGNORE CL!"

In all seriousness though, I ask: like censorship, banning, and refutation by denigration, isn't "ignore-ance" yet another strategy that atheists frequently accuse religious believers of?  What do sheepish theists tend to do when unable to answer someone who challenges them? "IGNORE!" Then, what kind of "knowledge" is Team Scarlet A selling that it can't withstand serious challenge?

A commenter of Chaplain's once wrote,

..as atheists we need to make sure that someone like cl and any Christian readers of [An Apostate's Chapel] don’t come away with the perception that the atheists caved in or were incapable of responding.
–bbk

Nah, wouldn't wanna give anyone that perception!

Now, here's a bit of irony that you'll just have to take my word for: before reading jim's post, I had 95% made up my mind that 2010 would see my total or near-total absence on Team Scarlet A's blogs. Honest. Had jim not wrote that post, I might have honestly stopped, precisely because I'm so sick of the knock-down drag-out they wanna put me through just to get a point across. But now that jim's thrown this gauntlet down, I'm gonna have to reconsider. After all, what better way to prove him wrong? He apparently actually believes that I enjoy all these personal attacks and deflections! Interestingly, listen to how he himself describes it:

..if everybody concerned would just hold fast to this one maxim – IGNORE CL – and as he found himself cut off from the negative energy he needs to feed himself, eventually the guy’s gonna slither off to better hunting grounds, no? At least, that’s my take on it.
–jim, reason vs. apologetics

Ha! There's the perfect slogan for their pact of ignorance: "just hold fast… ignore cl!" Funny thing is, you could literally change the context to geocentrism, change "cl" to "Satan," and you'd pretty much have the Church's argument against Galileo in a nutshell!

Read that again: "cut off from the negative energy I need to feed" myself. At least he's admitting the energy they give is negative, I guess! I submit that it is Team Scarlet A who utterly relies upon negative energy to camouflage the nudity of their arguments against God. In fact, though I value the testing of ideas, I would also like for nothing more than to just speak my mind unchallenged on their blogs. I hope they do ignore me! Think of how much less I'd have to write! Besides – although it was different in the beginning – I don't challenge Team Scarlet A with any real hopes of changing their minds; I primarily challenge their arguments to test myself, and so that any on-the-fence readers or "newcomers to (a)theism" can know that there is a diversity of opinions – a diversity that an embarrassingly-growing list of atheist bloggers wants silenced.

Scary stuff, this atheism. And they call it freethought!

I've said before that simply trading in one's cross for a Scarlet A is empty posturing without addressing the latent personality traits that drew one to organized religion in the first place. I believe there is a real psychological archetype that I'd call the "atheist fundamentalist" for lack of a better phrase. Of course, generalizations are meant only to highlight points of commonality, but my dealings with deconverted atheists parallel atheists' dealings with Fundamentalist monotheists as I understand them, and as this "pact of ignorance" testifies. Coincidence? I don't think so.

Atheists need to "crucify the old man," too, and ignorance is never effective as a longterm strategy.