Thanks for Setting Us All Back…

July 26, 2007 By 18 Comments

Atheist teenagers + Church + Graffiti + Fire = Possible hate crime.

The 14- and 15-year-old girls are in Chautauqua County (NY) Probation. The 16-year-old male is in Chautauqua County jail.

Good riddance to dumb children.


[tags]atheist, atheism, Chautauqua, jail[/tags]

Filed Under: General 18 Comments
  • Maria

    oh dear. this is only going to give the fundies something to talk about. I’ve seen some teenagers like this online talking about burning churches. the few times I’ve run into them online I’ve given them an earful. they seem to like to congregate on message boards. teenagers, no matter what background, seem to love to do stupid things lately. I hope no one was hurt in the church, and I hope we don’t start seeing more hate crimes in general of any type. I fear there may be “retribution” from some militant fundie group………

  • http://olvlzl.blogspot.com/ olvlzl, no ism, no ist

    I’d like to know what they and other hate criminals were influenced by, something that isn’t studied nearly enough. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were inspired by the atheist blogosphere which is largely an incitement to hatred, though granted, seldom to violence. Did they read Harris? At least one of them? Did they listen to people discuss the idea that all religion was evil and dangerous?

    It would interesting and instructive to know the genesis of a new brand of bigotry.

  • stogoe

    Olvlzl, I invite you to actually read the atheist blogosphere sometime. I suspect you’re making up this ‘incitement to violence’ bullshit, because the ‘militants’ I’m familiar with go out of their way to denounce violence. If you go look at extremist christian sites, you can find much, much worse than the ‘religious people are deluded about their religion’ you’ll find at PZed’s.

    Kindly shove it.

  • http://terahertz.wordpress.com THz

    These kids represent the godless amoral heathens we all get labelled as.

  • Stephan

    I am reminded of a song by a Christian artist, Brett Williams, called Savannah:

    Savannah’s a rough girl.
    Got a cigarette in her hand.
    She’s an atheist with passion, not intellect, just fashion,
    with a rebel’s air.

    Sounds like kids just wanting to lash out at authority without any idea what they are talking about. I do not hold their actions against intelligent, thinking atheists.

  • Richard Wade

    I agree with you Stephan and I’m grateful for your forbearance. I’d be surprised if these kids have any well developed ideas about atheism, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they misspelled the word. If it had been a synagogue they would have spray painted swastikas, and if it had been a mosque they would have spray painted “9/11.”

    Unfortunately some people will use this for their soap box sermons and amateur psychoanalyzing, all to puff up their own agenda.

  • http://olvlzl.blogspot.com olvlzl, no ism, no ist

    stogoe, I invite you to read my comment on this thread

    It wouldn’t surprise me if they were inspired by the atheist blogosphere which is largely an incitement to hatred, though granted, seldom to violence.

    I assure you I’ve read quite a bit of the atheist blogosphere in English and in two other languages as well as uncountable comments. I’ve seen some pretty violent things wished for, usually to be done to “theists” and “xians”. Given the milage that blog atheists get from any incident done to atheists why shouldn’t they expect the opposite?

    Aren’t you curious as to what motivated these brats? If not, why?

  • Karen

    teenagers, no matter what background, seem to love to do stupid things lately.

    I’d say “teenagers, no matter what background, seem to love to do stupid things” – period. This isn’t a new phenomenon; I’d say it’s pretty timeless.

    My kids’ high school had a brain researcher from UC Irvine give a talk for parents a couple years ago and it was absolutely fascinating. (He was also a terrific lecturer.)

    The adolescent brain really doesn’t develop fully until the mid-20s, it turns out. So that pesky frontal cortex is woefully inadequate in important things like reasoning and impulse control with teenagers. Yet we give them keys to the car, legal access to alcohol (at 18 in many states), and lots of unsupervised time. Let alone Internet access.

    The amazing thing is that they don’t do MORE damage!

  • Polly

    @olvlzl, no ism, no ist:

    atheist blogosphere in English and in two other languages

    off-topic: Which other languages? I’d be interested.

  • Tammy

    Amen to that, Karen. There’s a little church in Ohio we used to pass on the way to my aunt & uncle’s house, and rather than grafitti anything, the neighborhood kids had rearranged the letters on the sign to say something like “Satan Worship 10 am every Sunday”, and the pastor’s name and all. Too much unsupervised time, but at least nothing was destroyed.

  • Logos

    The adolescent brain really doesn’t develop fully until the mid-20s, it turns out. So that pesky frontal cortex is woefully inadequate in important things like reasoning and impulse control with teenagers. Yet we give them keys to the car, legal access to alcohol (at 18 in many states), and lots of unsupervised time. Let alone Internet access.
    That seems odd to me given that in the past people did not live as long as they do now, Does anyone have an explanation for this?

  • http://omega-geek.blogspot.com Spook

    Ugh, I hate to see things like this happen. I can already hear the nitwit commentators on Faux News ranting about this already.

    I say we should just claim that they aren’t “true atheists.” After all, if Christians can get that type of cognative dissonance when one of them does something atrocious, why shouldn’t we?

  • Maria

    Aren’t you curious as to what motivated these brats? If not, why?

    I am. There are some anti religious websites mostly made up of teenagers and run by them……..maybe it was one of those or something. I tend to take anything teenagers say with a grain of salt, cause they change their minds all the time.

  • http://olvlzl.blogspot.com/ olvlzl, no ism, no ist

    Polly, C’est un Geheimnis.

  • Polly

    Merci, Herr olvlzl, no ism, no ist.

    Peut-etre sie konnen partager mit moi Ihr geheimnis? Welchen websiten?
    ??????????.

  • Polly

    Merci, Herr olvlzl, no ism, no ist.

    Peut-etre sie konnen partager mit moi Ihr geheimnis? Welchen websiten, pozhalsta?

  • Maria

    I’d say “teenagers, no matter what background, seem to love to do stupid things” – period. This isn’t a new phenomenon; I’d say it’s pretty timeless.

    My kids’ high school had a brain researcher from UC Irvine give a talk for parents a couple years ago and it was absolutely fascinating. (He was also a terrific lecturer.)

    The adolescent brain really doesn’t develop fully until the mid-20s, it turns out. So that pesky frontal cortex is woefully inadequate in important things like reasoning and impulse control with teenagers. Yet we give them keys to the car, legal access to alcohol (at 18 in many states), and lots of unsupervised time. Let alone Internet access.

    The amazing thing is that they don’t do MORE damage!

    I agree. that’s why I have issues with organizations who target teenagers for their own purposes-both religious and non religious

  • James

    yeah, talk about teenagers. take a look at this guy:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWnoP0XxYr4

    it’s been the “rage” all over youtube-people are flagging this video like crazy, and I don’t blame them. this idiot goes around talking about what a great atheist he is, and talking about religion as a mental disorder, then he turns around and defends pedophilia? he’s either doing it for shock value, or he’s got serious issues. either way, it’s in poor taste with poor brains. this is why I have issues with many teenagers who just use atheism as an excuse to be jerks.