All of This (bad behavior) Has Happened Before…

When a Christian church got tagged with atheist-themed graffiti last year, I chipped in for repairs, along with a lot of other atheists.  (I ended up with post-length mixed feelings but still think it was the right decision).  And now it turns out I’ve converted just in time for another “Sorry about our team’s bad behavior” fundraiser.

Adam Lee of Daylight Atheism reports that the Secular Student Alliance is getting a lot of DDoS attacks, and they’ve had to pay to up their servers just to deal with this threat.  Since money is fungible, that means less is allocated toward their work, and the terrorists win.  Adam is asking Christians to consider chipping in as a rebuke to the people targeting the SSA and to help them return to the status quo ante bellum.

Cyberterrorism as heckler’s veto pisses me off.  It ticks me off enough for me to make my entire senior thesis an attempt to lay out my objections in a rigorous, political philosophy kinda way.  I’m chipping in, and I hope you readers will consider joining me.

If you’re having a fight about philosophy and truth, you have to fight fair, or else you’re not keeping your powder dry.  Your intellect, your virtue, your honor are your weapons, and if you compromise them to score cheap points or kick the other man in the shins, you’ve forfeited the tools you need to be able to win if you’re right and to be able to recognize that you’ve lost if you’re wrong.

So give to negate the effect of people behaving badly.  If you feel awkward about giving to a group whose ends you oppose, I’d remind you that a lot of the work the SSA does is being beat cop for violations of church/state stuff, which should be a lot more universally compelling than it is.  But if you oppose their mission, I might suggest matching your SSA donation with one to your parish, or to a GiveWell-vetted charity, so that you’re getting a spur to contribute more to a cause you support.