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USPS Discriminates Against 'Atheist' Merchandise
fish waffle writes "Suspecting that their strongly branded 'Atheist' products may be treated differently by more religiously-oriented postal regions, Kickstarter success Atheist Shoes conducted an experiment. They sent 178 packages to 89 people in different parts of the U.S., each person receiving one package prominently branded as 'Atheist' merchandise, and one not. The results: packages with the atheist label were nearly 10 times more likely to be 'lost,' and took on average 3 days longer to show up when they did. Control experiments were also done in Europe and Germany — it's definitely a USPS problem."
is it an act of god if it's an act by a god warrior?
(technically I suppose it is, since everything is if you're into that kind of thinking).
makes those losing the packages pretty lousy christians though. USPS should run a sting on them.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Their experiment is not correllation/causation.
They have identified something which is painfully obvious. The samples in this experiment are large enough to prove that the atheist branding has affect on the delivery and that it only happens like this in the US.
This detail difference is a strong indicator as to the motivations behind what is going on. In short, "unprofessional behavior." With all the troubles the USPS is having, these professionals should be more concerned about delivering value in the service they provide. Instead, the political affiliations (religion is politics, don't kid yourself) of participants entrusted with delivery are affecting how well they do their jobs.
When they are at home or in their groups, let them say and think whatever they want. Let them march and protest and hold up signs expressing themselves. But when they are out there delivering things? Now they are interfering with commerce. Sorry, hommies, but government doesn't play dat.
It certainly is a lovely fantasy to believe that the US media would ever shine light on discrimination against atheists, but one should generally try to stay a bit more in touch with reality.
Most athiests are worse than christians about preaching their beliefs at any cost.
No. Most christians are. Or most insert least favourite ideology here.
It all boils down to confirmation bias. If a christian tells you he was in church on Sunday, you don't call it preaching. If an atheist tells you, he wasn't, it was preaching to you. If someone doesn't even mention where he was on Sunday, you just assume he's christian and not talking about his beliefs.
Two packages sent on the same day, and under normal conditions expected to arrive on the same day. Exactly which weather conditions and other natural causes are you thinking of that could make one of them arrive days later than the other?
One side of the road was slippery, so the half of the USPS van carrying of of the packages hit a tree, while the half of the same van carrying the other package continued?
The fact that the difference is significantly less than it was 200 years ago suggests that Christianity might not be entirely genetic.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
I would believe it if it were done by an impartial third party with a good reputation for professional survey taking, such as J.D. Power & Associates.
Oh this one was done by Atheist Shoes themselves? Nevermind.
Logical fallacy, appeal to authority. If you have a particular problem with the statistical methods involved, which are described in the article, you should raise that issue. But your comment as it stands is utterly without merit.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Your kids will be atheist because of the over bearing ignorant parents. Werent people more religious a generation ago?
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Mahatma Gandhi
I object. Don't call atheism a type of religion.
"I'm not much interested in interoperability. I want substitutability. I want to be able to throw your software out."
The only point in time when you are stumbling on atheists being different than you is when an atheist actually tells you that he thinks differently than you. Some people are disturbed by this and then call the atheist obnoxious and noisy.
You're overplaying the occult aspects, I think. The majority of the NSDAP platform was always about appealing to conservative Christian sentiment, a strategy that worked so well because of the cultural memory of the Holy Roman Empire. With the exception of Wewelsburg Castle, which was really more Himmler's fetish than Hitler's, most of the pagan cultural symbology employed by the Nazis was either already adopted by the Christians in the region, or could be interpreted as a means of further strengthening the German cultural identity. It's not that much different from the BNP invoking mediaeval English lore or Confederate separatists in the US invoking the KKK. Otherwise, it wouldn't have worked as well as it did.
It's probably also worth mentioning that Nietzsche's philosophies were (a) so misunderstood by popular culture that by the time Hitler used them it was in direct contradiction of some of his objectives, (b) mostly about self-actualisation and fulfilment, despite using 'Master' and 'Slave' terminology, and (c) only prone to mentioning paganism as a literary crutch, the same way we might casually reference Cupid when talking about Valentine's day. Nietzsche explicitly damns polytheism in The Gay Science, pointing out how convenient it is to blame any impulse on a god.
I get the feeling you watch a lot of the History Channel. Stop doing that.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
If I require evidence, then it's not really a belief is it? An agnostic would use the lack of evidence to say that they can't decide whether or not god(s) exist, whereas I think it's foolish to believe in invisible pink unicorns when there is zero evidence (also applies to god(s)).
You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe