Bringing the war on Easter

This is a geek issue not merely because -- based upon my purely subjective experience and anecdotal evidence -- geeks tend to be rational, educated, scientifically minded, and hence much more likely to be agnostic or atheistic than the general public, but also because here is a minor skirmish in the enormous ongoing culture war that's playing out almost entirely online. Yesterday, when War on Easter was launched, the site was inaccessible: it had come under a denial-of-service attack that, Flemming says, the FBI is now investigating. As Flemming points out, his little stealth campaign to introduce Christians, through his film, to some things about their faith they may not know is in no way an attempt to shut down any churches... yet clearly someone has no compunctions about expressing his displeasure by trying to shut Flemming down.

And the Christians sure are upset... so upset they get all confused and mistake reason for hate:

It’s a free country for this guy to spread hate, I won’t deny him that. But it sure is ridiculous and pitiful.

That's from the blogger at Stop the ACLU, whom I guess doesn't understand that the ACLU is all about keeping the country free -- but maybe he's against that. Other Christians seem to misunderstand what the spirit of Jesus is supposedly all about:

If I found one of my boys picking up one of these pamphlets or movies that one of these scumbags left in the pew, they would have confirmation extremely quick of the existence of God...

...how Christian of me eh?

[from Peakah's Provocations...]

you are seriously one dumb motherfucker... Please take the dick out of your mouth...

[a commenter at the War on Easter blog]

For the best time, though, check out Christian Forums, at which Jesus' followers advocate violence (“If you see someone doing that in your church, start evangelizing with your fists.”), demonstrate their irrationality and misunderstanding of why religious indoctrination is so effective (“I don't think it is right to target children.”), and generally prove that if God exists, he has no sense of style or design, or perhaps that Christians believe their deity hearts MySpace.

Not that atheists aren't discussing this vociferously, too -- there are lots of arguments, pro and con, over the Internet Infidels forum (see here and here). All I know is, I have yet to be in a hotel room in which the Gideons have not left a Bible -- and I always check -- so I don't see how exposing Christians to a bit of reason is a bad thing... or an unfair one.