Amazon.com’s Forum on Religion: Great Place to Bash Christians

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Over the years I have come to expect that atheists and secular humanists would take advantage of the anonymity provided by the internet to further their world view at the expense of those that lead a life based on faith in God. With little exception unmoderated discussion boards, internet based news outlets and blogs that bear any sign of religious content end up attracting those who seek validation by attacking the faithful.

However I did not expect the partially moderated discussion boards at Amazon.com to be one of those places. How wrong I was.

For those who have nothing better to do than listen to themselves supposedly wax philosophic about how "God is both the murderer and the murdered" or ponder the question, "Is masturbating allowed?" then Amazon.com is the place for you.

Lest anyone think that these subjects are the exception to the rule I suggest you have a look for yourself. Even the discussions that have the most sincere beginnings are soon infiltrated by trolls that have a determined goal of spreading their faith based hate.

All you need do is stop by any one of these hot topics to join in on the fun:

• Evil Bible - in this forum discussion you can discuss the evil of the "Biblical god, who is so immoral, so evil and so blood-thirsty he makes Hitler look like a pussycat."
• Satan is the light - in this discussion you can continue the theme of the evil bible thread by iterating "the evils perpetrated by the Christian god." Note that by sheer luck these two threads are started by the same baiter who goes by the pen name Peter. Get it? Peter. Denial of Jesus. Ha. Sorry pal, story doesn't stop there. Typical.
• In Are creationists liars or scientifically challenged? you can attack everyone who believes in intelligent design based on the fact that "scientists are trained to be objective and unbiased" while religious people are, well, you know, the opposite.
• If these topics aren't enough to keep you entertained you can always slink over to Christians cant handle the harsh realities of life and the universe, If you believe in Creationism then you approve of incest, or my personal favorite, Jesus was probably gay.

There is no shortage of anti-religious subject matter in the 1200+ active discussions on Amazon's forum. A point that has me wondering a couple of things:

1. Most companies have rules against this sort of prejudice in the workplace. Considering that Amazon.com employees actively delete posts that someone somewhere has deemed offensive didn't it occur to any manager that perhaps this sort of content was inappropriate for Amazon.com in general? Why facilitate this stuff at all?
2. Given the hateful rants of many of the posts I wonder what it takes to actually get deleted. Certainly anti-religious subject matter isn't in that category.
3. Would Amazon leave these discussions up if the topic was derogatory toward any one of the left's protected special interest groups?
4. Although not a personal fan of the term hate speech I wonder where the Amazon.com management falls within this realm? If ever there was an example of hate speech this forum is it.
5. Does Amazon.com gain any business advantage by having an open forum for lefties and radical nut jobs to attack Christianity?

Perhaps it is a sign of immaturity or more likely a sign of insecurity and ignorance by those who fail to comprehend the spiritual nature of those who define life and happiness through something bigger than themselves. Who knows.

What I can't comprehend is how Amazon.com justifies providing a forum for such content.

Terry Trippany is the editor and publisher of Webloggin. The Amazon.com logo is credited to Amazon.com. The hammer bashing rendering was created by Terry Trippany.