My main point is: yes, atheists aren’t being hunted and slaughtered as has happened to all those groups; good for us.

You forgot to add currently. I mean people in history have been slaughtered for having the wrong beliefs as well as no beliefs at all. Just because it wasn’t to scale doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

(j/k – but I really did see an article about that once)

LOL. I think I just got accused of being ‘that guy’ further up the thread. Yeah, some people are impervious to argument and reason, for certain, and getting along in the world with them often means not engaging on their positions unless they are actually actively harming someone.

On the other hand, I think it’s really important for visibility that freethinkers be vocal, even outspoken.

A thousand times, this. Being out and proud, so to speak, is crucial to the precess of the wider society getting used to the notion that Atheists are regular folk, not too dissimilar from them, and not the mortal threat they’ve been conditioned to believe us to be. But being out and proud is not the same as being out and obnoxious; it’s great to say “I’m an Atheist, nice to meet ya” but when they come back with “you mean like that jerk Christopher Hitchens?”, it provokes a bout of cringing.

LOL. I think I just got accused of being ‘that guy’ further up the thread. Yeah, some people are impervious to argument and reason, for certain, and getting along in the world with them often means not engaging on their positions unless they are actually actively harming someone.

On the other hand, I think it’s really important for visibility that freethinkers be vocal, even outspoken.

A thousand times, this. Being out and proud, so to speak, is crucial to the precess of the wider society getting used to the notion that atheists are regular folk, not too dissimilar from them, and not the mortal threat they’ve been conditioned to believe us to be. But being out and proud is not the same as being out and obnoxious; it’s great to say “I’m an atheist, nice to meet ya” but when they come back with “you mean like that asshole Christopher Hitchens?”, it provokes a bout of cringing.

On the other hand, I think it’s really important for visibility that freethinkers be vocal, even outspoken. There are more non-religious people than Jews, yet we have a tiny fraction of that political influence. Scorning and mocking has its place; it’s not the bigots on the other side of the fence whose attention needs getting, it’s the people on it.

Most of the humans on the world believe in gods of some kind; I think religion has had the single biggest influence on mankind for the last few thousand years. Americans do, in fact, live in a Christian nation. That makes me want to grab a bullhorn and a sandwich board! Have you heard the Better News?

Please now get your “last word” (I sense that you are a “last word” kind of guy), and don’t expect me to continue responding to you.

According to the definition of “minority group” you yourself provided, it matters. “Politically dominant voting majority” is right there in the definition, is it not? You can’t very well whip out a definition and then complain when your interlocutor addresses its elements.
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I have been arguing what you call “minutiae” with you, certainly. (I don’t think they are minutiae, otherwise I wouldn’t bother.) But hostile? Merely disagreeing is not being hostile. I have been polite at every step, and even apologized when you accused me somewhat oddly of “badgering” you. That is certainly not my intent. Thus, I’ve only been talking about the factual claim (Catholics are not a majority in Massachusetts) since you said to drop the other (IMO more interesting) part. If you can point to any point at which I’ve come off as objectively hostile, please point to it.

As I said on the other matters, you are correct that we should just agree to disagree. I also never claimed to “know more” about Massachusetts than you do (though it’s not like I’m far away; I grew up for the first twenty years of my life literally a stone throw’s away from Massachusetts in Northern Rhode Island). However, since I do know a thing or two about constitutional law, it would shock me if Massachusetts were acting contrary to the law. Under the law, in order to qualify for aid, schools must meet certain objective requirements; it is possible that the SDA school you refer to merely doesn’t meet them.

FWIW, this is the most liberal state (by any measure I can think of at this time, notwithstanding that you are now going to Google up some obscure thing to prove me wrong, so you can argue more).

Your expectations notwithstanding (though your hostility to contrary evidence being merely presented is rather…odd), I agree with your assessment about the liberalism of Massachusetts.

FWIW, this is the most liberal state (by any measure I can think of at this time, notwithstanding that you are now going to Google up some obscure thing to prove me wrong, so you can argue more). Catholics here are largely Democrats, and vote accordingly. That has nothing to do with whether or not they have voting power, and it really has nothing to do with the actual subject, which is whether or not they experience discrimination. But hey, you know more about the state I’ve lived in for 30+ years than I do. You are so smart.

Being a jerk certainly feels better in the moment (it’s great to feel intellectually in control and superior) but probably is ultimately counter-productive when its the first thing (or nearly) out the gate.

Did I click the wrong school link? B/c I’m seeing that there are five Episcopalian schools in the entire state. Is that what you mean by “considering the number of…”? I’ve never lived in any of the five towns that have an Episcopalian school (OTOH, every city or town I have lived in has Catholic schools). Do the towns actually provide them with busing, etc.? I can tell you for sure that the SDA school in my city receives no busing, and no funding.

I think where some people slip up is that they assume that the jerk-mode is the only thing that might get through and so consider that their default mode, instead of exhausting all avenues of reasonable, patient dialogue first.

I think you may need to reconsider whether or not you are “some people.” You’ve been hostilely arguing minutiae with nearly every post I’ve made. If you’re not intending to come off as hostile, I think maybe you need to work on your technique.

It doesn’t work all the time, by any means, but I’ve had some occasional success. How is scorning and mocking them working out for reducing the bigotry in the world?