back to article Atheists appeal to higher power for intercession over alleged sins against privacy

The Atheist Alliance International, an organisation that works to demystify atheism and advocate for secular governance, has taken legal action it hopes will prove that members’ personal data does not remain in the possession of the rival International Association of Atheists. The Alliance (AAI) first came to The Register’s …

  1. jmch Silver badge

    Splitters!

    Splitters!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Splitters!

      I immediately came to comments to post just this. You beat me to it.

  2. KittenHuffer Silver badge
    Angel

    When they read ....

    .... an [insert diety] type comment by a commentard does their brain return a 'Null pointer' error?

    1. sbt
      Trollface

      Re: does their brain return

      I'd say "Undefined symbol" would apply, but then thanks to pragmatism, the relevant code is never processed.

  3. Andy Non Silver badge
    Coat

    The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

    AIA (Atheist International Alliance ) or failing that the AIA (Alliance of International Atheists)

    1. Tweetiepooh

      Re: The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

      They could go and form the AAAI, AAIA, AIAA, or IAAA where one of the the 'A' is for anonymous.

      1. cmdrklarg

        Re: The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

        I would forward them to the NMAAA*

        *No More Acronyms Association of America

        1. Stoneshop

          Re: The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

          NMAAA would do better to rename itself as the AAAAA (American Association Against Acronym Abuse)

      2. EarthDog

        Re: The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

        I can hear much screaming involved

    2. big_D Silver badge

      Re: The AAI and IAA should get some arbitration from the

      Excuse me, are you the International Atheist Association?

      F*** off! We're the People's Front of Judea

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

  4. seven of five
    Joke

    Well

    God help them.

    1. Korev Silver badge

      Re: Well

      Maybe His Noodly Appendage can guide them in the correct direction...

  5. Chris G

    I don't believe it!

    See title

  6. sbt
    Coat

    Name jokes aside,

    God help the thieves. Or are they atheives?

    Mine's the one with the copy of God Is Not Great (surely one of the great understatements). --->

    1. Denarius

      Re: Name jokes aside,

      not half as much as the unprinted book NoGods are worse. Most appropriate given the twentieth centuries biggest butcvhers

      1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

        Re: Name jokes aside,

        There's no correlation whatsoever between a persons religious belief and their propensity to be a decent human being. Anything that says otherwise is propaganda.

        That said, as you're trying to imply that athiesm somehow makes you more inclined towards war, you might want to take a tiny peek at the 1500 or years prior to the 20th century. The results may come as a surprise to you.

        1. Claverhouse Silver badge

          Re: Name jokes aside,

          Yeah, the Romans were all about spreading religion.

          1. General Purpose

            Re: Name jokes aside,

            <assuming that was sarcasm>

            The Romans were very proud of their piety. They believed their victories and empire showed the gods loved them best, but they tended to respect anyone following their own ancestral beliefs. Indeed, when they were fighting other Italian cities, they'd often try to lure the other city's patron god or goddess to come over to Rome instead.

            Then they took over Christianity and stopped tolerating other religions.

    2. Aaiieeee

      Re: Name jokes aside,

      I read God Is Not Great the week before last and I would recommend it to anyone who is becoming aware that their faith doesn't really map onto the world we live in - there is a good explanation for that!

  7. Little Mouse

    My clan of (non)believers is better than yours...

    Holy fucking Christ on a bike. Have these people not heard of irony?

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: My clan of (non)believers is better than yours...

      Perhaps they haven't seen Life of Brian. (Anecdote: I introduced my sons to these films and the reaction was mainly "Oh, so that's where all thememes came from.", so perhaps the IAAI haven't used the internet either.)

      Or perhaps they just didn't understand the joke.

  8. Aaiieeee
    Holmes

    I wonder what the split was over.

    They are inadvertently showing how we ended up with so many sects, denominations and even religions; people being people and branching off in the 'true' direction.

    1. stuartnz

      Re: I wonder what the split was over.

      Exactly why Small Gods is my favourite Pratchett by far - some of the jibes thrown at atheists in that book seem almost prescient reading of this spat :)

    2. Jedit Silver badge
      Angel

      Re: I wonder what the split was over.

      I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it absurd that the atheists have had a schism.

      1. find users who cut cat tail

        Re: I wonder what the split was over.

        If the organisation's goal is to ‘demystify atheism’, which I am pretty sure is oxymoron, why not have a schism while you are at it…

  9. SotarrTheWizard
    Trollface

    In related news. . . .

    . . . the People's Front of Judea is suing the Judean People's Front. . . . (grin)

  10. stuartnz

    PLEASE TELL ME

    That one of these august bodies has an official called Oolon Colluphid. That would about wrap it up.

  11. Outski

    Reminds me...

    ...I forgot to watch LoB over Easter, must address that before the kids go back to school

  12. Howard Sway Silver badge

    AAI / IAA tech spat

    I wonder what the disputes over tech dogma were that caused the schism.

    Did one firmly deny the existence of Silicon Heaven, whilst the other lot believe that backups are a form of immortality? Were there arguments about whether or not information wants to be free, with one lot suggesting that freedom negates the concept of divine control, whilst the other envisiged their data sitting on a cloud for the rest of eternity, with the other lot being thrown into a sea of fire (when their hosting company's data centre went up in flames)?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Angel

      Re: AAI / IAA tech spat

      I figure it was a traditional spat between Ubuntu vs. Mint or the GNU license vs. MIT's (c.f. ElReg fora).

    2. Dave559 Silver badge

      Re: AAI / IAA tech spat

      It could have been a falling out between devotees of storing the membership DB in PostgreSQL versus MariaDB, or perhaps even the unholiest of all, Or*cle?

      (Or if 'twas indeed merely a list of email addresses, a re-run of that most ancient of battles, whether the file should be edited using vim or emacs?)

  13. mevets

    There is no File?

    In respect, proving the existence of File is somewhat easier, because the appearance of File constitutes a difficult to deny proof in and of itself.

    Proving that File doesn't exist is quite a bit more difficult.

    File could merely be hiding where nobody could find it, which is practically indiscernible from File not existing.

    There is a shared belief that File did, at some point, exist.

    Even unimpeachable evidence of the deleting of the one true File is marred by the uncertainty of whether there were other Files before it?

    I think the IAA and AAI need to re-imagine File as an NFT, then, and only then, can they be assured of the simultaneous existence and lack of existence of File.

    1. Santa from Exeter

      Re: There is no File?

      Nope, it's just between here and the Moon, tucked into a teapot.

      1. HammerOn1024

        Re: There is no File?

        Wait, I thought it was a bowl of petunias and a whale...

    2. Dan White

      Re: There is no File?

      "I refuse to prove that the File exists, for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."

      "But the entry in the File Allocation Table is a dead giveaway isn't it? It proves it exists, and therefore it doesn't".

      "Oh dear, I hadn't thought about that".

      <Disappears in a puff of trying to convert to NTFS...>

  14. HammerOn1024

    Wait, I've seen this movie

    Life of Brian right?

  15. Claverhouse Silver badge
    Angel

    Wherever Two or Three are Gathered Together in My Name..

    Presbyterians... or Trotskyists...

  16. herman

    I hope that there are no PLF members in there, since that is supposed to be super secret.

  17. dancecat

    South Park as prophecy

    Never mind Life of Brian. This is almost exactly how the factions are named in the multipart South Park episode Go God Go:

    https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Unified_Atheist_League_(UAL)

    https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Allied_Atheist_Alliance_(AAA)

    https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/United_Atheist_Alliance_(UAA)

  18. Youngone Silver badge

    Come on now

    All joking aside, this schism has some really important principles behind it, and occurred when one group of atheists declared they didn't believe in any gods, but another group disagreed.

    The second group insisted they didn't believe in any gods, but even more than the first group.

    Hopefully there will be an agreement about how to quantify the exact lack of belief. These things are important people.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What's all the fuss about?

    When people argue about assets, money, debts, ancestry....or anything else associated with the real world, they get lawyers involved and start talking about documents, artifacts, provenance and physical, verifiable evidence.

    *

    So when we get to religion, the religious folk don't want ANYTHING TO DO WITH provenance and physical, verifiable evidence.

    *

    Huh? Money, bank accounts........show me the proof!

    *

    God, Jesus, Allah..........Sorry........you just need to believe!!! The problem is YOU......pity about the absence of facts!!!!

    *

    So what's the problem with atheism?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What do they want them to do?

    Swear on the Bible that they don't have the file?

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