Why I am an antitheist

So I should just shut up about this kind of hateful nonsense and it will go away? I don’t think so. Even if he is a troll, ignoring him won’t make him go away, and it may well encourage him to post even more disgusting things if he fails to get a rise out of people or realizes that he can post whatever with impunity.

Furthermore, pages like his shift the Overton window toward rape culture. If that extreme viewpoint is acceptable in society, what’s the harm in being just a little misogynistic, victim-blaming and slut-shaming? After all, it’s not as bad as Crook’s page.

Next, look at Crook’s justification for being a contemptible asshole: Mormon religious doctrine and the authority of a dead Mormon leader. The lesson to be learned is that Mormonism (among other religions) can be used to justify abhorrent anti-social and repellent attitudes. That once you begin to take your morals from ancient books and so-called divine authority, you can be easily led to approve of or commit atrocities.

Good morals are derived from principles of empathy with fellow human beings, minimization of harm and maximization of well-being, and logical consistency. You don’t need a God to do that; in fact a God halts the process by telling you an answer; typically an answer from the ancient past where humanity was considerably more barbaric, on average, than now.

Finally, what are the implications for the rest of us of Crook’s denial of the existence of rape, his insistence that “she is to blame” unless there’s a fight to the death? Is it possible that Crook himself has committed rape, and his online outburst is a post-hoc rationalization of his deed?

In October 2001, W.L. Marshall and Heather Moulden published “Hostility Toward Woman and Victim Empathy in Rapists” where they found:

rapists were significantly less empathic than either of the other two groups toward women who had been sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant. They were also significantly less empathic toward their own victims than toward any other women, and they were markedly more hostile toward women than were the other subjects. Finally, among the rapists, hostility toward women was significantly negatively related to their empathy toward their own victims.

Correlation is not causation, so we can’t infer from this study a higher probability that Crook is a rapist. However, it is a red flag to all women with whom he may have any contact – he could rape, and he would not be troubled by his conscience afterward, for he has already justified it in his own mind.