back to article Aussie atheists knocked offline

Two major Australian atheist websites were taken offline by distributed denial of service attacks earlier this week. The organisations, the Atheist Foundation of Australia and Global Atheist Convention, have been in the news down under for organising a Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne early next year. The attack, on …

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  1. Hermes Conran
    Flame

    DoS?

    or AoG? Damded Heathens!! (Burninng Bush!)

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Grenade

    As asset?

    'Australia lacks a violent religious minority'

    You state this as though having one is an asset!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Right hand of god?

    Or just the rhythmically moving right hands of the god-botherers?

  4. Big Al
    Joke

    Bigods!

    Presumably their insurance won't cover Act of God, then?

  5. MinionZero
    Pint

    DOS attack...

    Well its still progress, (just about). Look on the bright side, 300 year ago(*) they would have burned us at the stake for failing to conform to their cult(s).

    Definitions:

    (1)... 300 year ago - Yes ok, some 50 years ago and a few even now.

    (2)... Cult(s) (#2a) - Every religion is treated like a cult by other religions, so they are all cults.

    (3)... Programming is Witchcraft isn't it (Hmm... just in time for Halloween! ;}

    (#2a) Fear of questioning my religion prevents me learning to question my religion so is it any wonder I never learn to see through my religion - Bingo!, a feedback loop that prevents the cult from ending.

    Disclaimer: These are the views of an Atheist, yes hate me if you must, but what I have just said is a crack that can form in all cults!. ;)

    Happy Halloween programmers! ;)

  6. Lionel Baden
    Pirate

    but ...

    Australia lacks a violent religious minority.

    Could a minority launch a DDOS :D aargghhhhhhh

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Linux

    Confused

    Why would a true believer launch any type of attack? Wouldn't praying be more appropriate? Isn't the fact that instead of leaving this in the hand of their deity they took matters in their own hands a clear sign that they doubt their deity's super powers? Shouldn't they go to hell for this?

  8. Paul Rogers

    hmmm

    by holding a convention and organising themselves aren't they dangerously close to being the one thing they detest? Irony is lost in Australia it would seem

  9. Simon C

    could it have been

    The Australian peoples front?

    or perhaps....the peoples front of Australia?

    SPLITTERS!

  10. Jason Togneri
    Alert

    @ Lionel Baden

    "Could a minority launch a DDOS"

    The phrase you're searching blindly for is probably "botnet".

  11. Cameron Colley

    @Paul Rogers

    Which one are you: Stupid or a troll?

    The atheism as a belief system stuff is an argument without logic.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Australia lacks a violent religious minority

    You're kidding, right? Been keeping track of the loonies in government there lately?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Minority/majority

    "Australia lacks a violent religious minority"

    Does this mean they have a violent religious majority?

  14. Bob Smits

    Religious zealots DDOS backfires

    While I hope they catch and prosecute the religious zealots who launched the attack, the story about it has probably driven more traffic to the atheist websites than anything else the atheists could have done.

    I didn't know anything about Australian atheists before, and I'm impressed by their level of activity.

  15. Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

    meh

    To not believe in God is one thing.

    To not believe in God to the extent that you go to the time and effort of setting up an online community dedicated to making attacks upon him is beginning to look a little dubious, from a logical point of view.

  16. Ryan 7
    FAIL

    @Paul Rogers

    Athiest mate, not Anarchist.

    X-D

  17. Russell Jackson 1

    @Paul Rogers

    So by organizing themselves, they will then begin to believe in a god? Call me crazy, but that seems awfully like a non-sequitur.

  18. Bastard Sheep
    Thumb Down

    hmmm?

    Hang on, Paul. An atheist is someone who detests conventions and organisations?

    Well I'll be damned, never knew that. I always thought that was more of an anarchist and that the definition of atheist was "someone who is not a theist". Thanks for clearing that up / strawmanning that for me, Paul.

    Irony may be lost here in Australia, but a dictionary appears to be lost on you.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Probably Our US Nutters

    'twarn't the Chinese. They're all for Atheism. Maybe Indonesian Islamists, but they get a lot more bang for the buck from going after their own governments. The Middle Eastern islamists go after the US or Israel.

    Nope, it's the limp, flaccid US Right, despondent over their failed bid to establish Amerika Über Alles, and disappointed that the blue tabs they brought from "Canada" don't seem to have "stiffened" their "faith"...

  20. This post has been deleted by its author

  21. Denarius
    Thumb Down

    @Russell Jackson

    Dear, oh dear,

    cant even get knowledgable atheists these days.

    Seems you cant comprehend plain text very well.

    A world view is a world view, so organising a non-theist group does not mean believing in a deity.

    It simply means becoming an organisation means you may behave like one collectively.

    Agreed there is some confusion by some about non-theism and anarchists.

    Not suprising as the notion of absolute truth has been abandoned, so language parsing rules are no longer taught or understood.

    BTW, I suspect DOS done more for phun than by any theist groups seeking vengeance, or conversly, by non-theists looking for publicity.

    In Oz, indifference is a virtue.

    Most of us simply cant be bothered to be anti-god botherres or god-bothers

  22. Brett Leach

    We've got "The Family"...

    ... and a fair swag of other charismatic leader types who own their followers lives lock stock and barrel. Not to mention a rapidly growing mainstream evangelical presence.

    Our nutters might not be blowing up abortion clinics (yet) but we got our share.

  23. Big-nosed Pengie

    Unquestionably

    God smoted them. God moves with the times.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    @Marvin O'Gravel Balloon Face

    "making attacks upon him"

    you can't really make attacks on something which doesn't exist except in your own imagination.

  25. Winkypop Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    What?

    'Australia lacks a violent religious minority'

    Maybe, but we do have a loony religious minority, that's for sure.

    It's called the Australian Government.

  26. Me Meeson
    WTF?

    @Marvin

    Check out http://www.venganza.org/about/

    Trying to stop other people wasting their time / life is a public service. Not really "Dubious", probably a greater sacrifice than most priests etc. make.

    At least the priest doesn't need to justify their actions with logic...

    WTF is up with with religious people thinking their cult is syllogistic with logic?

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Seems pretty typical to me...

    ...of the religious nuts - ahem, sorry, people of "faith" - present in every society, who seem to think that belief in an invisible sky fairy trumps everyone else's rights.

    It would happen here in oppressively catholic Malta, except they're too disorganised.

  28. sandman

    No one expects...

    Has the Spanish Inquisition updated its methodologies?

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @Marvin

    No.

  30. Paul 4
    FAIL

    Grow up...

    So much hatred and finger pointing coming from atheists. At least most religions try and spread love and happyness, even if some people miss that when they get to involved.

  31. Graham Bartlett
    Coat

    DoS?

    I can just hear the vicar now.

    "No, we won't let atheists into our church whilst we're worshipping. We're taking part in a Denial of Service..."

  32. Davo
    Thumb Up

    Umm no ...

    The extra ram was after we moved onto a VPS in a secure datacentre, and with all the interest in the media it was pushing the service beyond what we catered for, so we upped the ram.

    This had nothing to do with the attack, just that the stability of the new machine after the move, with all the media and hits it meant we needed more than what we had for better performance ..

    not sure where you're getting your info ;) Forum comments?

    Anyway, things are rocking now.

  33. No, I will not fix your computer
    Troll

    @Paul 4

    >>So much hatred and finger pointing coming from atheists. At least most religions try and spread love and happyness, even if some people miss that when they get to involved.

    Is your head in the sand? religion gives us nothing but an excuse to do things unquestioned, if you want to do good because you are a good person, then do good, if you want to do bad because you're a bad person, hiding in the shelter of religion will let you do this, either way getting rid of religion will still allow good people to do good but bad people will have to justify their bad deeds in a different way (which would be a lot harder to do rationally).

    The world would be a better place withour religion.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There MUST be a God...

    ...who else could have had the skills to take down an internet site? Thank you Lord for silencing them.

    << takes medicine >> :D

  35. copsewood
    Troll

    But Atheism is a religion

    Collins English Dictionary, 1979, p1233, religion, definition 5: "something of overwhelming importance to a person". The evidence of this being an organised system of belief (in "Thereis Nogod" ) exists through Atheists having temples. I was once invited and was happy to speak in one of these, the Secular Hall in Leicester:

    http://www.leicestersecularsociety.org.uk/secularhall.htm .

    You'll be able to see on the above link that this grand building has all the splendid architecture of a temple. They even have a bust of Jesus there, alongside Socrates, Voltaire, Paine, and Owen, though they don't seem fully to grasp who He is. I'm always interested to visit the places of worship of other religions. Us Christians were also called Atheists originally, because we refused to worship the Roman Emperors or state.

    Any organisation which adheres to and promotes a particular faith position is a religion in my book, and deserves the rights accorded to such, e.g. of freedom of belief within the law.

  36. Jon Kale
    WTF?

    Fuck me, is it obligatory to be a card-carrying retarded asshat to post here?

    ... um... yes well...

    but Jeebus, the mouthbreathing God-botherers are out in force.

    "Atheism is a religion"? How so? Theism is the belief that the entire universe - indeed the whole of reality - can be explained away with the single phrase "Goddidit." Atheism is the rejection of this worldview and the attempt to, y'know, explain shit ourselves rather than appealing to the sky-pixie (and, obviously, not *those* people's sky-pixie - they're all apostates. People who don't believe in our sky-pixie should be dismembered). The post-Renaissance rationalist world-view, of which atheism is a part, is the reason why we're not living in the Middle fucking Ages any more.

    "most religions try and spread love and happyness"(sic) - by raw count, or adjusted for number of adherents? I'll not bother enumerating the historical legacy of god-botherers spreading love and happiness with sword or scimitar, but even nowadays we have the C of E - pretty much the wettest of all religions - hating on t3h gayz, along with the left-footers (money quote, ""). We've got the fundigelicals in the States murdering doctors - indeed shooting them in church (no really). The propensity to self-immolation of the nuttier wing of Islam is well-documented, there's a distinctly unhealthy-looking overlap between pagans and Nick Griffin's mob and

    any religion which reckons that the only thing to do when hubby dies is to burn yourself alive is, in my view, not spreading love so much as embers...

  37. Dylan Fahey
    Paris Hilton

    Missing the whole point of the story!

    "Admins added extra RAM and improved caching to get the site back online."

    WTF? Are they caching the DDOS ? Failed site admins should be fired.

    Because Paris wishes double DD's were in her future!

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