From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Re: is it necessary to hate?
Date: 15 Dec 92 15:43:07 GMT
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <1992Dec14.225648.9405@iscsvax.uni.edu> mccall3080@iscsvax.uni.edu writes:
>
>        I've been reading this group for little under a semester and I have
>found some great comfort in reading much of what I have read here on the group
>and the responses that I receive in e-mail.  There is one problem that I have.
>        I am an atheist and will always be one as I suspect most of you all are
>too.  And I too don't like the messages that some Christians send to me.  I
>feel they are infringing on  my right to my beliefs, however, I WILL not slam
>them for the beliefs that they do have.  I think that I can be better than
>that.
>        One of the problems I have had with people with religions is that they
>don't respect other people's choices.  Catholics dislike Lutherans, Christians
>dislike the Jewish, etc.  There is so much religion bashing that I found it
>sickening.  So here I am an atheist and I KNOW that the majority of people do
>not respect the decision I have made about that, but I will deal with that.  In
>my mind I know that I am better than many in that respect.  They may not
>respect me, but I will respect them.
>        I somehow thought that the majority of atheists would be the same way,
>but I see many people who find it necessary to go out of their way to bash
>people with religions.  Why is it necessary to do that?  I know that it gets
>annoying when people with religions won't leave you alone and it is easy to
>retaliate, but it is not doing you or other atheist any good.  You are just
>proving to people with religion how irrational and full of anger you really
>are.
>        So this is my problem and the only think I ask of you, fellow atheists,
>is that you think before you flame.  Since we are a minority, everything you
>say and do will reflect upon all atheists.  Maybe this isn't the way it should
>be, but it is the way it is.
>
>Melissa
>An Iowa raised Atheist


Let me second Melissa's post from the side of the minority in this
newsgroup, the majority here at least being atheists of one stamp or 
another.  I am a Christian who follows this group with no little
interest. (Actually, without us, and other believers, would alt.atheism
really be all that interesting?).  If atheists have anything on which
to rest their position it is the calm, cool, clear foundation of reason,
of thinking.  Likewise, believers who wish to assert their faith to
atheists -- and also to better understand their own faith -- must necessarily
build their case on the same universal human capacity.  The hostility
that I see here (and also on other related newsgroups) certainly does
not lend itself either to clear thinking,  mutual understanding or even to 
the deepening of ones own understanding.

Unfortunately, this netnews medium too often lends itself more to 
immediate, clever responses than to thoughtful contemplation and 
consideration.  Identify target, load cannon, fire away.

By way of my qualifications, I said I was a member of the minority.
Actually I am probably a minority of that minority.  But just to extend
the hand of peace, I will assert that, while I am a Christian, in the
sense that I believe fully in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity --
including everything in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, and including that
the Christ Jesus was and is the Son of God, that he became Man, died and rose
again for our salvation (including yours and mine) -- yet I also do not 
believe that you or any atheist will fry in hell for your atheistic views
or even your non-Christian religious beliefs, if you have any, to receive
the healing power of this salvation.

That said,  I reiterate the call for peace, calm, and reason -- including
granting the possibility that differences in reasoning do not necessarily
mean that one person is either stupid, crazy, or harboring sinister motives.

Greetings of the season.

Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)

"Eagles don't flock. You have to catch them one at a time."