From: lucio@phyrql.Alt.ZA (Lucio de Re)
Subject: Re: Just how much smarter are atheists?
Reply-To: lucio@proxima.Alt.ZA
Organization: MegaByte Digital Communications
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 07:50:23 GMT

910773f@ace.acadiau.ca (HEATHER LEE FYFFE) writes:

>Sorry if this sounds like I'm bragging, but it is all true...
Have to take your word for it...

[ ... lots of well reasoned, if a little too slick, argument deleted ... ]

>First of all, it is a hole, not a hope.  Though perhaps that was a Freudian 
>slip....?  Everyone, whether they will admit it or not, knows that they have 
>a soul.  Noone can possibly believe that `I', what makes me `me', my 
>thoughts, my feelings, my personality, is merely a product of atoms jumping 
>around in the brain.  You all know that there is something intangible that 
>is `you'.  This is spirituality - not believing in ghosts, but believing in 
>people.  All people also wonder, at least a little bit, `why'.  This is the 
>God-shaped hole.  The longing for a purpose, the human condition.  The 
>reason that men go into space.  The reason people crave money, power, 
>attention.  The reason some become drug addicts, alcoholics, sexaholics.  

... but I eventually have to disagree.  No, _I_ don't believe I have a
soul - then again, I'm no money craver, etc.  And I don't wonder _why?_ any
more than I wonder _why_not?_.  So maybe I have _two_ God-shaped holes.

>How else can you explain the intense happiness and joy that new Christians 
>experience?  We finally feel fulfilled, yes, this is what I've been waiting 

I tried that!  I just got bored with being forced to accept empty
arguments, emotional attacks and other irrational drivel...

>for.  Now I have something to strive for.  How many ex-Christians can say 
>they felt that when they left the faith?  Most often they left because of 

I can.  I felt relief!

>I have to wonder about those who can do nothing but flame, flame, flame we 
>Christians.  Any attempt at serious discussion is countered with sarcasm and 
>vicious attacks.  Sure, there are some Christians who attack too.  I must 

Now you're ranting! It's a pity, because you were doing well up to this
point.  In this newsgroup, religionists attack our attitude (it is _not_
a belief, even less a belief system) and in fact most of the a.a activity
stems from such attacks.  There are different responses from different
type of responders, but flaming generally is invited by the original
poster, as is the case in your sentence above.

>wonder what their motivations are, and how they can possibly think they're 
>doing any good, and if they've considered whether Jesus would approve of 
>their actions...  But to the atheist who merely flames, I must ask why?  Are 
>you afraid of actual discussion?  Are you so insecure in your own beliefs 
>that you must brush off any contradictory statements without even 
>considering them?  And even though you may lightly flame off these comments, 

I assume you haven't been reading a.a long.  I also suspect, given that the
depth of perception in your case seems greater than that of your emotional
involvment in Christianity, that either you move on from a.a or that you
seriously risk shedding the emotional cloak to join our species.

>do you really consider them so incredibly stupid as to not even be worth 
>considering?  That seems to me almost as bad as those types of `fundie' 
>Christians that you guys are always complaining about...

Bull's eye!  But we don't do it uninvited, and we do it in our own
stomping ground.  Can you imagine the reception one of us would get,
were she to choose to address a Christian congregation?

>Just some food for thought.  Responses, compaints, comments welcome, but 
>please, be mature enough not to flame.

Come on, now!  Flaming is not immature, asking to be flamed (or _not_ to
be flamed) is.

-- 
Lucio de Re (lucio@phyrql.Alt.ZA)
The supernatural does not exist, but it gives me the creeps...