From: cb366@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Mark B. Bendiksen)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Thanks Atheists
Date: 12 Oct 1992 14:48:37 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: hela.ins.cwru.edu


Thanks to all responded to my post last Friday entitled
"Hello All!" via E-Mail or posting (I'm sure there's still
some more to come). With a few exceptions, the responses I've
received were constructive and civil and I truly appreciate
that. In one E-mail I received, a responder who was tired of
all the conversion tactics used by Christians on your group
likened it to throwing stones at a hornet's nest. I must say
I completely agree. I am a devout Christian. However, I don't
believe God instructs us to log onto an a.a. newsgroup with
a posting entitled "See Heaven now....ask me how!" As many
of you have pointed out, many of you were believers in
something before you lost that faith, and most of you
I'm sure are familiar with the Christian doctrine of      
salvation.

Saving souls is what God calls us to as believers, but
to open the door to one's heart some common ground has to
be found. My post was attempting to address the issue of
what I saw as unconstructive posts filled with senseless
namecalling. But this namecalling should not exist either
by theists or atheists. The purpose of newgroups (to
me, at least) are to share ideas and beliefs with others,
some who will disagree and others who will agree. It seems
to me that some atheists posting to this group became
non-believers as a result of experiences earlier in life
which disillusioned them. It is my hope that any Christians 
posting to this newgroup will stick to issues which don't
openly invite megaflames, and that atheists who respond to
these posts will extend the same courtesy I received (for
the most part), which is open and frank discussion.
Stereotyping Christians as "bozos" (I believe I got the
quote right) or as bible-thumping, fire and brimstone,
hypocritical idiots is just as bad as stereotyping atheists
as immoral pagans with no sense of values.

In one persons's response to my post, this was appended
to the end:

>Everyone:

>I have been sending copies of the FAQ list and arguments (a.k.a. "hate-mail")
>to the abusive theists posting in this group (Mr. "Prove That God Does Not
>Exist", Scott Goddard, etc) through mail, and I recommend that everyone else
>do so as well, unless of course you have some neat new line of reasoning that
>should be posted.  (although perhaps most people are already doing this)

By appending this to your response to my post, are you
putting me in the category of an "abusive theist"? If you
are, I would like to know your definition, because it
must include a wide-range of people. If that's not your intent,
I apologize.

An amusing side-note, to the gentleman who posted that
a "Jesus Freak" would not have a sig. like mine because it's
a post from Bill & Ted, I must say that you're wrong. It's
from "Fast Times at Rigemont High".  I know. I know. Worse!
But, in my own defense, I must say that type of film does
not interest me now in my new life, and I did see it before
I became a believer in Christ. But more importantly,
the comment shows that this person has misconceptions
about what Christians believe, that a Christian should
have guilt if he views "Bill & Ted's Big Adventure, Bogus
Journey, whatever". This is just one of the many issues
I hope can be discussed rationally between atheists and
theists on this group. I intend to continue to post, until
the flames directed against me get so hot it would not
be beneficial for me to continue. I hope that doesn't
happen for awhile.

Thanks to all,


Mark B. Bendiksen
cb366@freenet.cwru.edu
-- 
"If we don't get some cool rules ourselves, pronto,
 We'll just be bogus, too."-- Dr. Jeff Spicolli