Liz, I may sound to you like a crabby child who needs a nap, but you're speaking now with the sanctimonious faux-serenity that Christians have adopted throughout the ages. It implies (and you make explicit that you believe this) that you are possessed of understanding and wisdom that I, the unbeliever, have not yet experienced or grown into.
Lady, you haven't done your homework.
First of all, I haven't said anything about the "chasm... between belief and
disbelief". If you perceive a chasm between us, then I'll guess it's just
the age-old fight of Faith against Reason.
According to everything we know about everything, the existence of the
Judeo-Christian god is impossible. This is provable in one example after another.
Here's a few: http://ravingatheist.com/archives/basic_assumptions.html
There does not, conversely, appear to be a single proof of the existence of god.
Warm fuzzy feelings of oneness or belonging don't count: I get those
every time I encounter a good plate of barbecue.
So, you understand that with you coming from a position of nontruth, your
sundry personal opinions about nonsensical concepts like Confession and Prayer,
or Faith-based views on death, human emotion, the meaning or implications
of terminal disease, etc., ALL of that is just so much static until you begin
justifying your beliefs, or at least making sense. You have a precedent
to speak pretty-sounding words and present them as argument: brilliantly,
Christianity has built-in to itself the ultimate protection from responsibility.
Faith is its own justification. All the atheist can do is point out that in no
other facet of life do people accept such faulty reasoning as valid.
Liz, I think that the only honest thing you said in your previous email was:
Death is inevitable. I believe I enjoy the life journey more, with faith.
You should understand this: atheists (generally, I hope, but at least specifically in this case) aren't crippled by their inability to tap into some sacred stream that the religious feel they can sense; rather, atheists have waded in that stream, recognized that it was just a hallucination, and gone to find the REAL water. Generally we've sung the songs, felt the community, and gone years in the fold before having an inkling that something didn't add up. For me, it was Mark Twain's "Letters from the Earth"
I never heard of anybody dying or even becoming unhappy from their "loss
of faith". All one has to do is look and listen and learn, without filtering or
prejudging what you see. Try it! You could be
Born Again! Dan
P.S. Are you getting the fanmail that I'm getting? People seem to be quite invested in this debate!
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