However, this wasn’t my point. Brow beating people over the head with the fear of hell is not the way to reach out to someone effectively. You said in your posting that all Christians offer is a lifelong fear of Hell. Well this is my response to that. We are supposed to be more about loving those around us, and loving God, not inflicting condemnation upon those who don’t believe in God. Who am i to judge the reasons why you don’t?

Now as for other things yes, not too many people are vocal in their disappointment in past mistakes. We fine tune the craft of passivity. Crusades anyone?

As far as Anonymous addressing our lovely fire and brimstone routine. Yeah I really wish I could hit those preachers upside the head, not very Christ-like I know. This just isn’t the way to reach people!!!!! I mean its just as bad as the Jihad preaching terrorism as a way to cleanse the world of Jews and Americans. So ineffective and also ruins the appetite. Maybe that was an extreme example but hopefully you catch my drift.

My apologies to you Anonymous for those of us who have only offered fear when they should have been providing love, grace, and acceptance.

The people who think that being an atheist grants them immediate rationality are mistaken. Thankfully, there are only a few that I’ve encountered, though they grate at me quite a bit. The Amazing Atheist, for example, has some very good videos and some others that are cringe-worthy.

As for what atheism offers, you kinda miss the point. Not being a theist still leaves you with yourself — for good and for bad. Turn your nose up at that if you want, but make no mistake; I personally like me. Well, most of the time.

What I find is that the silence of most Christian theists when their own members and churches make moral mistakes. There are good people, and bad, yet look at the % of good vs. bad. Why aren’t more Christians standing up and doing something when other Christians do bad deeds?

Consider the recent genocide in Canada and the involvement of different church leaders and organizations;

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6637396204037343133

Very shocking stuff. Tip of the hat in gratitude to a Christian that stood up and paid a price for his efforts; Kevin Annett.

*BZZZZT!* Wrong, try again.

If I post here, I always use the same avatar, or immediately offer a correction.

A few times, I’ve posted as Anonymous by mistake, and in each of those cases I’ve noticed the error and posted a message claiming the message as my own. In one case, I posted as someone else and … once again … immediately fessed up to it. That last one could be seen as mischievous, but not deceptive.

That people have posted a few times using my avatar was their choice. I haven’t seen much of that abuse in a while.

So, why are there so many high-quality posts appearing that I happen to agree with? Maybe it’s because I’m not alone in the conclusions that I’ve reached? Wow! Independently reaching the same conclusion! How can that happen without nuns with rulers, or evangelists screaming?

See, the high quality comments from the folks on the invisible man cheer leading side of things have inspired me to only dabble here as a curiosity.

Would “freedom from ignorance” have been better?

-Maxwell

I didn’t bother with the rest as it seemed all I had to do was interchange ‘atheist’ with ‘christian’ and change ‘evidence’ to ‘faith’ and I could have the same argument.