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| A right angle is equal to 90 degrees. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
I imagine there would be fewer atheists if only we'd get our heads out of our asses and accept everything Christians tell us uncritically. I mean, many of them have had experiences they cannot explain so...god! Why do we have to be so stubborn as to doubt them and not simply take their word for it? Why must we always go on and on about evidence?
The evidence is all around us, at least that's what Christians insist. We refuse to see it because...I'm not sure why. Perhaps their god is "hardening our hearts" like it used to do in biblical times.
I received another email from a Christian worth sharing that makes this point. At least, that is the point I am going to draw from it. As always, here is the message in its unedited glory (I know that's how you prefer it):
You don't know how much God loves you. You probably just laughed at the last sentence because well you don't believe in God. Well I respect your believes. I won't judge you. I don't think your a horrible person or should burn in hell. God is in your daily life every day. One thing that atheist over look is there has been a lot of people who have seen angles or been to heaven. I have seen signals from God and hopefully you will to.God bless you :)
I was encouraged to see that this particular Christian seems to understand that atheists do not believe in gods. Progress! It is also nice to hear that someone who has never met me does not automatically assume that I am a horrible person just because I am an atheist. I'll take it.
The author of this email just seems to believe that we are wrong. The god(s) in which he or she believes are in our lives everyday, whether we believe or not. Fair enough. I will gladly take this approach over the ridiculous scare tactics many Christians seem to prefer emailing to me.
Where the whole thing falls apart, as usual, is that what this Christian seems to want to count as sufficient evidence to support god belief isn't nearly enough. If people who have "seen angles or been to heaven" want to believe in some sort of gods, so be it. If they want to elevate their personal experience above all else, there is little we can do to dissuade them other than to keep pointing out the many problems with this approach. If this person wants to believe because of "signals" he or she has seen, fair enough. We'll hope that he or she is merely mistaken and not psychotic.
I will say something positive about those who base their religious belief on some sort of personal experience they consider sufficiently persuasive: at least they are basing their belief on something. I know, the belief comes first and the attempts at justification later. Just let me be generous for a moment. We may not consider personal experience as a sufficient basis for belief, but at least it can be pointed to as something. Where it descends into folly is when the believer expect those of us who haven't had any such experiences to join them. If we were to do so, we'd have no basis at all for sharing their belief.
Then again, as I look around the room in which I am writing this, I cannot help noticing angles everywhere. Even the picture frame on my desk right next to my keyboard seems to be made up of four 90 degree angles! Perhaps some sort of god is signaling me. Now I just need to figure out which one it might be.
