Received 8.11.2000

Dear closet atheist,

As you are a biologist, I am a theologian.  I was born and raised a Christian.  And I do have lots of questions.  I have a lot of respect for you and your research.  I am interested in Biology, and I was going to become a bio-chemist.  But instead I decided to go to a Christian school.  I still don't know if I am glad I did this, but I still do believe in Christianity.  Just as there have been way too many fossils to disclude evolution, there have just been way to many people I know that have been touched by the Holy Bible.  I know there has been a lot done wrong in the name of it, but I have seen the good that has come from it, and I cannot ignore it.  I do believe all of our life is a search.  And many people go different ways.  I am a theologian and I am going to search through God.  You are a biologist, and you are going to study fossils and animals.  I respect you, and I hope you can respect me also on my opinion.

Thank you

My Reply:

Thank you for the thoughtful note.  Clearly, if all Christians thought the way you do I would not have felt compelled to build this web site.

When it comes to religion, mutual respect for different beliefs is the ideal.  I would love to be able to tell people that I am an atheist without them concluding that I have no morals or that I worship Satan.  Some religions, however, have a lack of respect for other faiths as a part of their doctrine, such as the belief that people who worship differently are destined for Hell.  This is the ego motivated exclusion that I write about in my Man is the Center of All Creation essay.  These beliefs drive efforts to convert people, which can feel like an assault on one's most personal beliefs.   Missionaries and other organized efforts to convert populations from their native beliefs can hardly be considered respectful.  How non-judgmental can a religion be if one of its central tenets is that there will be a final judgment?

I realize that I am painting with broad strokes.  I don't want to be unfair to the millions of Christians, like yourself, who are open-minded and respectful of other faiths (or lack of faiths).  I just want to share why I think that true respect for different religions can sometimes be at odds with Christianity.

Thank you again for your note and for visiting my site.

Reply Received 8.14.2000

Dear Closet Atheist,

I thank you for your respect.  I also do not think I believe in an eternal Hell.  I do believe in punishment for our wrongs, but I certainly do believe in a Heaven.  I just do.  I am open minded because of my father.  He is a Christian and a deacon at his Church but he respects everybodys' beliefs.  He does not try to force his beliefs on others as I do
not either.  I am not certain what my beliefs are exactly.  But as I said, I do tend to have Christian beliefs. There is a really good book on this subject by a Brian MC Laren.  It is called finding faith.  It is a very open minded book, and it does not try to push, in my opinion, his beliefs on anybody.

But before I leave, I just want to say this.  As there are many Christians that try to push their beliefs on others by telling them they will go to hell, Jesus Christ did not do this.  He did not preach, "Believe or you will go to Hell."  He said judge for yourself.  Believe because I fulfill prophecies, believe because of the miracles I do, believe because of the good morals I preach, Believe because of my followers behavior, believe because I raised back up from the dead (and yes, I do believe he raised from the dead).

I do thank you for your respect, as I respect you also.  I hope this is a start of an on going conversation.  I would like to gain insight from you as you might also gain insight from me.  Even though I disagree with a lot of your essays, especially the ones where you put down certain Christians for their ignorance,  I hope that we walk down one path of our lives together toward a further understanding of each other's beliefs.

Thank you

Reply from another reader.  Received 7.10.2001

I feel a certain responsibility to state something pointedly. The writer of the original email has a respectfully tolerant tone, but he seems to suggest atheists and theists are looking for the same thing in 
different ways. 

Based on the evidence, I've already found what I was looking for and it's simple. It's based on one fact that I have yet to hear disparaged: you can never know whether a god or gods exist. It's that simple. There is no evidence and no way of knowing. 

I can understand that you might believe in a God because of the complicated workings of biology and ecology, but this isn't knowledge, and therefore should not be dispatched as truth. 

The results of religion are obvious to me. It controls the mind, it's divisive, it makes people intolerant of other races, intolerant of homosexuality and oppress woman. It teaches children how to accept someone else's ideas and not question authority. And it kills people. Do I really have to mention how many people are dead because of this fake thing? How many people in Europe and the Middle East who kill because of it every single day? 

To that writer I say: you do things your way, and I'll do them mine. Just don't think we're looking for the same thing. 

- Eric