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May 09, 2014

Comments

Whisky Prajer

Seems a shame to be "asked" to say goodbye, to a nexus as weird and wonderful as you describe. You've got me reminiscing about my own youth, spent largely in halls (Bible College(s), youth groups, para-church shenanigans, etc.) such as this. They were all policed by ideological gatekeepers, of course, but inevitably I'd encounter the exciting people who risked their jobs by giving me permission to think freely.

Come to think of it, that's what attracted me to your blog. Long may you run, dude.

kurt

i imagine you will miss the onion burgers and luminescent red hot dogs, assuming you're a carnivore.

couchloc

I agree with the point that most kids like these haven't read the bible and learned what they know from pastors, etc. This is why I think you can't refute religion these days. The bible means whatever the next pastor says and has no fixed content, which makes it difficult to refute.

Tyle

"What else to do with someone who is a non-theist but refuses to use the atheist designation. In fact, I find the whole dichotomy tiring and largely pointless. People behave as they do with almost zero input from their allegedly ethical centers, which is to say, theists and atheists can both be assholes or angels, and god has shitall to do with it."

Other than not wanting to call yourself an atheist (to each his own, of course) this is a pretty classic statement of the atheist position. A rose by any other name...

I really enjoyed this post, especially paragraphs 4 and 5.

cheek

I'll let Greg speak for himself, but my own discomfort with self-identifying with the term 'atheist' has nothing to do with what I do or don't believe about the existence of god(s). I don't believe in god(s), but I only reluctantly adopt the label 'atheist' because I really have no interest in aligning myself with (to adopt Greg's terminology) the tribe of atheists. My perception of people who ostentatiously adopt that self-descriptor is that they tend to be evangelical and/or dismissive towards theists in a way that I don't admire or intend to replicate. Because of this, in the community where I live, while calling myself an atheist does say something true about my beliefs regarding god(s), it also tends to communicate a false sense of my attitude towards people of faith. That makes adopting the label a mixed bag for me. So while I have ultimately decided to self-identify as an atheist, I completely understand the reticence of people like Greg to do so.

Greg Horton

I'll not improve on Cheek's words there. Amen.

Chen

Which is why Catholicism was so great!! The pope is the only one one needs to listen to

Leighton

I don't disagree in any way with Cheek or Greg's description of the atheist tribe. The reason (this year) I self-identify as an atheist is out of a pedantic sense of fitting the definition "not believing in any gods", combined with the pragmatic view that anyone who views a social category alone as a deal-breaker for dialogue or relationship conveniently rules out the kind of people I don't care to spend my time getting to know.

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