An atheist Brit acknowledges that Christians aren’t necessarily soft-headed
El Ingles writes:
I hope you are well. I am writing to you partly out of a sense that I was too irritable and precipitate when we were last in contact [Ingles is referring to this thread concerning his use of the phrase “Thank f**k,” and also to an e-mail from him that wasn’t posted], and partly because of a chance juxtaposition of content between your own site, political developments in the States, and something I wrote recently.
It is greatly to the credit of yourself and commenters such as Kristor that even a non-believer in god (of any sort) can read with interest your discussions on god, belief, prayer, and the like. I like to think that I am open to views contradicting my own, and I find some of your posts on such topics very intriguing. Many moons ago, I thought that religious people were all soft in the head. These days, I am more open to what they have to say, in various respects, and certainly no longer believe that it is the tofu-like quality of their cerebral apparatus that results in their religious belief. A number of things have been responsible for this, but you can consider it a partial success for your own efforts if you are so inclined.
Also, your brief discussion of the compromise between the big and the small states at the 1787 Federal Convention that made the U.S. Constitution possible a little while back came at a fortuitous time. I was writing an essay about democracy, in which I had planned to take the compromise as a case study of a type of dynamic that was central to my discussion, so I was tickled when it came up at your site (which I still read daily). I wrote the essay for the purpose of examining the implications for European democracy of mass Muslim immigration, but I believe the analysis is generally applicable. This applicability becomes more and more obvious to me in the context of what is happening in America at the moment. It pains me to see a country tear itself apart; and to see, even on your site, a move towards open discussion of secession etc., which you have tended to steer away from in the past, is intellectually stimulating whilst also being, of course, very sad in another sense. Here is my essay at Gates of Vienna on democracy.
I am in an African country at the moment. A small number of people have wished me Happy Easter. There is a part of me that truly wishes that meant something to me.
Best regards,
El Ingles
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April 10
Ferg writes:
El Ingles says:
I am in an African country at the moment. A small number of people have wished me Happy Easter. There is a part of me that truly wishes that meant something to me.
I just had a discussion with a hard headed believing Catholic on this very topic. How sad it seemed to us. Atheists are missing so much of the fullness of life. I can not imagine living without experiencing the transcendent. It would be sterile. It is akin to never having experienced making love, but merely having experienced sex. They are missing what it means to be human. To have a share in the divine. Their loss, but no gain to us, as anything that diminishes life, diminishes us all.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 09, 2010 10:15 AM | Send