And yeah, I’m an atheist and I am friends with Christians, even some fundies & evangelicals.

Donna

It’s not the disagreement that gets to me here. I can deal with people who honestly think I’m completely wrong. It’s not even the superiority complex. It’s the apparent unwillingness to get along.

Yeah, that’s what bugs me, too. It is amazing to me that people apparently want to make enemies so badly. And the unwillingness of some people to own up to the obnoxiousness of their own words and behavior gets on my nerves, too.

You are one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, respectful and still personally uncompromising Atheists I’ve ever come across outside of my own country, and your input will definitely be missed here.

Wow, that’s about the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me. I think I’ll try to hang around a little more. I need to learn how to not get so worked up over stuff, anyway. In case I get real hate mail when my book finally comes out. I’m the opposite of people who are probably nice in person but who are annoying on the internet. I’m much more bitchy in real life. (Besides, I like Hemant.)

Where’s your own country, BTW?

Pseudonym, thanks, and we’re actually trying to broaden the conversation beyond the two agenda points you mention. Beyond mere getting along, I actually want to understand people who think differently to myself. My own faith has been enriched by engagement with Wiccans and Buddhists and Atheists over the years, much as I disagree with them at times. I appreciate being stretched. How do different paths approach the issues of pain? hope? beauty? truth? goodness? At times I find this even more rewarding than the initial, how do we get along?

And beyond understanding, I enjoy the friendships that come out of it. It might be a surprise to some that Christians and Wiccans can have genuine friendships, and not just liberals but evangelicals, that we can actually share a drink together in preference to BBQing each other. But that’s what we find happens.

And if people can’t imagine it, well, can I just encourage an opening of minds. Be open to the evidence that it happens.

What topics are typically on the agenda at “interfaith” meetings? Do they try to find areas of common belief, like working to make the world a better place, helping those in need, working toward peace, etc? Do they try to find ways to talk with people who don’t share their beliefs?

That’s pretty much it, yes. The two main points to cover are:

1. How do we get along?
2. Now that we peacefully coexist, how do we work together to make the world a better place?

If so, there could be room for atheists (humanists) to participate in such a discussion (but I agree, they might find it hard to locate some with interest in attending such an event).

I’m not going to go into details, but that, interestingly, was the precisely the problem last time Wicca tried to get in on the action. (The specific incident that I’m thinking of was actually to do with university chaplaincy.) Wicca has no organising body, and as such, it was pretty much impossible to keep up the momentum required to inter-operate.

At least there are Atheist organisations. So if nothing else, there’s someone to talk to.

Note that such a meeting which included atheists would not be an “interfaith” meeting. I suppose it could be called an “inter-belief” or “inter-human” meeting.

That, no doubt, would be Item 1 on the agenda.

BTW, you don’t have to wait. You don’t even have to get up. One of the most significant interfaith events ever is happening right now on the net. They have called for Atheist/Humanist involvement, but few if any have stepped up so far. So now’s your chance.

Friendly Antiatheist:

I see modern religion as something that will (hopefully) eventually go down in history as something comparable to Egyptian religion, or the idea that demons cause sickness. Eventually science will overrule religion. So, yes, I think these people are wrong, and why would I want to perpetuate a belief that is (factually, if not morally) wrong?

Do you realise just how much like a fundamentalist religion that sounds? “Religion holds back science and rational thought”? That’s pretty much identical to “Atheists can’t be moral”.

It’s not the disagreement that gets to me here. I can deal with people who honestly think I’m completely wrong. It’s not even the superiority complex. It’s the apparent unwillingness to get along.

One of the most important ideas that I was taught as a Liberal Christian (and it was never quite as overt as I’m about to put it, but it was always there) is this: My personal beliefs are not for everyone.

Two final things.

Matt Stone: I’d also like to endorse your blog network. I regularly read a bunch of blogs on the network, and I really appreciate the stuff that you people do.

Donna: I don’t know how many times or in how many different venues it’s possible to say “don’t let the arseholes put you off”, but here’s yet another. You are one of the most thoughtful, compassionate, respectful and still personally uncompromising Atheists I’ve ever come across outside of my own country, and your input will definitely be missed here.

I put a link to my personal website on my name here and you can contact me privately from there if you want to discuss this offline.

Donna

I recently got in touch with an old friend from church. She said “I was disappointed and appalled when I saw the atheist stuff on your website. But then I realized that our friendship was cemented a long time ago, and it’s OK if we’ve gone in different directions.” Maybe she’ll think differently next time she hears that someone she doesn’t know is an atheist.

There are some idiots — perhaps your ex-neighbors — who could never do that. And there some idiot atheists and skeptics who can’t respect anyone who believes in anything. I think it’s pretty even actually.

Richard: Thanks. I’m never good at staying away. :-/ But I am really tired of all the anger and fighting and I really don’t want to get sucked into it any more.