People often approach me to tell me how much they appreciate my tone when I write and speak about leaving my former faith. \u00a0Of course, I do still offer criticism when I feel it\u2019s appropriate, but I don\u2019t resort to name calling, belittling, or impugning the intelligence or character of those who disagree with me. I was once an insider myself, so I\u2019m not as prone to misrepresenting those who are still in the faith.<\/p>\n
Also, unlike so many I know, I wasn\u2019t really burned by my religious past as long as I was still in it. That\u2019s not to say that I was never mistreated; but you have to realize that I internalized a powerful narrative that excused and validated any mistreatment as \u201cthe Lord disciplining those whom he loves.\u201d<\/em> \u00a0So I never experienced mistreatment as such. I performed the mental gymnastics it took to turn it all into gold\u2014a blessing from the Lord meant to keep me humble and dependent on him, so to speak. \u00a0I never really experienced the nasty side of my religion until I found myself on the outside of it and saw the way people began to look at me. The difference was jarring.<\/p>\n But a positive church experience\u2014together with a strong emotional need to stay connected to people I love who are still on Team Jesus\u2014has produced in me a strong desire to find a middle ground on which we can still converse. \u00a0I am always looking for those people\u2014regardless of personal belief system\u2014who can engage in respectful, meaningful interaction. I actually love the process of hashing through things, debating issues and parsing out the nuances of perspective, especially when it effectively challenges my own beliefs.<\/p>\n Like most thoroughgoing skeptics, I actually enjoy<\/em> having my assumptions challenged. That\u2019s how I got to be where I am in the first place. It\u2019s how I keep myself sharp\u2014how I keep learning new things. Since learning and discovery are essential joys in my life, intellectual stagnation is among my greatest fears, and that\u2019s why I despise most of all the prospect of living my life in an echo chamber.<\/p>\n But nuanced dialogue doesn\u2019t always sell well. \u00a0Appreciated though it may be among those who are as addicted to rhetorical precision as I am, it still doesn\u2019t draw as much attention as does the more caustic, acerbic, polemical approach of the critics of religion who paint with a much broader brush. \u00a0It seems the harsher, more sweeping your diatribe, the further it goes in garnering support from the masses. That\u2019s true of individual voices, and I\u2019m beginning to think it\u2019s also true of organizations. \u00a0If you want folks to support your organization, come out swinging as hard as you can against religion of all kinds. That\u2019s going to score you more money than measured, nuanced dialogue.<\/p>\n In case you haven\u2019t noticed, atheists are just as prone to tribalism as are the members of any religion they oppose, and I think that has at least something to do with it. I know I\u2019m not alone in observing that too many members of Team Atheist seem to think that deciding the correct number of gods equals zero means that everything else the human race needs in order to advance will magically fall into place, because science, I guess.<\/p>\nRooting for Team Atheist<\/strong><\/h3>\n