{"id":37322,"date":"2008-07-05T21:35:40","date_gmt":"2008-07-06T04:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/?p=3651"},"modified":"2013-03-24T16:03:49","modified_gmt":"2013-03-24T22:03:49","slug":"reader-mailstrom-705-when-an-angry-atheist-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2008\/07\/reader-mailstrom-705-when-an-angry-atheist-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader mailstrom, 7\/05: When An Angry Atheist Attacks!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

[UPDATE: I have received a note of apology from Steven, who submitted the letter that I responded to below. My thanks to Steven for his humble reply.]<\/strong><\/p>\n

I just received a letter from \u201ca proud atheist\u201d named Steven. He begins the letter with this quotation:<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, Nazi Germany is the thread that ties everything in the movie together. Evolution leads to atheism leads to eugenics leads to Holocaust and Nazi Germany.\u201d \u2013 Christianity Today film critic Jeffrey Overstreet\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Steven even included a link to the Christianity Today page on Wikipedia, apparently feeling that it was necessary for me to research the publication I\u2019ve been writing for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Then Steven began his letter, in which he strives to dismantle that statement and prove it false. \u201cEugenics, or the filtering out of certain physical traits, are not linked to atheism in any way, and to say so is just plain ignorant,\u201d he began. And then he went on and on and on. And concluded with:<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Comparing Atheism to eugenics is illogical and quite frankly, flat out stupid.<\/span><\/p>\n

You should get your facts straight before you go trying to start another one of your bullshit crusades.<\/span><\/p>\n

-Steven [last name deleted]<\/span><\/p>\n

A proud atheist.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

MY REPSONSE:<\/strong><\/p>\n

What an interesting letter.<\/p>\n

Steven, you begin by attributing a quote to me that I never said. And then you conclude by declaring that I should get my facts straight.<\/p>\n

No, I never wrote those words you attributed to me. Heck, I haven\u2019t even seen the film you\u2019re talking about.<\/p>\n

Those words that you attributed to me came from a letter<\/em> that I posted<\/a> on my blog. Links to that original blog post are everywhere. More than 10,000 visitors read it within the first 48 hours it was online. It\u2019s not hard to find. The facts<\/em>, such as they are, are plain to see.<\/p>\n

Moreover, in the paragraphs immediately following that letter, I wrote: \u201cI\u2019m not claiming his account is 100% accurate I\u2019m sharing it like a letter to the editor because, well\u2026 that\u2019s pretty much what it is. I wasn\u2019t there. This is one person\u2019s account of the events as he perceived them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So take your club elsewhere and beat up somebody else. But please, think<\/em> before you start swinging that thing around. It doesn\u2019t serve you well to write a furious rant, and then criticize the recipient<\/em> of that rant as the person who is on the \u201cbullshit crusade.\u201d Especially when you haven\u2019t done enough research to find the right \u201ccrusader.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the \u201cproud atheist\u201d would do well to down-size his pride a bit, so as to allow for better circulation in the brain. As an angry man once wrote (and I\u2019m paraphrasing): You should get your facts straight before going on a b.s. crusade.<\/p>\n

Notice, I did not<\/em> say \u201cA wise man once wrote\u2026.\u201d Because the statement really falls apart upon analysis. If a crusader\u2019s facts<\/em> are straight, then his \u201ccrusade\u201d might be misguided, or overzealous, but it isn\u2019t b.s.<\/p>\n

Moreover, if one\u2019s facts are straight, a crusade is probably not even necessary. (And that\u2019s where most crusaders\u201a\u00c4\u00eeatheist, Christian, or otherwise\u201a\u00c4\u00eemake their mistakes. The truth, being the truth, cannot be shaken. It will still be true no matter what misguided, over-zealous, propagandistic, big-screen rants are for or against it. Whether that movie be Ben Stein\u2019s Expelled<\/em> or Bill Maher\u2019s Religulous<\/em>, it won\u2019t be powerful enough to leave a scratch on what is True.<\/p>\n

The truth will outlast it all, and the truth will set us free from all lies, no matter how many Ph.Ds are crusading for those lies.<\/p>\n

I must be careful, though, to attend to the Son of God who exhorted us to \u201cspeak the truth in love.\u201d I respect that kind of truth-telling. We could all learn from it, including me. So I\u2019ll leave it at that for now, before I lose my temper. I\u2019ve misquoted folks a time or two in the past. It was embarrassing, and I learned from the experience. So I\u2019ve deleted your last name, sir, and I wish you a lesson well-learned.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[UPDATE: I have received a note of apology from Steven, who submitted the letter that I responded to below. My thanks to Steven for his humble reply.] I just received a letter from \u201ca proud atheist\u201d named Steven. He begins the letter with this quotation: \u201cIn fact, Nazi Germany is the thread that ties everything […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1051,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[45,1345,2537],"class_list":["post-37322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-atheism","tag-expelled-no-intellgence-allowed","tag-religulous"],"yoast_head":"\nReader mailstrom, 7\/05: When An Angry Atheist Attacks!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I just received a letter from "a proud atheist" named Steven. 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