Not Getting Through

Is it just me wanting to ask questions that Larry Moran doesn’t consider interesting, or am I genuinely having trouble getting through? Here’s what he wrote in a recent comment on his blog, in response to my response to his response to…

The question that interests me is whether supernatural beings exist. If there are “religious believers” who are atheists then that’s fine by me. Why would I want to have any further conversation with them?

This debate over “sophisticated” religion is always started by those who criticize atheists for not understanding modern religious thought. The clear implication is that the “sophisticated” believers are not atheists. Otherwise, why criticize the atheists?

James, I don’t believe you would call yourself an atheist. What you are doing, I think, is quibbling over semantics. You want to define the word “supernatural being” in a way that permits you to believe in them while pretending that atheists like me don’t understand your perception of reality.

Maybe you’re right. Maybe I don’t understand how you can believe in supernatural beings while pretending you don’t. This is your chance to explain it to me. So far, you aren’t doing a very good job.

Maybe it is just that I’m butting in on a conversation that is exclusively focused on “supernatural beings”. But that isn’t terminology that I find helpful for expressing what I mean by “God”, and I know the same would be true for other theologians and educated Christians of various descriptions.

So why is this communication going so badly? Any suggestions on how to make it go better?