More fun from the SEB Mailbag:
- Subject: Can you talk about something else?
From:
Date: 12/16/2006 12:01 AM
To: Les Jenkins
Judging by your web site, you are obviously an atheist which is not precisely why I am emailing. The main reason I am emailing you is because I can’t understand why all or at least the vast majority of atheists can’t seem to EVER stop talking about God, the Bible, stories from the Bible and Jesus. Why is that? Atheists talk about God more than Christian’s do. I have noticed you can’t listen to the songs of an atheist without having to hear all about their beliefs, you can’t visit the web site of an atheist without having to endure the constant resurfacing subject of their disbelief in God and Jesus, but I don’t usually hear them mention Mohammed, Buddha, Hare Krishna or anybody else. You can’t even have a conversation with an atheist without them constantly reminding you of their disbelief and backward judgments of other people. I hate that.
It seems to me that atheists are obsessed with Christianity. I mean look at it in another light: What if there was a group of people who hated big boobs? Ok, that’s not the kind of thing that is going to work it’s way into a casual conversation just as the subject of Christianity is not likely to surface in a casual conversation. But if the boob hating population just couldn’t shut up about how much they hate big boobs and why, not many people are going to continue talking/listening to them. I have one piece of advice: Either get down on your knees and pray to God or JUST SHUT UP! Talk about SOMETHING, ANYTHING ELSE!
Don’t bother to answer this email, as I already know your response will be full of hatred as you seem to be seething with it, and defensiveness. I only emailed because I wondered if you were aware of how much you talk about God and Christianity while screaming you don’t believe it to people who didn’t seek you out to know the thoughts and musing of you.
My reply to Mr. Mark Smith was short and sweet: If you don’t like what I say then don’t come to my website, dumbass.
In my experience, I think there’s a kernel of truth to what Mark’s saying.
My wife and I were excited to find a local atheist group, and we decided to attend one of their meet ups one evening at a popular pizza joint here in Mobile. When we arrived, we found about 10 or so folks sitting around a table with a few boxes of pamphlets and other reading materials. We sat down, introduced ourselves, and then ordered some pizza.
Over the course of the meal, a few of the long-time members of the group spoke about various issues including free thinking and civil rights. The greatest portion of the conversation, however, was dedicated to describing, explaining, ranting and otherwise simply dismissing religion - particularly Southern Baptist Christianity which is much like kudzu in these parts.
After the meal, both my wife and I decided to stay away from the group, because we didn’t really consider them atheists, but rather anti-christians, many of whom seems to have one grudge or another.
Given this, I can see how someone - especially a demonstrated dumb ass like Mark Smith - might think that atheists spend a lot of time talking about god. I think it’s quite possible that this is view is fairly common among the true believers - that the rest of us spend our time talking about them and their silly jihads and the respective size of the voodoo sticks they wave about.
Funny that they spend so much time worrying about what we think.
Welcome to the party Huey! Maybe I’m just not as jaded as I usually am (probably the FSM holiday lights!), so I’m going to wish you well with that. I don’t see anything wrong with that particular hope, even given the vast corpus of evidence to the contrary. When you have that conversation with a Fundie, tell us how it goes!