fear/atheism/faith

fear/atheism/faith

I belong to a club that is put together so that Christians and Atheists can debate.  I have stated in an earlier post that I have for the most part stopped participating in that kind of dialogue since it seems to go nowhere fast.  There seems to be a large insurmountable gap between both sides that makes it very difficult to communicate on any real level.  Also debate is just that “debate” and is not about truth but about winning. 

Also we all bring, or perhaps drag is a better word, all of our issues that make it even more difficult to try to understand each other.  Today I got caught up in a “debate” with a man who got me hooked by saying that belief in the Christian God is based on fear, and that Christians are a fearful lot since fear of eternal damnation was central to their belief.   When one Christian tried to refute that then the protagonist said that for a Christian not to be fearful, he or she would have to be on meds.   Well I was hooked when I read that and tried to dialogue if not debate with the person making the statements. 

If someone makes that kind of statement about ‘everyone’ who belongs to a belief system that was left behind, then it points at least for me, to a lot of baggage brought from the past that has not been dealt with or faced.   

So I started from my side by simply requesting that if he is talking about his experience of “fear” in his past brought on by his Christian faith then he should simply state it and not project it onto “all” Christians.  Well I got an insult back.  So I said that I think my observation was valid and why would he not look at it and then perhaps we could talk about it.  So I got another insult back.   So I asked him one more time how he could be an atheist on rational grounds if his rejection was based on fear; sinse being based on fear his atheism was rooted more in emotion than rational thought.  Another insult (sigh) so I dropped it; I know when to back out.

Perhaps I came across too blunt and that put him off, but under the circumstances I did not know what else to say.

I believe that there are “true” atheist, who base their atheism on rational thought and I respect that.  Then there are others who seem filled with anger and some with fear, more emotional than rational and I guess I have to learn to respect that also and just leave it.  I get more and more tired of it all and I guess it is only a short time before I just drop it and not even try anymore, for debate clubs are for debate, and I guess I see that after awhile debate becomes an endless cycle with no way out.  Of course some love it and more power to them I guess.

I am not denying that religion can become evil and when it does many are hurt, but that says nothing about the ultimate truth of said religion; it merely points to our ability as humans to use religion and politics as a way to control others instead of helping them.

Of course the real problem is that I could have also read this guy wrong, which only made the possibility of communication more difficult if not impossible.  I suppose real communication can only come about if two people are willing to really listen.  Also the setting as to be right, and I guess debate clubs are not the place for it.

Peace

mitch

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