An atheist vs. Catholic debate
So, I ended up in something of a debate over the past couple days with a Catholic blogger. His initial statement that caught my eye was “Why are atheists always targetting Christians”. My basic response was “Because Christianity in America is the religion most likely to be throwing its weight around”.
The conversation, though generally polite, spiralled from there.
Eventually, I realized two things:
- We were talking at each other. We were, in effect, having two different conversations. He seems to disagree with this.
- He honestly doesn’t understand the atheist viewpoint. He got pretty upset with me when I said that, from my perspective, all christian sects are basically the same.
I can certainly understand why #2 would upset him. It is, in effect, like telling an English professor that all authors are the same.
But this shows exactly what he doesn’t understand about atheism. Once you believe in an all-powerful supernatural entity that controls the universe and his divine son that was killed and then rose from the dead, any distinctions between particular interpretations of these beings and stories really does fall by the wayside.
For example, lets suppose I’m schitzophrenic. And I believe that the dog is talking to me telepathically. Would you see any real difference between me and the other schitzophrenic that believes the dog is talking to him vocally?
Of course not.
Btw, I’m not saying that the other blogger didn’t have some valid points, just that ultimately we were never going to communicate very much because I would have to explain to him what I thought of his worldview and that was never going to be seen as anything but either stupidity or insult. I don’t fault him for this, its just the way it is.
Its sort of like trying to talk with someoine who believes magic runs every little bit of the world. How could you talk physics?
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3 Responses to “An atheist vs. Catholic debate”
April 18th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I think I debated this guy as well, and came to the same conclusion you did in #1. During our discussion, he removed the ability to comment on his blog. It wouldn’t surprise me if he soon removed any way to contact him.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:04 am
well, I suppose he’s really locked in and committed to that worldview.
To the point where they can’t actually understand anyone who might find their beliefs to be, well, insane.
Their very identity and that religion are so intertwined as to be inseperable.
Therefor, no significant dissent is really allowable.
(oh, you might allow it, but you treat it as if it were spoken by children)
April 18th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
[...] He has his own blog, and has decided to issue his response to my latest reply to him there. That’s just as well; he wasn’t doing all that well via the contact form. [...]
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