The daft theist claim I have for you this week comes to you from a letter in Frederickburg.com … it reads …

Atheists: Open your minds, ask questions I am writing in response to the letter from Dan Dormer [“What is an atheist?” May 15]. He said he doesn’t believe in God because he has no proof that He is real. That is where faith comes into the picture. Have you ever seen the air that you breathe? No, but you know that it is there, right? That is the way it is with God; we have not seen Him but we know He is there. I would challenge atheists to take some time and speak to a preacher of their choice about their questions and beliefs, and really open their minds to what they say. If you have not been brought up in church, in a way it’s like you are a child, unknowing of God’s love and the peace and love Christians feel in their hearts knowing He is there and that there is eternal life after this world. What do you have to lose in meeting with someone? And it just may change the way you feel.

(*Sigh*)

If believers ever paused to wonder why non-believers have a reputation for being a bit rude sometimes, then they might like to consider the thought that when faced with utterly daft stuff like this, the initial reply is to simply say two words … the second one being “off” – I shall leave it up to you to speculate about what the first one might be.

If you just happen to be reading the above and thinking, “Well gosh, she is making a jolly good point”, then this next statement of the bleeding obvious is just for you. We know about the reality of air because we have solid empirical evidence regarding it. Not only can we measure it, but we also have a precise understanding regarding its composition, not by “faith”, but because it is possible to made such observations. In stark contrast, there is not one single jot of empirical evidence for a god or gods. Now, before you reply with, “Ah well OK, not air that was a bad choice, but how about radiation / love / etc...”. Nope, all of those are known about because we can measure them, and yes “love” is an emotion, but that is all about chemicals in your brain, if we wire you up to an ECG (electrocardiogram) then we can measure that as well.

As for the “speak to a preacher of their choice” thought … seriously!, the implied suggestion here is that non-believers have given the god claim no thought, that is not credible, what fracking planet does the letter writer live on. One can also wonder if that preacher of choice could perhaps be a Muslim or Buddhist cleric, would they still think that was a good option? I suspect not, they would only want you to sup their specific variation of belief, other flavours would be deemed poison.

So yes, “Faith”, that special word used to describe believing in stuff that has no evidence for it at all … belief might indeed consider that to be a virtue, but I have a better way to describe such an approach, and that is “insanely stupid”.

As for knowing about god’s love, would that just happen to be the very same “love” that says woman are inferior to men and also expresses open hostility of gay people … er, no thanks, I prefer to keep my ethics intact. So what else can I say except …

Christians: Open your minds, ask questions You believe in God but you have no proof that He is real, not one jot, so why are you believing stuff that is not real. Have you ever seen God? No, so you have no way of knowing that he is there. I would challenge Christians to take some time and speak to any non-believer of their choice and really open their minds to what they say. If you have been brought up in church, in a way it’s like you are a child, knowing the indoctrination, riding the emotional wave and experiencing a weekly dose of psychological manipulation will lumber you with a distorted view of reality. What do you have to lose in meeting with someone? And it just may change the way you feel.

Will they do it? … I suspect not, but I would indeed love to be proven wrong.

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