Recently, I received an email from a viewer of this site. The visitor was a Christian. She said nothing degrading about the site, merely asked my opinion on something. I gave her a polite, fairly lengthy reply.
One of the things I made reference to was a comment in her initial email, wherein she sort of equated unbelievers with wickedness, as if the two were inseparably linked. I pointed out that this was not only ridiculous, but somewhat offensive.
In her subsequent reply, she stated that she didn't believe I was an unbeliever. She said, "...you just pretend, because you are full of goodness in your answer."
As I said to her in my final reply, unbelievers are like anyone else. Some are good, some are not so good. Overall, of the many freethinkers I've known in my life, I have met very few who weren't what I'd call "good people."
But beyond that, what is troublesome about this visitor's statement is that she still equates wickedness with unbelief, and when confronted with a decent person who happens to be an atheist, she refuses to acknowledge their atheism.
This is selective blindness, and the fact that she so easily resorts to this mindset, I think, is really sad. If that kind of selective blindness is so readily done, is it any wonder that the same person turns a blind eye to the wickedness perpetrated by her biblical god?
This source of ultimate goodness is reported to have done more evil things than any unbeliever I've ever heard of. Followers of this god and others still behave in horrible fashion throughout the world, yet we unbelievers will continue to be blamed for the evils of society, despite evidence to the contrary. More's the pity.
