[Vision2020] [Idaho Atheists] Everyone Deserves Death

[Chasuk]

On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 8:05 PM, Donovan Arnold
<donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> You missed the point. You are not trying to be honest, you are trying to be
> accusatory without taking the responsibility of the accusation. If you re
> not confident of negative assertion, don't assert it.

Donovan, I don't lie to you.  The fact is, I don't lie to anybody.  If
I am asked a question, I will answer it to the best of my ability, and
sometimes the best of my ability is an imprecise answer.  I take lying
by omission as seriously as any other type of lie (which is very
seriously indeed), so I avoid it in all circumstances.  Of course, I'm
not perfect, so sometimes the lies happen.  If I discover that I have
lied, I admit it, and, when appropriate, ask for forgiveness, and make
necessary amends.

If I say that I think I remember an ad hominem attack, then it is the
truth.  I can't give any other answer, because that would be lying by
omission.  I've been married for 27 years, and a father for 24.  I've
never lied to my wife or to my children.  If I lied to them, where
would be the trust?  If you don't have trust in a relationship, where
is the relationship?  I apply this standard to relationships intimate
and casual, online and offline.

> I am sorry you are limited to only believing the tiny universe of what you
> can see, touch, and understand. But try having some respect for those that
> do believe in something more than you--if not because you respect what they
> believe but that you respect them.

Donovan, I don't respect you.  I want to make this clear.  I pity you,
and I feel guilty at times for perhaps adding to your burden, but you
lost any opportunity for my respect long ago.  Sitting at One Word
Cafe, conversing face-to-face, you can be personable.  Sometimes, you
say (or type) something that reveals intelligence and insight.  But
you sabotage these good qualities by possessing not a single shred of
intellectual honesty, and by using your mental disability as a crutch
for bad behavior, as you also use the cross.

Bizarrely, I haven't written you off as a friend.  I have very close
friends who are endowed with all of your bad qualities, and more.  I
use the word "endowed" because I don't believe that we are entirely
responsible for our personalities, so I won't hold yours against you.

You are right, the word Xtian can be used to deliberately offend.
I've probably used it that way.  Do I care that it offends you?  No,
for reasons that I have already given.  If I worried that I offended
every small-minded person that I encountered, I would sit on my hands
in a dark room, duct tape across my mouth, day after day, taking
breaks only for the bathroom and for nourishment.  That isn't how I
choose to live my life.

Chas