SHAMWOW

Third post in a single day, I think that might be a record for me. In my defense, the first one shouldn't count because it was in the wee ours of the morning shortly before going to sleep.

An atheist describes his experience taking his open minded theist wife to a small atheist gathering. They ran into own of those Dawkins cheerleaders I described a little while ago. Good times were had by all.

"At first the meeting seemed to be going well. My wife made it clear early on that she was a believer, but agreed with the goals of this group, and after a few quick questions (and glances) it seemed to pass. A few people had not seen each other in some time, and there was a good deal of conversation on my end of the table about people and events I didn’t have a clue (or care) about.

But eventually it somehow got back to this one person questioning my wife on her beliefs. At first he made the assumption the being a believer in god makes her automatically a christian, which I quickly dismissed (in fact my wife agrees that the bible is fiction, and while it has some very good ideas such as the golden rule, it also has some horrendous ideas such as homosexuality being an abomination). After the attempted christian bashing ended, I felt that perhaps the matter would drop, but while I was distracted in another conversation, he went back after her again, questioning her beliefs, how far they extend, and attempting to poke logical holes in her beliefs (specifically her belief that there is a purpose for things).

Now my wife and I have had these conversations many times, and while we have not come to agreement, I don’t recall either of us using profanity or raising our voices loud enough to draw the attention of half a bar in our direction. I also don’t recall wait staff stopping to stare at us having a conversation on religion, or giving either of us support during a discussion. This is not to say we don’t argue, this is just that when we’ve discussed religion, we’ve managed to remain civil.

But this was not to be a civil conversation on this particular night. Profanity, dismissal, contempt, vitriol… These would be the best words to describe this evening.

As I mentioned previously, my wife held her own quite well, and on at least one major point (which I believe the entire bar heard, as well as pedestrians within a 2 to 3 block range) I believe she made him look like a hypocritical jackass."

Good.