Update on the guy from the dating site: he got back to me twice! Here is our last conversation. I will not reply to his rhetoric again, though. I am throwing my pearls before swine [sic].

Him: Gwen I'm sorry for my poor debate skills, but I am very well read.. I don't know about Myths except that they are there.. If education makes you an atheist then I'm happy where I'm at with my hopes and desires in place with a hereafter.. Do you have any hopes left? What kind of life do you have thinking there is nothing beyond this mere existence.. What a waste.. What about the great minds of the church, you can't make me believe your smarter than they are (were).. but it is your choice and I respect you for your stand on what you think..

Me: Dude, you sound like a broken record from every Christian who has ever tried to "debate" me about the merits of Christianity. You spew rhetoric like a whale spews water and absolutely nothing you have written is original or logical.

You are judgmental, assume aspects about atheists that have no basis in fact, and tell me that my life is a waste because I do not believe as you do. I look around and see many, many miserable Christians living Thoreau's life of "quiet desperation." They accept their lot because, as Marx wrote, "religion is the opium of the masses." They place their hope that the "next" life will make up for their miserable existence here.

Great minds of the church? Which would those be? Martin Luther who hated Jews and thought that Revelations should be left out of the canon? Who said that if women died or suffered in childbirth, it was fine because it was their lot in life and punishment for Eve? Augustine who lived a life of debauchery and was consistently depressed even after he was "saved"? Aquinas who maintained that women were misbegotten and inferior to men? The corrupt popes who fathered children and used the papacy to further their riches? Or maybe the "original" minds such as Paul the Apostle who had a bout of hysterical blindness? How about a book written by men who said women needed to obey their husbands and to keep quiet?

I might or might not be as "smart" as they were/are, but I am very intelligent, but that is not the point: the point is ignorance, and those men (note the lack of women because women were not allowed to think and speak and rarely learned to read and write due to church guidelines) did not have the information available in modern times. In addition, they wallowed in their ignorance, prejudice, and biases because it suited them.

"Mere existence"? It is not up to you to decide if my existence is "mere" or if existence in general is "mere." The universe is a vast and mystical place, filled with wonderments and "things" beyond our comprehension. IF a deity exists, it is not your narrow concept of a petty and jealous father god and a son who is loving and kind. Your book is myth, pure and simple, and you are too ignorant and ingrained with dogma and brainwashing to consider it any different.

I pity you--I truly do. You, too, wallow in your ignorance. You have not one original thought when it comes to your religion. I knew what you would say before you said it.

Be well.