I've never liked to fight with people. To be perfectly honest, I don't think I've thrown a punch in anger since my junior year in high school, more than forty years ago. It isn't my natural instinct to start an argument. I've only had one formal debate in my entire life, and it wasn't my idea in the first place. By the same token, I'm not afraid of a challenge, or to defend my personal beliefs. My opponent on that momentous occasion was a former president of American Atheists, a guy named Ed Buckner. He proposed our debate only a couple of months before my book Counterargument for God was published, so I saw his challenge as an opportunity to test the substance of that argument. Personally, I liked Ed. If he ever wants a rematch, I'd only have two conditions: I don't want to argue cherrypicked verses from the Bible all night, and a second debate should be held on Ed's home turf, the normal meeting place for  freethinkers in the Atlanta area. I've come to believe there are two kinds of atheists -- the kind that hate Christianity and religion in general (anti-theists), versus others who also don't believe in a supernatural God, but without the latent hostility toward people with religious beliefs. A handful of my virtual friends on Facebook are the latter variety of atheist, and those are some of the friendships I value the most. Recently one atheist friend took the time to send me this message: After years of (dogmatically) thinking creationists as ignorant/dogmatic etc. (much like many feel about atheists), you are the one who has taught me otherwise. I'm glad you … [Read more...]