Are you an a-Loch-Ness-Monsterist?

When we last met, I didn't realize that you were the president of the Campus Secular Society.
No wonder you're so articulate. I might not have spent so much time witnessing
to you if I'd known. Why would that make a difference?
I don't understand why evangelicals always try to assimilate everyone they meet, in every
situation. Even when I was a Catholic, I would never
dream of forcing my beliefs on a stranger. I would have considered it rude.
As an atheist I am more than willing to defend my beliefs when they are under attack, but
I never seek to impose them on anyone else. I concentrate on providing a safe and welcoming
place for non-believing students on campus. Screipture commands us to witness to all nations
and win souls for Jesus. But I don't understand why you atheists have
to get together. If you believe in nothing, what do you have
to talk about? Do you just sit around in silence?
I get this question all the time. Let me respond with an analogy.
Suppose you move to Scotland and discover that most people there believe in the Loch
Ness Monster - and not only that, but worship it as a god.
There are Loch Ness Monster worship centers on every corner.
Every speech by a politician ends with "Loch Ness Monster bless Scotland", and no-one who
doubts the existence of the Loch Ness Monster can be elected to public office.
Part of the money you pay in taxes goes to support Loch Ness Monster worship, and you
find yourself socially ostracized and regarded as stupid, evil and immoral because you do
not believe in the Loch Ness Monster. Total strangers feel free to come up and shout
in your face, "The fool has said in his heart, there is no Loch Ness Monster", or to leave
Loch Ness Monster worship material on your windshield, perhaps keying your car or peeling
off your bumper stickers while they're at it.
Look, I've been to Scotland. Or at least I had a stopover once at Heathrow Airport.
I know that Scotland is nothing like that. So do I. Please humor me for a moment and
let me contimue with the analogy. In this hypothetical situation, you would
probably feel very lonely and isolated, and perhaps even threatened.
You would seek out other people who felt the same way, and draw strength from numbers.
You certainly wouldn't sit around in silence. You would have plenty to talk about, like
what a crazy country you were living in, how to cope with it, how to try to make things
better, and so on. You are trivializing God by comparing him
to the Loch Ness Monster. I find that offensive. Actually, I think belief in the Loch Ness
Monster is more rational than belief in a god, relatively speaking.
One could posit a scenario in which a population of large marine dinosaurs survived in the
lake up to the present day. In practice it's not possible, because the
lake froze solid several times during the Ice Age.
But at least it's a testable scientific hypothesis. However, we're going off on a tangent here.
My point is not to offend you but to help you realize where atheists are coming from.
As a Christian in the United States you are in a position of privilege.
It's difficult for you to realize what it's like to be part of the most hated and distrusted
in society. In any case, atheists don't believe in "nothing".
We are all individuals, but many of us have a humanistic outlook and love the challenge
of thinking about important questions without falling back on the supernatural as a crutch.
You are more than welcome to attend a meeting of our group and see some of the fascinating
discussions we have. I have to get to class. Let's continue this
conversation some other time. By all means. We may not succeed in changing
each other's minds, but I'm always happy to dispel some of the stereotypes people have
of atheists.