Dialogue

I recently received this email from a reader of Ethical Musings (I’ve edited the email slightly to protect my correspondent’s anonymity, as I do have the person’s permission to publish this note):

I have recently stumbled across your "Ethical Musings" blog. I carefully perused it and I just wanted to tell you that I find your sentiments about religion, ethics and politics to be incredibly interesting. In the increasingly secular world that we inhabit, it is harder and harder to find someone as outspoken about the role of faith in our lives as you.

I am of Russian Orthodox descent, and have always believed in God. However, … certain questions arose inside me and I needed answers. I peruse libraries, talk to professors of theology, physics, chemistry and biology, and post on numerous message boards (both theist and atheist in nature). The one, seemingly insurmountable, obstacle that I have come across is the simple-mindedness of most people, regardless of age or intellectual level.

If I go to a theist forum and mention an atheist idea, I am threatened with eternal damnation. If I go to an atheist forum and express a theist idea, I am called intellectually inferior. It seems to me that a large portion of the internet cyber-community is incredibly eager to flame any opinion different from their own. I realize that this is in part due to the fact that statistically speaking, the internet community is skewed toward younger males, but it can still be very frustrating at times.

Lastly, I observe that people with strong negative feelings associated towards a certain topic are more eager to express those feelings than their counterparts. As a result, the number of outspoken atheists on the Internet is simply staggering.

For all of the above reasons, I would like to thank you for your blog as it is one of the few places on the web where one can get a glimpse into the thought process of an incredibly intellectual theist. I hope you read this email so that we can discuss this matter more.

I publish these comments in the interest of promoting this blog, with its option for leaving comments, as an open forum for the type of conversation that this correspondent desires. I have also received verbal comments, expressing a similar sentiment, from another reader of the blog.

Like the correspondent quoted above, I find that remarks determined by passion (feelings so heavily laden with emotion that rational discourse becomes impossible) substitutes for content on the part of many theists and atheists. When that happen, meaningful dialogue becomes impossible, unless one either enjoys shouting matches (even virtual ones) or wants simply to celebrate mutual agreement. As one who believes he has perhaps only a few answers and who knows that ultimate reality, by definition, is infinite and therefore not reducible to words, I find meaningful dialogue essential to my spiritual growth and vitality.