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From: nahender@plains.NoDak.edu (Nathanael J Henderson)
Subject: Re: BABY KILLING JESUS!!! - A SUMMARY OF ARGUMENTS
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Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 03:23:42 GMT
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I have corrected this as I see myself (an atheist) in the position of "us".

southdar (southdar@tyrell.net) wrote:
: same ideology which is summarized below.  In the below table, 
: "US" can represent either atheists' or Christians' view about
: themselves and the "THEM" represents their opinion of the 
: other side.

: US                      THEM
: We are innocent.        They are Guilty.

Innocent?  Not me.        Only of being ignorant (occasionally stupid).

: We tell the truth,      They lie,

We know the truth.        They are ignorant--they tell the truth 
                          as they believe it to be.

: -inform.                -use propoganda

Argue our position.       Argue their position.

: We defend ourselves.    They are agressors.

We attack *and* defend.   They are sometimes more aggressive than we are, 
                          but it varies.

: We are smart,           They are stupid,

We are more reasonable.   They are more irrational.

: -know the truth.        -know nothing, falsehoods.

are probably right.       are probably wrong.

: Beneath these arguments there is sort of an
: undertone of self-justification of all such
: debates which is the whining voice of the
: child saying "He did to me first"; "I only
: hit him back."  or "He's the the evil one
: who slandering me, I am just defending the
: reputation of me and my faith. ("Faith" is
: meant to cover Christianity, atheisim, 
: whatever.)

   Atheism is not a faith, and is not a matter of faith.  Atheism is no 
more religion than astronomy is Sun worship.  That is why your model is 
innacurate in this instance.

: The above scenerio accurately depicts about
: 99 percent of the so-called "debates" on
: talk.abortion.

   Probably.  But when youy try to apply it to a different situation, the 
model breaks down.

----
Nathanael Henderson   |  Microsoft and Intel:  The world's worst OS and
                      |  the world's best buggy whip.
