Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!julius.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: oracle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Brian T. Coughlin) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Ridicule of Atheistic Evangelism Message-ID: Date: 27 Sep 90 07:48:30 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Re: Terry Coatta In article coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) writes, in response to Joe Buehler: >> I think that sort of thinking is worthy of ridicule. Don't steal his >> car, but feel perfectly free to convince him that God doesn't exist? A >> case of slightly disordered values. I think. >You forget the converse... You are also free to convince him that God >does exist. And therein lies the only CHRISTIAN means you possess of >spreading the Christ's message. Hi, Terry! Well... just as a logical side note, I'd like to assert that the above example (i.e. the "converse" of atheistic promotion) isn't quite logically symmetric. Closely analogous to that would be, "Feel free to steal his/her car, but also feel free to buy him/her one"... and such a condition wouldn't do your argument much good. From what I've seen, I think Joe was asserting that the promotion of atheism should strike theists as undesirable, and that theists should make a concerted effort to prevent it (within the bounds of reasonable behavior, of course). -- Take care! Sincerely, Brian Coughlin oracle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu