My Initial reply to Jordan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 29 January 2000 21:45
Subject: Thank you for your excellent reply

Dear Jordon,

This is to let you know that I received your email and all the
attachments worked. I also want to let you know how much I
appreciate such a well considered and full reply.
It will take me some time to read through and think over all
you have said, but I look forward to doing so. I also will not
write a hasty reply, as to do so without giving your hard work
some decent thought and research would be very crass of me.

Actually, it was not really my intention to debate or hassle you in any way.
When I started my site it was largely to put up a resource that links to all
the deconversion stories scattered over the Internet rather than be yet
another place to debate religion. However, I have since found that by having
a web presence people want to discuss what's on my site and related issues,
so I try to be obliging as I find the time.

My ideas for any response from you were to balance the deconversions of
clergy etc. with any like yours and to see just how good the arguments are
from someone like yourself, who I estimate must have a good grasp of the
arguments against Christianity, if previously a member of atheist
organisations. So my intention is to post your material on my site, or link
to it if it is already on another site, read and think about it and then make
any comments I may have and see what feedback I get from others. I would like
to do this primarily through my website, rather than get into a debate with
yourself, as I think that this is a large issue of interest to many. Also, I
see that you are already well into this with Temy Beal and potentially
Michael Martin and maybe you will debate Steven Carr? So I don't want
repeat what's out there, but if I think I have anything new to say, or if you
convince me, then I will add my bit! Of course, if you want to discuss things
then I will do so.

So, I would very much like to post your material on my site and to zip your
attachments together for people to download and comment on if they want to. I
will delete your snail mail address and 'phone numbers of course.

I will be very grateful if you can keep me informed of your further work,
such as your upcoming rebuttal to Michael Martin and his response. As you
will know, the Internet Infidels are very keen to link to any rebuttals of
their material. However, it is a shame that "the case against Christianity"
seems to be out of print and is not online at the II or anywhere that I can
find. So maybe they will only upload your rebuttal if you can get a dialogue
with Martin. Anyway, that would be a high quality match well worth reading.

After reading Steven Carr's debates you may wish to debate him, which
should also be a high quality discussion.

I will also read Temy Beal's site to see how things progress there. I don't
know if I can subscribe to SOAR in order to read the feedback to your
article since I'm in the UK - I'll have a better read of Temy's site and ask
him about it.

Regarding your "birth and death of an atheist" piece, I think that although
it was written for a Christian group, it will be of interest to other
sceptics, since it is of interest to me. I appreciate that you may wish to
counter some likely rebuttals, so rather than include that piece and your
reply, I will link to your debate at Temy Beal's page where we can watch it
unfold.

Thanks very much for a very well written and interesting response.

Best regards,

Steve
(Please call me Steve, instead of Mr. Locks!)
----------------
Leaving Christianity: www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~slocks/decon.html



 

A later email to Jordan
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 01 February 2000 23:37
Subject: Re: First impressions

Hi Jordan,

you wrote:
<< Again, I am quite favorably impressed with your formatting, linking, and
approach. Do you prefer I withhold formal comments until you have
completed the site? >>

Thanks for your appreciation. I don't really mind which approach you take, I
would like to give you a free rein. I also appreciate that a lot of the
discussion about your ideas is going on through Temy's site, so I have asked
him to put me on his email list and I will consider whatever you write there.
So anything you say to him, you can consider as thoughts for me to ponder
too. I really don't want to bombard you with stuff, since Temy & his readers
plus me against you ("against" in a friendly way I hope!) hardly seems fair.

I also want to be able to spend time reading your links and some more debates
etc. before I go much further and to let you have time to do the same. I
think that way we will have more interesting things to say rather than feel
the heat of having to immediately rebut anything someone says. I have been in
that kind of discussion before and it is not to my taste.

I was pleased to see that Temy put up your reply before he has put his
together so people can follow in real time without him always having the last
word. I would like to do the same too and slowly, letting others see the
resources that both of us have been calling upon. If I have run out of
thoughts and am desperate for a reply then I'll ask. Otherwise it's up to
you, but I'm pleased if we all take our time. I really don't mind if it takes
months (or even years) before we write more or have said all we wish to. My
main requirement is for quality stuff. Many usenet debates seem to be more
about holding on to ego, and not wanting to look silly in the face of
another's comments. I also don't want to spend all my spare time reading
about Christianity, so I'm quite happy to have a go slow on this. Some email
discussions are relatively trivial and I reply straight away. However since I
set myself the project of finding a person like yourself, I want to do the
project justice and give it time but without excluding the rest of life. I
appreciate that for many religious folk this may be the most urgent
discussion possible, but for me it is just one interesting thing amongst many
in life. So I will deal with it, but not to the exclusion of all else. I
think I've just said I'm taking it slowly about five different ways now!
(Past my bedtime....)

BTW, I'm sorry I didn't cc my email to Marshall to you. I wasn't aware that
you wanted me to, as I just assumed Marshall was on a mailing list you're on
and has been following your discussions. I thought it unlikely that you and
he see eye to eye on Vitz, so I didn't think you were expecting me to keep
you informed. If you want I'll cc any replies I give to people who include
you in their headers.

Thanks for writing. I'm off to do more reading soon. I'm not in much for the
next few evenings, so it might take me some time despite everything else!

Regards,

Steve