Goal of our On Going Long Term Discussions

I thought it might be good here to talk about the goal of all of this Hot Air or Hot Circuit Boards we are having between each other.
I think the goal of our discussions on Atheism and Christianity/religions should push us to a greater understanding of the other's point of view as opposed to a dividing to the extremes of our own camps of thought. I think at the end we should be closer through understanding and empathy of the others points and world view, than completely dogmatic in our own belief system that we can't even talk anymore.


Timothy Keller talks about the goal of a relationship between Skeptics and Believers in his book The Reason for God. In the introduction he talks about the goal of both. Here is an excerpt...
"At the end of the process(discussing doubts to faith and such), even if you remain the skeptic or believer you have been, you will hold your own position with both greater clarity and greater humility. Then there will be an understanding, sympathy, and respect for the other side that did not exist before. Believers and nonbelievers will rise to the level of disagreement rather than denouncing one another. This happens when each side has learned to represent the other's argument in its strongest and most positive form. Only then is it safe and fair to disagree with it. That achieves civility in a pluralistic society, which is no small thing."

My hope Joe is that you and I can reason through this cloud of doubt together and really get at what the other is believing and after. I don't want this discussion to sink to the level of bickering or bashing the other persons point of view just because you have a different point of view. We will always have pluralistic societies and the only way for us to find peace is when we can get away from ignorance of other belief systems and people groups. When we really study and learn about someone's contradictory point of view our hate and rejection for them decreases greatly and at the end of the day we are friends. I would love to see this happen in our discussions.

That being said, I know that I have a lot more homework and learning to do on your world view than you do on Christianity. Thank you for the books you have loaned me and I will work on trying to get through those and give you questions I have from them. I think here and now it would be helpful if you let me ask a lot of questions so as to understand your perspective on things. I would encourage you to seek a way to also empathize with Christians as to why they would believe in God. A quick look at society shows that there are many intellectual and extremely smart people who believe in God. These people have reached this world view not through blind faith but have spent years in doubt and discussion and then concluded to follow Christ. I hope you will apply your empathy to these people and understand why and how they could believe in God. There are many who have gone before us who have struggled with these concepts and my prayer for us is that we too can struggle with these concepts in a smarter way instead of the dismissive way the extremist in each of our camps of skepticism and religion usually handle this discussion. I think we must listen completely and fully to the others perspective and not fight for own position in fear that our own position will loose. I think both Christians and Atheist should not react out of fear that their camp will some how be defeated but we should act with civility in conversation where when we disagree with each other we are still at peace.

If it is Truth we both seek I believe that and I think you also believe that we will find it. Let me quote one more thing of ancient wisdom from my own tradition by the Jewish leader and teacher of Paul, Gamaliel talking about how to handle the new Christians...
"Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

If you believe that Truth will be discovered then let us journey together to find that Truth by taking a honest look into each others world views and let us both strive to believe that if a man truly pursues Truth is attainable. At the end of all this I would like to see us reach peace even if we reach disagreement.