From: "Jessica"
Subject: I am not happy with ur site
I see ur a ahiest and do not know God our Lord. Well I hope u can find him soon for the days are numbered because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will return. I hope u will understand that I will tell people to belive instead of thinking there is no God. How did we get here? I do not think we are monkeys. I belive that God created us.
Jessica may not be happy with my site (she certainly isn't the first, nor will she be the last), but she doesn't bother to identify anything specific about my site which upsets her. In fact, I think that there may not have been anything specific, but rather the general fact that I critique theism and religious beliefs. Like many others, Jessica seems disturbed by the fact that I encourage people to exercise doubt and skepticism when it comes to ideas which they hold dear. It's unfortunate that they would consider some beliefs so sacrosanct that they shouldn't even be questioned.
Jessica also expresses a common attitude when she says that she doesn't think we are "monkeys" and that "God created us." Read literally, that doesn't make much sense - after all, who created monkeys if not God? What she means, I think, is that "God create us" to be special and different. Monkeys are mere animals while humans were made in the image of God. This is one of the things that religion often teaches adherents: that we are special, we are different, and we have an important purpose in life. These sorts of attitudes are difficult to give up and one of the barriers to greater skepticism about religion and theism.
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