One thing I like about this forum, thus far, is that there seems to be more room for open debate, even debate that sometimes gets a little tense. On another forum I'm on, intense debate (and I'm talking about insulting debate) can easily result in suspension or banishment.

So I wanted to bring a thought here that I think we all should consider: that there is a difference between claiming the high ground in the debate "against" belief in God, and actually holding the higher ground in the debate "against" belief in God.

Until recently, at the age of 67, I was a "believer". Not radically so. But nevertheless a believer. Then something happened one day that in a minute's time caused me to challenge all I had believed before. So here I am, not an atheist (although maybe there could be a deist god, but certainly not a theist god).

In addition to what happened to me, I also have a background in the natural sciences (geology, meteorology, and oceanography), although I spent my life as an educator. But because of my background in science, the oft stated assurances that atheists use scientific evidence (or lack there of) and reasoned logic to refute the Christian claims of god were very attractive to me.

Then I started reading some of the posts in this an other forums. The post in another forum that really ticked me off, however, was the statement that anyone who believes in god is "stupid". It was not a qualified statement, such as, "People who believe in god are stupid in regard to their spiritual viewpoints". No, just that people who believe in god are plain stupid. So I linked to a "List of Christians in science and technology" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christians_in_science_and_technology).

And what did that get me? Insults about how stupid I was.

I'm sorry, but to simply lump people like Francis Bacon, Galileo, Issac Newton, Johannes Kepler, Gregor Mendel, Louis Pasteur, Marconi, and Wernher von Braun together under an umbrella of "stupid" seems pretty...well...stupid to me. Where is the relying on science in statements like that?

And while many people on this and other forums present wonderfully wise and supported arguments in support of atheism, there are quite a few others who post pathetic rants with no science or logic to support their position. And I don't think some who post such tripe are quite aware of how such posts actually work against the concept of atheism.