Wow. Just ... wow.
Why this person didn't just leave a comment here, I don't know. He or she sent a letter, not an e-mail but through the USPS, arguing with me on the question of god's existence, saying "Had you been on a forum site, I could have sent [the response to my blog post] there." Hmmm. Apparently this person has not cottoned onto the notion of that little feature called "comments," nor the amazing technological breakthrough known as e-mail.
In any case, I received a 7-page letter in the mail from a person who isn't brave enough to use his or her real name and address while excoriating me for being ignorant about Christianity as well as arrogant, mocking, a bad debater, a poor reader, and I don't know what all. All this in response to a little post I wrote out of exasperation one day.
As usual, the Christian's response is based on the Bible, which doesn't get us very far since I don't accept the Bible as an authority. The Christian in question also takes me to task for talking about a "loving God" when god is actually really into justice and punishing those who stray as a matter of carrying out that justice. This totally misses the point, of course, which is that if god is all-powerful, god has the ability to be all-compassionate and all-merciful instead of consigning his straying children to an eternity in hell.
The writer is very into proving me to be ignorant about Christianity. Well, unknown to him or her, I had lots of Christian education and know quite a bit about the Bible. Just because I didn't include the fine points in that particular post doesn't mean I don't know scripture. I know more about it than I want to, frankly. Years of catechism and Sunday school took their toll on me to the point where I had nightmares as a child. (I had the added "benefit" of being raised in a Calvinistic religion that foisted the concept of predestination upon me. If you aren't familiar with it, trust me, you don't want to go there.) I have no more patience with the fine points of Christian doctrine that attempt to address the obvious contradictions and inconsistencies of that religion. They do a poor job of it, and I see no point in wasting time on them--no more than I would argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Also, says the letter-writer, I'm not "respectful" of Christians. Well, boo-hoo-hoo. The writer isn't particularly respectful of me, either, and I'm sorry, but Christians who inform me that I'm going to hell don't seem to fit that "respectful" label, either. Suck it up, people. You can't go around telling people that because they don't believe in your god they're going to hell and then expect us to be all "respectful" of you.
Hilariously, the writer uses as an example of "respectfulness" a debate between Richard Dawkins and a Christian that took place in Birmingham, Alabama. Perhaps Dawkins was incredibly "respectful," but I've read The God Delusion, and I can tell you that it's anything BUT "respectful." In fact, Dawkins takes issue with the whole idea that we must be respectful, arguing that it's constantly used to stifle atheist voices.
There are lots of other details the writer gets into, but they're standard-issue fare. I guess what leaves me gobsmacked is that someone would take the time to write a 7-page letter to one little atheist. It's not like I'm PZ Myers or something.
The writer goes by the name Data Filter, and after pillorying me for having the vanity to keep a blog ("Most blogs can be summarized as such: 'Look at me, see how accomplished and important I am, listen to me'"), helpfully informs me that he or she has taken on the task of being "a filter--to sift out the harmful sediment and contaminants, leaving the most pure data possible." Wow! There's humility for you! Data Filter possesses the amazing ability to judge what's harmful and what's not, what's pure and what's not. There oughta be a superhero cape for that!
I suppose it makes perfect sense that of all the posts I've written over the years, it took one on not believing in god to goad a nut into sending me snail mail. Such is the sorry state of our society.