One thing that bothers me is the claim that atheists are not sensitive to the beliefs of theists. And while I do freely admit that many athesits are coarse and unforgiving, I think that part of the problems lies with the thesists as well.
It's been my experience that generally speaking, theists don't enjoy having their faith questioned. Unfortunately, this is the only way you can intelligently talk about their faith. So from the get go it's an adversarial situation, not in the mind of the atheist but rather in the mind of the theist. I swear, I'm trying not to typecast people.
Let's take the story of Elijah. I'll summarize, but you can find the story in 4th Book of Kings, Chapter 2:23-2:24
Elijah was a wise man and knew god. And he was as bald as a cue ball.
As he was walking one day, a gang of young children came up to him and started to mock him. Calling him bald head among other things.
However, Elijah was not to be mocked and he turned and cursed their name to God. Suddenly, two female bears popped out of the woods and killed all 42 children who were mocking him.
So, this is a pretty awful story. It's hard to justify killing 42 people simply because they called a wise man bald. So, if we're talking about this story, how can I refer to God's actions without drawing offense?
How would you handle talking about a touchy subject with someone of faith?
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