No. of Recommendations: 3
I find too many religionists have a knee jerk reaction, so I just say I'm not big on religion.
Outside of my years in academia, where such discussions were somewhat common, I find the subject rarely comes up. I had one fundy coworker that tried to convert me. He was a very good engineer, but a YEC. He said there were data I hadn't seen, or I'd believe. So, I looked at his data. I read everything he sent to me...papers, websites, etc. But I also did my own article-digging. I was not (and am not) a geologist, so needed to learn about He levels in zircon (for example). Turns out that the study he cited used measuring tools whose error bars were larger than the signal they were claiming to detect.
And this fine engineer dug his heels in and reiterated his claims and faulty data sources. Turns out, I was the honest one who genuinely sought the proof. There was none to be had. He gives lectures -so he says- about this stuff, and how the Noah story is true, and such. What's scary is that he is smart, and he sounds very convincing. You have to have a science background, and be able to find scholarly articles, to learn that he was simply wrong.
But, I am open about being atheist. It's kinda funny when a missionary comes to the door, and I declare "there probably is no god". The stunned looks on their faces is pretty uniform, and amusing. I don't rub it in anyone's face, but I don't hide it, either. And I don't use "agnostic". I am not a theist, therefore, I am an a-theist. If you say you don't know, you're an atheist.
