(September 1, 2015 at 11:30 pm)cosmowanderer Wrote: Update... she emailed me again, asking if I've changed my mind about being an atheist. I told her it's not really something I can just change my mind about, but if she would like to ask me any questions about it, she is more than welcome to. She replied saying she has no questions but that she wants me to change my mind before it's too late. Feeling a little pissed off, I replied letting her know that I have an open mind and that if I ever do find reason to believe again, I will, but that I've searched for god more than most people and have left no stone unturned or question unasked. I told her I feel atheism isn't an "option" I just whimsically chose, but the conclusion to an extensive decade-long search.
Given that it is out in the open and she wants to talk to you about religion, when she brings up the topic again, I would explain to her why I was an atheist if I were in your position. And I think I would start sending her short essays about it whenever she sent me such things. I rather like Bertrand Russell's essay "Why I am not a Christian," which can be found online.
I would keep that up until she stopped bothering me about it. And if she resumed, I would again send her more such material.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
