Stepping Down

[Ryft]

Dear Adrian,

I am not sure I can understand your decision to step down as the administrator, given the reasons you provided for that decision, but frankly that is because I have a very different attitude and approach to such things. We are simply two very different people. Yet even though I cannot understand your decision, I do respect it. Nevertheless, I wanted to take this opportunity to express to you some things that I have long felt about you but have unfortunately never told you. I do not know why I have hesitated to tell you. I have wanted to tell you, and for a very long time. And I knew you needed to hear it. And yet I have held back.

Until now. This shall be the opportunity I seize upon to finally tell you.

For many years I have had a very low opinion of internet atheists—to put it lightly. (I must distinguish between atheists that I have encountered on the internet and those I have encountered in real life. Without getting into the psychology of the internet, a subject about which I am not qualified to speak, there is a curious difference between what atheists are like in face-to-face encounters and what they are like behind the keyboard.) Across the spectrum of internet environments, atheists seemed to consistently demonstrate a tedious level of vitriolic contempt and an utterly embarrassing absence of rational integrity when it came to religious subjects. I was torn between being amused and dismayed at the remarkable hypocrisy of atheists who talk endlessly about logic and reason but prove themselves woefully unfamiliar with either. I am not sure when or how vituperative irrationality managed to become fashionable and something to be emulated. But these experiences over the last ten years with such atheists is what led to that very low opinion and the reason I was often heard saying, "I am not retarded enough to be an atheist."

But there were two atheists within the last couple of years who completely shattered that mold, one of which is you. (The other you might know but no one else here would. And since this letter is to you and about you, I will exclude him from everything that follows.) You are so unlike any atheist I had ever encountered on the internet the difference may as well be like day and night. Certainly you enjoy poking fun at religious folk and their beliefs, of course, but it is always so clearly distinguished as good humor as opposed to ridicule, and always balanced by a far longer record of intelligent and rational discourse and genuine intellectual curiosity. Not only are you someone who talks about logic and reason but you actually have the courage and integrity to allow such things to govern your thinking and responses in every context, including religious subjects. When some argument is identified and demonstrated as fallacious, you not only accept that but even go so far as to inform your fellows when you see them use it. And even more shocking to me in light of my experiences, you are willing to credit your theist opponents when they raise a good argument.

These things alone completely shattered the mold shaped by your fellow atheists over the years, but you went even further still. You created a space on the internet where other atheists who shared the same commitment to rational integrity and intellectual curiosity could gather, and together develop a breeding ground to foster and champion that sort of commitment. And not just other atheists but everyone and anyone who shared that commitment in common was welcome to join forces here—including Christians and other theists—sequestered behind the ramparts of rationality erected against the embarrassingly feculent twaddle outside. And although you knew that some trolls and idiots would find their way here, you banked on their becoming bored by the higher level of discourse here. Your stock in trade was intelligence and rationality and you banked on others driving its market value up by investing in it along with you. And so many of us have. (Whether or not its stock value has been declining lately is something I will leave others to decide. I am not part of the staff nor anyone's inner circle, which means there is a lot going on behind the scenes that I am clueless about. But the trajectory of the message board is not the point here. You are.)

And it has been a remarkable success, Adrian. Out of the singular example that you represented, as an individual and through this space that you created, I have had the unpredictable opportunity to meet quite a number of other atheists who likewise exhibit that commitment to rational integrity and intellectual curiosity. Out of one atheist who shattered that mold I have met many others who did the same, forever eradicating that very low opinion of atheists I once had. I doubt you could ever get the credit you truly deserve, and I can only hope that this letter to you, this one Christian's opinion of your person and efforts, can raise in the conscience of others just how much credit you deserve—and perhaps serve as a small reminder of not only what you have tried to build here but also what a remarkable success it has been.

I respect your decision to step down. And I certainly do hope that, since you are no longer saddled with administrative duties, you and I can once again return to those fascinating and fruitful debates and discussions we used to have here. I joke and tease about having a thing for you, which is all good humor and fun, but behind it all is a real and genuine love I have for you, Adrian. You are a good man, honest, intelligent, and incredibly fair in how you approach and deal with those whose views differ from yours—including me, a Christian whose views are radically different from yours. It has been a privilege and an honor to labor alongside you to build this place into what it became.

Your friend,

David