(March 6, 2013 at 12:21 am)jstrodel Wrote: Not all atheists fall into the above category, but a lot do. I used to be an atheist. I've known plenty of them. I think a compassionate approach to advocacy for the atheist position is to realize that you are not only selling people an idea of more pure approach to thinking about the world, you are telling them that they are free to do whatever they want, or at least severely weakening any theological distance between them and carnality.
Theological distance, yes. There is such a thing as secular morality, and it's kind of important. So, about this carnality (real or imagined) if (and only if) it isn't hurting anyone, then why is it a bad thing? (If it is jurting someone, then the reason is obvious. Difference here is that you can't argue that things can hurt the soul, unless of course you are talking about psychological damage in some way).
