Paul Smith - Numbers or Proportions?

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul Smith <paul@theism.net>

To: <Steve Locks>

Sent: 07 February 2000 00:27

Subject: Leaving Christianity-

Dear Steve-

Greetings! I have recently become aware of your

survey re: "Leaving Christianity," and was wondering

if you might share some corollary information that

seems pertinent.

I am in fact a former atheist, but I don't think I

would meet your criteria strictly speaking - I

attended a single meeting of a local Ethical

Humanist Society chapter during my path to

becoming an Objectivist (a philosophy that,

incidentally, I would be comfortable returning

to should I ever discard theism). I did not,

however, formally join that or any other

'freethought' organization that I checked out

on my road to Christian conversion.

Anyway, since you are actively polling people to

survey their organizational affiliations prior to

conversion one way or the other, I suppose you

will be privy to a bit of data that I've long been

curious about. This is - What percentage of atheists,

versus what percentage of various religionists, actually

participate in societies organized around their belief

systems?

My own anecdotal experience and that of those I've

been able to ask leads me to believe that organizational

participation is significantly rarer among atheists than

it is among religionists. Now I would assume that if

this disparity is real and not simply perceived, it would

have some bearing on the inferences that can be

drawn from the statistics you are collecting. However,

this is not why I write; I am genuinely curious as to

whether my perception bears out in reality or not.

Thanks for your time, and if you would choose to

share any of this information with me, I would be

most appreciative.

Cheers,

-Paul Smith

paul@theism.net

----- Original Message -----

From: Paul Smith <paul@theism.net>

To: Steve Locks

Sent: 08 February 2000 05:33

Subject: Re: Leaving Christianity-

Dear Steve-

I must say that I enjoy your cordial style, and

will investigate your site further as time permits.

I think we're largely on the same page with

regards to our thoughts on organizational

disparities, and I may attempt some research

on my own on the matter (which I will share

with you if I do).

I should let you know that I did hit "enter"

(accidentally) while on your form, but I cannot

say which pre-conversion option was selected at

the time. If your feedback form records the

IP Address of the submitter, I could discern

whether or not I am the entry in question!

As your criteria is phrased, I believe I would

^not^ qualify for the option unless reading

_The Worldly Philosophers_, a whole bunch

of Ayn Rand, and attending a single meeting

of the Evanston, IL, USA Secular Humanist

Society happens to qualify me by some stretch.

I do in some sense accept the notion that it is

easier to be a Xtn minister with little forethought

than it is to become an atheist with similarly

little forethought. Myself, I was raised Catholic

and had no particular problems with the propositions

of that system until about college age. I was, of

course, under the impression that my own embracing

of atheism was a permanent one. However, I am in

the strange position of finding theism rationally

superior to competing belief systems while at the

same time finding most of the currently-popular

arguments for that position to be rather lacking

and sloppy. (This is a tension I hope to ease with

the fruits of my own efforts, of course!)

Much like American baseball counts the dropping of a

ball by the outfielder as an "error" on the part of the

outfielder and not a "hit" on the part of the batter, I think

many Christians can justly accuse their brethren of

dropping the intellectual ball on them. However, in my

mind it does not necessarily follow that the opposing

belief system that was ready to "score" is therefore the

superior one. This ^may^ be true, of course; I simply

posit that it is not ^necessarily^ true that the one

follows the other.

Cheers!

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Paul Smith

paul@theism.net

"His praise is lost who

stays till all commend."

- Alexander Pope

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