How amazingly cool is this?! Way cool, in my humble opinion, and better than the much-blogged-about “God Debate” between Famous Atheist Sam Harris and Famous Evangelical William Lane Craig because Harris and Craig appeared to yell more at each other (or each other’s ideas) than they did seem to listen carefully.
Then again, the women behind the new blog An Atheist and a Catholic are, well, women. And, while some Mean Girls have gotten a lot of press lately being snarky and sarcastic (from the Greek sarkasmos, meaning “to tear flesh”) women – especially mothers – usually tend to be more willing than their male counterparts to hear each other out before shouting each other down.
And that’s what you’ll find on An Atheist and a Catholic: two women trying to hear each other out, accepting each other’s journey as authentic, each other’s worldview as worthy of respect. They are trying, as the Roxane B. Salonen (the Catholic part of the blogging team) writes in her first post, to demonstrate to others who have religious differences “that it’s possible to get along and even have an affinity toward one another.”
Like Roxane, I have a friend who is an atheist. He’s smart, funny and a great reporter and editor. We have random weird things in common, and we “have an affinity toward one another.” Our friendship has helped break down stereotypes for each of us because stereotypes only hold as long as you don’t actually KNOW a person of the group you are stereotyping.
I think Roxane and her blogging partner, Neece, have found out the same thing. Congratulations to them both and I hope we see more of this type of dialogue.
