It’s a good-sounding topic, to be sure, and as I read it I found myself hoping that the answer was going to be something along the lines of “my double-blind prayer study produced otherwise inexplicable results” or “all of my enemies were struck by lightning at the exact same time” or “I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of god’s existence, which this margin is too narrow to contain.”

But no, instead she fell prey to spurious “arguments” like “I find myself unable to purge my vocabulary of god-referencing idioms” and “I am a lightweight-enough thinker that my disbelief in god would count as hubris,” and “I don’t refuse to believe in space aliens, and how is this any different?”

Of course, she’s still stuck with her earlier conclusion that her theology doesn’t make any sense:

But having that “imaginary friend” is a comfort to me in my life. And I don’t presume to know anything more than that. Which is kind of the point, I think. Isn’t it?

Indeed, if you prioritize “comfort” and ignorance over inquiry and truth, you are likely to fail as an atheist. That is kind of the point.

Argument for:

hit song “Blood on the Dance Floor” violates JeWit interpretation of Acts 15:28-29

Argument against:

kicked out in 1987 for “suggestive dance, dress, and grooming”

Muslim Hell

Argument for:

inclusion of Mohammed caricature on Off the Wall album liner

Argument against:

professed Shahadah at Toto keyboardist Steve Porcaro‘s house in 1998

Jewish Hell

Argument for:

followed heretic “Kosher Sex” teachings of Shmuley Boteach

Argument against:

Judaism doesn’t really have a hell

Scientology Hell

Argument for:

failed marriage to Lisa Marie Presley

Argument against:

history of OT-VIII-caliber insanity

Catholic Hell

Argument for:

boy-touching

Argument against:

boy-touching