I understood the invitation to report anecdotes of unbelief as the equivalent of offering evidence of the meaninglessness of religion.
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No, sometimes a pipe is just a pipe.
When I invited non-believers to share their stories, it was only that, a call to share stories that, it seemed to me, are rarely told. As I stated several times, it was decidedly NOT a rallying cry for religion bashing.
I think Jeffrey - and just about everyone else who participated - clearly understood the spirit in which the invitation was made.
Andy F writes:
Religion seems to enjoy a protected status in our society where such inferences [e.g. Joanna's assertion] can be made. Any questioning is dangerous and personally insulting.
[...]
Reading Joanna's criticism it occurred to me that had the order of things been reversed - that is, if I'd requested stories from list members who continued to nurture some form of faith, whether it's one of the major monotheisms or something less common - the reaction would have been more sheltering (against inevitable negative replies from the loudest anti-theists) and far less dubious of the modest project's intentions.
.d.
The subject matter of SF is the subject matter of everyday life: the gleam on refrigerator cabinets, the contours of a wife’s or husband’s thighs passing the newsreels on a color TV set, the conjunction of musculature and chromium artifact within an automobile interior, the unique postures of passengers on an airport escalator”
– J.G. Ballard, ‘Fictions of Every Kind’, Books and Bookmen, Feb, 1971
...................... http://monroelab.net/blog/