“As soon as you say ‘non-theists,’ it’s a negative thing. We should call ourselves ‘people believers.’ We believe in the common sense and the good will of people.”
“I’d feel most comfortable assigning myself to the category of people who prefer not to be assigned to categories,” a fifty-something, Silicon Valley entrepreneur I’ll call Nathan* joked when I asked him how he’d describe his religious identification or affiliation. “But I suppose ‘none’ will do.”
There is no justification; there is no larger logic, no theologically exposed silver lining. This misery is all too human—the imposition of an individual’s twisted will on others with deadly consequences. Appeal to God doesn’t fix this; it doesn’t explain it.
Imagine a demographic that has doubled its share of the population over the past two decades, is up by 25 percent over the past four years, now accounts for as many as one in five Americans, and voted overwhelmingly for Obama.
Dialogue between atheists and the religious is an absolute minefield. I can promise you there are no kumbaya drum circles in this book—if that’s your thing, great, but it isn’t mine, and it doesn’t have to be your thing to get involved in efforts that promote religious pluralism.
