One of the things that made me suffer
no regret when I was called away from
the cramped intellectual jail of atheism
into a wider and more wonderful world, was my growing conviction that my fellow
atheists were shallow, men
without insight into real human nature. I read
Chiang’s story and I thought:
is this the best my side can do? Is this cheap
slander the best argument we
can muster against our hated enemies, the
Christians? In those days I kept
wondering why, since my side had the
Sixteen-Inch Guns of Truth and Logic, our gunners kept shooting blanks. Why were
we sneering all the time, instead
of setting out the evidence?