[ExI] Fw: Re: atheists declare religions as scams.

[spike]

... On Behalf Of Ben Zaiboc
Subject: Re: [ExI] Fw: Re: atheists declare religions as scams.

"spike" <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
 
>> I ask you then: suppose I personally knew a way to write something 
>> inspirational...  But you know and I know I  am a flaming atheist now... 
Would I be lying in a sense?  I have been struggling 
>> with this question for years...


>Of course you wouldn't be lying, not if you know it's a true story.  
As for whether you *should* write it, that's another thing.  There are pros
and cons.  One of the cons is providing fuel for the god-squad...Ben Zaiboc


Thanks Ben this gets me part of the way there.  Do let me focus the question
a bit.  The action all takes place in the 1980 to 1983 timeframe, and it
includes a character who likes to watch beasts of all kinds, and really
thinks deeply about what he sees.  He isn't the central character in the
story, but he plays a big part, and I honestly don't see a reasonable way to
write that character out of the story.  The easiest way for me to write that
is in first person thru the eyes of that character actually.  That way I
don't need to make up much.  For me, fiction is damn hard, but just writing
down what happened is easy, and I can do it in a mostly entertaining an
authentic sounding way.  One of the important branches in that story is this
character hearing about evolution for the first time when in college (!)
from Carl Sagan's Cosmos series, and how it rocked his world.  

If I ended the story in early 1983, or somehow wrote that character out of
the story, it would be inspirational.  I could leave that character
searching searching searching, without resolving that line of conflict, a
lost and wandering soul.  The crowd that goes in for this kind of literature
would love it.  If I continue it until about 1985, that character becomes a
flaming atheist, and those who read inspirational novels would hate it.
Furthermore, I really don't want to either disturb or inspire the god squad.
I don't want to!  I don't even know what is the ethical thing to do, so to
date I have taken the time-honored approach and did nothing.

spike