Member-only story
Convo With a Conservative
Something I’ve always found amusing whenever having discussions with conservatives is that they have a habit of making sweeping declarations, typically expressed as absolutisms bolstered by specious logic. Questions almost always go unanswered and when the logic is challenged, they respond with more declarations. Recently, one such duet began as a discussion about atheism and Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian, which the conservative writer dismisses as nonsense, pointing to Russell’s daughter’s conversion to Christianity as a repudiation of atheism.
What if Russell was just an asshole and a shitty father — an arrogant, dismissive, domineering sonofabitch who made his daughter feel intellectually inferior? It wouldn’t be surprising if she rejected her father’s entire world view.
Aside from Bertrand Russell’s daughter, which is an anecdotal example of one individual’s rejection of her father’s attitudes and beliefs, the argument falls flat. In building a case against atheism, it would be more persuasive to stick to supportive evidence that can’t be so easily upended. For example — Deborah Feldman’s memoir, Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots or Leaving the Witness, by Amber Scorah, a lapsed third generation Jehovah’s Witness. How about all the people who have turned their back on Catholicism once it became clear that the Church is a haven for…