An email from a guy on a dating site:

"Gwen forgive me for bothering you, you're the first real live Atheist I've had a chance to talk with, i only have this one thing i want to say.. It is written that God's knowledge is silly to the non-believer.. Did something bad happen to you to turn you away from God, because we are made with the knowledge of God built into us.. goodbye and have a nice life.. Thank you.."

My reply:

"Nothing "bad" happened to me to turn me away from "god." I left a church that I had attended for many years and it was a negative leaving, but it was The Bible that caused me to leave Christianity. My study of mythology strengthened this. There is no "built in" knowledge of god; if there were, there were be no atheists or agnostics. If there were, it would be a knowledge of the Judeo/Christian god, but would include Islam, Hinduism, and other pagan religions (which make more sense than does Christianity). Studying The Bible shows that it is a mish-mash of earlier myths and religions. It contradicts itself. The ideas of heaven and hell are based on Greek and earlier myths; in addition, the Christian concept of these places is not in The Hebrew Scriptures (aka The Old Testament) where it is questioned whether they is an afterlife, where is states that the dead know nothing, and where Sheol is located inside the earth. The Jewish idea of the afterlife underwent a change after the Babylonian captivity wherein the Jews were exposed to Zoroastrian beliefs.

Jesus is modeled after the Indian/Persian god Mithras--who later became a Roman god.

I am having a nice life and if "god" exists, that entity is nothing as you and Christian believe it to be."

The assumption and claim that we are born with a knowledge of god is annoying; we are taught about god and religion.

I wonder if he will answer this time.