Hey Tom,

I've just read your response, and I'm beginning to work on a reply. I'll go into more detail as I finish it and post it back on my blog, but I suppose the short of it is:

I agree that Jehovah's Witnesses (hey, do you mind we shorten that to JW, or something? I don't mean any disrespect, it's just much shorter on my typing fingers as I'm bouncing around a car or sitting in a room. Let me know if you have any preference, or prefer to keep it Jehovah's Witness(es)) have done some really good stuff, both for their own group and for others. Likewise, I am extremely impressed by their commitment to non-violence and neutrality. Now, I'll also quickly note that I'm not 100% behind the complete neutrality thing - a sort of "the indifference of good men" argument. This comes down largely to personal morality and probably in some ways personal experiences.

Anyways, the real substance underlying my reason for starting that series of posts on my blog is really the question of the existence of God. In my experience (both as an evangelical and now as a strong agnostic/atheist), simply assuming the answer to that question is already a loss of the argument. (Similar to how "Well, you believe that the universe absolutely HAD to have a beginning, right?" is usually a free win for the cosmological argument, despite its many problems.)

I'll write out a more detailed response to your main points on my blog within the next few days (and email you a notification when I have it done), but I would like to move the debate to the above point, if you feel comfortable with it.

I look forward to hearing from you, and it's been good to hear your responses thus far.

-Ragoth

Hi Tom,

I've posted a response on my blog, and I hope you'll forgive me for its length and occasional repetition. I appreciate having this conversation so far, and I hope you have the time and interest to continue it further. I've told the other authors on my blog to feel free to interject into any post by any of us, so I hope that you likewise feel free to invite others to the discussion if deem it fit.

-Ragoth