In comment to a past blog (“Inflammatory Language Accomplishes Nothing”) a reader writes, “Are you serious. Theists believe atheists are going to hell. Their entire worldview is quite literally inflammatory. Being polite is nice, but it doesn’t mean much when you’ve already judged and damned your interlocutor with a theology your interlocutor knows is judging and damming him. Christian theistic cosmology is inherently an insult to those you’re trying to save. Don’t be surprised, then, if atheists respond as if you’ve started an inflammatory argument with them. You have, in the depths of your heart.”
Yes, I’m serious. I don’t think a true atheist worries much about Hell as a destiny but we theists worry about them. If being concerned about the eternal destiny of someone is inflammatory, then I plead: guilty. I’m sure I’ve been guilty of judging people in the past, but that is really God’s business, not mine. But If I see someone taking a path to destruction, it is not judgmental to try to reason them away from their decision to sally forth.
It is up to you, after reading the like of Hitchens and Dawkins, to decide who is initiating inflammatory arguments. I am urging Christians not to respond to such inflammatory language with more of the same. No one wins such polarizing interchanges.
Whitticisms 