Open Letter to the Ghost of Richard Dawkins

One can't deny an assertion without a reasonable understanding of what's been asserted. To deny an assertion because "it sounds wrong" would be sheer intellectual arrogance, no? "It's wrong because it doesn't pass my smell test — and I am the smeller-in-chief!" Are you quite sure you understand what people are talking about when they use the term, "God"? I've previously claimed that your style of atheism rests on a Straw Man argument: Much of atheism amounts to a straw man argument decrying the absurdity of the notion of some higher-powered dude sitting on a cloud. But I'm not sure you've made even that flimsy an effort to understand the assertion. What, exactly, do you refute, sir? When a devout person prays with a full, poignant heart, kindling a profound sense of peace and consolation and a firm, ongoing sense of guidance far steadier and wiser than what they know themselves to be capable of, is that something you have personal experience with? If not, what licenses such confident…