re: #494 Gang of One

What a shame, my friend. I have [a sometimes shaky] faith, have no ill toward you, but my faith puts me beneath your contempt. What have I done, besides harbor a soul that yearns for truth, that you should think you are my superior? I truly am curious.

Maybe “look down on” isn’t the right phrase … I don’t know. But it’s the same way I’d look at some African villager who still thinks the witch-doctor can cure him by shaking a rattle. I wouldn’t hate or dislike the poor bastard, but I certainly wouldn’t consider him to be on equal footing with me when it comes to our understanding of the world around us.

Really, if I didn’t have some empathy and understanding of you, I wouldn’t bother having these discussions. So no, I don’t have contempt for you. I bear you no ill will. I simply wish that you could either give me a reason to believe the things that you do, or, failing that, that you would see things from a more rational perspective.

I’m not sure how to convey the idea any better.