An innate desire for mutual understanding.

I think what you do is Heroic. I am a mental health counselor in Buffalo, NY. I used to work at the Center for Inquiry until recently, so I am familiar with the rational/skeptical/secular movement. I really admire your efforts to infuse rationality and reason into the dialogue that is taking place online and in the media about religion/faith/atheism. As a former "born-again" christian, and as a clinical therapist, I can say with a great deal of authority that what your doing helps a lot of people. So many people are continuing to be "beat up" in their own heads by the voices of authority figures past, even long after they leave religion behind. I myself have had a hell of a time leaving the belief system behind me, and still have trouble silencing the chorus of voices in my head telling me I'm on the wrong path, danger lies ahead, and I'm going to fail at everything I do, because "god" isn't at the center for my life.

You are one of the people who I have listened to online to help me battle these demons. It's people like you, Pat Condell, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harriss who have helped me heal from the wounds my christian community keeps trying to inflict on me. You are one of the voices that reassure me that my life ISN'T going to fall apart any minute, and that there IS hope for joy in this life, and that my focus should NOT remain on the after life.

I will be glad to network with you on Facebook, and to continue any dialogue you would be interested in regarding secularism and mental health. My area of focus is positive psychology and cross cultural psychology. I study traits of healthy families, healthy lifestyles, and some cross cultural research.

Like I said, any time you want to correspond about a topic, let me know.

And thank you, from the bottom of my heart for the effort you put into these discussions/debates with the religiously minded. I assure you, there are those of us out there who get more than entertainment out of it, we get the breath of life.

Corey Neil
Buffalo, NY

James sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.rationalresponders.com/contact.

I just recently heard of who you are and what you do and recently watched
the debate with Kirk Cameron. I wanted to say thank you for making efforts
to try and wake up your fellow man and open his eyes to a world of reality
and not one of fairy tale. I won't waste any more of your time with some of
my points on disproving a god, I'm sure you'll do fine without them. Thank
You.

Subject: [Letters supporting our efforts!] Laura Ingraham

Ryan sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.rationalresponders.com/contact.
I just finished listening to Brian Sapient on Laura Ingraham's radio show (for the second time), and sat here in disbelief for almost 10 minutes as Laura used every cheap tactic commonly employed by Christians and people who are just in way out  of their depth in any debate, to drain any logic and common sense out of it, and turn it into a shouting match and an exchange of ad hominem attacks.  There's no place in the world, other than maybe FOX News, where  any of the things she was saying would have accepted as valid arguments. Brian stayed calm, though, and did what he should have done by not descending to her level, and letting her continue to expose herself for  the shrill, irrational, rambling moron that she is.
Thanks for all the work you guys do.

Ryan

Joshua sent you a message.

--------------------
Subject: Good for you.

I know this will inflate your ego tremendously,  as it should (not to say that I think your ego is inflated - not yet at least) but I rank you among company of Professor Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens as men who have inspired me to come out as a non-believer to my family.  Yay you. 

Sincerely and without god,

Joshua

P.S.  It must have been brutal to deal with Kirk and Ray and their gross onslaught of misinformation in the Nightline? (if I remember correctly) debate.  I love your expression when Kirk busts out his crocoduck.  I've always wanted to make a great crocoduck costume for halloween.

Dan sent a message using the contact form at
http://www.rationalresponders.com/contact.

Dear Brian, I was brought up as a beleiving christian.  I began to lose my faith after much study, and questions that went unanswered by my parents and fellow church members.  Specifically numbers chapter 31 with the slaughter of the Midianites.  You see, I was taught that it was the holy spirit that governs my moral compass...  I could not reconcile why my conscience would tell me that it was wrong, and yet god's word says it's ok.  If these two beings are one in the same, I knew there shouldn't be any conflict at all.  This is when I realized what Machiavelli meant when he said, "you can do anything in the name of god (paraphrazed)". 

I just wanted to thank you for your hard work and dedication.  It was people like yourself that helped me to better understand, and articulate the doubts I was having as I became an adult.

My relationship with my family is not what it was, but at least I am being honest with myself and them.  At least I can justify my world view.

Best wishes, keep up the good work.

Thank you for everything  you have done over all of these years in the way of activism~Thank you for creating this site~Thank you for facing all of the haters by addressing all of the shit that has been flung over the past few years~Thank you for the sacrifices you have made in the past and will likely make in the future.  

Laterz! 

Renee