To My Atheist and Agnostic Friends

* The controversy this post has engendered has frankly made me think more than twice about writing publicly without an editor to help me clarify my writing. This letter was NOT meant to be an open letter to all atheists and agnostic -- just as I have published letters to my children and to public figures here, this one was actually written to a few people in particular, and probably should have been sent to a smaller, private list. My other biggest error in this piece of writing was that the categories of atheists and agnostics I mention appear to be my idea of an exhaustive list -- there are these two types -- which are you? That was NOT my intention at any time. How could I presume to know where you come from and how you have arrived where you are? My categories are based only on conversations with real people, and are descriptions they themselves would affirm.