The late Will Provine (Cornell evolutionary biologist and historian) and I were friends right up to his death. Will never adopted the quasi-therapeutic mode of “Let me show you how Christianity and evolution are compatible,” as a kind of mental anesthetic for timorous Christians. (We’ll administer this intellectual Propofol as a first step towards full clarity; lessens the pain on the way to atheism.) Rather, as an atheist, Will told it straight, as did one of my undergraduate mentors, the atheist philosopher of science Adolf Grunbaum, who died in November.
Call me primitive, but I prefer blunt honesty from my conversation partners.