Reconversion Blues

This is just a quick 2 cents post.

So, the atheist blogosphere had (an admittedly minor) explosion over Patrick Greene. See here at the Friendly Atheist for a blessedly brief latest on. I know that I harp on about the No True Scotsman fallacy quite a bit, but it's because it's an obvious trap that SO MANY PEOPLE fall into, and I also hate it (like, little bit of vomit in the back of my throat, hate it) when someone questions the quality and honesty of the faith that I once had. However, I have to wonder if, perhaps, a bunch of atheists haven't just fallen into it a bit. We see this public example of someone seeming to convert to Christianity and we want to say, "Fuck that, he wasn't a real skeptic to begin with." But on the other hand, what I do see people doing is not simply saying that and brushing their hands briskly together and walking away; they go on to say, "And here's why I don't think so... look at this and this and this." And really, when I googled him and searched for past posts about him, he doesn't look so good. Still, though, I think that the community should be careful when something like this happens not to simply say, "Oh, well, he's not a real skeptic, she was never a real atheist." All of this, of course, is a moot point now that he has re-de-converted. But, then, I don't think he was a real Christian to begin with.