It has become the dominant style of writing among atheists that they write with a smirk on their face, a narrowing of the eyes intent on harm, and a crooked smile. It reminds me of the villain at the end of a cheap feature film, like the anti-hero in Schwarzenigger's 'Commando'.
It's not that I reduce this contest to this level: they do. A writer of good books about biology or history starts to make jokes and assumes a knowing, superior air when he begins to write about medieval or apostolic Christianity.
I wonder now and then if this wise-cracking cynicism, taking the opportunity to lecture the victim in the final scene of a drama, is not actually something else. After all, the villain of the films usually spends too long talking to his victim, and our hero takes this opportunity to reverse the situation. Does the villain, like any worn out criminal, actually want to be caught, to be in his turn given justice?
That is my suspicion sometimes, when I come across some specialist in a dead, atheistic system take on a childishly cruel tone, like a character from a novel by the Marquis de Sade, and provide a philosphical lecture to Christians about the stupidity of their belief in God.
Do they actually want to be saved after all, in the heart of it all?