Koinonia (κοινωνία) is a Greek word that means "communion by intimate participation." If you are or were a Christian, chances are good you've heard this word. English counterparts include "fellowship," "participation," and "communion." Koinonia implies not only fellowship, but a joint venture, teamwork for the greater good. This κοινωνία is the very thing I said I missed about being a Christian in my previous post. A few folks posted comments reminding me that I am part of a new koinonia of freethinkers here on the wild world wide Internet. Seriously, go read the comments. I am humbled and grateful to be part of a group of such insightful readers, fellow bloggers and critical thinkers.
And while this online koinonia isn't quite the same, in a lot of ways it's even better, and way more meaningful. Sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Consider South Africa resident Eugene Gerber. I wrote a blog entry about him not too long ago in which I pretty much threw everything at him: sarcasm, tongue-in-cheek insults, even sparkly animated gifs, and after all that, he had the strength of character to engage me in discussion and present his side of things. Our discussions went from here on the blog to one-on-one via email, and now, per my request, Eugene submitted a short write-up about atheism in South Africa, which will be posted here at Dead-Logic tomorrow.
This is the kind of koinonia I want and need, where we can challenge each other - even somewhat acrimoniously with egregious displays of glittery animated gifs (if one is so inclined) - and still come out of it with respect for each other. I'm not sure how to end this except by saying that you guys rock. 
Koinonia
Koinonia
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