Justified Arrogance

A very good friend of mine made an excellent point the other day. Twitter and Reddit (my two favorite places for atheism topics) are both well-populated with arrogant, fundamentalist athesists. I don't disagree. There are plenty of self-rightous atheists who think that their non-belief alone makes them better than a theist. I truly believe that there are some atheists who wouldn't convert even if God himself were to make an appearance. I also don't think that makes their stance incorrect.
Just because somebody is arrogant about a subject does not make them wrong. My friend was kind enough to say that my personal arrogance is justified based on my experience and research. I am appreciative of his allowance in that respect. I know I am arrogant when it comes to my lack of belief. However, I also know what it would take for me to change my mind. I know this because I have done it before.
I was an arrogant Christian too. After all, I had God on my side. I had his book to fall back on to prove anything I needed to prove. Ah, the book... It was like a quick-reference of I'm Right and You're Wrong. Throughout my childhood I was told that the Bible was the completely accurate, inspired Word of God. Every word in it was handed down to those who wrote it exactly as God intended. There were no errors. For centuries the scribes who copied it by hand did so perfectly, guided by God.
I knew then what it would take to change my mind too though. Even as arrogant as I was, I always liked to have something to back it up...though I did so just so I could be more arrogant. For me the Bible was the keystone of my faith. It was perfect or it was not. While science made large dents in my faith by refuting the Creation myth and Noah's flood, I still held onto the Bible because the validity of the book itself hadn't been proven wrone. Maybe it just wasn't....detail oriented. That made for a good excuse.
Until I really studied it. The Dead Sea Scrolls contained versions of the books of the Bible we don't have today..and ones that are even different from one scroll to another. The book of James seems to be a favorite deviation. I once loved the part in John when Jesus saves a woman from stoning with his admonition that only the sinless may cast the first stone. Turns out that isn't in our oldest copies of the Bible.
I need not recount my conversion here, but a mountain of errors fractured my keystone under their weight. It turns out that evidence was able to overcome arrogance. And honestly, it still can. We atheists may be arrogant about our lack of faith, but you should not be proud of your lack of evidence.
I am arrogant, but I am not wrong. (See what I did there?)