VacuumFlux Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 As a christian, I was unable to understand atheists. Of course, I wasn't supposed to allow myself to feel too much sympathy for that sort of person. It was totally ok to read books by christians so that I could proudly state why other people are wrong, but if I actually tried to ask any questions from inside another point of view, I'd get in trouble. I guess the start of my deconversion process may have started pretty early. I decided that only reading books by people who agreed with me didn't help me understand other people enough. I wanted to understand them so I could convince them they were wrong. My first attempt at that was something by a fascist, but the writing style consisted of multiple exclamation points on every page and was just too annoying to put up with. Later, as I started having more doubts and stuff, I realized that I was having trouble evaluating my thoughts because I was incapable of thinking like an atheist. So I determined that if I was going to figure out why god is real and christianity is right, I had to start with the null hypothesis of atheism. I intended that to be a starting point. So I finally cleared all the god-stuff out of my head to start with a clean slate. But instead of rebuilding my faith from scratch, I discovered that from the atheistic point of view, christianity looks pretty silly and would be a waste of my time to research too much more. Now I find that it's hard for me to understand christianity. I can get a lot of the cultural stuff right, but the basic thought processes just feel so ridiculous. I can't understand how so many people fall for it. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rek99 Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Yep, i came out as an atheist to all my family and hometown Christian friends this summer. Their response was either one of two streams of thought: 1. Deep down I still believed in god, but really wanted to indulge in a sinful life; i.e. rebellion against god. 2. I must have has some emotional trauma or experience and am angry at god; i.e still believe in god but in denial. They could not fathom that I simply didn't believe in the X'tian god anymore...and surely not through an academic process or via reason! I'm convinced they CANNOT understand. Agreed. For almost every Christian out there it's all based on blind faith and emotion. For them to even think they could be wrong would jeopardize their "eternal life". Almost every conversation I have with a believer based on facts and logic ends with "Well if I'm wrong nothing happens, if you're wrong you go to hell". And that's not even believing because of a loving caring god, that's believing out of fear. No thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bpoort Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 The Christianity I know has a steady diet of misinformation regarding atheism. Preachers are constantly working to shape the world view of their sheep. In that world view the believers are right and the atheists are something else. Preachers have to come up with many reasons for that something else and they have to be compatible with that well shaped Christian world view. Agreed. Many Christians and Christian leaders try and make atheism out to be a religion on the basis that both Christianity and atheism require "faith". I get this alot since I cam out of the closet as an atheist. I don't need faith to not believe.... Darkness is not a thing, it is the absence of light. Atheism is not a belief, it is the absence of belief in God Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jblueep Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 I get this alot since I cam out of the closet as an atheist. I don't need faith to not believe.... Darkness is not a thing, it is the absence of light. Atheism is not a belief, it is the absence of belief in God Baldness is not a hair color. Abstinence is not a type of sex. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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