Well, the simple answer is they no longer believe the claims of religion are valid but not according to this Christian. He tells us the reasons for non belief can be summarized as
- the experiences he or she has had with Christianity insulted their intelligence
- the experiences they had with Christianity were negative, or even traumatic
- or, they simply feel they don’t have a need for God in their life.
but forgets or is unaware Christianity is not the only religion. One could be a Jew, a Muslim, a believer in voodoo, heck! There are many religions to believe in other than Christianity. But most importantly, the gods of Christianity don’t exist.
Joseph, he who is all knowing, tells us
Somewhere along their journey in life, they were negatively influenced to the point of openly rejecting God.
and here, I thought if someone were to influence you away from religion, they would have done you a good. I can only say Joseph has not heard of W. K Clifford who said “it is wrong everywhere, always and for anyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence“(extreme, I think, but you get my drift). (This paper (pdf) is a good critique of the Clifford Principle)
But the christian knows the reason you are an atheist is
a traumatic event
your priest molested you and this led you to call it quits on religion or your cat died and you said no more religion for you.
Or maybe, you are the type of atheist who
doesn’t have any ‘need’ to know God (I don’t know why need is in scare quotes)
resulting from
monetary wealth, an abundance of secular education, and/or a self-professed “understanding” of Christianity in general.
What is the christian to do when faced with any of the above scenarios?
- First and foremost, you must approach this type of person with humility in your own heart. Talking down to them, or challenging them in any way, will only bring conflict and contention.
- Second, you must allow them to see how Christ is working in your own life.
- And three, we must be patient and know that their on God’s time, not ours.
The christian, even after doing the above, maybe faced with the challenge of trying to teach one who wont listen. What is one to do?
Honestly, there isn’t much you can say that will get them to listen to you. But, what we can do is show them the light of Christ in our hearts by how we live our lives. It is this Godly happiness, that can only be found in one who has been saved by grace. When things get tough, they may look to you for guidance on how to be happy again.
What however got me laughing is the comment below this post. The author wrote
You’re off to a roaring start on the blog. Hope you are well and that you gather all the followers you can attract.
And it seems to me the bar is so low in christian circles if this is an example of a roaring start. Or maybe roaring has new meaning.
I don’t recall ever believing, even though I tried, as I wanted to fit in.
What I was being told never matched up with what I was seeing, & with my questioning, I got told I asked too many…..which drove me to reading everything I could get my hands on the minute I learned to read.
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Had I met you earlier, I could have woken up sooner!
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Well one thing which probably helped was being the only moron kid in my neighbourhood, & my school, & that isolated me. I only saw morons at church functions, & I never fit in there either.
My father was not a mormon until I was 16 when he decided to get baptized. The idea was…..he’d go to church with mother, if she’d go to hockey games with him.
When I was 17, I told mother I no longer wanted to be made go to church.
I guess the morons didn’t like me not showing up. After I’d gotten married, moved around some, they chased me a bit with letters telling me where the nearest church was, & several phone calls, I was finally excommunicated at age 24.
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Did you keep the excommunication letter? It should be framed somewhere P. This is so awesome
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No, I kept nothing they sent, I wanted absolutely nothing of them in my house.
My excommunication was announced in church 3 times…..this is how mother found out about it.
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She heard it in church? Did she throw a tantrum when she came home?
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No, she just had the big disappointed look on her face with the ”where did I go wrong” attitude. But…then again, I had been married & away for over 5 years by then, & had had 2 of my 3 kids, so whatever she felt was not my concern.
My parents were cold, distant, & unloving, so I don’t feel much for them.
Mother is still alive at 91 now, but we speak very seldom, & don’t live near each other either. I’m am 72 myself.
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I see.
My parents were generally caring. I miss mama. Dad we talk quite a bit.
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Glad you have caring parents. Mine were indifferent until I broke some damn rule or other, but I was mostly left alone. They never knew what I was reading, which was fine by me. .
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And reading did you good. Got you free sooner
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It was a neighbour who introduced me to the public library when I was about 6 or 7…..I was always going there on the bus after that. I also read father’s westerns, detective stories, & his ”hidden” stuff that supposedly a big secret.
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This is a good case for public libraries that are well stuffed with all manner of books.
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Oh for sure. I did the required reading from the school library too, but loved the public library. A whole big world in there!
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In primary school, we didn’t have a library. We however had a few story books to read. There was no public library anywhere near where we lived. I don’t think there is any now. But there are more churches than you can count.
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Oh that effort & materials going into those churches could be far better spent elsewhere….hospitals, schools, homes, food, clean water, & libraries…….
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You are right. I agree totally.
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Pretty bad when people have to go without, but the bloody places of worship sure don’t.
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People would rather be hungry but take money or whatever they can scrape to church
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So ridiculous.
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Ridiculous is appropriate
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I have zero respect for any of it.
I try to donate a little several times a year to some charities, but I make sure they are not religious in any form.
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This Christian is rationalizing about the reasons why people are leaving religion and the growing number who’ve never been religious. It sounds like they are worried about declining membership and are second-guessing themselves. What use is a fan club without fans? – lol!
Love the W. K Clifford quote.
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And he thinks it’s all because someone’s cat died or bad influence. This is so hilarious
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To be fair, I’m a very very very bad influence 😁
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There is no contest about this. You are the company I was warned not to keep 😁
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You have probably seen a BASIC HUMAN NEEDS pyramid. The layer needs from bottom to top:
1. Survival Needs
2. Safety Needs
3. Social Needs
4. Esteem Needs
5. Self-Actualization Needs
Strange there is no mention of a God Need.
Someone with wit and wisdom added a layer at the very very bottom: INTERNET. 🙂
Now you may think that Internet would be covered within Social Needs. Actually the Internet is about the most antisocial place you can find. 😦 (not your blog, of course!)
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I have seen people go bananas or is it kukus because of the internet.
How happy to see you here.
Maslow looked at the needs didn’t find a place for god.
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They are unable to see the effects of their own indoctrination as they always advance their reasons from a presuppositional stance. Namely, their ”God” exists.
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You expect someone so deep into religion to see they have been indoctrinated? I didn’t know you were this optimistic
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Of course not. This was the point I was making.
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I was about to send an SOS
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Yup. I read the post too. Even attempted to engage with him.
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Had you deleted your blog?
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Yup Fresh start. As much as i liked PagingMe Grabaspine, i enjoyed RKIA more. I was able to reclaim the Recovering Know It All so I did. More of a bookish blog now, but I’m still interested in commenting on Faith and religion when it suits.
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Ah I see.
How have you been? All well with you and yours
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All is well. Still hot as hell in Arizona. 118 earlier this week.
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This time, the Recovering Know It All is here to stay.
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I need to speak to this “Christian” to explain to him how deeply wrong his belief in his false god is. As a devout Muslim, I see it as my duty to put Christians like this fellow on to the path of reality by converting them to the one, true religion: Islam. We Muslims do this with patience, love and kindness and by showing these poor, misguided, possibly horribly abused Christians Allah’s light shining in our hearts and in our lives. It saddens me when a Christian like this, a non-believing heathen, really, has the gall to think his false faith and his misguided duty to it, is a good thing. There is but one God: Allah, and but one path to Him: Islam. Until the Christian learns this, he will forever be damned to a hell of deep and eternal flame. This fella needs to wake up before his misguided “faith” causes him eternal damnation. $Allahu Akbar$
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Great post, I love the feedback and the discussion. If you enjoyed that article, then you’re really gonna love this one! http://www.missioopus.com/how-the-intellectual-atheist-sees-the-world
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Why in the name of all things profane should I read it?
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Perhaps it will inspire you to write another blog post . . .
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I don’t recall asking you for inspiration, did I?
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I clicked over there. It is all so…SMUG…isn’t it? Even if they think they are doing you a kindness.
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I didn’t bother with it. I have my muses and he ain’t one of them. To be so presumptuous is so annoying
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YEARS ago, when I was servin’ the lawd, the line about letting others “see Christ in me” was quite popular as a method for bringing others into the fold.
What a bunch of bunk! I’m supposed to watch you go to church on Sundays??!? Because truth be told, this is generally the ONLY outward sign that a person is a “Christian.”
Christians have a whole book full of “persuasive” tactics (right Kia?) to draw in the unbeliever. And they’re convinced by church leaders that if they use them faithfully, “the world” will be saved.
Still waiting.
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The world is blind to seeing the Christ in Christians. I think whatever drug these people are on, it should be banned
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I’m guessing he’s an American. They (the theists) really seem to have enormous trouble understanding non-belief.
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It’s like they have trouble with English!
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Oh, that’s low. Accurate, but low. 😳
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As well as the fact the earth is, indeed, round, and a big, fat, draft-dodging orange, spoiled-rotten rich baby is really NOT a good choice for president.
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Spoiled rich babies don’t make for good leaders
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I did believe. Not very strongly, probably. And I was too lazy to memorize the Bible and all that witnessing and stuff.
I lost my belief because of the foundational horrors of the doctrine. No specific event or anything. Plus, I just want to waste time watching internet pron!
/sarc
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I think for a while, I did believe quite strongly. Then it started to slip away slowly, over time.
Now I enjoy bbq
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I liked your original confession, Mak! Have to admit I had not delved back that far on the blog archives!
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Thanks Brian. I think I was more lucid in those early days.
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