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Author of “Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace”

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Why atheists are hard to convert

January 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments

More on this later.

Tags: Faith and Doubt

4 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Tim Stroud // Jan 31, 2009 at 6:29 am

    Okay, so I watched the movie.

    She seems like such a nice girl. And intelligent! But so pale. Why is she so pale? She needs some time at the beach in Boca. And add a little chicken to that soup! What’s it gonna hurt you, a little chicken?

    Believe me, a little chicken, it’ll do you some good!

    Kids today with their vegetarianism, it breaks your heart.

  • 2 Jenny // Jan 31, 2009 at 11:20 am

    … and she was having such a hard time keeping all that anger under control that her voice shook with nerves the entire 9:59. And what was with the knife wielding? Who takes the time to set up a camera in their kitchen so they can film themselves in profile with a steak knife and cutting board anyway?
    I wish her peace.
    I have a question for the atheists: are you really happier after you walk away from God? (Not walk away from Catholicism or other crazed “religion” - I’d run from that, too), but I mean the God that is in the Bible that you actually read, understood, and THEN decided to walk away from.
    I mean, does you life take on deeper meaning and purpose?
    I would like to hear stats on “how many Atheists walked away from God because of Catholicism”
    v.
    “how many Atheists walked away from God because they read the Bible and then made the choice to walk away.”

    I am a Christian but be nice ;-) because I have friends who aren’t and we tolerate each other and still love each other!
    I really just want to hear how you all answer that question.

  • 3 Tim Stroud // Feb 2, 2009 at 2:59 am

    Clear and critical thinking. Use your mind. Question authority. When there is no evidence, be skeptical. Don’t take the word of strangers. If it doesn’t make sense to you, then it doesn’t make sense. There are no invisible beings. There are no supernatural beings.

    God disappeared. Like a melting ice sculpture, just slowly disappeared.

    I awoke from that period of fantastical thinking without the misconception of an invisible, supernatural person standing next to me, whispering in my ear, overseeing my life.

    I have no issues with the Christian individuals that I love. They do not try to exorcise any demons from me, and I do not try to persuade them that their god is an illusion. We do not behave so differently that any conflict occurs and we share many similar values.

    The Bible is a collection of old stories assembled by commitee.

    I am of the opinion that god is a myth, conceived by early generations of humans and spread, perpetuating and evolving through history.

  • 4 cassi // Feb 2, 2009 at 3:19 am

    Ha ha, she does come across as angry and a little crazy!

    I grew up Catholic but my family stopped going to church when I was young. I continued to read the Bible on my own, not all of it but a fair bit of it. I remember being shocked by Old Testament God. I liked Jesus though, and if God made Jesus God couldn’t be all that bad, I thought. My point is, I read the Bible, but I can’t say that I came to understand God through the Bible. I still considered myself a believer though.

    Life continued, and last year I tried to go to church again, but that didn’t last because I just don’t agree with the Catholic church on some issues and I couldn‘t ignore them because they kept coming up in the news and even during the service. Some of the issues are unique to the Catholic church, and some of them show up in other denominations too.

    I started to wonder what I knew about God that could be said to be true, and I couldn’t find anything. Without going into details, my faith disappeared. I can’t believe that any god has a master plan for me and is watching over me and will welcome me into heaven if I do the right things. I can’t find a plausible place for that kind of god in my understanding of how the universe works and how life evolved.

    Although it’s a separate issue, I’m not even sure that believing in a god is useful. I wonder, if you could put all the bad god stuff in one pile and all the good god stuff in another, which pile would be bigger? Jenny might say that the bad stuff doesn’t really have anything to do with god. But I don’t think it’s fair to discount the bad god stuff that way. Based on the posts on this site, belief in god has clearly enabled lots of bad people to get away with bad things. On the other hand, I can’t think of any good thing that a believer can do that I can’t do too.

    Putting the usefulness part aside, I call myself an atheist because god just isn’t true to me anymore. I’m still working through the implications. I’ve lost the master plan, a supernatural being that care about me, and a chance at heaven. Of course, if god isn’t true, I never had those things to begin with. And the master plan, at least, was a little bit troublesome. Was I on track? Was I even in control? What did god have in mind for me or expect from me as a woman? The Bible gave me some less than positive ideas about my worth as a woman. I’m not sure if I’m happier, but I do feel relieved.

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