Atheists were never Christians
I posted on THEREVLyle's youtube's page, he's a pastor debating with one of my favorite atheists (a former priest) Edward Tarte. I put up a comment where I said I supported ED and that I was a Former Baptist Sunday School teacher. I wrote that my questioning of the morality of the bible led to my eventual atheism and that hell was wrong no matter what context it was in.
Here's his response:
Atheists were never Christian. That statement alone proves that you DO NOT know scripture and evidently never did.
My knee jerk reaction was literally nausea, questioning the morality of the Bible and hell gave me a lot of pain especially in dealing with the loss of my brother who "hadn't found God" before he died. I'm now laughing about his ignorance but I'm worked up enough to post it here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Campbell on -
thank you :)
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Permalink Reply by Emmy Ellison on -
I agree, you're not born theist or Atheist. To have a lack of belief in a god or gods means you have to know of the idea that a god may exist.
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Campbell on
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Jean Marie, thank you. You're right about him being pretty far gone at the moment. I've been in that situation, looking back I realize how flipant and dismissive I was. I've heard the "atheists were never Christian" argument before and just thought it was funny. Afterall, like he can't show me god because it's based on faith I cannot "show" him my heart and what I believed. Kinda ironic isn't it?
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Permalink Reply by elaine kilshaw on -
I do not believe it is ignorance on the part of religion, I just believe thet a vast amount do not have the courage to admit the evil contained in Bibles and many, many will not 'come out' because they are not brave enough to voice their true thoughts. Science has to give proof so why not religion. Religion is the best way of control as we all already know.
Look at the brave men coming back from the war with lost limbs, deformed bodies, then tell me there is a good 'god'.
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Campbell on
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Exactly Elaine. I did get into a debate before where I could disprove miracles and soldiers losing limbs was a good start. Afterall cancer can go in remission but noone has ever regrown a limb!
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Campbell on
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Wow, thanks for sharing! The Bapist church I went to also had a denomination superiority complex, they did not consider Catholics Christian nor Assemblies of God. The hypocrisy started my doubts. I would like to share my deconversion story with you, it was pretty abrupt actually. On the way to church one day I told my husband that I didn't want to go, we pulled into a starbucks got a cup coffee and had a nice long chat in the parking lot. I haven't been back to church since. In two years I've gone from a devout Christian to a staunch atheist. Atheists were mostly alien to me as well, I certainly had misconceptions. I don't have time right this minute, but I'll share my experience as a Sunday school teacher and how it changed my perspective on the Bible. Thanks again Jean, feel like I have a few friends here already :)
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Permalink Reply by Ben on -
I have had the same reaction from xtians. The response to finding out that I used to believe is that I must have never truly been christian. Its an arogant and baseless argument.
They think that if we knew what they did then we could never deny their god. Its a way for them to build themselves up without having to think about what they actually believe in.
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Permalink Reply by Jonel Burge on -
I gotta echo what everyone else is saying: by giving that reply, it is denying that anyone could ever be a "true" Christian and eventually choose to become an Atheist. It is saying you never were right in the "eyes of the lord" to begin with(to use one of the phrases I commonly hear) and -that- is why you have "strayed so far", by saying this, it puts you as an already-outsider, even when you were leading Sunday School.
From my point of view, it's an easy way of denying everything you have gone through and dismissing it as being a freak accident or unlikely occurrence that could not possibly repeat itself.
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Permalink Reply by Brian Sellers on -
Earlier this year I posted a thread about a conversation I had with a (now ex-) friend of mine, in which I revealed in no uncertain terms that I was an atheist and therefore did not agree with him on theological matters.
As with your brief interaction, the response I received was rather hurtful. He claimed that I did not know what I was talking about, that I was uneducated, inexperienced, and therefore wrong. He, as a heavily conservative, church-oriented 50-something year-old man (twice my age), was clearly right. Nevermind that he and I went to college together, where I consistently performed better than he did. Nevermind that I often saved his butt on academic matters. Nevermind that the only reason he "found Jesus" in the first place was because he was a convicted drug user who thought religion was the answer to his problems. Apparently, I was wrong.
One of the most insulting things a religious person can do is to insinuate that an atheist has never read the Bible, or was never a Christian, or anything else that says we don't know what we're talking about. It's incredibly presumptuous and arrogant for a person to tell someone else that kind of thing.
Honestly, Janelle, I'm realizing as I type this that my former friend's reaction still hurt me. You might feel the same way. Regardless, though, what we (and anyone else) need to remember is that such a ridiculous response is little more than a defense mechanism. The devoutly religious don't want to admit that someone could find fault with faith, so they cover their hides by claiming that apostates were never actually faithful to begin with. This, of course, contrasts with the other claim that atheists don't really lack a belief in God, that we just are angry people. But then, they always want to have things both ways, don't they?
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Permalink Reply by Janelle Campbell on
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I agree, and you're right about it being a defense mechanism. It's the easy way out, but it's a shame they use it. I don't see how they ever won an atheist back after saying what they felt or believed was fake and that they must not have read the Bible. I could tell that pastor I read the Bible cover to cover, more than once too but it won't make a lick of difference. Even if I went the route of challenging him with the Bible, he'd say I'm taking it out of context, or I don't understand the Bible. It's a circle and the only thing that could break it in my mind is if he goes through it himself.
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