The Confused and Misguided Motivations of Christians
". . . my main purpose when discussing God with atheists is evangelism. I want them to experience the same joy and peace that I experience as a Christian. But as a side effect of these dialogues, I’ve become even more convinced of theism . . ."
Allow me to dissect:
". . . my main purpose when discussing God with atheists is evangelism."
Surely the author is aware that many, if not most of the atheists that he has had religious discussions with, are former Christians. Speaking for myself, I find attempts at evangelism to be a waste of my time and I usually discourage such attempts - especially - ESPECIALLY - when they come after I have informed the evangelizer that I was a Christian for 25 years. I do not enter into discussions with Christians to be "led to the Lord". Unfortunately most Christians just seem to ignore that fact and offer their desire for me to, once again, accept Jesus as my savior.
I have to wonder if gaining an education falls anywhere in the above blogger's God-discussion purpose? Wouldn't it be nice if the Christians main purpose in these discussions was to learn why former bible believers no longer believe the bible, and to see if - perhaps - they might have good reasons for their loss of belief?
"I want them to experience the same joy and peace that I experience as a Christian."
"I want them to experience the same joy and peace that I experience as a Christian."
As a former Christian, if I had of experienced "joy and peace" during my time as a Christian, I might have stayed a Christian. But instead of joy and peace, when it came to Christianity, I mainly experienced confusion, disappointment, doubt, and guilt. That was my experience in a nut-shell. Sure, there were fleeting emotional moments where I could say that I felt "joy and peace", but they didn't last. And as I have observed Christians for the past 50 years, 1/2 of which was from the inside of the religion, I don't see any Christians experiencing "joy and peace" with any lasting consistency. Matter of fact, their lives seem to be no more joyful or peaceful than people from any other religion or people who have no religion.
Probably the main reason that I began my exodus from Christianity after so many years is that I found that Christianity did not live up to the advertising campaign - that being the disparity between the claims of Christians and the lives of Christians.
"But as a side effect of these dialogues, I’ve become even more convinced of theism . . ."
When a Christian makes such a statement as this, it signals that they are out of intellectual ammunition. I have had numerous Christians offer this claim when nearing the end of our dialogue. The last lengthy dialogue that I had was with a wonderful young Jehovah's Witness couple - and as it neared its end, the young man made the same statement to me - that he was more convinced of Jehovah's existence now than when our discussions began.
This is just something that believers say and it serves two purposes:
1 - It makes the believer feel good about themselves - kind of like saying, "Well, if I didn't convince you to become a believer, at least all this dialogue strengthened my own faith".
2 - It is a veiled insult directed at the atheist - kind of like saying, "Well, just know that all of your rebuttals served only to make my beliefs more impenetrable". In other words - they really weren't paying attention to anything that I said.
Conclusion - This, the above comment by the author, serves to confirm what I have experienced with Christians for so many years and in so many dialogues, and that is this:
Christians have no interest in what I have to say - they are only interested in me hearing what they have to say.
In other words: ". . . my main purpose when discussing God with atheists is evangelism."
Most Christians are so entrenched in maintaining their beliefs, and some few in spreading their beliefs, that they are psychologically constrained from considering - even for a second - that what they believe might be incorrect, wrong, faulty, or irrational.
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In matters of religion it is very easy to deceive a man, and very hard to undeceive him.
~Pierre Bayle, Dictionary (1697)
A myth is a fixed way of looking at the world which cannot be destroyed because, looked at through the myth, all evidence supports the myth.
~Edward De Bono, PO: Beyond Yes And No
bob
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com
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