I was recently in the Facebook group Debate and Discussion. At the time I was apparently the only atheist rep in the thread and there were, I believe, three Christians. I have been in many other threads in which there was a mix of both sides and in a few where a lone Christian was trying to answer several non-believers. It was an interesting experience to be “The Lone Atheist”, even in such a brief and limited context as an FB thread, which only involved four people, for that period. Even with the “safety” of being online, as opposed to being physically in a group of Christians (not that all Christians are the same, of course), I began to experience just the barest twinge of unease. It would not be accurate to describe it as “fear”, but perhaps a precursor...a sense of unease.
Of course I knew absolutely nothing about the persons on the other end of the texts, except to take at face value that they were genuine in the things they were saying (as opposed to playing a troll or some such critter). To be clear, no one said anything nasty or threatening to me, at least in the ordinary sense. It was more the general tone of the thing...it came through quite clearly, that these people saw me as “one of them”... perhaps one to be pitied, maybe to be saved or convinced, but there was another undercurrent which suggested that if I did not show some signs, at least of what I would think they would see as ‘humility’ or a willingness to listen, in the way a student would listen, then shortly they would simply conclude that I was “lost”, and I would be abandoned to my (what they see as a) terrible fate.
Again, I have never met any of these people except in that online thread, so I cannot say with much certainty what kind of people they are. I can say only how I felt...and I felt unease...that perhaps I just might be in an “unsafe” place; that were we actually physically together sitting someplace...um, it might not be nice.
One of the things that I think cause this feeling to begin to show up was that they began hurling questions at me, in what felt like an accusatory manner; “Temy, have you ever told a lie?” “Have you ever lusted in your heart after a woman and committed adultery in your mind?”. To which I answered, by the way, “Yes, I have told many lies, and yes, I very much lust after every attractive woman I see, especially the ones on the porn sites.” A thing that seemed so surreal to me, especially, about that last question, was the assumption that, if I said “yes”, I should somehow feel embarrassed or ashamed or guilty. I know that in their world view, that would make perfect sense. As I told them, I was a devout Christian for over 30 years, and that was certainly part of my own worldview for most of that time. Now, of course, the notion that I should feel bad or guilty about looking “lustfully” at a naked woman is to absurd for words, and I’m fairly certain that the kind of folk I was dealing with would think that this is one ‘symptom’ or result of atheism, though actually, I can see that even if I had remained a Christian I would have matured enough to think that was just silly. That is just a part of my personality, not necessarily having any connection whatever to the fact that I am atheist.
There was some mention of science, and one person seemed to think rather highly of her own scientific knowledge, (though most of what was mentioned would leave an actual scientists shaking their head). Then, as often happens in such an exchange, videos started to pop up that they wanted me to watch...I’ll try to find the link to one to include at the bottom. It was called “180“ or something like that, and I began to watch it. I got just over 2 minutes in and could not get any further because I saw that it was Ray Comfort and Hitler and the Nazis were in the background, and I simply could not go there...not with Ray Comfort. I can sometimes watch a debate between atheists and Christians, and sometimes I can see a Christian making some good points here and there, but this man is just simply either quite insane or just a charlatan, one or the other. I have no doubt many Christians would agree with that assessment.
I found a video of Ray being interviewed via phone on the Atheist Experience program and I include that here to give a sense of Ray, if you are not familiar. I found it tolerable because there was some counterpoint to his madness.
The Christians I was dealing with in the thread I mentioned, apparently think highly of Ray and think in similar ways, hence they posted one of his videos. Several things were said about evolution which sounded much like the kind of things Ray would say. I hope we all know that many Christians understand evolution and have no problem with acknowledging the facts about it. Many, perhaps most?, don’t. I’m going to also include here a video by an actual scientist called “Why Evolution is True”. I know, of course, that such a video would be received by these folk in about the same way I received the one of Ray they posted. From their perspective, I am an amazingly deluded (and lost) person, unable to think clearly.
My request of you here is that, you get to know Ray a bit (if you don’t already) and then listen to the man explain why evolution is true, and then if you perhaps still do not “accept” evolution as a basic fact of life, I would surely hope you would deeply question your own self.
G’night Johnboy.
TRB
