No True Scotsman forgets his kilt! (Photo by Anna Fischer)
@CestMoiTom has a tricky situation with one of his friends:
@LawrenceMills My Atheist friend going Christian...
-@CestMoiTom (Tom), 2-11-2009 17:26:20
@fyreflye Not sure how much of an Atheist he was. Maybe he was only acted a strong one because he wanted to be better friends with me
-@CestMoiTom (Tom), 2-11-2009 17:23:48
@LawrenceMills I'm not planning to go along. But I will stay friends with him, he's a cool guy and hopefully I'll make him rational.
-@CestMoiTom (Tom), 2-11-2009 17:37:25
What do you think about these words: “Not sure how much of an Atheist he was.” and “…hopefully I’ll make him rational.”?
One of the mistakes I make when discussing individuals in this situation is questioning the validity of their atheism before the conversion. It’s a gut reaction. We all dislike seeing our friends accept things we find foolish.
How often do you hear an evangelist or preacher say “I used to be an atheist, but then I met Jesus” or something eerily similar? How often do you think, “I doubt he was really an atheist” or “Atheists would never believe what he does now.” Regardless of the speaker’s intent, I suggest we re-frame how we think of former atheists. When we accuse them of being disingenuous or invalid, we are usually displaying perfect examples of the ”No True Scotsman” fallacy.
Newsflash: Assuming an atheist is always (or even usually) making decisions based on reason is naïve.
Atheists don’t believe in a deity. That doesn’t mean we never will–or that we cannot–buy into the beliefs of religions someday. It means that at this moment we do not believe. Period.
Atheism is our default from birth. It does not require work, critical thought, conversion, decision, or any other action. All theists were one atheists. they were just trained, taught, and convinced that theism was true.
When someone feels the desire to think and reason about what they believe on the topic of deities and the supernatural, then we can judge how they make their decisions.
Atheism and rational thought are not synonymous. Atheism and intelligence are not synonymous. Let’s get off our high horses and admit that we’re humans like everyone else: fallible, emotional, and sometimes bone-headed arses.
Try not to say “no true atheist would _____.” If you’re baffled at why someone turns to Jesus, Allah, cults, Vishnu, astrology, or any other woo-full belief, just remember that in order to be a “true” atheist, all that’s required is a lack of belief in a god.
“True” freethinkers, however, are another story altogether 
Lesson of the day? Even atheists can be idiots. Encourage everyone to think reasonably and make free, educated decisions!
Photo by cbguille (flickr)
{See my previous post for backstory}
My mother and I decided to eat out last night. After our almost-discussion the day before, the elephant in the room was just too cumbersome. We needed to finish our talk, and I was finally–after over a year of evasion and privacy–ready to tell her.
When our hefty plates of stir fry were placed in front of us, she grinned. “I’m glad your roommate walked in last night.” I grabbed a chunk of meat and stuffed it into my mouth. “I knew that if we had said more, then I would have gone down the path of ‘Well what about this?’ and gone down the path of debate instead of doing what I wanted to do which was understand your journey and see what brought you to where you are today.” She clearly knew what I had to say, but wanted to let me vocalize it all.
I told my story.
. . . . .
My hand shook. I stared as it carried vibrating forkfuls of food towards my mouth–too quickly, I thought. I could barely swallow in time before having another bite to chew. I didn’t feel control over my own movements, so they happened anyway; I simply observed. The clichéd tremble amused me, and I chuckled to myself, which I’m sure came across as puzzling to my mother who sat across from me, leaning back from her empty plate as I continued to work at my food–barely touched.
The need to fill the silence between my mother and I was a desperate itch. I ached to scratch it, but I bit my food with vigor and stared at my stupid, shaking hand instead.
I had just told her I was an atheist. She’d listened to my story, and now she sat silenced, glossy-eyed, and buried beneath her thoughts. As I inhaled my food, I tried to imagine what she felt. Disappointment came to mind first. Probably a caring sort of pity, too. Perhaps she was praying. No, I knew she was praying. My mother always prayed. This is probably the first time she thought twice about praying aloud in front of me.
“I can see how it would be hard for you to deal with all of that alone,” she said.
No more silence.
. . . . .
After the big “moment of truth”, we started discussing various topics and thoughts: We talked about the Catholic church, masculinity and femininity, how she used to be an atheist, evidence for miracles, and that she doesn’t believe Christianity requires people to leave their reasoning skills behind.
Aside: You should know that my mother is one of the most thoughtful and faithful Christians of my acquaintance, and she’s also one of the most respectable, wonderful individuals I’ve ever known. When people talk about blind faith and dumb believers, they are not speaking about this woman.
At the end of our conversation, she mused, “This is astonishing…” I nodded, smiling. “You’re the girl who came home from camp in 7th grade and said, ‘Sorry Mom, I’m going to be a missionary.’”
“I know.”
“Astonishing…”
Who should I tell next?
In the most recent issue of Christianity Today, Charles Colson–owner of an infamous scandal-to-salvation testimony–takes on your favorite topic and mine: Atheism. I’ll respond to his article, When Atheists Believe, but I recommend checking it out for yourself to see if it sparks any thoughts.
Colson’s main point is that quite a few well-known atheists have come to Christianity after–as he claims–examining the rationality of the religion.
Faith and reason are not enemies. We are given reason as a gift. And while we can’t reason our way to God (only the power of God can transform fallen men—I’ve seen that in prisons for over 32 years), I have long believed that Christianity is the most rational explanation of reality. And that fact, winsomely explained, can powerfully influence thinking people to consider Christ’s claims.
Why can’t we reason our way to God? Because God is not reasonable! If he was, then we could know about him using our “god-given” gift. No leaps of faith necessary.
What this article does not do is explain why faith in a deity is rational. Perhaps I expect too much. Colson claims that “the Bible speaks most accurately to the human condition—the very definition of a rational choice. It is rational to choose the worldview that provides the best choice for living, consistent with the way life works.”
What does this have to do with: an eternal, invisible a god, a magical (yet genetically inherited) sinful nature that dooms us to agony, talking snakes, global floods, men living in fish for 3 days, magical objects, blood sacrifices, prophecies, or god-sponsored atrocities? What is “rational” about this “worldview” that teaches about a demigod who: was born of a deity-impregnated-virgin, came down to teach to one small ethnic group for a few years, sacrificed himself in a brutal manner to himself, rose bodily from the dead, floated into the sky to be with the invisible deity-daddy, and who runs an exclusive “love me or be tortured for eternity” club based on thought crime?
That’s what we’re calling the “most accurate” depiction of and solution to the human condition? Mythology?
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How could I forget to honor the fantastically fallacious Fundies? Check out these snippets from what I consider an award-winning representation of monumentally stupid anti-evolution hogwash.
If, as evolutionists claim, all of mankind evolved from the SAME primitive life-source, then how did we end up with 7,000 different languages? The Bible teaches that God created all the different languages at Babel… “Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech … Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” [see Genesis 11:1-9]. It is far more reasonable to accept the Biblical claim that God created all of mankind’s different languages; than it is to believe that some space-dust from a massive chaotic explosion somehow became life, and then took on intelligence, and then from the same evolutionary process ended up with 7,000 different languages. That makes no sense at all.
Oh stop it! You’re making my sides hurt! Please tell me again how reasonable it is that every human being on earth had a powwow in a valley somewhere, decided to build a really tall brick building so they could go up to heaven, be famous, and to stay neighbors.
Explain to me how sensible it is that a spirit-man in the sky literally visited to check on their work and got really pissed off that they showed some bricklaying skills. He then decided to keep them from being successful and unified, so he used telekinesis to lift them up, plop them down in other parts of the earth, and then magically changed their languages so they wouldn’t be able to understand one another (or themselves, I imagine). Talk about anti-progress, a bitchy boss, and a serious case of “go sit in the corner and be quiet”.
Oh yeah, that makes a whole lot more sense than gradual change over time.
Read more wtf-i-tude at jesus-is-savior.com.
Chris on 
Bill the Heathen on 
jabran on 
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