Flame — HabitableZone

Flame » in reply to re: Most of the atheists I've known know more about Christianity than the Christians do.

Welcome to the debate
azstrummer — (archived)

My most intense dabble at Christianity came when I got the hots for a girl I worked with as a day camp counselor. She was very involved with her church (especially the music) and, since I really love music, she talked me into getting involved. The young folks at the church were very friendly and inviting and the music we made was really cool.

After about a year of getting absorbed into this community, the "born again" movement was starting to gain momentum and some of the members, especially the youth, embraced it. Fun gatherings we'd have would turn into these bizarre ritualistic things where, what I believed to be rational people, would start talking in "tongues" and people would act as if seized by the spirit of Jesus. As hard as I tried to feel what they were feeling, there was this burning feeling inside that people were really crossing the line. That was reinforced when these people that "got it" started looking down on the ones that didn't. The rumors began about the sins the non-born-agains were committing and how they were not truly committed to the religion.

It was a huge lesson to me on human behavior and gave me quite the start on the road to atheism. I respect greatly your stance against radicalism in religion but I have to tell you that I firmly believe that it requires a huge and constant backlash from more mainstream Christians against the radical elements. It is very simple to brush off the born-agains as a nuisance but to me, they represent a constant and severe threat to our American way of life and must be confronted firmly and harshly on every push for power. Simply sitting back and being annoyed is a tacit approval to their abuses. I don't only apply this need to Christians. It is a responsibility that falls on all faiths and belief systems.

Atheism has their radical element as well. They do damage to the image as they create huge stinks about things as silly as slogans on money and words to the pledge. Not that they aren't right according to the Constitution and the intent of many of our founding fathers but they sound whiney to people that simply will never see a threat in things like that. Then, when a real issue such as the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in our schools arises, they are already trivialized in the eyes of the public. Often one must lose a battle to win a war.

Anyway, welcome to the discussion.

Art

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