(January 23, 2014 at 8:04 am)No_God Wrote: someone who is going to tell me I'm wrong or going to a fiery pit of death. In my experiences, believers have been extremely condescending.
I like using people's belief in fiery doom as an opportunity to invite them to a thought experiment.
They need not even know that I'm an Atheist right away either, and in my experience, people who believe in God love what they percieve to be "opportunities to share the word". The funny part is that most of them don't have a fucking clue what the word is, and if they do, it's not the same word as the next guy. But, I digress.
I ask, so who goes to hell?
They usually make a quick deductive inference and say something like "all the people that don't get saved". Which this doesn't really clarify what someone needs to do to get "saved", but it's enough for them to think for a second that some people most certainly will not, and this is according to their belief.
I find that it's helpful to make it perfectly clear with my smiles and tone of voice that I dont' take this idea seriously at all, and go straight into relating them to my mom. I always preface my next words by stating my love for my Mom, and my certainty that she loves me too. This makes it two against one, and doesn't make them feel as though they're being attacked, but at the same time, they will be forced to soon decide whether or not they include themselves with my mom's position.
I say: "My Mom is Christian...BIG time. We don't see eye to eye on her belief in God, and to be honest, I am at the opposite end of the belief spectrum. I don't believe any of it. She believes in Heaven and Hell as written in The Bible, and is probably pretty sure that she is doing all that is required to get to heaven. By believing this, she must also be aware that I have not met the same standards, and in fact, have qualified for a different destiny all together." I turn back to the person I'm talking to at this point, and act as though this was something that just occurred to me, and they just happened to be the SME I'd been waiting for to seek clarification. I aske them now "Do you think that my mom has thought about the idea of her son burning in Hell of eternity while she is in a different place that endures no suffering? Is it possible that you could enjoy yourself in Heaven, while thinking about your son being tortured during every passing moment? Hmm..." I usually have to end it with a "hmm..." because they never have a clue how to answer that. I then chuckle to myself and carry on about whatever I'm doing, or entertain further question about my beliefs. I have found that these situations start off with the Christian feeling like they have the answers, but they usually shift into a dialogue where they are asking more questions than providing answers. I keep a bible on my desk at work in case they need a reference.
I will never forget the look on this girl's face when I brought up the bible endorsing slavery. She's black, and is involved in a lot of African American Activist groups. She's also a self proclaimed Christian who had clearly never read her Bible. When I showed her a few of the scriptures, the awkward silence combined with her disgusting facial expressions was priceless. I could almost hear her planning an immediate phone call with her pasture for some serious questions...Hilarious.
