Ask a Catholic

[Jenny A]

Simply put, no.

That kind of comes with the territory of not believing. You're living under the assumption that none of us had given the matter much thought before arriving at what we are today. That's projection, plain and simple. And it's also just a little bit presumptuous.

Considering that a common refrain in this forum goes something like, "I stopped believing your buy-bull when I was five (or 9 or 10)...", then, yeah, it is highly possible that many have NEVER seriously considered the evidence for Christianity objectively as mature adults.

They have examined ways to CONTINUE not believing since then, but that's not the same as being open-minded and willing to go wherever the evidence leads, is it?

And yes, I do realize that others here claim to have lost their faith as adults...but I'd be willing to bet that there was something other than intellectual objection to Christian doctrine that led to their departure. It is often the case that there are moral issues involved: sexual promiscuity, divorce, homosexualty, etc.

For most atheists I know deconverting was an intellectual process much like discovering Santa doesn't exist. Just as anger sometimes accompanies discovering that the jolly old elf is a trick played on you by your parents, there may be anger associated with ceasing to believe. But it's anger at a lie, and at scare tactics, not anger driving out faith.

Continueing not to believe does not require the support of a forum, and I doubt many people are here for that reason. You see, once you dismiss a hypothesis for utter lack of credible evidence, it isn't normal or sane to continue to try to find ways to belive in it. I have no interest in trying to believe.

I'm not frightened, or even made uneasy by the proofs offered by theists here. That is in large part because I have only seen one argument for the existence of god on this forum that was new to me. That was the fine tuned universe argument and it's no better than all the others. And just in the last six months I've it seen over a dozen times. I'm open to new evidence, but I'm no more holding my breath to hear it than I am to hear proof of dragons.

Your favorite refrain: and Paul's life was changed is not credible either. Charizmatic leaders come and go even in modern times. They change lives, often for the worse. They are Morman, Scientologits, Islamic Terrorists, etc. They are crazy. That is the most likely explaination for Paul. And yes they all had fanatic followers whose lives were changed. It doesn't mean they are right. Certianly they can't all be right.

People of faith on the other hand seem to need constint reasurance. There are faith testing stories. And prayers for faith. You will never catch people praying to believe what they really know is true. It's unnecessary.