Atheists who have never read common atheist literature

[Jehanne]

I feel ashamed at times to say that as an atheist I have never read the very popular atheist books like the God Delusion or Godless. When I left Islam I simply dropped it whole sale after a year of critical examination and moved on. I have to give credit to a bit of Islamic philosophy and reasoning for my status as a murtad. Fulsafa was very important to me and it made me heavily criticize the religion and disassociate myself from it. But I always hear of so many atheist having their lack of faith in religion/god strengthened or broken by some book that criticizes religion. Most people who I have met that leave Islam abandon it because of its pure stupidity and abuse of logical fallacies that are blatant to 5 year olds.
I am sort of old school, as the best way to become an atheist is to understand the religion you believe in. Islam and Christianity are self defeating religions. All you have to do is read the damn books.

Very true.  I don't know how people stand the contradictions.  To quote a Futurama episode (Second that Emotion), "Yeah, but nobody's that observant. It's mainly a Christmas and Easter thing."  I think that is how most of your typical churchgoers view things.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I didn't take it as saying they would develop mental health problems. I think he was  just saying that it's cruel to tell a child they will burn in hell without Jesus because their undeveloped minds picture all the torment and fixate on it. Kind of like if you forced them to watch the most graphic and scary horror movie.

Compared to beatings or molestation, telling them an ugly story does not strike me as abuse.

It's an argument from emotion.

[abaris]

Compared to beatings or molestation, telling them an ugly story does not strike me as abuse.

My parents never did something like that. But, I think I already told that episode, at school a priest did. It's engraved in my mind to this very day. If we sin, god would take what's dearest to us. That is abuse, since I kept months worrying. On te other hand, it was also my first step towards atheism. But since I never read what Dawkins had to say on episodes like that, I can't really comment on what he said in his book. So I reserve judgment.

But telling a nasty story may make all the difference in a child's mind.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Sure, it does. I was raised a Southern Baptist. I was horrified thinking about the Rapture.

I still don't think that's on a par with beating the crap out of me, or molesting me, or what-have-you.

[Cyberman]

If I recall correctly, I think the context is that indoctrinating someone at such a young and impressionable age into magical thinking potentially harms their critical thinking skills. Something like that anyway. It would be helpful to have the text of what he wrote to hand.

[Jehanne]

If I recall correctly, I think the context is that indoctrinating someone at such a young and impressionable age into magical thinking potentially harms their critical thinking skills. Something like that anyway. It would be helpful to have the text of what he wrote to hand.

It definitively harmed me, as I was raised in a fundamentalist evangelical Church; in fact, I was often told not to read certain books (such as "Cosmos", by Carl Sagan), as they would corrupt my faith.  And, of course, creationism was a big thing back in the '80s and my church was actively involved, which included the local high school biology teacher, who openly denied Darwinian evolution.  In one of my English classes, four of my fellow students wrote term papers against evolutionary theory.  I remember well one such argument against the Earth's age, to the effect that the Earth could not be 4.5 billion years old because erosion would have made the surface of the Earth completely flat and there would be no mountains!  Tragically, when my fundamentalist friend presented this argument to me I was completely at a loss for words.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I have a very good friend who did a BSc and MSc in religious studies. She wants to go back and do a PhD. She's also a hard core atheist who hates religion. She has some very good ideas about the nature of religion as a social and psychological phenomenon. We're planning on writing some papers together. We'll take her ideas and I'll combine them with a scientific perspective, back them up with references and apply scientific rigour to them.

The idea is to create really water tight arguments that people will have a hard time refuting. It won't just be yet another person's perspective. One thing is for sure, it will really piss off the religious.

We'll have to look for journals where we can get them published, but if we write enough of them I reckon we could write a really good book.

[Cephus]

If I recall correctly, I think the context is that indoctrinating someone at such a young and impressionable age into magical thinking potentially harms their critical thinking skills. Something like that anyway. It would be helpful to have the text of what he wrote to hand.

It definitively harmed me, as I was raised in a fundamentalist evangelical Church; in fact, I was often told not to read certain books (such as "Cosmos", by Carl Sagan), as they would corrupt my faith.  And, of course, creationism was a big thing back in the '80s and my church was actively involved, which included the local high school biology teacher, who openly denied Darwinian evolution.  In one of my English classes, four of my fellow students wrote term papers against evolutionary theory.  I remember well one such argument against the Earth's age, to the effect that the Earth could not be 4.5 billion years old because erosion would have made the surface of the Earth completely flat and there would be no mountains!  Tragically, when my fundamentalist friend presented this argument to me I was completely at a loss for words.

Same here.  In fact, it was my high school science teacher that was most directly involved in my rejection of religion.  I innocently mentioned evolution as something one of my friends was studying and he ripped me a new one, forbidding me from ever mentioning that word ever again.   So I said, to myself anyhow, screw you, I'll do what I want, and went and researched for myself and that led me to rejecting Christianity as unsupportable.

[abaris]

I still don't think that's on a par with beating the crap out of me, or molesting me, or what-have-you.

You know sometimes I think words can do more damage than fists. At least to a child. Sometimes I would have been glad to have been physically abused instead of verbally. That at least would have given me something to fight against.

[Thumpalumpacus]

If I recall correctly, I think the context is that indoctrinating someone at such a young and impressionable age into magical thinking potentially harms their critical thinking skills. Something like that anyway. It would be helpful to have the text of what he wrote to hand.

I guess I have the luxury of speaking from the standpoint of having broken the spell.