(December 29, 2013 at 5:34 pm)TudorGothicSerpent Wrote:(December 29, 2013 at 5:11 pm)rasetsu Wrote: Anyway, this is getting tl;dr, but I think people have a tendency to view deconversion as a rational process, and conversion as an irrational one. The fact is both kinds occur going both directions, and the amount of rationality involved in these processes is, to my mind, enormously exaggerated. We, as a species, don't use the bulk of our brains to reason; the bulk of our brains has other ideas.
Definitely some good points. In my experience, atheists who are de-converted by rational arguments (or who learn arguments against the existence of God at some point) rarely convert to any religious system based on apologetics arguments. Whenever they do, it's almost always a conversion to a strand of religion with non-traditional views of God or of faith, and there's still usually a relatively high degree of agnosticism. Rational conversions straight to conservatism or fundamentalism almost never happen, so my assumption when someone says that they went from atheism to evangelical Christianity is that their original atheism wasn't based mostly on rationality.
My experience is that most Evangelical Christians that say they used to be atheists are full of shit. You can usually tell within 5 minutes of talking to them because they will know nothing about atheism.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
