Tempting to employ FlyingNarwhal's approach. Very tempting. But...
As a lifelong atheist, I am not well-versed in biblical shit well enough to refute your dad with specific, useful contrary references, but others here are -- and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help.
Do be sure to include references to how Christians "loved each other" with the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and other loving Christian visitations of torture and death on those whose beliefs were different to theirs. Remind him about the "loving" treatment of Christians toward women, gays and some minorities. Remind him that Mormons consider themselves Christians, and that they did not allow blacks to hold the priesthood in their church until 1978. The Catholics to this day do not recognize women in authority within their church. Very loving. There are endless examples. Pick the ones you like the best.
The flood story is always useful to point out God's "love" for his creation. There's a fun, currently-active thread here that shows what a "loving" action that was. Separate and apart from the fact that it is a ridiculous, unsupportable story in its own right.
It's so easy to poke holes in the Christian belief system. I marvel at anyone over the age of 10 who hasn't managed to do it -- especially someone who is obviously somewhat literate, as your father clearly is. Were I to ever receive a letter from my father such as you have, I would take it as an opportunity to rip his philosophy to shreds. I would be sure to ask him three things:
1 - How do you know the bible is true? (They can never adequately answer this, because the only answer is the circular one: "Because god tells me it is. In the bible.")
2 - If you (dad) had not been raised with this belief system and its stories shoved down your throat from birth by people whom you trusted, loved, and upon whom you depended for your very existence, can you honestly say that the bible stories are the explanations for the meaning of life you would have concluded without that forced indoctrination?
3 - Have you noticed that the world operates pretty much the same for we atheists as it does for the believers? In other words, we don't appear to suffer more or less for our lack of belief. The invisible and the non-existent are often the very same thing. This applies also to the power of prayer, of which there is none. You may as well recite, "Step on a crack, break your mother's back."
I would also turn his words back on him, that when a person does not want to be judged, he merely proclaims himself forgiven by the big, all-knowing, unprovable make-believe Skydaddy Judge. There is no shortage of examples of morally relativistic Christians. Of course, the standard reply to this is that those awful people weren't "real" Christians -- to which I like to ask, "How do you know? On what unwavering criteria are you able to base this judgment? And if you are right, then how come you're the only Christian who gets it?"
Do point out that we atheists live all around your father, and somehow we manage to live with about as much and as little "sin" as anyone else around him. In many cases with less, because we have actually examined our morality in depth and challenged it against flimsy belief systems that are not grounded in fact. In other words, we take it very seriously, and we haven't honed the fine art of living comfortably with the cognitive dissonance required to accept a Christian belief system -- or any other that isn't fact-based. In other words, to live comfortably with perpetual lies.
And do understand, he may be saying it nicely -- but he is calling you a bad person. Don't let him get away with this.
Don't flinch from your task to pick at the beliefs of religious nitwits every chance they give you. With the aforementioned tactics, I have had good success with either of two results: Either they begin a journey of deconversion, or they won't force their religious beliefs on me anymore. Win, win.
As a lifelong atheist, I am not well-versed in biblical shit well enough to refute your dad with specific, useful contrary references, but others here are -- and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to help.
Do be sure to include references to how Christians "loved each other" with the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition and other loving Christian visitations of torture and death on those whose beliefs were different to theirs. Remind him about the "loving" treatment of Christians toward women, gays and some minorities. Remind him that Mormons consider themselves Christians, and that they did not allow blacks to hold the priesthood in their church until 1978. The Catholics to this day do not recognize women in authority within their church. Very loving. There are endless examples. Pick the ones you like the best.
The flood story is always useful to point out God's "love" for his creation. There's a fun, currently-active thread here that shows what a "loving" action that was. Separate and apart from the fact that it is a ridiculous, unsupportable story in its own right.
It's so easy to poke holes in the Christian belief system. I marvel at anyone over the age of 10 who hasn't managed to do it -- especially someone who is obviously somewhat literate, as your father clearly is. Were I to ever receive a letter from my father such as you have, I would take it as an opportunity to rip his philosophy to shreds. I would be sure to ask him three things:
1 - How do you know the bible is true? (They can never adequately answer this, because the only answer is the circular one: "Because god tells me it is. In the bible.")
2 - If you (dad) had not been raised with this belief system and its stories shoved down your throat from birth by people whom you trusted, loved, and upon whom you depended for your very existence, can you honestly say that the bible stories are the explanations for the meaning of life you would have concluded without that forced indoctrination?
3 - Have you noticed that the world operates pretty much the same for we atheists as it does for the believers? In other words, we don't appear to suffer more or less for our lack of belief. The invisible and the non-existent are often the very same thing. This applies also to the power of prayer, of which there is none. You may as well recite, "Step on a crack, break your mother's back."
I would also turn his words back on him, that when a person does not want to be judged, he merely proclaims himself forgiven by the big, all-knowing, unprovable make-believe Skydaddy Judge. There is no shortage of examples of morally relativistic Christians. Of course, the standard reply to this is that those awful people weren't "real" Christians -- to which I like to ask, "How do you know? On what unwavering criteria are you able to base this judgment? And if you are right, then how come you're the only Christian who gets it?"
Do point out that we atheists live all around your father, and somehow we manage to live with about as much and as little "sin" as anyone else around him. In many cases with less, because we have actually examined our morality in depth and challenged it against flimsy belief systems that are not grounded in fact. In other words, we take it very seriously, and we haven't honed the fine art of living comfortably with the cognitive dissonance required to accept a Christian belief system -- or any other that isn't fact-based. In other words, to live comfortably with perpetual lies.
And do understand, he may be saying it nicely -- but he is calling you a bad person. Don't let him get away with this.
Don't flinch from your task to pick at the beliefs of religious nitwits every chance they give you. With the aforementioned tactics, I have had good success with either of two results: Either they begin a journey of deconversion, or they won't force their religious beliefs on me anymore. Win, win.
