I think the "I was an atheist" thing is, generally, sincere, though I'm sure the definition of atheist is stretched quite a bit. For instance, everyone knows atheists are sinners. We drink, smoke, take drugs, sometimes do unspeakable things to kittens...it's common knowledge. So they think, "Hey, I used to do those thing (except the kitten thing. What's up with that?), so I used to be an atheist!!" I think that's the thinking that a lot of fundamentalists have. Anything "evil" is atheist, so the worse a person you were, the more atheist you were.
One thing is for certain, for the vast majority of them, perhaps even 100%, they were no atheist you or I would recognize. We are what I refer to as "considered atheists" as apposed to "situational atheists". A considered atheist is someone who came to atheism as a logical conclusion to the question, "Is magic real?" A situational atheist is someone more...stupid. It's the teen who's an "atheist" because it's cool. Next week he'll be a Satan worshiper. It's the person who was brought up without much religious influence and never really considered spirituality. If asked if he believes in God, he'll say no. He IS an atheist. But it's not a position he reasoned out or is passionate about, so his beliefs can be easily changed.
One thing is for certain, they come at us with these claims like we have something in common, but they were certainly never like us. There's a saying, "You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into", and that is very true. But the reverse is also true. You can't use unreasonable claims to change a position a person DID reason themselves into.
So, you used to be an atheist and now you're not? GREAT! One less stupid one we have to claim! Because, let's face it, we're not all Richard Dawkins here. Some of our ranks are more like Atheist Gump. Fortunately I would guess most if not all "ex" atheists are Gumps, at least from a "considered atheism" position, so I don't care if we lose them.
Besides, by not teaching anything about religion in schools for or against we are, by default, somehow magically teaching atheism and it's working! My son is a senior in high school this year and most of his friends are atheist. They didn't get together and decide this or anything. It just came out. So whoever came up with the idea to use sorcery to directly implant atheism in the brains of children in schools once removed the influence of God who could have deflected our evil spells, genius!
One thing is for certain, for the vast majority of them, perhaps even 100%, they were no atheist you or I would recognize. We are what I refer to as "considered atheists" as apposed to "situational atheists". A considered atheist is someone who came to atheism as a logical conclusion to the question, "Is magic real?" A situational atheist is someone more...stupid. It's the teen who's an "atheist" because it's cool. Next week he'll be a Satan worshiper. It's the person who was brought up without much religious influence and never really considered spirituality. If asked if he believes in God, he'll say no. He IS an atheist. But it's not a position he reasoned out or is passionate about, so his beliefs can be easily changed.
One thing is for certain, they come at us with these claims like we have something in common, but they were certainly never like us. There's a saying, "You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into", and that is very true. But the reverse is also true. You can't use unreasonable claims to change a position a person DID reason themselves into.
So, you used to be an atheist and now you're not? GREAT! One less stupid one we have to claim! Because, let's face it, we're not all Richard Dawkins here. Some of our ranks are more like Atheist Gump. Fortunately I would guess most if not all "ex" atheists are Gumps, at least from a "considered atheism" position, so I don't care if we lose them.
Besides, by not teaching anything about religion in schools for or against we are, by default, somehow magically teaching atheism and it's working! My son is a senior in high school this year and most of his friends are atheist. They didn't get together and decide this or anything. It just came out. So whoever came up with the idea to use sorcery to directly implant atheism in the brains of children in schools once removed the influence of God who could have deflected our evil spells, genius!
