RE: Hostage to fear
June 24, 2015 at 3:14 pm
(This post was last modified: June 24, 2015 at 3:19 pm by Simon Moon.)
(June 23, 2015 at 6:18 pm)Randy Carson Wrote:(June 23, 2015 at 6:11 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Minor correction:
There is no such thing as a 'conversion to atheism'. That is an incoherent statement.
Carry on with the thread...
ˈkänˌvərt/
1. a person who has been persuaded to change their religious faith or other beliefs.
Someone who leaves Christianity for atheism has, by definition, been persuaded one way or another to change their faith or beliefs.
Since I, like every single human on earth, did not start out life as a Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim or whatever baby, I did not change my religious beliefs, I gave up the ones I was taught. In effect, I deconverted.
I was converted away from my natural state of not having religious beliefs by my parents, ancient texts, culture, churches, temples, mosques, etc.
To use a cliche, conversion is like changing from one channel on the TV to another. Atheism is like walking away from the TV altogether and choosing no TV channel.
In addition, how can having a single position on a single claim (the disbelief that a god exists) be a conversion?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
