LISTEN, CHRISTIANS!

[Rhondazvous]

I get this completely. Some of you have been hurt or disappointed by Christians, and you're angry at them - not at God (who, after all, does not exist).

So I guess my next question is, if you get it, why default to "angry at god" at all? You did it with me, you've done it with some others here... why make that leap based solely on the presence of anger when you can't have a clear idea of its source?

Still, is it purely coincidental that for some, the loss of faith in God has coincided with this hurt/disappointment? Or would you say that they were totally unrelated?

I think it varies from person to person. I'm not saying that people never deconvert for emotional or bad reasons, I'm just pointing out that it's a fairly common christian refrain to assert that the reasons individual atheists believe as they do are those emotional or bad reasons, when they don't have a good justification for doing so.

Finally, I also get that in some cases, folks have REALLY cried out to God in a time of real need, and they got no answer. First, they got mad, then they concluded that "silence = non-existence". And now they are angry at ANYONE AND EVERYONE who supports the God who let them down because they feel like they've been lied to all those years.

Am I missing anything?

Again, I don't doubt there are people deconverting for bad reasons. I just don't think the people here are in that group, nor that the existence of that group is at all informing your accusations; you certainly didn't hesitate to accuse me of being angry with god, and I never had anything to deconvert from in the first place.

this is what I'm talking about. Christians are taught that we have a small repertoire of reasons why we don't believe, then they come here telling us that our reasons as invalid. Even if my reasons were one of those he lists here, it is my reason and not subject to the approval of any theist. We can't let them put the burden of proof on us. We find reasons not to believe and we find the reasons they give for believing o be uncompelling.

I started this thread, not because I need theists to approve my reasons, but, as I said, it irks me when they come here chastising us like naughty children. This is a discussion board for adults