(September 3, 2010 at 11:28 pm)AngelThMan Wrote: ...So yes, in most cases it is true that if someone goes from being a believer to atheism, they were never reeeaaalllyy a believer, or were pushed by other circumstances.If a lifelong Republican later registers with the Democratic party, he never really was a republican-- he was a democrat all along? Who knew!
If a non-believer later converts to Christianity, they never really were an non-believer after all-- they had always been a Christian, they just didn't know it? People convert to Christianity for many similar reasons that people leave it.
Semantic gymnastics render the term "Christian" and all sorts of other terms absurd since we really won't know what they are (including ourselves) until the very final seconds of one's life. One cannot even call oneself a Christian because, who knows-- he might become an atheist, a pantheist, a deist, a Buddhist or a Scientologist tomorrow, or five, ten, twenty years from today. You never know. These are mere verbal tricks which are ultimately meaningless.
We are not static beings, nor is the world. Changing your ideas in life as you get older is generally a sign of growth.
“Society is not a disease, it is a disaster. What a stupid miracle that one can live in it.” ~ E.M. Cioran