How do christians view apostasy

[professor]

Who does not employ faith in their everyday life?
Faith is walking out on what you know.
Otherwise you would not get out of bed in the morning.
Patience is having the belief (not the knowledge) that "This too will pass".
Again- a faith response.

Cato, you must be a guy. Something about a one track mind?
Then, you see how the other guys fall into the same mode.
I am not biting on your ploy.

[John V]

Understood but I did ask the question so I'm grateful that he answered it honestly.

I wasn't going to reply as the thread so quickly devolved into trash, but you're so polite I changed my mind.

I asked this question on another forum but there were not too many responses from christians so I thought I would repeat it here. I've referred to christians but only because that seems to be the majority of the theist population on this forum.

We have occassional stories of people leaving their religion and a particularly heartfelt account earlier today.

I was wondering whether reading these tales of indoctrination at an early age and then escape later in life if any christian members here relate to any of it?

No. We were nominally Christian when I grew up and sometimes went to church on Sunday, but that was it. No talk of religion at home. No other church activities. I certainly wasn't indoctrinated.

Do you ignore these people?

Yes. They all sound alike after awhile, as I'm sure Christian conversion accounts largely sound alike to many of the atheists here.

What would you do if your child, who you had brought up strictly christian eventually rejected your god?

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

[Jenny A]

Aww, be kind to the befuddled Prof. We asked a question, we got an answer. And while his thinking is muddled, his heart appears to be in the right place on this particular issue.

[polar bear]

Professor, your response is not the typical response I have seen in my life. For the most part I am judged, ridiculed, rejected and so on. Patience or kindness has not been seen. In fact I have reached out numerous times to people educated in theology (is that an oxymoron?) and they tell me that the questions I ask are fed to me by atheist and there is no way I could have come up with the questions. Yes, a lot of my questions have come about because I am learning more about science. But just because I am learning something doesn't mean that my questions are not valid. That is just a piss poor excuse to say, I have no answer for that.

I appreciate the christians on this forum who attempt to rebut some very strong facts. But even here I have seen some christians act pompous and arrogant... not patient.

[Jenny A]

What would you do if your child, who you had brought up strictly christian eventually rejected your god?

“Each one of us here today will at one time in our lives look upon a loved one who is in need and ask the same question: We are willing to help, Lord, but what, if anything, is needed? For it is true we can seldom help those closest to us. Either we don't know what part of ourselves to give or, more often than not, the part we have to give is not wanted. And so it is those we live with and should know who elude us. But we can still love them - we can love completely without complete understanding.”
― Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories

That's lovely. And brownie points for quoting one of my "touch stone" books. Norman Maclean was a wise man.

[Cato]

Cato, you must be a guy. Something about a one track mind?

I am not one of the several bible authors that used knowing as a euphemism for fucking.

Most people would consider employing a specific meaning for a word in a more general context a trope, not a ploy.

[Minimalist]

When xtians had the power to burn apostates at the stake they did so with great glee.

Now, they no longer have that power.

They long for the good old days.

What we get are sanctimonious crap responses like prof's.

[vorlon13]

It looks to me like apostasy is actually a sacrament with most of today's christians. We've certainly had some AMAZING examples from those come to save us atheists here. Many christers are totally befuddled as to what their scriptures say, yet they are still 'saved' and think they can save others, despite their heresies, blasphemies, apostasies and BRAZEN cherry picking of scriptures.

[Tonus]

Who does not employ faith in their everyday life?
Faith is walking out on what you know.

No, religion has co-opted the term. Faith is normally based on some level of trust and/or experience, though we recognize that it can also be baseless, hence terms like "blind faith." When I walk into my home and flip the light switch, I "have faith" that the lights will come on because they do nearly every time. I "have faith" that my car will start because it almost always does. I have faith in certain friends to keep their promises because they are reliable in that regard. This faith is not always rewarded, and I understand that the basis for that faith doesn't provide absolute certainty, even if I act that way. Which is why I might be disappointed or angry when any of those let me down, but my worldview isn't catastrophically impacted.

Your faith in god and Biblical prophecy is akin to placing absolute trust in a complete stranger because he smiles and has a warm disposition, and because you trust people in general to do what is right. He may reward your trust and he may betray it, but the only factors that you have to go on are too slim to be a guarantee. Con men have been taking advantage of misplaced trust and blind faith for about as long as there have been people available to con.

[Tombochan]

Your simile is apt, Tonus but let's take this a step further.
Christians have deep faith in what is AT BEST non contemporary second and third person hearsay none of which is corroborated by any rigorous scientific examination and in fact some of which has been item by item specifically debunked. Moreover, the story of Jesus was likely no more than a repetition of myths that had been lore in many societies, virtually verbatim, for some 2000-3000 years prior to 1AD.

---

As were the tale of the flood, the character of Moses, etc. etc.