Former atheist

[Dystopia]

Some of you may have met some people who identify themselves as former atheists (they always emphasize the former part) - I'm curious about two things:

1 - Why do these former atheists take so much pleasure in shoving down other people's throats that they were once atheists (as if atheism was false and they now feel enlightened and saved)? When someone asks me my religious beliefs I say I am an atheist, not a former Christian (the same applies to any sect of belief). By the way, I know not every atheist is a former theist, but you get what I mean.

--> I don't think someone's opinion has more or less value because they were once an atheist, just like a former Christian doesn't get extra credibility when talking about Christianity, and people like me don't get extra credit when talking about Islam (I've never been a Muslim)

2 - Why do people become atheists and then go back to theism? Seriously, I sometimes post in a deist forum and I've met people who were atheists for 20-30-40 years and then quitted and became deists. I'm guessing the same happens with atheists who become new born Christians, the list goes on... I cannot understand. After what I've searched and found I cannot imagine myself going back to theism (even deism) because I know it's either false or the probability of it being true is very low.

[Faith No More]

I've found that 99% of the time they say that it's bullshit. Either they don't understand what an atheist actually is or they're just flat-out lying.

Most of the time it's just another shallow apologetic tactic.

[Brian37]

It isn't impossible to go back. Most of the "former atheists" over the years I have run into when you peal it back simply were apathetic about religion, or took the word as some sort of rebellion. I would say somewhere along the line they simply got sucked in by a snake oil salesman.

There really is a lot you need to know as an atheist as far as the extent of elaborate apology that they come up with. Some may have been atheists, but that doesn't mean they were well armed. I've been at this 14 years almost every day and I can tell you I was an atheist before I started educating myself and back then I was an easy target by comparison.

[Norman Humann]

I guess most of the time they think that saying they were once atheists somehow makes their argument more rational or more valid to actual atheists. You know, trying to sound like they know what they are talking about.

[Mudhammam]

It's strange that the "former atheists" never seem concerned with the critical analysis of faith that current atheists are....

[Dystopia]

Faith No More, I don't doubt your lived experiences but I don't think this is the case for every former atheist. I am curious about this because some of the people I've talked to knew all the arguments for and against god, they were atheists for some years and then quitted. Just imagine someone like Minimalist becoming a theist to see how it looks (Sorry for the insult Min)

[watchamadoodle]

If I used to be a rock star, then I would probably put "former rockstar" on my business card. Everybody knows atheists are the best.

In fairness to the former atheists, I sometimes consider myself better qualified to criticize Christianity due to my "former Christian" label ("been there, done that").

The real question in my mind, is why these people converted from atheism to theisms. I'm sure a lot depends on the type of atheism and the personality.

[Norman Humann]

Just imagine someone like Minimalist becoming a theist to see how it looks (Sorry for the insult Min)

First he must be beaten in kudos, then hell must freeze over, then pigs must learn to fly over his dead body and it still would be the End of Times.

[Mudhammam]

2 - Why do people become atheists and then go back to theism? Seriously, I sometimes post in a deist forum and I've met people who were atheists for 20-30-40 years and then quitted and became deists. I'm guessing the same happens with atheists who become new born Christians, the list goes on... I cannot understand. After what I've searched and found I cannot imagine myself going back to theism (even deism) because I know it's either false or the probability of it being true is very low.

I think it has something to do with what Plato says in the Republic (Pascal stresses this point quite a bit in his run-up to the wager as well):

But you know, Socrates, that when someone thinks his end is near, he becomes frightened and concerned about things he didn't fear before. It's then that the stories we're told about Hades, about how people who've been unjust here must pay the penalty there---stories he used to make fun of---twist his soul this way and that for fear they're true. And whether because of the weakness of old age or because he is now closer to what happens in Hades and has a clearer view of it, or whatever it is, he is filled with foreboding and fear, and he examines himself to see whether he has been unjust to anyone. If he find many injustices in his life he awakes from sleep in terror, as children do, and lives in anticipation of bad things to come. But someone who knows that he hasn't been unjust has sweet good hope as his constant companion---a nurse to his old age, as Pindar says, for he puts it charmingly, Socrates, when he says that when someone lives a just and pious life

Sweet hope is in his heart,
Nurse and companion to his age.
Hope, captain of the ever-twisting
Minds of mortal men.

[Brian37]

It's strange that the "former atheists" never seem concerned with the critical analysis of faith that current atheists are....

That means even if they were, like I said, they were not well armed. There is a lot more to rejecting god claims than simply saying "that makes no sense". That part is easy. Knowing why you hold your position is just as important. I knew absolutely nothing when I first called myself an atheist. I am much more well armed now.