Helping Christians to lose faith?

[Cephus]

Should you help your 70-year-old mother lose her faith?

Uhhhh..........no.

Why not?  Belief in a lie, even a long-term lie, is still believing a lie.  Are you utterly uninterested in accepting the truth?  Or are you all in favor of clinging to comforting lies?  I find the latter to be reprehensible.

[watchamadoodle]

Thanks, everybody.
I guess I will continue pretending to be a disenchanted Christian.
However, I know how much Christianity has cost me emotionally, financially, psychologically, socially, ...
"Do unto others as you would have done unto you." Looking back, I would have preferred to have my faith challenged by my friends.
I know it's not polite to talk about religion (especially if you are an atheist), but religion survives mainly because people keep it off limits.

[Pyrrho]

Thanks, everybody.
I guess I will continue pretending to be a disenchanted Christian.
However, I know how much Christianity has cost me emotionally, financially, psychologically, socially, ...
"Do unto others as you would have done unto you." Looking back, I would have preferred to have my faith challenged by my friends.
I know it's not polite to talk about religion (especially if you are an atheist), but religion survives mainly because people keep it off limits.

I think if you approach the matter as I did with my brother (post # 18 in this thread), you will not be being rude and you will likely satisfy your desire to be following the golden rule.

One of the key points is letting the conversation die, and not pushing it beyond the point that the other person wants to talk about it.  That way, the person can be left thinking about whatever it is that got them to the point of not wanting to continue the conversation, instead of thinking that you are being mean and pushing too hard or whatever.

[watchamadoodle]

I think if you approach the matter as I did with my brother (post # 18 in this thread), you will not be being rude and you will likely satisfy your desire to be following the golden rule.

One of the key points is letting the conversation die, and not pushing it beyond the point that the other person wants to talk about it.  That way, the person can be left thinking about whatever it is that got them to the point of not wanting to continue the conversation, instead of thinking that you are being mean and pushing too hard or whatever.

Thanks In my case, when religion comes up there is an unspoken assumption that of course I agree with the Christian views. A week ago, my brother mentioned how much he has been worried about some issues and his opinion that this worry was a spiritual attack. I just nodded my head politely. I wondered if I should have tried to start a conversation to challenge his faith. On the other hand, my brother has a lot of worries, and losing faith might add to that. Also, I hate to think of my mother feeling isolated in her beliefs if my brother and sister became atheists.

If I did try to have a conversation on religion, I would need to be the initiator unfortunately. Somebody might ask me to pray for somebody else, and I would need to say "no, I think prayer is a waste of time". I would need to make it an issue instead of going with the flow.

[xmark27]

Sometimes I wonder if I should be openly and vocally atheist in an effort to help my family and friends to lose faith.

Any ideas?
- My mother is 70 and I doubt if she would ever lose faith, but I could be surprised. I try to pretend to believe a little bit for her sake. Her beliefs are somewhat fundamentalist and also somewhat superstitious (Eastern Orthodox)
- My brother and his family believe similarly to my mother except less strongly.
- My sister and her husband are Lutherans.

I feel bad leaving them to believe nonsense when I might be able to help them - especially my brother and sister. On the other hand, it could create a big mess.

If helping her is what you desire then do nothing and let her faith be her guidance. You speak of what you not know. Your mom is not wrong to have faith in God. You believe that science holds the key for everything. Help yourself my friend because much of this world has been corrupted. You don't see the beauty in this world do you? Do you actually think something as beautiful as this world was just created by chance? If what you say is true then stop and think for five minutes I beg of you. Erase God and the bible from history and imagine the world without a God or a bible. What do you have? You think everything in this world is going to be shown to you. You think God will come and fix your problem right away. It isn't that easy, if it were then what would be the purpose of life if what he is doing is trying to teach us something. God listens. Just because you have a great job or life without God does not mean there really isn't a God. You are only being blinded by the devil. He is giving you everything you want so you wont believe in God. Its his job to deceive you poor people. I can not make you believe nor force this on you because it is your choice. God gave us freewill and we decide what we want to do with it. God is our creator and no matter how much we learn on this earth , we will never find the answer by our intellect but by our faith in him. I am one intelligent person and I have always wondered how the universe began and have thought about it for hours. Done research day and night, which gave me two answers. 1. The Universe just happened because it happened. The Earth is here because it just is. There is life because there just is. There is no designer. Everything that happened on this Earth was for no reason. You smile and love for no reason. There is no purpose to life because why would there if our planet in universe is just something random that happened. 2. God created the universe. The universe is one grand design by him. That made everything possible for us to live here on Earth. Taught us how to love one another. Gave us the beauty of life.
If you believe just because you haven't seen him or science hasn't proven him then think for one second, do you actually someone like God would be exposed by a simple human here on earth. I mean if the man created this universe and life on this planet, then do you actually think your science would solve Gods Grand Design. The answer is simple. No of course not. If you ever are curious about what I have told you then look around you and look at your loved ones laugh and smile. The answer is right there. It's not rocket science. It's just the truth.

[The Valkyrie]

I don't see it as my purpose as an atheist to deconvert people.

If people ask me why I'm an atheist, I'll tell them.

If people want to know my perspective, I'll tell them.

If my conversation with a religious person leads to their deconversion, fine. If it doesn't, fine.

It's not my mission in life.

[AFTT47]

There is an introduction forum for new members, xmark27. Paragraphs would be appreciated too.

[xmark27]

A paragraph would not have made a difference in your decision or what you may think of me. Attack my grammar for that is the only thing you will take in. I wont get angry because that's not the point of this.

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I want to know why many of you have become atheist and have just ridden God from your lives? I will not disrespect you in any way. I just want to know why you have come to that conclusion.

[Tonus]

Read through the forum and you'll get some answers. You'll also see that your rambling post up there isn't anything we haven't seen before. Emotion is not reason. 'You can't disprove' is not proof. I didn't get rid of god, I just realized he isn't there.

[xmark27]

Then tell me Tonus once again why you don't believe.