Hello. Hey.
It's been a very long time. 4 months... entirely too long. I'm still on hiatus, but thought I'd just pop my head in and let you know I've been thinking about you.
So here is a quick catch-up, a quick summary of what is going to happen (very soon), and a post to whet your appetite and tie you over.
So here is a quick catch-up, a quick summary of what is going to happen (very soon), and a post to whet your appetite and tie you over.
A) A Quick Summary
In October and November of last year there was an upsetting personal drama in my family. For reasons left unspecified here, my sister has decided to move on with her life without the rest of her family. This has caused quite an upheaval in my life as she was (until her departure) living with our 90-year-old grandmother, to care for her. That is no longer the case, and during the course of December and January, Chael and I have moved in with her.
Shortly thereafter, I had an accident on our lovely icy Michigan sidewalks. My leg went one way and my kneecap the other, and now I am stuck in a brace which prevents me from bending my leg. So I can't drive, I hobble around with a cane, and I cannot unpack.
The short of it is this: I don't know where my notes / plans for Deconvert.Me are (as well as some ideas for posts). I also cannot sit at my computer at home for long periods of time to write. So unfortunately this project has fallen by the wayside. Sorry about that.
B) What is Going to Happen
I am in the middle of repurposing Deconvert.Me into a full resource site. I am only about 1/5 finished, and expect to launch on my 1-year anniversary of April 14th. That's in a month so I better get cracking! I will have links to resources, YouTubers, book reviews, news articles, etc. etc. I will also be continuing the blog, but in a much more limited capacity as I am considering writing actual articles - I've been in this for a year now and have a pretty good idea of where to go; I want to help others who may be in the same spot I was in.
C) A Post: The Greatest Single Cause of Atheism
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." -Brennan Manning
When I was a die-hard Christian, this was absolutely my favorite quote. I believed the typical fundamentalist rhetoric that atheists were either mad at god or didn't want to be accountable for their desire to violate basic morality. Christians who didn't behave as they should lent justification to atheist nonbelief and gave them fodder to "convert" others.
Of course, now I realize that this quote is blatant hogwash - and I'm going to explain why...
There are three glaring flaws:
- According to a 2011 Pew Research Center report, only 31.7% of the world identifies as Christian. (I am quite sure, as atheism has seen a surge in the last few years, this number is slightly decreased.) That leaves 68.3% of the population who identify with a different faith or none at all. It is arrogant to assume that your religion, accounting for less than 1/3 of the population of the planet, somehow has the greatest responsibility for the increase in atheism.
- Only Christians seem to think that their "witness" - the way they conduct their lives - cause unbelief because they aren't being Christian enough. The truth is, any simple Google search will show that overwhelmingly fundamentalist Christians are among the top reasons why people deconvert - for being too Christian. The number one reason I could find is Christians who have fully read their bible. Debating science with religious myth is another top reason. All the horrible things done to those that Christianity oppose, throughout history and up to even today, is another. Christianity itself - not "worldly" Christians - is the real reason why people deny / deconvert.
- Finally, an "unbelieving" world does not give two shits about your belief. In fact, what they do find unbelievable is Christians who can't seem to get with the times: Evolution is a fact. Women have equal rights. Sexual orientation is a sliding scale. Your are born into your parent's religion, are fed its doctrines before you are able to choose for yourself, and are typically threatened with eternal torment if you decide to discontinue belief.
The truth of the matter is this: the lifestyles of Christians has little or nothing to do with why people stop believing in a god. Our disbelief comes from looking outside religion, which is something you can only do when you examine your beliefs with an objective view, willing to adjust your mentality with whatever you may find. This is not something religion encourages and, subsequently, not something most religious adherents do.
For myself, after I allowed myself to ask the questions, to be honest, to examine - and then cast off the cloak of Christianity, I was able to see just how utterly ridiculous the religion (and religion in general) is.
"One of the greatest single causes of atheism in the world today is religious adherents: who believe in the truth and validity of only their particular version of god(s) above all others; try to push their antiquated beliefs on others; and deny science, reason, logic, and common sense in favor of unverifiable myth and anecdotal evidence. That is what atheists simply find unreasonable." -Me
