Short Note On "converting" atheists for the evangelicals

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This link is a very short discussion about what evangelicals should know before trying to convert atheists. This is especially true of what he calls Category 3 atheists: those who have been deeply religious at sometime in their lives.Maybe something to think about?

The next time some parents want to raise their kids with the notion that the world is magical and all that crap, they might want to consider that when the fantasy world they've created for their kids collapse (and trust me the fantasy world will collapse) their kids will abandon god and any religious belief all together.Actually, I'm damn glad I was raised that way. Damn, was I delusional...

I am the product of a lapsed Catholic mother and a very atheistic father.My Grandafather on my mothers side was the only properly religious person in my family and I always enjoyed discussing these issues with him as a teenager.When all was said and done his last resort argument to convince me of the error of my ways me was to suggest that unless I could be absolutely certain that God did not exist that I would be better off believing just in case he did. He was genuinely concerned that my place in the heaven in which he so believed was at risk because of my proclaimed disbelief.When I pointed out to him that any number of other religions worshipping other gods could equally make the same claim he said to me "Boy. Don't be silly. Those foreigners and their foreign gods are not for you and me. We British know who God is and he is one of us".My atheistic tendancies were probably pretty much cast in stone from that point on. I almost certainly qualify as a category 1 atheist by the criteria in the link you provide.

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Very well stated - I agree whole-heartedly.One of my close friends is a category 3 atheist (although has been so since grad school 30+ years ago). He and I were talking one day about how he had met one of the Sitka 'serious' fundies (the ones that see all of Christianity as a simple series of steps with everything black and white. No discussion, no other sides, etc.). He asked the man if he was raised that way, and was told that he was raised in a weakly religious, agnostic household, and became a Christian in his early 20's.The conclusion of this discussion was whether or not my friend was doing the right thing raising his son as an atheist, as it seems the most knowledgeable atheists were those raised religious. He said (and I love this comparison!) that possibly fundamentalism is like chickenpox, it is fairly mild if you catch it when young, but pretty devastating as an adult.Of course he was not serious, he would not delude his child. In fact, his son is pretty amazing. I watched him (he is 13!) absolutely pwn the college chaplain on how Genesis 1-2 simply do not tell the same story that science has discovered.

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Doctor Bashir: "Of all the stories you told me, which were true and which weren't?"
Elim Garak: "My dear Doctor, they're all true"
Doctor Bashir: "Even the lies?"
Elim Garak: "Especially the lies"