After This Christian Deconverted, He Sought Out the Atheist Who Changed His Mind

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/07/19/after-this-christian-deconverted-he-sought-out-the-atheist-who-changed-his-mind/

After This Christian Deconverted, He Sought Out the Atheist Who Changed His Mind
July 19, 2017 by Hemant Mehta

Anthony Magnabosco is a “street epistemologist” who enjoys chatting with strangers to get to the bottom of how they think. He probes their methods and asks them to explain how they decide what’s true. Since many religious people were raised with their beliefs, and they didn’t come to them through logic and reason, it makes for a very interesting discussion.

Nearly two years ago, Anthony ran into a guy named Daniel in San Antonio, Texas and they had a typical conversation about beliefs. You never know what seeds you’re planting when you have these discussions or if people like Daniel will even think about that conversation again after he walks away.

In this case, Daniel did think about it. And he later became an atheist.

He recently reached out to Anthony to tell him this, and they arranged to meet again to discuss his “deconversion.”

Around the 14:15 mark, Daniel points out that the question that changed him the most was: How was his faith in God any different from a Muslim’s faith in God? He had never thought about it before, but the realization that so many people believe in God — and the various groups all believe the other groups are wrong — was a big deal.

Moral of the story: You may not be able to convince someone to shed their faith in a short conversation, but Anthony planted the seeds of doubt in Daniel’s mind in about 20 minutes back in 2015, and Daniel eventually figured it out on his own time.

[eppur_se_muova]

1. A casual remark by my mother planted this thought in my head when I was only 4 or 5 years old ...

we had sat through a sermon where the preacher talked about some awful furriners in one of them awful furrin' countries where they believed in a religion other than The One True Religion. Being somewhat naive at the time, I was confused and upset by these dark revelations, and asked my mother why people would believe in some religion which was obviously wrong. She just said "I guess they were raised that way." I had expected something more devious, more subtle, more nefarious, and was a bit let down that it should be something so simple and seemingly innocent. And of course I realized almost immnediately that we believed in our own religion because we were raised that way -- not because of some profound truths unique to that religion, or because it was logically more convincing, or more favored by the evidence -- but just because we had been born into that particular religion, passed down from parent to child in that family for generations, without question. What applied to those people in the sermon applied just as well to us.

Strangely, this occurred when I was still young enough to believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. By the time those were all revealed to be lies (WHY do parents find it amusing to lie to their children? And why is it considered a hallowed tradition?) my faith was pretty weak, and by the time I was 10 or so I had concluded that the stories in the Bible were no more believable than the Greek, Norse, or Amerindian myths and legends I had read in school (see, education is dangerous!). It seemed to me that atheism made more sense than all the religions of the world put together, and I couldn't understand why everyone around me still clung to their god long after they had outgrown Santa Claus, Thor, etc. It struck me as not wanting to mature, to think like intelligent adults, to declare one's independence from primitive beliefs in magical sky beings. It still does.

[SwissTony]

2. I made a similar journey, but the furriners weren't the problem.

I spent my initial years in 1950s Glasgow, brought up as a Catholic. Many of the people we knew (including some of my friends) were Protestant. Generally, that didn't cause any problems. (Aside: they used to have the Orange Walks, complete with sashes (collarettes) and flutes/fifes, which used to annoy some people. And there was the Celtic/Rangers rivalry. But apart from that, there no real problems).

But the Protestants were wrong!!! Their Bible wasn't exactly the same as ours. We had a couple of bits that they didn't have. So, they were wrong. Of course, they argued that WE were wrong to include those bits.

And as I got older, I realised there were sects in both camps that argued that other sects within their own religion were wrong.

All this got me thinking about who, if any, was right. Then I started to doubt the whole story. So, by the age of 13, I'd turned into one of those dreadful people who don't believe in any god.

[Alternative Facts]

3. wow I had the exact same experience

I believe the "life lottery" determines most of human existence. When you were born, where you were born and to whom you were born will determine 99% of your existence. Unfortunately very few can escape that trajectory.

[progressoid]

4. See! See! Dang athiests got a agenda to convert everybody to their "beliefs"

Kidding.

Nice to see a calm, rational discussion.

[LostOne4Ever]

5. I ultimately got deconverted by a drinking and driving PSA. nt