southernhybrid

I have asked this question before in the midst of a couple of threads, but I don't think I"ve ever received any answers. While I enjoy reading all the diversity of opinions in the GRD forum, it sometimes annoys me that Xians try to convert us. I'm asking those among you that are thoughtful conservative Xians, well meaning evangelicals, or totally irrational bible thumping fundies to explain why you bother trying to save atheists when they're are so many lower hanging fruit. Couldn't you gather a larger harvest someplace else?

As far as I'm concerned, I think we atheists are so interesting and fun loving, that some fundies simply find our company irresistible, but I'd like to actually hear the reasons why we are chosen as the targets for conversions when there are so many other low hanging fruit.

Many atheists have already been there and done that when it comes to the Xian religion. We tend to be natural born skeptics, demanding logic and evidence before we will accept most anything as truthful. We are usually very self confident, dare I say arrogant when it comes to how strongly we hold our beliefs or lack thereof. While not all atheists are equally zealous, I'm one of the many who can't imagine a better way to live than without carrying the baggage of superstition.

Again, I am asking those of you who attempt to bring us to the Xian god for redemption, why do you pick on us when there are obviously so many other low hanging fruit. I admit that at times I do find you amusing, but sometimes I just feel bad for you wasting so much of your time here, when there are certainly more low hanging fruit somewhere else.

Naturally I'd love to hear the opinions of my atheist cohorts, as well.

Godless Wonder

I'm not among the audience to which the OP is addressed, but I can take a guess. Maybe they are so surrounded by Christians that they can't easily find anyone else to attempt to convert. I know a couple people who before finding out I was an atheist honestly thought that they had never met an atheist before. And here we are all grouped together in a big convenient pile. Surely one of the thousands of members of this board should be convertible...

Jayjay

Yup, it's the visibility. We are the low hanging fruit when it comes to being easy to spot and engage in a debate, I guess.

Plognark

There's also a "badge of honor" aspect around either converting or at least defeating in argument a "die hard" atheist. And yes, i've actually heard it described exactly like that in real life. :banghead:

"The holy spirit filled me while we were arguing and, well, I knew that I couldn't lose."

That's a word for word quote from a former friend of mine who went fundy-catholic-evangelical (I don't get it either :huh: )

This was back when he still thought he could convert me, and I was very wishy-washy about this stuff.

Mageth

What gets me is how many (typically American) Christians come here and assume that we've never heard the Gospel message, or at least that we have a misconception about the "correct" version of it.. There are, of course, many exceptions to this among our Christian theist members, but nevertheless it's not uncommon to have someone present the "Gospel message" to us as if it'll come as some sort of big news to us that oughta blow us off our feet.

So perhaps that's a reason some Christians come here to "witness" - they assume that, if we don't believe it, then we've not heard it, or haven't heard the "true" Gospel message, apparently assuming we've been raised by wolves or something like that.

This seems to be a rather common among "evangelicals". Just this weekend, driving home from Houston, I tuned into a radio program that was talking about resurrection eggs. Their aim this year is to get these eggs into the hands of 1 million American children this year - and that in so doing, the children, and many of the parents of these children, would also learn the "true meaning of Easter", apparently for the first time.

southernhybrid

This is very possible, and perhaps things have changed since my fundy childhood. When I was growing up, I was taught that the liberal Xians, Unitarians, JWs, Mormons, and Catholics were probably not saved and needed to be witnessed to just as much as those heathen atheists. I was also encouraged to witness to Jews. Why not find a nice Jewish girl to convert?

Maybe the evangelicals have become a little more accepting of liberal theology, and think of us as one of the few fruits to be harvested. I think maybe they like the challenge of going after atheists, and we are all over the Internet, which makes it easier than looking for a nice atheist irl to target.

Godless Wonder

I sometimes think some of them think the words are actually magic, and just by hearing or reading them, we'll magically be transformed. I mean, if the Bible is the actual Word of God, why shouldn't the words be magic? And since they're magic words that cannot fail to make us believe, and since we don't believe, the obvious inference is that we've never heard the magic words, duh! And after we hear the magic words and still don't believe, well, obviously we're possessed or decieved by demons, or maybe we are demons, or maybe we've had our hearts hardened because we've been to proud and stubborn like the pharoah, and God sends us a strong delusion that we would believe a lie.

Dean Anderson

No, no, no!

Obviously, we do believe - we are just rebelling against God and pretending that we don't.

Plognark

I had an idea for a joke, but it was in such bad taste that i'll just.....um....nevermind

southernhybrid

You may be onto something. I remember some of that attitude as a child.

That always amazes me as well. I mean, is there any person in the Western world that has not heard the Xian message over and over again? I guess that some of the people that come here are just very naive.