christ-on-a-stick

MortalWombat.... :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy !!!!!

All of that (what MW wrote) is certainly a big part of it for me.

However, my personal "passion" if you will comes largely from my life experience. Raised in a fundamentalist Xian home, spending several years as a missionary kid overseas, attending fundy private schools, etc. made for a childhood saturated by God-belief. When in the middle of my first, VERY fundy marriage, I began the gradual "awakening" process and finally deconverted completely, it was disconcerting to realize most of my life had been based on a myth. It was also a little bit "angering" (?) to me that due to intense indoctrination and being *extremely* sheltered from the "world", I had never been taught to think for myself, think critically or been encouraged to come to my own conclusions.

(This is not to say that my deconversion was prompted by negative experiences with "the church" (although there were some, like anywhere I think) - a common misconception among Christians IMO (the "mad at God" atheist, etc.) On the contrary, some of my happiest childhood memories are from the time spent on the mission field and in various church activities, and some of the kindest and most loving people I knew in my youth were Christians.)

Essentially, coming to the realization that I'd been "boondoggled" my whole life really woke me up to, as MortalWombat so aptly described, the total saturation of our culture with God-belief, God-talk, and God-bothering (endless proselytizing and efforts by religionists to impose their worldview in a myriad of ways). So especially after finding this little corner of cyberspace and realizing that it wasn't just me, I have become passionate about trying to help "spread the light of reason" wherever I can.

I liken it to someone who was, for instance, raised in a very racist environment becoming passionate about actively speaking out against racism, or someone from an abusive home becoming interested in helping abused children. People often are drawn to issues and subjects that have greatly affected them personally. I know a couple people, now substance abuse counselors, who were inspired mostly by their own past issues with substance abuse and a desire to now help others, because they've been there and done that and can personally relate.

Additionally, I really believe that now more than ever, due to the recent social and political climate in the US, it is important for nonbelievers to speak up and speak out. We have a President who has stated he believes he was "chosen by God" to lead our country and whose father, while President, told a reporter that he didn't think atheists should be considered citizens (no public outcry there... what if he had replaced "atheists" with "Jews"? ) Public figures commonly and openly disparage the character of atheists and are not taken to task for it... using it almost as a "dirty word", it seems that we (atheists) are the last group that it is socially acceptable to be prejudiced against. While the religious right seeks constantly to erode the wall of separation between church and state, should we sit idly by? I, for one, don't think so, and know that many here and elsewhere share that view.

Anyway, there's my long answer to your question.

Gurdur

I've been a hardline (albeit very tolerant) atheist for a long. long time.
I still like to discuss the in's-and-out's of more complex comparative theologies, simply because they provide one more glimpse into the fascinating human psyche.

As for arguing about religion, I do that very seldomly; most of the time, I simply couldn't be bothered.
I mostly argue about other things on this board.

Bumble Bee Tuna

I love debate, and I hate religion. It causes a lot of problems. I would like to see people deconvert. Thus, I argue against theists. It's enjoyable, and every so often one leaves the fold. I also do it to learn new arguments and strengthen my ability to easily discuss it in the real world if it ever comes up, so anyone who tries to witness to me will be beaten severely in debate.

-B

Selsaral

My favorite one. Good stuff MortalWombat.

Amos

With the only difference that we can actually become God (obtain the mind of God), while we must just pretent to be santa claus who actually foreshadows God to children and therefore has similar qualities as God.

Spaz

Godless Dave and MortalWombat got it. I wonder why people let themselves believe in the unbelievable in religion (as well as other things). People are very interesting, and you can't learn if you don't talk about it.

Selsaral

Oh, well I was getting at the whole 'you really do believe in god but you want to live in sin' thing that christians come up with. Unless you pull a manuever like that, you have to accept that there are legitimate reasons for a person not to believe in god, and therefore the whole system of determining whether you roast in hell for all eternity based entirely upon whether you believe in the existence of the christian god or not becomes extremely troublesome for an omnibenevolent diety. A christian either assumes all atheists in reality do believe in god but 'reject' him out of pride or whatever, or you get into the ripe lands of biblical cherry-picking.

Amos

Nice post and let me just add that all protestants will come to that same realization. I'd say good for you that this happened earlier in life or you'd be spending the rest of life in your own prison.

MortalWombat

So in other words, you agree with Kally:

PaladInChrist

Wow, I never thought of it that way, thanks for the insight!

That _would_ be incredibly frustrating!