I've come in contact with quite a few former Christians who are now atheists. In all instances, the atheists were very conservative evangelical/fundamentalists. The charge is often leveled against them that they were never true Christians in the first place. Part of what's included in that charge is something along the lines of the atheist had more faith in the factual knowledge of the Bible, or the faith was too dependent on the factual knowledge of the Bible, rather than God Himself. Because the faith was so rigid, and not properly dependent upon knowing God, the atheist lost his faith for that reason.
These atheists have family members who are still the conservative evangelical/fundamentalists that the atheists once were. So if the atheists were never Christians because they never knew God, and because the faith was too tied up in a rigid view of the Bible, doesn't that mean that the family members who are currently Christians aren't Christians as well?
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3 comments:
I wrote on this type of thing (mine was too long-winded and less succinct) Here
DagoodS,
My post was definitely shorter. ;)
But you were one of the people I had in mind when writing this, because I've seen your interactions with other Christians, and how they judged your faith as something other than a true faith in God. I should've asked those commentators at the time, but if your faith wasn't a true faith in God, then doesn't that mean all your family members also don't have a true faith? Because yours was the same as theirs.
Plus, I just don't get how someone can say that someone else never really had faith. The whole faith in God process is so internal to begin with, so how can one make that judgment without first-hand knowledge?
"doesn't that mean that the family members who are currently Christians aren't Christians as well?" (OSS)
I would call that a touche point!
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