John Shore

Archive for the ‘Atheists’ Category

Atheists of America Agree: Christianity Makes Eminent Rational Sense!

In Atheists, Christianity, Religion on February 29, 2008 at 6:53 pm

As I’m sure my readers will agree, in my last post, There’s No Arguing It: We Can’t KNOW If There’s a God or Not, I conclusively proved that it is exactly as reasonable to think that there is a God as it is to think there’s not. Not one of the 50 or so people who commented on that post questioned the validity of that assertion. (I’m kidding. I actually think Atheists of America have taken out a hit on me.)

Now watch how easily — nay, how inevitably — one must move from the understanding that there’s at least a 50/50 chance of a God existing, to the conclusion that Christianity is the greatest religion in the history of people yearning for spiritual succor.

My blog posts are always too long, so I’m going to keep brief the logical steps from Probable God to Christ. Those steps are:

1. There’s a 50% chance that God is real (which has already been proven).

2. If there’s a God, then God created everything, including humans.

3. If God created humans, God must love humans, because who doesn’t love what they create?

4. God loving humans means God longs to express his love to humans, because it is the nature of love to express itself.

5. God is prohibited from in any direct or overt manner conveying to humans his love for them, because if he objectified himself in the way that would necessitate – if he just appeared to people, and told them that he loved them — then he would ruin their lives by obliterating their free will, by robbing of them their right to choose for themselves whether or not to believe in him. (For more about this particular dynamic, please see my, Why Doesn’t God Just Prove He Exists?) It is precisely God’s love for people (that is, for the qualilty that most wholly defines people, which is their free will) that stops God from proving to people that he loves them as much as he does.

6. People feel guilty all the time for the stupid, petty, selfish, greedy, ego-driven things they do. Feeling guilty is a necessary result of free will, since free will means that in life one is bound to make stupid, petty, selfish, greedy, ego-driven choices.

7. God hates it that people suffer from guilt. And he certainly understands that feeling guilty and feeling unlovable are intimately connected. He also hates it that people’s lives are defined by fear (which they must be, since no one knows what happens to them after they die).

8. God wanted a way to prove his love for people, relieve them of their guilt, and put to rest their fears about their ultimate fate.

9. Becoming the mortal known to history as Jesus Christ is how God accomplished all three of those things — and how he did it all without compromising anyone’s free will. He proved his love for people by becoming a human, taking into his body all the guilt all people ever had or would experience, and then slaughtered that guilt into oblivion. And he put to rest people’s fears about their ultimate fate by explicitly promising everlasting life to anyone who believed in him (which, remember, he had to make part of the deal in order to leave in tact people’s free will). God spent 2,000 years telling everyone he was going to come to earth to do exactly what he did; he did it; and then he went back from whence he’d come.

10. Before finally taking his bodily leave of us, God installed within every human the whole of himself, in the form of the Holy Spirit. All anyone has to do to awaken and access that Holy Spirit is believe that that’s possible, and ask for it. God never enters where he’s not first asked.

And thus, in 10 E-Z Steps, do we have positive, irrefutable prove that believing in the reality of the Christian story makes at least as much sense as not believing in it.

God—>creation—>humans—>love of humans—>respecting humans’ free will—>wanting to relieve humans’ guilt and fear—>Jesus—>Holy Spirit.

See, atheists? We’re at least as rational as you!

And I know you agree! Which is so great!!

What Non-Christians Want Christians To Hear

In Atheists, Christianity, Religion on January 30, 2008 at 10:39 am

Last year I posted a notice on Craigslists all over the country saying … well, exactly this: “I’m about three months away from finishing a book I’m writing for a large, established, reputable Christian book publisher. [I had to say this true thing so that people would take it seriously.] It’ll be my third published book. This one is about the relationship that generally exists between Christians and non-Christians. In it I want to incorporate maybe thirty 100-250 word statements wherein non-Christians–in their own words, in casual, straight-ahead, first-person style–say what they think of Christians generally–and specifically how they feel about the dynamic wherein Christians try to convert them. I want to be very clear that this is NOT a Christian-bashing book; I wouldn’t have sold it to such a prominent Christian publishing house if it were. It’s coming from a place that only means well for everyone. Thanks.”

Within about four days I had in my inbox over 300 statements from non-Christians. I found they made for some seriously depressing reading. Here are some of them:

“The main thing that baffles and angers me about Christians is how they can understand so little about human nature that when, in their fervor to convert another person, they tell that person (as they inevitably do, in one way or another), ‘You’re bad, and wrong, and evil,’ they actually expect that person to agree with them. It pretty much guarantees that virtually the only people Christians can ever realistically hope to convert are those with tragically low self-esteem.”— E.S., Denver

“I feel that Christians have got it all wrong; it seems to me that they’ve created the very thing Jesus was against: Separatism.”— T. O., Denver

“I am often distressed at the way some Christians take as a given that Christians and Christianity define goodness. Many of we non-Christians make a practice of doing good; we, too, have a well-developed ethical system, and are devoted to making the world a better place. Christians hardly have a monopoly on what’s right, or good, or just.”— C.R., Seattle

“Christians seem to have lost their focus on Jesus’ core message: ‘Love the Lord your god with all your heart and with all your soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.’”— R.M., Tacoma, WA

“I have no problem whatsoever with God or Jesus—only Christians. It’s been my experience that most Christians are belligerent, disdainful and pushy.” — D.B., Atlanta

“Whenever I’m approached by an evangelist—by a Christian missionary—I know I’m up against someone so obsessed and narrowly focused that it will do me absolutely no good to try and explain or share my own value system. I never want to be rude to them, of course, but never have any idea how to respond to their attempts to convert me; in short order, I inevitably find myself simply feeling embarrassed—first for them, and then for us both. I’m always grateful when such encounters conclude.”— K.C., Fresno, CA.

“I don’t know whether or not most of the Christians I come across think they’re acting and being like Jesus was—but if they do, they need to go back to their Bibles, and take a closer look at Jesus.” — L.B., Phoenix

“I grew up Jewish in a Southern Baptist town, where I was constantly being told that I killed Christ, ate Christian babies, and was going to hell. So I learned early that many Christians have—or sure seem to have—no love in their hearts at all. It also seems so odd to me that Christians think that if I don’t accept their message my ears and heart are closed, because it seems to me like they have excessively closed ears and hearts to anyone else’s spiritual message and experience. They seem to have no sense of the many ways in which God reaches out to everyone. As far as I’ve ever known, Christians are narrow in their sense of God, fairly fascistic in their thinking, and extremely egotistical in thinking God only approves of them.”— B.P., Houston

“I wish Christians would resist their aggressive impulses to morph others into Christians. Didn’t Jesus preach that we should all love one another?”— M.G., Shoreline, WA

“I’m frequently approached by Christians of many denominations who ask whether I’ve accepted Christ as my savior. When I have the patience, I politely tell them that I’m Jewish. This only makes them more aggressive; they then treat me like some poor lost waif in need of their particular brand of salvation. They almost act like salespeople working on commission: If they can save my soul, then they’re one rung closer to heaven. It’s demeaning. I always remain polite, but encounters like these only show disrespect and sometimes outright intolerance for my beliefs and my culture. In Judaism, we do not seek to convert people. That is because we accept that there are many paths to God, and believe that no one religion can lay sole claim to the truth or to God’s favor. Each person is free to find his or her own way. To Christians I would say: Practice your religion as you wish. There is no need to try and influence others. If your religion is a true one, people will come to it on their own.”— M.S., Honolulu

“When did it become that being a Christian meant being an intolerant, hateful bigot? I grew up learning the positive message of Christ: Do well and treat others with respect, and your reward will be in heaven. Somehow, for a seemingly large group of Christians, that notion has gone lost: It has turned into the thunders and lights of the wrath of God, and into condemning everyone who disagrees with them to burning in the flames of hell. Somehow, present-day Christians forgot about turning the other cheek, abandoned the notion of treating others like they would like to be treated themselves; they’ve become bent on preaching, judging, and selfishly attempting to save the souls of others by condemning them. What happen to love? To tolerance? To respect?”—S.P., Nashville

“There are about a million things I’d like to say to Christians, but here’s the first few that come to mind: Please respect my right to be the person I’ve chosen to become. Worship, pray and praise your God all you want—but please leave me, and my laws, and my city, and my school alone. Stop trying to make me, or my children, worship your god. Why do we all have to be Christians? Respect my beliefs; I guarantee they’re every bit as strong as yours. Mostly, please respect my free will. Let me choose if I want to marry someone of my own sex. Let me choose if I want to have an abortion or not. Let me choose to go to hell if that’s where you believe I’m going. I can honestly say that I’d rather go to hell than live the hypocritical life I see so many Christians living.”— D.B., Seattle

“I had a friend who was, as they say, reborn. During my breaks from college she invited me to her church, and I did go a couple of times. In a matter of a month, at least ten people at her church told me that I was going to hell. The ironic thing is that I do believe in God; I’ve just never found a church where I felt at ease. However, in their eyes, I was nothing but a sinner who needed to be saved. I stopped going to that church (which in the past four years has grown from a small to a mega-church), but in time, through my friend, have seen some of these people again. None of them ever fails to treat me exactly as they did four years ago. All I can say is this: Constantly telling someone they’re going to hell is not a good way to convert them.”— A.S., Chicago

“I am a former ‘born again’ Christian. It’s been my personal experience that Christians treat the poor poorly—much like the Pharisees did in the parable of the old woman with the two coins. I found the church to be political to a fault, and its individual members all too happy to judge and look down on others. As a Christian, my own fervor to witness was beyond healthy. My friends would come to me to vent and express emotions, and all I would do is preach to them. I was of no real comfort to them. I never tried to see anything from their perspective.”— J.S.W, Philadelphia

“Once Christians know I’m gay, the conversion talk usually stops. Instead, I become this sympathetic character who apparently isn’t worthy of the gift of Christ. From my childhood in a Baptist church, I recall the ‘loathe the sin, love the sinner’ talk, but as an adult I can’t say I’ve often found Christians practicing that attitude. Deep down, I’m always relieved to avoid disturbing “conversion” conversations with Christians; discussing one’s most intimate thoughts and personal beliefs isn’t something I enjoy doing with random strangers. But at the same time, I feel as though Christians make a value judgment about my soul on the spot, simply because I am gay. I don’t pretend to know the worth of a soul, nor the coming gifts to those who convert the masses, but I would guess converting the sinful homosexuals would merit a few brownie points. But I get the feeling that most Christians don’t think we’re worth the hassle.”— R.M., Houston

“Religion always seemed too personal for me to take advice about it from people I don’t know.”— D.P., Denver

The above comments originally appeared in my book I’m OK–You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending Nonbelievers and Why We Should Stop, published in early 2007 by NavPress. (About five such comments appeared at the end of each of the book’s chapter, under the heading of “Ouch.”)


#1 Christian Website Hacked By Atheist!

In Atheists, Christianity, technology on December 30, 2007 at 11:15 pm

Update: To read my “An Open Letter to Crosswalk.com’s Atheist Hacker,” click … well, there.

Instead of the largest Christian website in the world (2.5 million views a month; 200,000-plus subscribers), people who visited www.crosswalk.com this morning found a single, crudely designed static page featuring cheesy-looking burning crosses and a message from the hacker directed to “Christian sheep,” talking about how Christianity sucks and is nothing but lies believed by idiots and so on. The message was maybe 50 words long. (It was also about impossible to read, since, as the hacker/author readily admitted, English is not his first language. He’s from the great country of Finland.)

The #1 Christian website in the world, hacked by an irate Finnish atheist!

I write for Crosswalk; my job there is to be ”funny,” “reverently irreverent,” and to “think outside the box.” For a writer (or one like me, anyway) it’s a dream gig. In the course of this year I’ve grown extremely fond of Crosswalk’s director. He’s a good man. (He’s also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met.) I hated to see his work get hurt this way.

I was surprised how disturbing it was to see what had happened to Crosswalk. It felt violent. It was like having your home robbed, or your car stolen. Just awful.

Right after I saw what happened to Crosswalk I did a quick posting here about it, just saying something like “Go see what happened to Crosswalk.com!” But within minutes of my posting that, the site got unhacked, and was back to normal. So right away I took down my posting about it, since then it wouldn’t have made any sense.

I forgot, however, how quickly blog postings get sent out via RSS–and so later in the day I ended up getting some emails from people asking me what the heck was going on, what with Crosswalk getting so severely hacked, and then my post about that hack apparently  mysteriously disappearing, and all. Fears abounded! So I thought I might write this, by way of a Full Explanation.

Crosswalk got hacked; the hack seemed to last about two, maybe three hours; then it got fixed. (My friend the Crosswalk director wrote me about it. “Short version of the story,” he said, “is that we got hacked, big time. Should be mostly normal now. Hope we didn’t cause you to stumble in your faith.”)

 See? Funny!

Anyway, that’s what happened this morning with Crosswalk.com.

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Atheists! Incoming Olive Branch!

In Atheists, God on September 20, 2007 at 12:01 pm

I am now officially burned out on the exchanges going on in the comments sections of my last couple of blogs. Boringly enough (for me) what started and had amazing legs as a genuinely interesting series of exchanges has now in the main become (a refresingly intelligent, actually) “debate” about evolution. (You can see what I mean at “What the Atheists Taught Me,” or, “An Honest Question: Atheists, How Do You Process Your Guilt?” And while I’m at it, might I recommend that you don’t miss, “Christians and Atheists in Communion–In Harmony, I Mean. Now What?“)

Still. It’s starting to get that queasy-making, round-and-round-we-go feel. Which is boring. And I have serious issues with being bored. I hate it. So I want to move on now.

Still, I am by nature a Seeker of Closures. So, by way of not simply stopping the aforementioned comments (because I will, man: I’ll do it!), let me hereby offer the statement below as a Healing Balm upon the open wound that is too often the relationship between Christians and atheists. The only caveat I would like applied to this statement is the manifestly obvious one that I don’t speak for all Christians. (And remember, everyone: No one does.)

Anyway, here is my olive branch to the atheists:

Dear Atheists,

On behalf of whatever Christians I might actually be speaking for, I would hereby like to apologize for ever in any way insisting that anyone who is not a Christian needs to become one. The reason it’s wrong for we Christians to insist upon the conversion of non-Christians isn’t because we don’t think it is very good indeed for non-Christians to become Christians. It’s wrong because communicating that to non-Christians cannot (we now see) help but be righteously offensive to them. And offending people isn’t exactly the shortest path to in any way communing with them. We see that now. Sorry we didn’t see it sooner.

We certainly get angry enough when you tell us why we shouldn’t believe in God, don’t we? So it’s then unreasonable for us not to expect you to get at least as angry at our insisting that you should believe in God. Of course that’s how you’d respond to that. What were we thinking?

Please do understand that what we were, in fact, thinking, is that we love you. The Big Push behind our rather-too-constantly insisting that you need to become Christian is simply that we do not want you to go to hell. As you know, a great many of us are deeply convinced that that is what happens to people who die without first believing in Jesus Christ. We don’t want that to happen to you. We don’t want that to happen to anyone! It sounds awful!

So please don’t think of us as shallow, egotistical, intolerant, obnoxious power-mongers. Think of us instead, please, as people who love you, and are trying to stop you from suffering in a way that our belief system tells a lot of us you will if you don’t open up your heart to the joys and realities of what we very definitely believe is God. That’s all it is. We deeply and sincerely apologize for all the times, and for all the ways, that we’ve turned what we only ever really meant as an expression of love into something that we now understand you couldn’t have possibly received that way.

Our bad, for sure.

Further, we’d like to extend to you our true and deep respect for the way you’ve utilized and shown your respect for rational thought, which we certainly understand as a critical, paramount value. We’re actually huge on rational thought — a fact which we know too often gets buried in some of the, shall we say, louder aspects of our public presence. We apologize for not often enough making clear the degree to which we value rational thought — and for how much we appreciate why anyone would want to make it the primary vehicle they use to wind their way through this decidedly bizarre series of experiences we call life.

Okay? One love, atheists. For sure.

Well, thanks for listening! Bye! See ya’ … constantly! Everywhere! What with our all sharing the same world, and all.


Repost of “Extra! Extra! Atheists Whip Christians In Debate! Again! And Again.”

In Atheists, Christianity, God on September 18, 2007 at 7:15 pm

Hi, guys. (I’m speaking particularly right here to the people who, via Comments, have lately been engaging in such interesting Christian-atheists exchanges.)

I feel kind of weird doing this, but what the heck. A few months back, before anyone hardly knew this blog was here, I posted a piece called “Extra! Extra! Atheists Whip Christians in Debate! Again! And Again.” I’m guessing not too many of you saw it. If you didn’t but think you might like to, here it be:

The other day I read the recent Newsweek piece in which Rick Warren (Purpose-Driven Life-like you didn’t know) debated the eminently rational and mind-bogglingly articulate Sam Harris (The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation). In that “debate,” I thought Mr. Harris waxed the floor with Mr. Warren (for whom-not that he could possibly know or care-I have nothing but love and respect). For one, nobody out-rationalizes Sam Harris. The guy has a brain the size of Europe — and all of it is connected to his mouth. He also seems entirely compassionate and utterly Pro-Human, two qualities I know I enjoy in a person. I think Sam Harris stands as pretty much the ultimate example of what a person can be and think when they insist that rational thought, above all, should be respected. And I can respect that. It’s certainly not the worst thing for a person to stake their claim on.

Rational thought is core to what it means to be human. And that means that ultimately every human, sooner or later, must decide whether or not there’s a God. Everything is either created by some sort of Divine Overseer, or the universe is the result of purely mechanistic coincidences. Those are our two choices. It’s not like there’s a third one. (Unless you count the decision not to decide whether or not there’s a God — which, to my sadly binary-oriented brain, is a “choice” too weak for me to take seriously.)

There either is a God, or there isn’t. And everyone definitely wants to know which of the two it is. Not a one of us wants to exist in a system that’s grounded in pure, unknowable mystery. That’s way too scary.

So people do what they must: They choose either God, or No God. Then they go with that.

We Christians, of course, have chosen God. It’s what our hearts tell us is true. More: It’s what God tells us is true. To be perfectly accurate, we didn’t choose God at all. God chose us.

But we’ve got to understand that once we decide, for whatever reason, to Vote God, we necessarily mark ourselves, in the eyes of someone who’s gone with option No God, as extraordinarily irrational. At that point we can’t help but seem to them as fundamentally (so to speak) bonkers.

Which is not to say that we cannot fully justify our faith: My first book, Penguins, Pain and the Whole Shebang, proved (if I say so myself) that the entirety of the Christian belief system is nothing if not rationally supportable. Once anyone decides there is a God — which, since there either is or isn’t, is necessarily as rational as deciding there’s not — Christianity makes as much sense as opening an umbrella in the rain. It’s actually difficult to posit a God, proceed logically from that assertion, and end up anywhere but at the Christian cross.

God became human to right us with himself. It’s … well, perfect.

But the final truth behind Christianity is a spiritual, dynamic, mystical, deeply personal phenomenon that has no more to do with reason or logic than fins and gills have to do with koala bears. In the very, very final analysis, we simply cannot rationally defend our belief in God. Trying to do so is like, as they say, trying to dance about architecture.

Rick Warren lost his Newsweek debate with Sam Harris because Sam Harris can take rational thought and language all the way down to the base of his belief. Mr. Warren, on the other hand (and struggle though he might), can only take rational thought and language down the point of his belief where, from that point on, both are rendered useless.

So Rick Warren loses the debate. In the end, we Christians will always lose such a debate with atheists. Because in such exchanges, atheists (naturally enough!) depend upon the language of logic. And the simple fact is that there are no words for the essence of the Christian experience. And there never, ever will be.

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Christians and Atheists in Communion — in Harmony, I Mean! Now What?

In Atheists, Christianity, God, Humor on September 18, 2007 at 10:25 am

I don’t think it’s going too far to say that my recent posts (”An Honest Question: Atheists, How Do You Process Your Guilt?” and “What the Atheists Taught Me“ ) have established utter peace and harmony between Christians and atheists around the world.

Isn’t it just the greatest thing? (Um … down there, in the comments section of “What the Atheists Taught Me.” Are you trying to embarass me?)

I think that what really turned the tide toward complete peace and harmony is when the atheists finally agreed that, unlike Christians, they shouldn’t be allowed to capitalize what they’re called. And that compromise, of course, led we Christians to eventually acquiesce to the atheists’ request that we stop throwing lit matches at them all the time.

Which of course facilitated the Full Belly Accord, in which both sides agreed that, in principal anyway, they like food.

Ah, peace. What a blessing. (Or “great thing”!) No more drive-by leafleting. No more crank phone calls at 3 a.m. (How many times have we Christians answered our ringing phones , heard a voice intoning, “Hello, this is God calling,” gasped back “Really?”, and heard, “No, moron! Grow up!” before the final click. And how many ruses have Christians devised to try and trick atheists to cranking up and keeping up the heat in their house. (A virus in the area you kill by sterilizing your air! And atheists are supposed to be such fans of science!)

Thank God/nobody that’s all behind us now. It was something I was definitely glad to get done.

I think that primarily we owe our newfound contentment with the status quo to my laptop. Before I had a laptop, I was forced to write in my office, which involves sitting up straight.  Post-laptop, however, I write so slumped down on my couch that even right now I can’t swallow. I think this casual, relaxed position allows my consciousness to be freed up in a way that just can’t happen when I’m getting enough oxygen to my head.

Anyway, I’d like to congratulate everyone who helped to do so much to achieve peace between those who believe in Jesus Christ, and those who are going to hell don’t.  Ross, Calladus, Marcy, Kimberley, L Palm, Greta, Cragar, Thomas, Gary, the ever-excellent Hjordes … all of you — and so many more I can’t mention because it would involve more scrolling and besides my vision growing blurry my hands are starting to go numb — deserve a share in the spotlight. In fact, each and every one of you should go, right now, and hold your face close to a brightly glowing light bulb. Remove a shade if you have to. You deserve it.

I’ll do the same!

And after we’ve had our moment in the light, let’s all meet again right back here again, shall we, and get to work solving that darn Christian-Muslim problem? Why not! We can do it! World peace is within our grasp!

And we’ll get started making it, just as soon as the burn spot in our vision fades away.

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What the Atheists Taught Me

In Atheists, Christianity, God, Jesus on September 16, 2007 at 9:16 pm

fence0001.jpg

In my last post I asked atheists to talk about their relationship to their guilt.

And man, oh man, did they ever respond.

Turns out atheists are quite the … cyber-communicators.

It also turns out that atheists — or the many from whom I heard, anyway — care just as much as we Christians do about loving and doing right by others.

Curse the atheists! Why couldn’t they be the craven sensory-hounds they’re supposed to be? Must they reject God, and be intelligent and sensitive?

How are we to tolerate these people for whom toleration is a tenant?

Anyway, they got me thinking. (Another reason not to like them.)

I could no sooner imagine what it would be like inhabiting a consciousness devoid of  the constant awareness of God than I could what it would be like to be a …  Venusian cannibal.

Right? I have no idea what it’s like to be a cannibal from Venus.

Be pretty lonely, I’d guess. Or pretty full.

Point is: Mystery. Can’t imagine it. Just like I can’t imagine what it would be like to be an atheist. Even before I was a Christian — for just about every second of my waking life, in fact — I  was intensely aware of what to me was the fact of God. It’s never even occurred to me there isn’t a God.

Atheists, of course (and insofar as such generalizations have merit), can’t imagine that there is a God. (Well, of course they can imagine there’s a God. They just can’t imagine why anyone would give themselves over to what to them is so obviously a fantasy.)

 So we Christians are over on our side of the fence, and the atheists are over on theirs.

And we keep lobbing Bibles over the fence at them. And (alas) they keep lobbing them back at us.

We Christians want the atheists to come over to our side of the fence — to join us, to become one of us. They would much prefer it if we would quit wanting that, and leave them be. They would naturally prefer it if we could actually respect them for, say, their intellectual (not to mention moral) integrity — but they aren’t exactly holding their breath waiting for that to happen. Because they know that Christians believe atheists to be at best  lost, and at worst damned.

And let’s face it: If you know the best someone can think about you is that you’re lost, you’re hardly inclined to, say, invite that person to your birthday party. Ever.

Hence the fence.

I hate that fence! What is it doing there?

Listen, Christians: I hate to be the one to say it, but can we all just admit that all the good music is coming from the other side of the fence? Can we at least give the  godless folk that?

Anyway, here’s what the atheists have taught me: We Christians need to listen to them. And not just because they have all the good music. (Okay, that’ll be the last of the “Christian music always sounds like soggy white bread” line of humor, which I realize is just totally obnoxious.) We need to listen to the atheists because … well, because we never do. We try to listen to them, but we fail. And we fail because while we’re listening to them, we’re secretly thinking how they really, really need to become Christian.

And it’s just about impossible to really, really think something about someone and not, in one way or another, really, really communicate that something is.

And then before we know it: No birthday invites for us! Again.

So I say: Let’s every once in a while put aside our Christian Agenda (none of us are thinking that we don’t have one too, right?), and just listen to atheists. Let’s just hear what they’re saying, and what they’re thinking, and why they’re saying and thinking whatever they are.

Let’s actually respect them. Why not? How could such a thing possibly hurt us?

Who knows? If we listen to the atheists long enough, isn’t it just possible that we might actually learn something from them?

Hey.

Miracles happen.

Some other posts in which I consider the relationship between Christians and nonbelievers are: “Are The Great Commandment and the Great Commission Incompatible?”,  “More on The Great Commandment vs. The Great Commission” , “To My Recent Commentators” , and “Adults Aren’t Children–and None of Us is God.”

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An Honest Question: Atheists, How Do You Process Your Guilt?

In Atheists on September 13, 2007 at 8:48 am

Hello, atheists! Thanks for reading this!

As you probably know, I’m a Christian.

Wait! Come back! I won’t try to convert you!

Even better. I (along with my incomprehensibly vast company of Christian readers) will actually listen to you.

Oh, stop. It’s not that rare.

Now then, here’s my Big Question to you: As a zero-tolerance-for-God sort of person, how do you process your guilt? I promise I’m not being facetious, or playing any kind of  ”Let’s trap the atheist” game; I’m genuinely curious. For the first 38 years of my life I was most emphatically not a Christian — I was and remain a huge fan of philosophy generally, Zen Buddhism particularly, and what I guess you could call the religion of art — and I never used to know what to do with my guilt.

I mostly just waited for it to fade away, and then disappear altogether.

Except my experience was that my guilt never faded away and disappeared altogether. Despite my determined efforts to shun it, it always just sort of … remained, hanging around inside me like some creepy, vaporous organ I could have totally lived without, disturbing my sleep.

Anyway, what I always did when I got serious about my guilt was to passionately resolve to do better. If I treated my wife snarkily, or … I don’t know … took too many long lunches at my job, or spent money I shouldn’t have buying booze or pot and then behaving in ways even less likely to win me any Husband of the Year award, I always fervently resolved to change my ways.

“That’s it! ” I would cry. “From this moment forth, I shall be a veritable pillar of strength! Strong! Resolute! Incorruptible! Insusceptible to temptation! I will become a man worthy of the woman I married!”

But, then … you know: Who can take a lunch in half an hour? I’m a chewer.

And am I not supposed to ever buy beer?

And if a friend of mine in the parking lot of the factory I work in offers to get me high before my shift starts, then … well, then I’ll be sittin’ in that guy’s car sharing whatever he’s got faster than you can say, “Um. Dude. Is that clock right?”

The point is: I personally always had exactly zilch in the Exert Your Will To Better Yourself department.

Which inevitably left me again suffering new, fresh guilt over the way I’d treated my wife, or my money, or my employer, or my body, or some other confounded thing or another.

And you, atheist, surely suffer guilt as I did. I know we Christians can sometimes seem awfully arrogant, but we’re not so arrogant that we think only we possess a conscience. We know that everyone has one.

We know what any fool does: All people hold within them expectations and desire for themselves that they constantly and inevitably fail to live up to.

We know that that’s one of the pains of everyone’s life. (Or we should know it, anyway, since it’s true.)

So. If you’re an atheist (or even a New Ager, if you would) what do you do with the guilt that you engender in yourself whenever, at someone else’s cost, you act selfishly, or greedily, or harshly, or arrogantly, or … secretly bad? (And please don’t say you never act that way, or never suffer guilt if you do. Even if you do think that, don’t ever say it. No one over the age of six will believe you. Well. Four.)

I daresay you know what we Christians do with our guilt. (Though I have to say how likely I think it is that you actually don’t know that. Which isn’t your fault! But it’s a fact that if we Christians have long failed at anything, it’s making clear to non-Christians what exactly we mean when we use words such as “repentance” and “confession.” Unless you’ve spent considerable time studying, reflecting upon, and actually experiencing what Christians mean by, say, those two particular words, trust that your relationship to them is equal to the relationship a person looking at a diorama of an African veldt has to actually being on an African veldt.)

So, again: How, atheist (or New Ager), do you process your guilt? What is the means by which, after you have in effect soiled yourself, you come to feel clean again?

And to again be clear: All respect to you. I’m truly curious.