Listening To Atheists

People of Christain faith spend way too much time being afraid. We are too often afraid questioning will lead us to lose our faith.  We are too often afraid scriptures don’t all make sense.  We are too often afraid we will be unable to answer questions about our faith, respond to other people’s doubts, convince others to believe like we do. 

When we are afraid sometimes we latch on to any answer, even clichés, even things which don’t add up.  And sometimes we are afraid to listen.  We shut down people who have doubts as not faithful enough,  pretend those who have lost their faith never really had it at all, search for ulterior motives behind every question. 

Following Jesus is not about right beliefs but about love.  Doubt is an essential part of faith.  Believing people must think like us or end up in hell leads to all sorts of manipulation and craziness.  But, all of these things I have written about before.  Today I want to encourage us to set aside our fears and listen.  Listen to the voices of people who have lived a life of faith until it no longer rings true to them.  Listen to voices of those burned by the church.  Listen to those who have tried to believe in God but just couldn’t.  Listen to those who think faith in something without factual evidence is irresponsible.  Listen to those who are hurt and angry.  

Here are a few examples of some voices the church tends to want to ignore.  I invite you to practice listening without falling back on clichés, flimsy explanations, or victim blaming.  Just listen and really hear what these folks have to say

From A Preacherman's Secrets as he describes why he is angry:   

“First, I resent the promise that a holy spirit is present to guide and comfort me.  If it’s there, it has done a piss poor job.  I’ve spent most of my life with searing loneliness, as well as plenty of confusion and sadness. I’ve tried to pretend the spirit is there, and I’ve held onto faith, but after half a century of searching, I haven’t seen it or felt it or believed anyone who told me they did.  I’m angry because I would like for it to have been true.”  

Read several more thought provoking points from this blog here.

Now from Roll To Disbelieve on why she rejects Christianity:

“Way too high of a ratio of embarrassing members to sane members. I hate to say this, but I’ve got too much pride to throw in with a label shared with so many people I have to apologize for and argue with.... Every group has nutbars in it, of course, but when I’m dealing with untold millions of assholes and idiots, all gently tolerated if not encouraged by mainstream members and not reined in immediately (like the ludicrously disturbed Pat Robertson, who really should have been retired decades ago but who not only is tolerated but adored and given nationwide soapboxes by Christian groups), that’s where I draw the line. Given that I don’t see any reason to believe in Hell or Jesus’ sacrifice anyway, and given that I don’t think that Christianity is uniquely positioned to help me become a better person or help me better humanity in any way that another, less toxic viewpoint couldn’t manage just as well if not better, there just doesn’t seem to be much incentive to me to get involved with a group I would be fighting my entire life about issues like my bodily autonomy and rights as well as those of people I care about. “  

Read many more reasons here.

And just in case you think these are all people who didn’t try hard enough, here are some important words from Daniel Fincke of Cammels with Hammers, 

“I did love Jesus. I loved Jesus enough to commit every fibre of my being to Jesus. I loved Jesus enough to do everything I thought was necessary to express my love for Him and to grow closer to Him. I went to a devoutly Christian university to study about Jesus and live with fellow Jesus-lovers, I devoted my heart, soul, and mind to figuring out how he could be known and how to convince others of His existence so that they could believe in His love and come to be saved. I kept myself sexually chaste as best as I could because it was what I thought Jesus wanted. I risked alienating friends and families by constantly making Jesus the central issue in our conversations.

And yet, I still came to believe Jesus was a fraud. And it ripped my guts out and terrified me and alienated me from the people I loved most, including my very self. But I had to stand on my conscience and say, No, I know longer believe this is true. And I came to realize, by my conscience, that loving truth and loving my fellow human beings meant putting my intellectual conscience above the love of Jesus that had defined me as a person and animated my entire life up until that point”.   
Read more thoughtful arguments from Daniel Fincke here.

We need to listen to these voices without defensiveness and not for the purpose of improving our manipulation tactics so we might more successfully convert such people.  We listen so we can understand, learn, and better love our neighbors.  It is important to also resist responding with cliche, judgment, or convoluted and fragile answers.  Such responses are unconvincing, frustrating, and sound discordantly false (even to some of us in the church).  Like drumming on a rusty bucket of ...manure.