| What people say to try to convert me to their religion. | My answer. | |
| If you would read the Bible/Koran/whatever, you would see the light and come to God. | I've read the Bible - twice from cover-to-cover, and different parts and chapters over many years, from the time I could read until - well, now. I've also read the Koran, as well as various Haddith. I've even read some of the Book of Mormon. And... I'm still an Atheist. In fact, the more I've read the Bible or the Koran, the more obvious it is to me that religion is all superstition and, quite often, bigotry and hatred. No thank you! | |
| If you would pray and open your heart to Jesus/God, you would see the light and come to God. | I prayed every day, probably twice a day, up until I was about 13. I felt nothing, my situation was never altered, but I kept doing it, because that's what everyone kept saying to do, and I was desperate for things to improve in my life. I would stand there in various church services and silently say, "Okay, Jesus! I'm ready! Come on down! I'm ready!" And nothing would happen. NOTHING. After I became a teen, I would pray just every now and again, hoping that maybe it would finally work and I'd feel the Magic Warm Feeling everyone said I would. Nothing happened. Once I stopped praying and, instead, started thinking strategically about how to address this or that problem, stopped looking for God and started looking and creating solutions, life became a LOT more manageable - even JOYFUL, something it never had been before. | |
| Christianity / Islam / Whatever is the one, true religion. | That's what you all say! Do you realize you all use exactly the same rhetoric to tout your religion's legitimacy? Everything I've heard about current religions could be said of cults of Zeus! | |
| I just KNOW that Christianity / Islam / Whatever is the right religion, and I just KNOW that God exists - I can just feel it! | Well, goody for you. Gut feelings are fascinating - and often wrong. I never had a gut feeling that God existed, FYI, so that made it a lot easier to stop the pursuit of a magical, invisible friend. | |
| It's been God that's gotten me through the worst times of my life. He could do that for you, too, if you would just believe. | Really - he got you through knee surgery or that divorce or the death of your loved one, but to that 10 year old girl getting raped in Congo and begging for his help, he says, "Too bad!"? Give me a frakin' break. | |
| Without God, you will have no moral compass. | Without God, I've still got values, ethics, a strong, passionate sense of what's right and wrong. | |
| Without God, you will never know real joy or passion. | That statement, or something like it, is one that people like John Shore and Oprah Winfrey repeat again and again. The REALITY is that I've known FAR more joy once I accepted my Atheism than I did when I tried to be a Christian. The joy I've been able to access, joy that I never felt when I was trying to be a believer, cannot be denied, even by you. | |
| What will you do when Jesus comes back to Earth and Final Judgement happens? (FYI, both Christians and Muslims believe in this) | That's like asking me what I will do when the aliens land their space ship on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Or what I will do when the zombies rise and attack. It's NOT going to happen! How can I have an answer to a situation that isn't going to happen? | |
| You know I'm right. You just won't accept it. | Sigh... the arrogance of this statement drives me more crazy than any of the others. There's no way to answer that kind of blind self-righteousness. | |
| Who created the Universe? It had to start - it had to be created. There's only one possible answer: God! | Who created God? He had to start - he had to be created. There's only one possible answer: Man! | |
| God has to exist - how will we answer the question "Why are we here" without God? | When you have an answer about why he kills millions of people, and permanently injures and tortures millions more, in endless numbers of natural disasters - and allows men to kill and torture millions more - let me know. | |
| You need to quit questioning. Just accept. | Bite me. |
My responses sometimes get the statements to me to stop, sometimes not. I hope that they help some of my fellow Atheists out there respond to the ongoing efforts to convert them to whatever religion is being promoted.
These efforts to convert you can be exhausting and insulting. They can leave you feeling attacked and drained. So when you need to recover from this nonsense thrown at you, I recommend 10 minutes at least on the I Fucking Love Science Facebook page. And wine.
