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Goodbye Jesus

Do You Listen To Xtian Preachers? Why?


Mongo

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First of all - I have absolutely no doubt in my deconversion. I stand up for my athiest views and am willing to engage xtians anywhere they decide to spew at me. I'm over the fence not on it. I'm not confused.

 

I often listen to Steve Brown of Key Life Ministries on the way home from work. I get a sermon and listener's questions answered in 15 minutes. I find he is interesting even if he regularly fails to answer the question at hand.

 

My reason for listening to him is to try and understand the arugments and methods used to convey their emotionally poisonous message.

 

I also try to look for any additional clues as to why I was able to leave xtianity and what it is that keeps my family members (loved ones - people I really care about) from making the same deconversion that I did.

 

I have read a lot of arguments on athiest sites about why xtians are wrong. They are excellent arguments. I'm not convinced however, that this is the strongest hammer that we can use to combat xtianity.

 

As I listen to these preachers, I find myself thinking about what approach best counteracts their lies, slander and false assertions. I am convinced that what is currently available on the web fails to get to the heart of how you appeal to the better senses of the brainwashed xtian.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Eric

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yah...if i am flipping through the channels, I may stop and listen to a preacher for a few minutes...tops.

Just long enough to remind me of how brain-washed some people are. :shrug:

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I still have my old Kent Hovind tapes -- I like to test my critical-thinking skills by talking during his lectures/sermons. It's the only time I ever argue with the TV. :P

 

Apart from that, I don't bother; all of the preachers I know just appeal to emotions.

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Every now and then I'll listen to our local Fundy station for kicks and giggles. I can stomach about 15 minutes of it, max.

 

Sometimes I scan the channels on shortwave radio just see what weirdness is on. Most often, it's some religious nutjob with a truly, truly warped view of reality. These aren't your run-of-the-mill Fundies. Some of these talk about UFO's, Atlantis, and other myths, and how these tie into Christian prophecy. It also usually somehow proves that the White Race is the chosen race, too.

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Sometimes I listen - also for shits and giggles. But the amusement factor wears off quickly and I'm channel-surfing again.

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GAAAH! if I couldn't sit and deconstruct a fundy minister's message I would have gone to an early grave by now....I have to go to church for 2 hours every week.

Of course everyone knows I don't want to be there and I make it a point to make it as miserable for my parents and sunday school as it is for me.

 

Me: you know many religions have been created just to rationalize violence.

Teacher: Yes that's true.

Me: How do we know Christianity and Judaism weren't just like those.

 

hehe she was speechless after that :lmao:

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Guest santamarana

I still listen to numerous ones to try and understand where they are coming from, and the difference in their thinking on core church doctrines.

I find that it is good to listen to these "ministers" in order to reason out what they believe.

It helps me to sift through the myth in which is being taught.

I also still read the bible, I have about 22 different versions of the bible, commentary bibles, greek concordance and a Youngs concordance and find these to be great tool's to use in dealing with believers who think it is the infallable word of god.

Someone who does not believe should (I think) know more about a believers religion than the actual believer to be able to counter argue points raised by believers.

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I often times find myself laughing at preachers. Their methodology about dealing with God AND their "life coaching" is so absurd that you have to find it funny...

 

But afterwards I just keep flipping the channel. Most are sick, especially the way they unite their followers for a common goal...like to vote against abortion and the eeeeeeeeeevil homosexuals.

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First of all - I have

 

I'll stop at the catholic channel occasionally and listen to how the "spirit of god" fills some priest's life. Or how you let the holy spirit domininate your soul! After all, I was a good devout catholic for most of my life.

Now I say, "jeeeeeeeezus fuckin christ! How could a rational person be brainwashed into believing he was a guilt filled worthless sinner who needs to be saved by a god who was all powerful and knowing when he created me?

Its so stupid and defies all reason! They tell you, just have faith! Fuck that rationalization also.

Yep, tv preachers reinforce my atheism. The nearest god I have is the 6.5 inches between my legs! LOL

I celebrate my finally waking up to atheism!

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Since the first time I posted in this thread, I have started listening to a Christian preacher -- another Ex-C user introduced me to Ravi Zacharias, a Christian philosopher and apologist. I don't agree with what he says, but I like listening to him for some reason.

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Absolutely not. It's not that I'm worried about reconverting, but more along the lines of I've heard it all so much throughout the years, I know their bullcrap and I have no desire to hear it again.

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Wow--I thought I was the only one. As usual, you guys make me feel not so weird.

Here in North Carolina we have the radio station "Founded by Billy Graham". So when I'm alone in the car, I'll tune in to hear what they are saying. Part of it is like lurking in Christiandom, part of it is deconstruction, part of it is reinforcing why I no longer believe--and a very, very small part is still curious to see if someone has the wise and perfect explanation for why any of this should be consided true. When I was working outside the home, I could occasionally catch Steve Brown at Key Life--I liked his voice and his way of talking.

 

For fun, I'll turn to the AM stations where the local yokels--real backwoods fundies--have their programs. Can't take that for too long, tho.

 

Oh, I also make sure to ALWAYS change the station back to NPR before leaving the car so family and friends don't find out what I'm doing!

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I do too-- our local megachurch has webcasts that I do listen to sometimes. Part of it is deconstruction, part is learning to understand the born-again mindset and other forms of Christianity since Catholics are such a different breed, and part is trying to figure out what they are up to in terms of their evangelizing priorities.

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I read apologetics occasionally. It usually either discourages me or makes me mad, but eventually that should change.

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No, not at all, it just turns my stomach too much, and I'm already well familiar with the rhetoric anyway.

 

The closest I come is the local AM radio political talk, where theocracy is king, as well as other opinions I'm not keen on, and every hour has multiple references to god, how the evil atheists (among others) have taken over the country and sent it into total depravity, and how we should trample on the rights of gays, etc. to preserve the brand of morality they're pushing. I can't stomach that for too long, either, but I like to keep track of what's being said. I know it's quirky, but I don't do this within earshot of another car if the windows are down, lest I promote it by appearing to buy into it. I'd have the same quirk if I listened to the old xtian preachers...maybe I'd just feel embarrassed.

 

Why did you and I break away, but not our families and many others, and can listening to the preachers provide any insight that might help anyone? There's a lot built into xtianity, particularly the more fundamentalist branches, that makes it difficult to break away from by design: especially because of what you can't question combined with fear of hell, so breaking free is an inherently difficult process, no matter what. There's a good reason why it's called brainwashing: it's a powerful mechanism.

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Exactly. I don't think breaking away is always a conscious choice. Otherwise, fewer people would probably make the leap. For me, it was a gradual process where I questioned doctrine after doctrine until I realized I didn't believe any of it, and had to abandon the title.

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Exactly. I don't think breaking away is always a conscious choice. Otherwise, fewer people would probably make the leap. For me, it was a gradual process where I questioned doctrine after doctrine until I realized I didn't believe any of it, and had to abandon the title.

 

You sound a lot like me. If I had my way, I'd be a respected member of the community and culture into which I was born. But why do I question what everybody else just accepts? It's beyond me.

 

Sometimes I think my obsession with studying fundamentalism is fueled in large part by an effort to understand what happened to me, and how to prevent it happening in the future--wishful thinking, huh?

 

I balance this study by reading and listening to many arguments against Christianity on the internet. I never learned the radio-TV thing. Sites like this and the youtubes listed have been so very helpful, even to the point where it influences my educational program.

 

Not sure if I should mention this here. I'd like to establish a network of people who want to fight fundamentalism. The objective would be to pool ideas and insights on what works and doesn't work in getting a Christian to think. So far I have not heard of a single thing that works. However, learning all the unsuccessful tricks that have been tried just might lead somewhere. Anyone interested in this please send me a pm. I sent out the first email to a batch of people whose email addresses I had but no one seems terribly interested beyond their own little discussion groups. I will send a copy to anyone interested with the objective of making it a regular thing.

 

FYI, I'm really serious about this as in getting formal advanced degrees in religious studies for the express purpose to fight fundamentalism. I think combining information from both the grassroots level and from formal scholarship should get us somewhere. Interested? Give me a shout--or pm.

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Guest rumpelstiltskin

If I had my way, I'd be ....

 

RubySera, Hello. I'm confused here. Are you saying that you'd want to be a respected member of the community and culture into which you were born?.

 

I get the impression from this:

 

Sometimes I think my obsession with studying fundamentalism is fueled in large part by an effort to understand what happened to me, and how to prevent it happening in the future--

 

that you were raised 'fundamentalist'. Why would you want to go back to that?

 

Btw, RubySera, how would you define 'fundamentalism'? (No dictionary definitions, please ... ?)

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The objective would be to pool ideas and insights on what works and doesn't work in getting a Christian to think. So far I have not heard of a single thing that works.

 

Actually, there are many Christians who think, even fundamentalists. They're us. How did we get here?

 

So there obviously is something.

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