Ex-christians Do Not Exist

[R. S. Martin]

That being said, I can imagine my father yelling at me in a very threatening voice, "Then your beliefs are wrong! You better change them NOW or the day will come when you will wish you had."

 

If you wanted to have some fun with them, you could always play the "Why" game, or a more intellectually varied version of it. Every young child knows the "Why" game, and probably plays it with his or her parents at some point, perhaps at the age of 2 or 3. When it first occurs to a child that every answer to a question can always be replied to with a "Why?", it makes for endless fun (until the kid or his parents finally get bored or frustrated with it). It can really test the patience of some parents! If I had a kid who insisted on playing the "Why" game with me I think I'd find it more amusing than frustrating, but maybe that's just the sort of laid-back personality I tend to have.

 

It would be great to have kids some day. I'd love to raise a new generation without them having to go through all the religious indoctrination crap I had to put up with and that it took me more than two decades to free myself of.

 

Won't work... some 'families' aren't above enforcing their beliefs with fists. As I've said before family is as family does... and a lot here don't have families... just people with similar DNA.

 

 

Thanks. I wrote up a post to this, then deleted it. You say it much better than I did. I think you will be great as a dad, MathGuy, but the man who sired me is not like I think you would be.

[Anad]

There was a time when I worked for Bandai Japan. I no longer work for Bandai Japan, so I am an ex-worker of Bandai Japan.

 

There is no way you could be a Ex-worker for Bandai Japan, 'cause that you mean you left access to all those toys. This is something that just couldn't have happened. I'm a Atheist to Ex-Bandai workers.

[The Sage Nabooru]

I just laugh a little, I might say "whatever", it's not the kind of statement that I really spend a lot of time arguing about. Because, what can you say that will change their mind?

 

It's also the kind of thing that, if you get too defensive, will only lead to them running back to their buddies saying, "See, non-Christian people are mean and bitter." Acting maturely by indicating that you're happy not caring what they think really does throw them off.

 

People make offensive statements in the hope that they can poke someone into being offensive back. (It's offensive in suggesting that they know better than you do about your beliefs and your past - offensive in any situation.) Why do you think Ann Coulter or Fred Phelps are the way they are? Because they want acceptance and understanding from people? They want the insults, they want to make people go nuts with anger and lash out at them. It legitimatizes themselves in their minds. To refuse to offer the persecution they seek is the biggest blow you can deal.

[OnceConvinced]

I think one of the best things to do is to retaliate with the claim that true christians do not exist.

 

On a Christian site I once debated in two seperate threads. One about "is there such thing as an ex-christian?" and one called "What makes a true Christian?". I was able to cross-reference one to the other to make a point. It became obvious to me that the big question should not be "is there really such thing as an ex-christian" but should be "is there really such a thing as a true Christian?" How can anyone really be sure whether they are a true Christian and not just kidding themselves? The great thing about this debate is that Christians cannot come to an agreement on either of these two subjects.

 

Try to find out what they believe a true Christian is. If they will answer the question to the best of their ability, you'll probably be able to get two possible responses.

 

Response 1: They will tell you the answer that most Christians believe (but are really only kidding themselves), that a true Christian is someone who has genuinely repented and accepted Christ as their savior and there is no more to it than that. If they say that, then you can say with a resounding yes that you were indeed a true Christian.

 

Response 2: They will give you a whole list of things that you need to do to be a true Christian. (There opinion of course). You can check these things off or debate them with the person. You could even respond with Response 1 to contradict what they have just claimed. (And you can easily find scriptures to support your arguments.)