Leith Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I have been invited to speak at a conference. IFES Holland (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students) is organizing this conference to discuss the role of students in the church. Pastors, elders and students will be attending. There will be workshops, speeches and the presentation of some kind of survey. Also, three students will tell something about their experiences. One who had a lot of doubts but decided to stay, one who switched to another church and finally me. I have been asked to talk 5 minutes about my experiences while deconverting and my view on the relationship between the church and students. I see this as an opportunity to talk about some common misconceptions about atheism Do you have any suggestions about what message I should bring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mymistake Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 Yes. Atheism is not a religion. That is like the biggest misconception. And I suffered from it too most of the years I was a Christian. I hope if nothing else your audience gets the message that atheists think they don't have a religion. It might be too much to ask a fundie to change their mind and actually believe atheism isn't a religion. Example: Is "not owning a television" a TV channel? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator Margee Posted March 17, 2012 Moderator Share Posted March 17, 2012 Atheist 's are kind, wonderful people with a good sense of morals, who have come to a simple conclusion through a lot of study and observation of the suffering in the world....and because they see no evidence for god, have given up the belief in a higher being. Atheists are simply non-believers living in a world where the belief in god still persists for most people. All an atheist ever asked, was for god to manifest himself. Most atheists were once believers...... nothing has changed about the person accept the fact that we do not believe in the invisable god anymore.... we have families, animals, children, grandchilren, responsibilities and we know how to love. .........there's 30 seconds!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 The "it's not a religion" thing would be nice. Do you think it's also good to maybe address the other tired chestnut Christians hurl at de-converts--"You just got all hurt and owwied by meaniepie Not-True-Christians"? I know some non-Christians may have left the church due to the actions of people, but even I--who was abused and stalked by my preacher husband--didn't leave because of him particularly. It really seems like the first thing Christians reach for when they hear I've left the faith. I'm not an atheist, so I can't speak to how often atheists hear the other thing, but I can definitely say that it's gotten pretty irritating to deal with Christians who think I just left in a fit of pique because someone bugged me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LivingLife Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 If you have read Margee's last prayer, then you could simply read that out, I am sure she will not object. If you need to explain why atheism from a personal standpoint, that is really not possible, it takes a lot to explain to the folk the errancy of the bible and the falsity of the origins of the church as is commonly understood. The reality is that the christian faith shoots itself in the foot as there are so many denominations and this alone lends credence to it being a man-made construct. GOD IS REAL, but only in their minds. This explains omnipresence, omniscience. Free will is a myth as when one looks back at decisions made, they were ALL influenced by circumstances outside our control. In a way, this almost proves Calvinism. We all quiz ourselves, "what if I had done that instead of......." The concept of a space time continuum suggests we cannot change the past and the future is pretty much determined but that debate is never ending as folk do not like to admit their choices are limited to prevailing circumstances. These are some ideas to work with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeCoastie Posted March 17, 2012 Share Posted March 17, 2012 I read Margee's Last Prayer in my lurker days. That thing rocks, it helped me a lot. Its tough that you only have 5 minutes. That doesn't leave time for depth. You could bring up non-Christian cultures and how they created their own beliefs and get along just fine without Jesus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Positivist Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 I'd like them to know that we don't lose our faith because: - we sinned or want to sin - we're looking for a change of philosophical scenery - we were hurt by Christians or the church - we are mad at God We lost our faith for one reason: we found it to be UNTRUE. And yet, we persisted in trying to grasp at the fading light of our faith, until we were exhausted and it became too difficult to rationalize that which could not be made sense of. Tell them that another definition of "soteria"--salvation--is "rest" and "peace". We are finally saved because we are finally at peace! Let us know how it goes! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackpudd1n Posted March 18, 2012 Share Posted March 18, 2012 I would like Christians to understand that I do not believe in hell. Therefore, telling me I'm going to hell, threatening me with hell, or any other manipulation of the concept of hell is just plain annoying, and a pointless argument/line of reasoning/attack. Another thing you could mention is that we'd appreciate if they'd stop assuming that we've never read the bible or heard the "good news", or were never saved to begin with. Again, really annoying, and the end result is that their lips are moving, but all I hear is blah, blah, blah, blah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leith Posted March 24, 2012 Author Share Posted March 24, 2012 OMG, this is kinda funny. Only 6 pastors would be attending, so they cancelled the conference. Pretty big fail on their part. Anyway, thanks for the replies! I will keep them in mind in case they try again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akheia Posted March 24, 2012 Share Posted March 24, 2012 Pastors don't tend to talk much to groups that aren't already drinking the kool-aid, do they? Sorry to hear the conference fell through! Maybe you'll get a chance to present these ideas at some other one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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