That’s a very good question. Giving this speech seems to cross the line of learning about religion to teaching others (dare I say evangelizing). I’ve asked myself that same question.
Here’s some of my rationale.
Why am I helping out at this weekend at all? I first attended this retreat one year ago. At that time I was curious. My wife attended a similar retreat around the same time. At the retreat I listened to a number of speeches much like the one I’m giving. Honestly, I felt extremely uncomfortable listening to some of the speakers talk about Christ and God and how their lives changed when they saw the light. I thought why in the world am I here?
I was struck by one very powerful element of the retreat. The guys that put on the retreat really made the newbies feel loved. They did that by leaving little gifts for us over the course of the weekend and through by a special dinner celebration. When I left that weekend I still didn’t agree with a lot that was talked about. I did learn a few things and I felt really good. The timing of the weekend worked really well for me. My mom died one year earlier and I had recently discovered that my sister has MS. I had my own problems of sadness and loneliness to deal with.
I essentially decided to help this upcoming retreat because I want to try and have the same, loving impact on some other people. Many who helped make this weekend possible want to attribute this loving feeling to God or God’s grace. For me, I felt really good after my first retreat and I would like to make that possible for others.
Why am I making a speech? I enjoy public speaking. I have had some experience in this field. Maybe I can teach my listeners something new. My speech states that it’s the people that make up the church and not the physical building or dogma. I could easily apply this speech on why someone should join a service club or work for a certain employer. In this speech, I’m talking to Christians and fence sitters. That’s my audience.
I’m certainly not trying to convert anyone to Christianity. If I wanted to truly change someone’s views I would stress the importance of skepticism and questioning. In this case, I believe there’s something to be said about participating in something that’s meaningful.
I have grown as I wrote this speech. I’ve delved passed some Christian buzzword and come to a better understanding of what they are getting at. I agree with some Christian ideas and not others.
Like I said, I don’t believe in some god up in the clouds. I’m starting to think that there is something bigger than me in the world. I like to feel that we all share this planet and universe together. If I don’t care for my fellow human, who will?
Evangelizing to make someone nice seems odd, since there seem to be a few Christians, some of whom do evangelizing, who are not nice, and many non-Christians who are. I think evangelizing comes down to saving souls from hell, which is understandable, but a bit arrogant. (The church as a whole, not any particular person.)
The Lutheran Church near me announced a program to evangelize Jews, which I am happy to say they backed off from after protests. Evangelists comes through to the targets as saying that we are either too ignorant or too stupid to see the way, and discounts the possibility that we have considered these issues in as much or perhaps more depth than they have. It comes across as now that they have run out of the ignorant heathen in the jungles, they need to work on the ignorant heathen down the street. Trinkets, service projects, or gifts on the seat help.
TopherX, why are you an atheist? Is it from a rejection of religion, or from reasoning from first principles? If I were giving this talk, I’d try to make the audience empathize with the targets of their efforts. They should think about role-playing a situation where all their neighbors were Buddhist, perhaps, all the stores celebrated Buddhist holidays, and the general tenor of discussion was not anti-Christian, but a sense of how deluded the Christians were, and if they just thought and saw the light they could be just like the very nice Buddhist gentleman down the street, and be at peace.
None of the evangelists who come to my door actually want to talk about religion - they just want to lecture. They don’t even come any more.
I stopped believing in a divine being after I struggle with many years of depression. You could say that, at first, I felt betrayed by that supposed higher being. Then, I came to the conclusion that all this god, miracle, heaven and hell talk was just rubbish that someone made up to control the masses. Can you say conspiracy theory?
Mostly I just stopped thinking about religion and gods for a number of years. I began my learning process about religion once I saw how important my wife thought it was. She currently attends church and brings out kids to Sunday school. Once I saw the direction she wanted to take with our children, I decided that I better look in to this further. A question that I’m still trying to answer is whether bringing up kids with religion and Christianity specifically is overall helpful or harmful. I haven’t come to a clear conclusion yet.
I’ve looked at many of the arguments supporting and refuting the existance of a god. IMO, God exists as an idea rather than a being. I’ve started attending a Uniterian Universalist church recently. I enjoy my experiences there. That’s one way that I can reap some of he benefits of religion and still believe what I want.
Thanks for your suggestions on using role-playing to talk with my audience about religion. There’s a real danger in sticking to the point that says I’m right, your wrong and I’m going to bang you over the head until you agree with me.
By first principles I mean not any sort of proof for or against, but rather modeling the world with and without a particular brand of god. If the Jewish/Moslem/Christian god existed, it would seem that world would be a lot different - assuming that the Bible is in any way true. (Which it should be, since the god inspired it.) The world wouldn’t look any different if a deistic god existed, so I choose not to believe in one. However, the idea of a god certainly exists, and I understand that many people find comfort in this. I don’t. I’ve been to a Unitarian service or two - too religious for me.
It is fascinating that the end of your depression was somehow associated with ceasing to believe - or am I reading you wrong?
My wife is a former Presbyterian, now a weak deist, since she gets comfort from the idea of a god. I am Jewish, now atheist. I’ve noted that those who have never been in a minority religion don’t really get the impact of evangelism, no matter how well intentioned they are. Anyway, I hope your retreat goes well.
I started giving up belief in a higher being before my depression hit. If anything, this reinforced my ideas that life was not the beautiful garden that I thought it was growing up.
I will say that during some of my manic stages of bi-polar, I took some of the mythical aspects of Christianity quite realistically. At one point I thought I was the second coming of Christ. When my delusions subsided, I took decided the magic in religion was just that.
