# Will Professors try to turn me into an athiest in College **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 5, 2004, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419 "2004-04-05T19:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/41 "2004-04-06T02:21:26Z")
> [@Thingol](#): > > No offense to UDS intended, but if you run into a prof who believes this, drop the course immediately. You already know how to think. If not, you’re not ready for college. The college prof’s job is to introduce you to the tools and standards of the trade, and help you become reasonably proficient in them. I disagree. Perhaps if wwe modified the original statement. It is a professor’s job to teach you to think critically. To think like a scientist, like a scholar, like an educated person with a rational approach to problems and questions. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/42 "2004-04-06T02:22:51Z")
**RickJay** , > [@Darkhold](#): > > I hate to doubt you but it doesn’t seem like something a teacher that valued his/her job would say. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/43 "2004-04-06T02:30:34Z")
It’s the facts that people learn in education that make some atheists, not some kind of conversion program. For example, when people learn about all the religions in the world that existed in the past and exist today, some come to conclusion that it’s not only unlikely they happen to believe in the “correct” one, but also that they’re likely all false. Also, some believe in “the God of the gaps”, as an explanation force to describe things they do not understand. Education can show a person how human sciences can explain away the gaps, or at least demonstate that a gap in knowledge does not necessarily equal a supernatural explanation. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/44 "2004-04-06T02:58:43Z")
Look at the basis of your own faith. How do you read the bible? Do you read it as every bit being verbatim truth in itself or do you read it as a whole work that tries to encompass an understanding of God? Will your faith be shaken if someone can show you strong evidence that everything was not created in 144 hours? You will go through a lot of changes when you leave home for college. It happens to nearly everyone. It may have an effect on your faith but it will be due to changes in you rather than anyone trying to turn you into an aitheist. Vaya con Dios. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/45 "2004-04-06T03:03:09Z")
Well unless you get [\*this](http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0055/0055_01.asp) one but maybe you can convert him. Apologies to **elfbabe** who made prior Jack Chick reference. \*Devil beard is a dead giveaway for athiest professors, even the women. ---
**Author:** ![Jon\_the\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jon\_the\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jon_the_Geek)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/46 "2004-04-06T03:48:26Z")
Am I a sheltered atheist? Of the people I know in real life, I can think of two people who I’m pretty sure are atheists, one agnostic, a few pagans, many, many Christians, and a few people who I’d guess are “theists” of some variety… and many more who I couldn’t hazard a guess about. That’s after 4 years of biochem undergrad, 3 years of biochem grad school, and an additional 4 years in a rather liberal-leaning city (former home of Madalyn Murray O’Hair and all). Where are all these atheist evangelists? I had to get here on my own (although I can’t remember ever really believing in a god or gods). I wish this vast atheist conspiracy existed; it would have made the process a lot easier. Note: I know it’s possible that some of the people who I believe are Christians or other varieties of theist don’t REALLY believe what I think they believe… but, given the topic of the OP, I think what they APPEAR to believe is all that matters in this case. ---
**Author:** ![Jon\_the\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jon\_the\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jon_the_Geek)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/47 "2004-04-06T04:31:22Z")
> [@Jon the Geek](#): > > Of the people I know in real life, I can think of two people who I’m pretty sure are atheists, one agnostic, a few pagans, many, many Christians, and a few people who I’d guess are “theists” of some variety… and many more who I couldn’t hazard a guess about. Note 2: I realize I left several faiths off of that list. I didn’t mean to dismiss them–I also know some Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus to put on that list, as well as others who I’d at least guess fit into other organized religions. My point was that I know many more “out of the closet” theists than atheists, and I don’t know a single atheist (in real life, not on these boards) who ever attempted to convert anyone (other than myself, of course, and only when someone tries to convert me). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/48 "2004-04-06T05:28:16Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > I just wanted to chime and add that not ALL “Christian” colleges are into YEC and all that, or forbid anyone to question their beliefs. > > What about the Jesuits? 😃 Catholics usually refer to themselves as Catholics, and not “Christians”. In the US, at least, if someone says they go to a “Christian School” that almost always means “Protestant”. **To the OP:** As per many responses to this thread, it would help if you returned and added some more detail to your past experience, you current beliefs, and the various schools you are considering. I studied Physics, and can’t remember religion ever being mentioned, other than a passing reference to the “God playing dice with the universe” quote. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/49 "2004-04-06T05:29:24Z")
Well, I was already an atheist when I started college (and I blame the SDMB for that. Maybe you should be more concerned about where you post. 😉 I kid, I kid.) I go to a private school that was founded by the Church of the Brethren, and I’ve never had a professor talk about religion. Except in philosophy…which didn’t really bother me. I agree that professors don’t give a fuck about what you believe and really have no interest in trying to make you one thing or another. I’d like to think it’s because the students are ostesibly adults, and can think for themselves. You might be forced to confront some long-cherished beliefs, but that’s not because some professor has it out for your Christian soul. That’s just what happens when you learn new things. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/50 "2004-04-06T06:54:16Z")
Faucet, I want to email you my reply because it’s REALLY long. Email me at [brandys\_secret\_pal@yahoo.com](mailto:brandys_secret_pal@yahoo.com), k? ---
**Author:** ![quixotic78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/3ab097/32.png) [@quixotic78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quixotic78)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/51 "2004-04-06T07:06:45Z")
I got a B.A. in Religious Studies at a private liberal arts college, and I don’t remember a faculty member EVER offering a personal observation about religion in any sense in the classroom. I currently am four months away from a Ph.D. in Chemistry, and the topic never comes up, although that’s certainly less surprising. Quix ---
**Author:** ![Thingol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Thingol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thingol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/52 "2004-04-06T12:20:20Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > And the difference, then, between college and trade school, other than cost, is what? Subject matter. A lot more could be said on this issue, but that’s another thread. ---
**Author:** ![Thingol](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Thingol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thingol)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/53 "2004-04-06T12:31:29Z")
> [@Thingol](#): > > many of my colleagues were blatantly anti-Christian in the classroom. Btw, I should probably qualify “many” – maybe a dozen out of over a hundred. Probably gave the wrong impression, but that seems like a lot to me. And by “blatantly anti-Christian” I mean things like not allowing students to cite the Bible (a cornerstone of Western literature and thought), teaching respect for other religions while deriding Christian icons (thinking of a particular multi-culti prof here), intentionally selecting material to “jolt the little Christians out of their dream world” (yeah, folks said things like this outside of class). Thing was. our student body was largely Christian with a considerable proportion of “Bible-believing”, “fundamentalist”, or “evangelical” Christians (their own terms for themselves), while the faculty and grad students were overwhelmingly non-Christian and liberal. There was often a clash of worlds, and while most profs did a great job of adjusting their teaching styles accordingly, not everyone did. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/54 "2004-04-06T12:44:01Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Allow me to be the first to say: Sorry, I don’t believe it. I can believe it. It may be insensitive, but still possible. Having grown up in a strongly fundamentalistic setting, I can see a science teacher “warning” his/her students that what is coming next will shatter their fundie beliefs in a global flood, a young earth, etc. The teacher was not reputed to have said that all you Christians are stupid half-wits. All the teacher did was use a broad brush, and in some areas that brush is not too broad. ---
**Author:** ![sugaree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@sugaree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sugaree)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/55 "2004-04-06T13:11:54Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Allow me to be the first to say: Sorry, I don’t believe it. > [@FordPrefect](#): > > I can believe it. It may be insensitive, but still possible. I can believe that a rather tactless and inexperienced high school teacher said something akin to “Christians get ready to chuck your theories out the window here comes real science.” I also believe that if that was said, an irate-parent shitstorm of Biblical proportions rained down upon the school. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/56 "2004-04-06T15:14:22Z")
> [@sugaree](#): > > I can believe that a rather tactless and inexperienced high school teacher said something akin to “Christians get ready to chuck your theories out the window here comes real science.” I also believe that if that was said, an irate-parent shitstorm of Biblical proportions rained down upon the school. Of course I’ve known the reverse to happen far more often. I’m from Alabama and as a kid I literally saw a teacher slap a student for saying he didn’t believe Jesus was the son of God. (This was in the 1970s; today she’d be on the cover of _Newsweek_.) where in the college town of Troy a few years ago two Jewish kids were forbidden to wear their Star-of-David pendants because they were “gang symbols” and one literally had his head forcibly bowed by a teacher during a Christian prayer at an FFA meeting. Then of course there was our beloved Chief Justice Moore, who inserted more biblical passages into some of his rulings than he did law precedents, and our governor Fob James who ordered that all state biology textbooks receive “Evolution is only a theory” stickers (in spite of the fact that the fact evolution is a theory is discussed fully inside the frigging textbook.) My first encounter with an openly atheist teacher was my freshman philosophy professor, a former NASA scientist who had to teach Leibniz and Aristotle to students who thought quoting a contradictory passage in the Bible was a sound refutation. He was completely respectful of other beliefs and only mentioned his atheism as an “I have no dog in this fight” show of neutrality. It was refreshing after 12 years of not being able to sneeze without being put on the prayer lists of six different teachers who made fun of poor students, thought Medici was pronounced Med-ees-ee, used the N word in the classroom (all white school), and who had private lives that would put Peyton Place to shame but flocked through the doors of their segregated churches like homesick homing pigeons come Sunday at 10 a.m… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/57 "2004-04-06T15:32:17Z")
> [@FordPrefect](#): > > I can believe it. It may be insensitive, but still possible. Having grown up in a strongly fundamentalistic setting, I can see a science teacher “warning” his/her students that what is coming next will shatter their fundie beliefs in a global flood, a young earth, etc. The teacher was not reputed to have said that all you Christians are stupid half-wits. All the teacher did was use a broad brush, and in some areas that brush is not too broad. I believe it is certainly possible such a thing could happen. It is also entirely possible that I could win the lottery. In this case I’d say the odds are heavily in favour of it being complete fiction. It’s simply not very likely, and frankly, the wording is so similar to the way Jack Chick writes that it smells of phoniness. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/58 "2004-04-06T16:00:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I believe it is certainly possible such a thing could happen. It is also entirely possible that I could win the lottery. In this case I’d say the odds are heavily in favour of it being complete fiction. It’s simply not very likely, and frankly, the wording is so similar to the way Jack Chick writes that it smells of phoniness. You may be right that it is phony, I wasn’t there. But I live in a relatively fundie area and I recall an event that took place several years ago during a “Meet the Teacher” night for my daughter’s second grade class. The teacher was describing her teaching methods and explained to the nodding agreement of most parents there (except for me and Mrs. Prefect) that she would be excluding dinosaurs from her teaching because she did not believe in them. I should have jumped all over her on that, but it was the wrong forum, and, more importantly, I did not want her to develop a negative bias toward my daughter. So while it has a “Jack Chick” feel, I would not be surprised at all if it was true. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/59 "2004-04-06T16:58:08Z")
I’m also dubious about the claim in the OP. I agree that any manner of bad decision-making by teachers is possible, but I am like **RickJay** in feeling that it sounds a bit off and a bit Jack Chicky. That, and the fact that despite claiming to be seeking info to address a question, Faucet does not appear to have returned. I also found it oddly coincidental, the timing of this OP and a story I heard on NPR this morning about an “Academic Bill of Rights” being pushed on colleges by conservatives, fronted by David Horowitz. Now, the focus of this bill of rights is a perceived inhospitality to conservative thought on the part of many academicians, but I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing the agenda of the right from the religious right. So, could be wrong, but I find it a bit suspect too. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2004, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419/60 "2004-04-06T18:13:04Z")
I went to a fairly large, private, secular university and never encountered anyone or anything in any of my science classes that caused me to question my faith. My _Religion_ professors, on the other hand, were much more challenging. I’d stay away from those. I’m not kidding about the faith-challenging thing, but I am kidding about avoiding them. You should take every opportunity to challenge your faith. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-professors-try-to-turn-me-into-an-athiest-in-college/238419.md?page=4)