From: tomault+@cs.cmu.edu (Thomas Galen Ault)
Subject: Re: Why do people become atheists?
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Lines: 70

In article <May.5.02.50.42.1993.28665@athos.rutgers.edu> Fil.Sapienza@med.umich.edu (Fil Sapienza) writes:
>I am interested in finding out why people become
>atheists after having believed in some god/God.
>In conversing with them on other groups, I've
>often sensed anger or hostility.   Though I don't
>mean to imply that all atheists are angry or hostile,
>it does seem to be one motivation for giving up
>faith.  Thus, some atheism might result from 
>broken-ness.

I'd like to field this one, if I may.  Although I am a believer in and follower
of Christ, my experiences with religion haven't been all that positive.  In
fact, there was one point in my life when, for about three days, I simply
_couldn't_ believe in the existence of God.  Anyway, when I look back upon the
troubles I've had, they seem to fall into two categories -- impulses to
unbelief that resulted from logical contradictions, and impulses to unbelief
that resulted from frustration with God.

The first category doesn't occur to me much anymore, as I have worked through
most of the arguments for the non-existence of God.  But way back when, these
would cause me some problems, and I would have to struggle with my faith to
continue to believe.  I can see where others less stubborn than I (and I do
mean stubborn.  Stubborness has often been the only thing standing between
me an atheism from time to time) would fail.

The second category arises out of some long-term personal difficulties and
the struggle to live my life as God would have me live it WITHOUT living my 
life as others would tell me how God would have me live it.  A good example of
this is my struggle with the more radical Christians I meet.  I am not, nor
have I ever been, "on fire for Chirst," and I don't think I ever want to be.
Nevertheless, I am not "lukewarm" about my faith, so I don't really
fit in with the mainstream either.  Quite naturally, I feel a lot of anxiety
about my dislocation within Christian society, and it can lead to a lot of
internal tension, when I want to do what I _know_ is right,
but when another part of me believes that what I want to do is wrong because
all the other Christians think so to.  Quite naturally, this tension has a
destructive effect on my relationship with God, and during all of this internal
strife, there's atheism sitting there like the promised land -- no rules, no
responsibilities, no need to live up to anyone's expectations but my own.
Complete freedom.  Of course, it's all an illusion, but nevertheless, it's a
very appealing illusion, especially when the so-called "people of God" are
behaving like total twits.  I can easily understand why someone would go
that route, and would be hostile to ever coming back.

IMHO, many of the former-Christians-turned-atheists-who-are-now-actively-
hostile-to-Christianity are so because their experience with Christ and God
wasn't a very peaceful one, but one of mind-control and "shut-up-and-do-what-
you're-told-because-we-know-what's-best-for-you-because-it's-God's-will-and-
you're-to-young-to-know-what-God's-will-is-yet" courtesy of some of Christ's
more overzealous followers.  

A final reason why people become atheists is because Christians do not have a
very good reputation right now.  One of the things that attracted people to
Christianity in the ancient days was the love that Christians obviously had
for one another and the world around them.  Unlike the rest of the world,
Christian communities actively cared for their poor, and the Christian rich
did not trod on the backs of their poorer brothers, but bent down to help
them.  Christians were known for living exemplary lives, even if they were
thought to be traitors to the state because they wouldn't sacrifice to the
emporer.  Nowadays, courtesy of the media and some Christian leaders who lost
Christ on their way to power, people see Christians as sexually-repressed
hippocritical busibodies who want to remake society into a facist version of 
their own moral view.

There are a lot more reasons why people become atheists, but I don't have time
to go into them right now.



Tom Ault
