Dear Christians - On Atheism

Dear evangelical Christians,


It's only fair that I send you an open letter because I took the time to write to fellow atheists and agnostics about good and bad ways to talk to Christians about their faith. And I think that's a productive conversation!


But I'm sure that you have a lot of misconceptions on your end about atheism. I was in your position. I had no idea what it meant to be an atheist. And I had no idea why they did not have a belief in the God of the bible. I had the same assumptions that you might have. So I want to write this out to you evangelical Christians about dialoguing with Atheists. Should we be scared of them? Do they have a holy text? Are they all the same? Are they trying to take over the world!!!! Will they eat my babies? Do they worship Satan?


1. Atheism is not ONE collective, organized position. It's one position on the claim that a God exists. So its impossible to sum up all atheists or bring them under one umbrella. That does not mean that atheists do not believe in anything. Its just an answer to the God claim. I'll use the general term Atheist, but not everything applies to every atheist. And I hope this is appreciated because I also don't lump every Christian into one group.


2. The basis for a position on the God claim usually comes from simply not being convinced there's enough evidence to have a positive position. For myself, it came from taking a rational, skeptical look at the claims and realized I did not have enough evidence to remain in the church. A lot of atheists use words like evidence, skepticism, rationality, sources etc. In other words, everything that remains when you take away emotional claims/faith.


3. Atheists do not hate God or worship Satan. I can't hate what I don't believe in. I also don't believe in a Satan... so I definitely would not worship Satan. And I don't hate the Bible or Christians or religion. The only thing that I would take a position on is protecting people who's freedoms would be taken away by legislating from the Bible.


4. The majority opinion among scholars is still that there was a historical Jesus. You may have heard most atheists do not believe in any historical figure that could have resembled Jesus of Nazareth. Even amongst Agnostic/atheist scholars, they still find convincing evidence for a historical person. There are a number of influential writers who are trying to build a case to challenge that (Mythicists.) But as of right now, they can't assail the scholarly work done by Historians.


5. Atheists do believe in morality. But it is not a morality found in a set of laws. It is a morality that has developed within social groups for survival and cooperation. This is how morality is explained and how it developed over hundreds of thousands of years even to the point of groups forming laws.


6. Atheists are not atheists just so they can get away with sinning. If a person takes a position that the bible is not the moral authority and that morality has origins in the past, sin is not a "thing." We make decisions in our own understanding of morality as part of a social group based on risk/reward. Yes, this does free the conscience from the biblical idea of 'thought police." There's no doubt about that. but people still have consequences for actions that are illegal in our society.


7. Atheists are not trying to take God out of everything. This is the focus of Christian movies and books. Activist atheists trying to impose a Godless society on the world. My perspective is historical. That's the purpose of my blog. I have no problem saying that Christianity and religion in general are huge parts of our western culture and would be incalculably different without it. Art, music, works of literature and elements of culture that are religious have value. However, my position is that we can't dictate the morality of the bible into someone else's life that does not believe in it. Christians are protected by the church and state division as well as adherents to other religions or no religion.


8. Atheists do not hate creationism. For myself, in historical perspective, the epic narrative of the book of Genesis have value in context. There's no reason why creation epics should not have a place in literature and comparative religion classes. However, they are not scientific explanations that can be taken apart and tested via the scientific method. It does not mean they have no value as literature. But they are not science. Therefore, they should not be put next to methods that are testable and repeatable.


9. Atheists do not have "nothing to live for." This is something I hear all the time. Once I left my faith, I must be miserable and destitute for meaning in my life. Nothing could be further from the truth. I love my life. I find meaning in what I do. I enjoy my relationships and being a father. I love art, history, nature and enjoy making the world a better place. I am not sad that I left the church and furthermore, I don't hold any disdain for Christians. My journey is unique, just like each journey in faith or out of faith.


10. Not all atheists are nice. Not all are assholes! They are just people. You wouldn't want an atheist judging all of Christianity based on one jerk. Well, same with atheism. I don't like some of the atheist activists on YouTube and at conferences. That's just natural. It has to do with approach and personality. Unless you want every Christians judged by the Westborough Baptist Church... (which I know you don't) give us some leeway as well.


So let me know what you think! Thanks for your time Christians!


Steve