Heading to Pittsburgh for a Christian Conference

– Just be yourself (be cool). Just being a normal fun guy speaks volumes.

– Since it is a Christian audience, perhaps mention that even if there is a God, once one strips away all the man-made components of religion, (like holy books), why would God dole out reward and punishment for believing things without evidence? It would all be so arbitrary. Tell them to be rational, be good, and don’t worry about appeasing God.

– if you must bring up the proclivity of atheists to eat Christian babies, be sure to emphasize that you are engaging in satire. 😉

You don’t need to talk about atheism per se. After all, it’s a conclusion resulting from a particular way of looking at the world and not a worldview itself. That needs to be made clear.

Talk instead about critical thinking and examining the assumptions that underlie people’s worldviews. For instance, talk about the assumption that faith is a virtue and ask questions about it. Is it a virtue if it makes you fly aircraft into buildings or say, as the Pope did, that condoms cause AIDS when, in fact, the evidence shows they prevent it?

Get them thinking about the assumptions they take for granted. Start them asking questions about them. Do that and perhaps some minds will open up and see skepticism (and the tools of critical thinking) as a healthy part of their lives.

1. Ask the audience for a show of hands of those who were taught by their family or preachers that atheists are bad people.

2. Lay out a brief empirical case that atheists are not bad people.

3. Conclude that those in the audience who raised their hands were told a lie.

4. Ask them to consider: If their family or preachers lied to them about atheists, what else did they lie about?

5. Leave it to sit in their minds, and go on to another topic.

Please find a way of explaining that:
1. Atheism is NOT a religion
2. Atheism does not take more faith to “believe in” than god(s) (or for that matter ANY faith).
3. That many atheists used ot be believers and left the xtian faith arduously and painfully. For a bulk of us, hearing xtians prosthelitize to us is just a repeat of all the things we told ourselves as we were wrestling with our beliefs on the path to atheism. As such, while we appreciate the xtians concern for us, little if any of what we hear from evangelicals is new, and much of it is just frustrating to hear over and over again.
4. That we don’t believe that the Universe just “came to being out of nothing.”

These are the four things that seem to come up the most in my interaction with believers and are also the things that piss me off the most. If you can convince even half of those 500 to 1000 students, that is 250 to 500 people from whom I will never have to hear this folderol again.

Encourage them to read the bible, but to do so critically. Remind them that different denominations are different because of human history, and that it’s their responsibility to separate out myth and cultural beliefs from their religious beliefs. Good way to get them to turn a critical eye in the right direction 😉

In short – (1) you might be wrong on certain details of your religious beliefs and (2) it’s your responsibility refine them by being critical of them, learning about your religion from a variety of sources, and importantly (3) to be open to the fact that some of the details of your current beliefs might be wrong.

Key is using basic history and language facts that are agreed upon by real theologans… not just Christian apologists who call themselves theologans.

Here’s a good “homework” example that came up recently in discussions w/ a Christian friend of mine. There’s a common interpretation of Gen 3-15 as the first mention of the coming of a savior. Read it, then ask yourself the following questions (which, btw, are great to ask of any non-obviious interpretations of bible passages): “What reason/evidence is there that the author intended for those words to have that interpretation?”

Plenty of others that highlight the importance of not taking the bible literally – compare the creation stories in Gen 1 and 2, compare and contrast the gospels, look up all mention of the sun and moon and compare w/ reality as we know it, etc.

If you talk about stereotypes that could clearly be a great setup for a number of great one liners about atheists and eating babies.

I have yet to find an answer for “why are xtians always so angry?” They have their religious buildings on nearly every street corner with billboard signs containing biblical quotes and suggestions for the way they think people ought to live.

However, should there be any atheist information posted (Bus Ad Campaign, as example) religions of all colours, and espcially the xtians get quite cranky.

My own life experience has been that the hard core religious right always have treated me, the questioning atheist, with distain, contempt and as an outsider, very uncharacteristic of the verbal professing they espouse.

My Catholic mother married the son of a United Church minister. I know religious teachings/conflicts and the bible well. I am one of the few who has read the bible from cover to cover.

I have a good buddy who has received death threats from the xtians in his community because he is an outspoken, questoning atheist. He is no longer because he does not wish his son to be caused any harm.

Hemant–just wanted to say it was great having you at Jubilee, and true to your reputation, you gave a friendly and winsome description of your beliefs. I enjoyed moderating the panel discussion and hope we can do it again sometime!

Almost without fail the word ‘PROSELYTIZE’ is misspelled on all the religious & atheist sites I have recently visited over the past few days. (most spell it prosetheltize etc. which is incorrect). Why mention this ? Why be so picky ? No reason other than wanting to be helpful – most of arguing the case in favor of critical thinking depends on getting your facts & details straight. While ignorance plays a role in faith based beliefs those who do read & can spell will discount your background and message quickly. They actually don’t forgive that easily.