The Atheist Who Temporarily Became a Christian Is An Atheist Again… and He’s Filing Another Lawsuit May 3, 2012

The Atheist Who Temporarily Became a Christian Is An Atheist Again… and He’s Filing Another Lawsuit

By Hemant Mehta
May 3, 2012

Remember Patrick Greene?

He’s the atheist who alienated many in our own community, got help from Christians when he needed eye surgery, ignored the help given to him by atheists, told the Christian media that he had converted to Christianity, and then deconverted back?

Yeah, that guy.

He’s in the news again:

Patrick Greene (Tom Reel - San Antonio Express-News)

He’s back to his old self and sued Mayor Julián Castro on Monday for his plans to participate in the National Day of Prayer event on City Hall steps today.

“I got all caught up in the excitement,” Greene, a retired cab driver, said of his brief conversion. “It’s easy to do when you get ostracized and treated like garbage. When you’re an atheist, you’re public enemy No. 1.”

…

Greene told Christian media he had converted, and the news spread. [Pastor Erick] Graham said he was welcoming but skeptical, and Greene questioned himself, too. A few days of reading Genesis and he returned to atheism, he said.

“The more I read the Bible, the more I realized, this is such a crock,” he said.

Alright, I’ll admit I laughed at those last two lines.

But that’s enough! I’m DONE covering this guy. Really.

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  • I’m not sure I can fault him. I flipped and flopped on my way to becoming an atheist, too. I had a lot of pressure from family to get back into religion.

  • kenneth

    His loyalties come and go easily it seems. It would have made a better reality show if Al Queda had paid for his surgery and he went all Wahabbist Muslim on us and THEN  said “screw it!”

  • M Vanroy

    More false predictons than Harold Camping.

    But *please* continue to cover him, even if it is to poke fun at him. He makes the battle entertaining.

  • Varun Shankar

    He’s a bit silly, but I don’t think one needs to be “loyal” to atheism.

  • TiltedHorizon

    Facing Atheists: “I’m an atheist”
    Facing Christians: “I’m an Christian”
    Facing Atheists: “I’m an atheist”

    He missed his calling, Patrick Greene should have been a politician.

  • dug_inn

    Is he a feral cat rescue  guy as well? What is with all the chain link curtains and lattice on the balcony?

  • Atheism is a lack of belief in the supernatural, not a set of tenets to be broken or followed.

    This is akin to becoming an astrologist because you read your horoscope one time and then deciding astrology is stupid afterwards because you read into it more.

  • Sounds like he flip flops for material reasons and media coverage.

  • It’s more like…

    After thinking a bit: “I’m an atheist”
    Gets help from Christians: “I’m one of you now!”
    Reads Bible: “Nope. Back to being an atheist.”

  • Plenty of christians around – ready to convert anybody and everybody…

  • The cat stuff in background would suggest, he has the lattice and chain link to let cats out but keep them from running away.  Looks like an apartment complex, can’t have them coming and going.

  • Pastor Erick Graham said he was welcoming but skeptical…

    Well at least Mr. Greene did one good thing. He got a pastor to experience skepticism.

    I’m experiencing the same thing about Mr. Greene too.

  • A bit silly is an understatement. I don’t care whether he’s an atheist, pagan or moonie. he’s a litigious dim-witted nitwit. That’s why I can’t stand the guy. If he happens to take a stand and sues for a reason I agree with, it would be a complete accident (has he ever actually gone through with any of these threatened suits?).

    Ugh, enough.

  • TheAnalogKid

    Jesus fucking Christ. I’d rather hear about the Kardashians. 

  • DG

    Yeah, if I was an atheist, I wouldn’t bring this fellow out as a stellar example of all that is atheism. 

  • Marguerite

    Didn’t you say you were done posting about this guy LAST time, Hemant? I guess some habits are just too hard to break *laughs*.

  • Okay, this guy is kind of a weirdo.

  • jdm8

    I know I shouldn’t bite, but who was saying this guy is a stellar example of *anything*? “But that’s enough! I’m DONE covering this guy. Really.” doesn’t suggest an enthusiasm for the character.

  • jdm8

    The brand of Christianity I was in (evangelicalism) didn’t spend more than five minutes explaining their beliefs.  This “impulse buy” style of religion certainly doesn’t do anyone favors except to pad church statistics.

    That doesn’t excuse him from converting before studying about it.

  • Schrödinger’s atheist.

  • CultOfReason

    Sounds like a lonely guy looking for some attention.

  • Moorwalker

    While the US would rather let people die or go blind rather than provide a civilised medical service, there is incentive for people to do this sort of thing. Were I in need of surgery and couldn’t afford it I might well be tempted to do likewise.

  • One of the reasons I clicked on this story was because it seemed to be vilifying the guy for being litigious. Isn’t every other entry on this blog praising someone for suing an organization and/or calling for atheists to be more aggressive?

  • Annie

    I was thinking the same thing.  This man wasn’t trying to get rich by tricking others… he was trying to save his eye sight.  I’ve never known such desperation, so it’s hard to say how I would behave in a situation like this.

  • Also Human

    I don’t think he’s all that ridiculous.  He was desperate, he needed medical care,  he’d been ostracized from christians (I’m assuming from family and friends too, since that seems pretty common. ) probably for as long as he’s been an atheist (prior to “converting”).  Then these nice people from a church come along and help him out. The relief and acceptance he felt was probably very intoxicating. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have lost my head a bit, too, under those circumstances. I mean, yeah, he was presented with a golden opportunity to represent the atheist community in a good light and flubbed it up a bit. He’s human. It just doesn’t seem very “friendly” to me to make fun of him and pretty much ostracize him from our community, too.

  • Parth

     Agreed. I really can’t blame him and we all know how tough it is to be an atheist, even more so as a publicly ‘outed’ atheist. He might’ve gotten caught up with emotions, but hey at least his reasoning skills won out.

  • Gunstargreen

    Please don’t post about this guy again. I said this the last time you did. He thrives on this stuff. Stop it.

  • I’m glad we have the National HealthService in the UK. I won’t need to convert to christianity to get my gall bladder fixed.