Reaching Out to Believers
Surprisingly, there are many religious believers (some even ardent fundamentalists) who have never actually thought about what they believe and why. Last night, I read an article from one such believer… I think. In any case, I think it is important to reach out to these religious believers and to get them to actually think about what they believe and why.
This particular believer is Jewish and has been indoctrinated in that religion. From reading her article, I get the sense that she sees her religion as more of personal identity rather than a belief that she holds.
I have found that many religious people see religion in much the same way. Religion is sort of like race to these people. As a result, when an atheist comes along and challenges religion, they see it as racist. They don’t seem to realize that you can change your religion, but you can’t change your race (unless you are Michael Jackson of course).
There is a time to aggressively challenge and argue religion with the religious and there is a time to reach out to believers in a more diplomatic fashion while still challenging them to think about their beliefs and why they hold them.
Later today, I will be going on Bob Enyart’s radio show. He is a fundamentalist Christian on a fundamentalist Christian radio station in Colorado. My intention on the show is to promote atheism and Dangerous Talk. It is also to reach out to those Christians who may be listening who have been born and raised believers. While I fully expect to argue with Bob about various issues, I am hopeful that I can encourage some of his listeners to start the journey of freethought.
If you are in the Colorado area, you can listen live at 3pm on KLTT 670 AM. If you want to listen live outside CO, you can live stream on the internet at 5pm EST @ http://kgov.com/. If anyone can digitally record this for me, I would greatly appreciate it. Bob Enyart will probably provide a copy to me, but I don’t want to rely on that.
Related articles
- 2011 Excitement (dangeroustalk.net)
- Leaving Religion (dangeroustalk.net)
- How Can They Believe This Stuff? (dangeroustalk.net)
- The Semantics Of Spirituality (camelswithhammers.com)
- Living a lie (new.exchristian.net)
Filed under: atheism, conversation, culture war, discussion, Personal, Religion
