"They weren't _real_ atheists" (and other thoughts on the recent TSR)

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Jeff Epler wrote:

> 

> Having just gotten the July/August issue in the mail yesterday (Thanks

> for mailing it out specially, Till) I take keyboard in lap and prepare

> myself to write critically about what I read within.

> 

> No matter how much I like Till, or how right he usually is, I must

> foremost take exception to the discussion on Page 14 re: "More about

> Converted Atheists..."  Till has ranted in the past that some

> Christians say of other Christians---particularly ones who converted to

> another faith or to atheism---that he "wasn't a real Christian".

> Now I read Till saying the same thing: They were not "committed

> atheists." Till's whole reply reads just like a Christian explaining

> how no real Christian has ever converted to Atheism.


Jeff, down here in Alabama, we have a lot of "Clayton Delaneys". Clayton
Delaney was the guy in the Tom T. Hall song that got religion before he
died. Now when one of these hard drinking, hard partying, good old boys
gets religion, the word spreads like wildfire that an atheist has just
converted. The story is bolstered by the Clayton Delaney himself, who
says "Yes, I was once an unbeliever."

The point is Jeff, that there are millions of non thinkers, who are not
capable of reason and never care to try, who call themselves atheist,
agnostics or just non believers. They have never read a line of
scripture, never thought of the concept of eternal torture, never
examined the logic of a god sacrificing his own son to save his own
people from his own wrath. They don't care. They are non believers
because they don't like the regimentation of going to church on Sunday.
In other words, it is the lazy thing to do.

Then, just like my brother-in-law, who just got baptized, they get
religion when they can see their impending death not too far down the
road.

I do not believe it is possible for a person like myself, or Till , or
many others on this list to ever become so brain dead that we would go
out and join some church. 

There is a difference between a good old boy atheist and a committed
atheist like us. That is all I am saying and I believe that is what Till
was implying.
-- 
Ron Patterson ,   ronp@hiwaay.com

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