Coming Out as a Christian in a Atheist Community

[tsig]

the God thing does provide comfort - especially in times of stress (like dying!).

and until you've bought that ticket I think unfair to criticise how others handle it.

FWIW sometimes I look at the Moon and wonder if my late Missus made it there. and I hope she did............Of course she didn't and it's not even an accurate representation of her beleifs. but the thoughts make me smile. if I need to lie to myself to acheive that I will.

humans are funny buggers...........a bit of self deception can be very useful.

Or very dangerous.

[charlou]

Indeed.

[epepke]

Which is what I see a lot of - "Church" is a community where you would otherwise have none.

Quite true, important, human, and so rare amongst atheists that I am surprised to see someone else pointing it out.

[charlou]

Which is what I see a lot of - "Church" is a community where you would otherwise have none.

Quite true, important, human, and so rare amongst atheists that I am surprised to see someone else pointing it out.

This forum is a largely atheist community .. wouldn't call it a church, but a community of non-believers, nonetheless.

[DRSB]

Which is what I see a lot of - "Church" is a community where you would otherwise have none.

Quite true, important, human, and so rare amongst atheists that I am surprised to see someone else pointing it out.

Most people are born into a certain faith as they are born into a community and have no choice on either matter until they are able to outgrow it and leave. Even that was no option for most of history, people were namely not very mobile.

[jcmmanuel]

I'd like to know how you'd deal with the revelation that a major atheist icon was actually a convert to Christianity?

I guess that's what we call freedom of choice. Even all great world religions agree on that today, with the exception of Islam. Most secular ideologies do not, by the way - but that isn't strange, as the West does not really and certainly not formally accredit 'ideologies' as such (we define ideologies as political entities, unlike religions). Again, Islam is the exception, as experts would often see it as a political movement and therefore an ideology inside a religion, or vice versa.

PS. Antony Flew is still a good philosopher, his 'conversion' to theism was not radical, but happened over a period of more than 10 years, very fluently.