Reasonable Dissent

Conversion out of Atheism

It seems to be a popular idea among some strong atheists that de-converting from theism is common, but the reverse is hardly ever true. Interestingly, I don’t notice the opposite from the other side of the argument. Many theists are indeed very aware that they lose people (right or wrong) to atheism. But I also have a hard time accepting that it doesn’t happen; I think it’s more a matter of outspokenness. In the atheist community, it’s almost taken as a badge of honor. “I was once a Christian, but through my own super reasoning skills I overcame the beliefs and dug out of the oppressive brainwashing…” But is there a corresponding mark of pride for leaving atheism?  Actually, I think that there’s enough of a taboo about atheism in Christian circles that it may even be held back. Whereas a Christian-turned-atheist would be proud of (to them) throwing off the shackles that their parents put on them from birth, the reverse doesn’t seem as gleaming. Sure, we hear about the prodigal son, and how great it was that he came back… But all he got was a nice party. Remaining steadfast in your beliefs is portrayed in a much fairer light.

In hearing about leaving atheism for Christianity (or whatever other religion) you also have to watch out for the inevitable “No true Scotsman” retorts from atheists who don’t think that out. Phrases come out like, “Well, he may say that he was an atheist, but he must not have truly understood what that means.”  First, let’s leave the logical fallacies to others. What do you mean by “atheist”? Is that exactly the same thing I mean? What about that atheist that lives down the street? There isn’t a dogma to point to that says, “An atheist is A, B and C.” Sure, we could try to pick out the common points, or define it with a dictionary, but it reminds me of Plato’s forms. What is the form of a human? Well, it may not have arms, because we still call people without arms human. Or legs, or hair, or ears, or the left half of your brain, or the right half…. Why pigeon-hole atheists in order to say that the conversion didn’t mean anything? Frankly it shouldn’t really matter anyway. Being a convert (or de-convert) only would help convince someone else in the sense that you would have some idea of what they may believe. It’s not convincing in and of itself.

Maybe I’m biased too, because I think I’m right (don’t we all) so it might seem silly to go away from atheism to me. But really, that’s no sillier to me than converting from one religion to another. Maybe if you stay in the Judeo-Christian family you can claim some semblance to consistency. Maybe. But it still seems like you’d be going from one set of unsubstantiated beliefs to another (contradictory, I might add) set. Really, it seems almost laughable that you can recognize one religion as false without looking as scrutinizingly at the next one.  Once you’ve realized that it’s up to you to accept or reject a belief system, how do you validate the next one? In the simplest terms, being an atheist could mean just that you accept that no belief system holds any more weight than any other.

Tags: atheism