Convincing Chritians they don't have to give up what they like about church, only give up fear.
Offline As a former Christian, I think I understand the real problem. Most professing Christians really don't believe. They either don't believe in secret, then outwardly around other "Christians" they profess and act Christian or they force themselves to believe out of fear.
You can see the evidence of this in their arguments for belief. They continually throw out Pascal's wager which really only proves they don't really believe and are just hedging their bets. Also their "There will be no morality without religion" argument only proves they "believe" out of fear. My definition of faith - forcing oneself to go along with something untrue out of fear. All humans have an innate fear of the unknown and death, religion exploits this fear.
The real response to Christians needs to be the following:
1. How to get them to get past their fear of death and what will happen after death. Get them to just accept that we can not know what will happen and just face this fear. Believing in fairy tales of the bible does remove this fear deap within our psyche. All fear must be rationally faced.
2. Convince them they don't have to change their morality. Becoming a non-theist does not mean losing all morality. Instead it means they are free to choose their own morality. Perhaps they could choose the same morality that is taught by Jesus. They can still believe sex should be reserved for marriage without belief in any god.
3. Convince them they don't have to give up "worship". Christianity has poisoned us into thinking it would be wrong to enjoy the awesomeness of nature and the universe. In Christianity only god can be awesome, to think anything else is awesome is blasphemy(remember religion poisons everything). You can be a non-theist that sings and gets the same high Christians get from worshiping god by singing about the wonderful natural world and the joy of being alive.
4. Convince them they don't have to give up "prayer". They can meditate, contemplate the wonders of the universe and get the same peaceful feeling Christians get from "prayer".
5. Convince them they can still have fellowship. They need to know they can still have places to go to find meaningful friendships and fellowship with like minded people.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
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I think that the only thing would be applicable would be 1.
For example in the case of 3), I know many Christians that 'awe' at the universe of God's creation.
This reminds me of the 'belief in a belief' Dennett was talking about.
I disagree. Worship in church is drug. You do experience a "high". This high can become addictive. If you've been to a rock concert, you may have experienced this high. There you can enhance it with drugs. That's why Christian pastors hate rock n roll and drugs so much, it is competition for their business.
So, if Christian are getting this high from worship, it needs to be replaced, otherwise us junkies will go to church to get our fix. I am still tempted to go back to church just to get my high. The same is true for prayer and fellowship.
In the 4 horseman video, Dennet and Dawkins say they still sings the Christmas carols with the original words to get the Chritsmas 'high'. You can get the high without believing the story is literally true.
Religion has poisoned our atheist minds. Many atheists believe they can't do anything similar to prayer, worship and fellowship. Religion has monopolized these drugs. Christians hate this site, because it's promoting atheist fellowship. Christians believe they have a monopoly on fellowship. They also believe they have a monopoly on morality especially sexual morality.
There can't be an end of faith until there is first an end of fear.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
http://www.rationalresponders.com/belief_despite_understanding_the_logic_and_three_steps_to_freedom
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
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