"Please Change Your Mind"
06 / 17 / 2000: Just a little note: This is one of the very first essays I wrote. I'm not real pleased with it now, but I think I'll keep it up here anyway.
I was sent an e-mail on April 16, 1999, asking me to "please change [my] mind about being an atheist or else [I'll] live and die to regret it." This got me thinking about the irrationality liberally sprinkled throughout Christian fundamentalism.
I don't know what this guy was thinking. His brief request was so full of question begging it's kind of funny. Such a statement presupposes there is a Hell, that it's the modern Christian idea of Hell, and that Christianity itself is true, or at least true enough to send me to Hell for being an atheist.
Then there's the threat of force. "Convert now or regret it later." I can be afraid of going to Hell after I die, but that doesn't mean I will go to Hell if I don't convert. I don't even believe in Hell, so why should I be afraid of it? This guy for all his concern missed the whole point of what it is to be an atheist.
Even if there is a bad place I'll go to for not "changing my mind," doesn't that suggest that God might be just a bit of a prick for threatening me (or anyone else) with it? What kind of an asshole creator would give us the ability to choose to fall at his feet or not instead of being hardwired to adore him, then toss us into Hell for not falling at his feet? Presumably, by giving us free will, he's supposed to appreciate our choice to adore him.
The typical response to this is that God, being just, has to punish us. God is also supposed to know all about what's right and wrong, but the Bible is awfully arbitrary about that, and the Bible, particularly the Old Testament, shows God doing lots of obviously "sinful" things, including lies, the "hardening" of hearts, and slaughter of babies and pregnant women. A monster with power is still a monster, and I cannot follow him, no matter how many times he says how loving he is. I'm not that guillible.
I wonder, if this guy knew that I used to be a Christian, that it was the fear of Hell that played an important part in my life as a Christian, and that since I became firm in my non-belief, that such a fear no longer has any hold on me, whether he'd still have sent his e-mail saying I'll regret not converting? Probably. I can't be sure, and in some ways it's a moot point. That's an awful big "what if." People on AOL tend to settle for looking at people's profiles without going to someone's website, even if the address is mentioned in that AOL profile, like it is in mine. That's even if they bother looking at the profile. I've had "antitheist" or "atheist" in my profile for the longest time and this is the first time anyone's sent me mail about it.
Oh, well. At least it gave me something to rant about.
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