Due to constant misunderstanding with my name I feel the need to change my intro. I am hateful, hateful of religion. I hate what religion does to people and that people use it as an excuse to not think. I have spent many years of my life as an Atheist and have learned to handle my emotions, but no other word quite describes how I feel towards religion short of hate. I am outspoken, open minded, and will share my opinion. If you're looking for someone who will always agree with you, that won't be me.
The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism
(Ricky Gervais is my icon photo, I seem to be asked a lot.) Follow HatefulAtheist on Twitter

23rd March 2011

Question with 5 notes

doubtingmarcus asked: Seeing that you get a lot of questions from theists which you easily refute do you ever get a message back saying "Oh now I get it. Thanks for clearing that up." or "I was wrong about that"? I don't recall ever seeing someone admit that they made a mistake no matter how egregious the error or how clear your explanation was demonstrating just where they went wrong. Moreover you've been doing this for a while, in internet time, so I was wondering if you ever received a message from someone who contacted you in the past with a question that has since stopped believing in god or changed their views about evolution.

I’ve come very close before but never had someone say it so honestly. Usually if I do get someone on a point it will come down to “Well that’s you’re interpretation…” or a “We’ll have to agree to disagree…” or a similar statement intended to dismiss the discussion without really addressing it. I have at least had some admissions from people that they were unaware of some of the information I post.

I have had a few people contact me in the past and say they were recently believers and have started to move away from it and the discussions I’ve had helped them. Usually it’s from people who have already started to question things on their own but may be a bit unsure. It is a great compliment to get a message like that and really reminds me of why I continue to do what I do.

Really I’ve been close and I do know for a fact there are some theists I’ve made think or at least questions things. Usually they feel afraid or simply don’t want to admit it. They see it as a test of their faith and until they’re willing to start to move away from that faith they’ll be very hesitant to acknowledge those temptations. One I’ve gotten many times though that is just code for it is “Listening to you has only strengthened my faith!” After hearing it a few times I realized it’s code for “You have good points, and it makes sense, but you’re a man so I’m going back to God even stronger because what you say scares and confuses me!” in a nut shell.

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  1. hatefulatheist posted this