Everyone Knows God, So Atheists Don’t Exist
Earlier this week I was in one of the most uncomfortable meetings I’ve ever had in my professional career. I was with a friend from Church and we were meeting with a local faith based homeless shelter, asking them to let us come in and survey their residents. The meeting was rough from the start as the two shelter leaders talking with us were highly skeptical of our survey and our methods of providing homeless housing.
Towards the end of the meeting, and without warning, my Church friend blurts out that I’m a nonbeliever.
What the hell!?!?!
So the shelter leaders immediately perk up and one of them flat out asks, “So why don’t you believe?”
I’m there freaking out that this is even happening, and all I can respond is, “I make it a personal policy not to discuss my religious beliefs while I’m on duty”. Which isn’t exactly true. I’ve told people my beliefs when asked before… but this was different. Way different.
The leader goes on that the Bible specifically states that everyone knows God, but that some just don’t choose to follow. He went on to say that he understood if someone was confused or unsure, but that it wasn’t possible that someone could actually not believe in God.
He and my church friend bantered about their pre-born again lives and made some comments about science and math. I wish I remembered better, but my head was kinda spinning after being outed as an atheist during a meeting at the most ardently religious shelter in our city. I kinda wish I could get the chapter and verse of where the “everyone knows God” bit came from.
So the leader guy sounds all excited and really wants to talk about why I don’t believe. I’m thinking to myself that if he thinks that atheists – in principle - can’t exist… what good is having an actual discussion? I mean seriously, in what world would that be productive?
More posts to follow on this.
The location you are looking for is Romans 1.
But to the point, I would find it suspect for your compatriot to ‘out’ you like that in that setting. I wouldn’t say it is completely irrelevant, since it is a faith-based endeavor, but it almost sounds like he was using it as an opportunity (maybe even unintentionally) to feel spiritually superior to you.
Much in the same way some Atheists quip about how those Christians believe those silly things about the invisable magic man in the sky, some Christians do this to Atheists. They get the confirmation of how right they are and how wrong you are from their fellow Christian (or Atheist).
I think it was incredibly disrespectful to you, and really inappropriate. I am none too fond of ganging up on people in discussions. I actually avoid commenting some Atheist blogs because its just a pile up. But that’s kind of what happened here.
I would even go so far as to say he owes you an apology. I mean, this is work, right? Like you said, it is work, and you are actually in a possition to be harassed because of your view.
Heya John! When I was doing some quick research for this post, I came across Romans 1. I think it was Romans 1:16-20 or something? Thanks for the confirmation.
The church friend was MexicanLove, who I’ve blogged before. He was the guy who asked me to cover for him at children’s church. He was also interested in helping me with my homeless initiative. He has a heart for the homeless too and has been particularly disappointed with one of the major downtown churches and their coldness towards homeless people. When I approached him months ago to get his help, he got a big kick out of an atheist doing the work of Jesus, caring for the poor, while the so called Christians turn a blind eye. When I saw how much he digged that, I should have spoken up then to let him know that my atheism isn’t part of the campaign… isn’t part of the pitch. But I trusted that he would keep it professional.
In fairness to him, I don’t think he was trying to feel spiritually superior to me, but spiritually superior to the other Christians. I don’t think he would say that he was out and out trying to shame them into participating, but it felt like that was the vibe. Kinda a true to form, Good Samaritan story. If the godless atheist helps out the homeless, us Christians should do it too.
He did apologize after, but I think he was hoping for the “forgive and forget” kinda thing… never speak of it again. I accepted his apology, but to forget… seems to miss out on learning. I don’t intend to hold it over him or anything, but I am noticing a pattern. Not quite disrespect. It’s negligence… a carelessness.
The story ends well though… the next day a Presbyterian Church saves us by allowing us to use their building for our homelessness survey HQ. The people there “get it” and I’m immensely grateful. I don’t want this to be another “all Christians suck” post, because in honesty, the week was a nice balance and lesson about how it’s the individual that counts.
how is it that you have a friend from Church if you are a non-believer?
why are you going to church?
I am curious about how you define atheist
Well… my wife is a Christian… so we go as a family with our two kids. I originally thought that I’d be better to go than not… be an atheist and be visible. After a few years, I’m not so sure it had any effect on our kids’ religiosity. So lately I’ve been questioning, “what’s the point?”
So even though I’m a nonbeliever, the people there are really nice, so I can’t help ending up with a few friends.
I define atheist as most people do… I don’t believe any gods exist. As many Christians will attest, church attendance often has very little bearing on a person’s actual beliefs.
Oh, that makes sense. It’s okay if you don’t answer these, I am just curious; not questioning or second guessing you.
If there were no kids, would you have gone for your wife’s sake?
Knowing all you know now, if you could go back in time, would you still go to church as a family?
Or would you go to get to know the people your kids were exposed to?
Do you think that by not going, you could have influenced your kids more? By letting them know you’re an atheist and what that means?
Unfortunately, the answer for a lot of these is “I don’t know”. I’ve noticed over the years that I’ve escalated in my interest in atheism to emotionally counter all the Christianity in my life. If the kids weren’t there, I may still go, just not as regularly. But then again, I might. I tend to over think these hypotheticals.
If I had to change one thing though, I think I would have been clearer and more vocal about my nonbelief. I wasn’t always an atheist when our daughter was born, but I wasn’t a Christian either. I fell into the freethought groove of letting my kids make up their own mind, not pushing my beliefs on them. But in the process, I completely neglected to share any beliefs. I’ve been playing catch up ever since.
When I think of not going to church as an example to the kids, the rationale would be to show them that you simply don’t have to go if you don’t want to. But I don’t think that would work in our church. It’s actually a fun church. She enjoys it and all her friends are there. She doesn’t feel like she’s being forced to go, she feels like she wants to go. So the only counter I can think is, as she gets older, teach her more about critical thinking and science. And I’m doing that now. So we’ll see.
“I’ve escalated in my interest in atheism to emotionally counter all the Christianity in my life”
Talk about a tricky tight rope.
I don’t envy your task.
oh and Greta Christina has moved her blog, I just updated my link to her site.