Myth: Atheists are uninformed about Christianity The quickest way to annoy me when discussing my husband's deconversion is start making suggestions about what books he should read to bring him back to the faith. It's usually the standard fare. C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity (not awful) or Lee Strobel's The Case For Christ (not great).  Sometimes they'll suggest a trip out to the Creation Museum (absolutely terrible). There are a few reasons this tactic bothers me. First, it shows me that the person making the suggestion has spent absolutely no time getting to know my husband. He was a Bible college student and is a voracious reader so to assume that he's unfamiliar with these works says to me that they have no interest in my husband as a person, but only as a soul to be … [Read more...]

  Myth: Deconverted atheists were never really Christians There are a couple of schools of thought with regard to how salvation "works." One that is particularly well-known is that of "once saved, always saved," based on passages like Hebrews 6:4-6, John 10:27-29, and Romans 8:38-39. The basic idea is that if someone is saved through belief in the tenets of the Christian faith, they can never be unsaved. This theology exists most commonly within Reformed thought (the "P" in TULIP - Perseverance of the Saints), but when someone deconverts from Christianity to atheism, it seems to become far more wide-spread. Sometimes this is said because people want to believe that their once-saved friends and relatives are still saved and presumably going to heaven. But more often it's … [Read more...]

Myth: Atheists are Satan worshipers  As people of the Christian faith, worship is part of what we do. A fair portion of our faith is dedicated to determining if we're spending enough time worshiping God or if God is the true object of our worship. No matter the particular tradition, worship is inherent in it. So when we meet an atheist, the tendency is to want to figure out who or what it is that they worship. The idea that worship could be missing from their daily experience seems to be unsettling to a number of Christians. And since the opposite of God is Satan, many will say that atheists worship Satan. So much so that this was the number one comment that I got back from atheists when I asked about common misconceptions that Christians have concerning atheism. I suppose if … [Read more...]