Christian Atheists

I think that if most Christians are honest about it, they have to admit that despite their claims of faith, they are for all intents and purposes in fact, practicing atheists.

You find very few True Believers anymore. The alternatives provided by science are just too powerful.

I had a true believer in my family. But I never met her. Because she was a True Believer.

My maternal grandmother developed breast cancer in her late thirties. She was a devout Christian. A product of the turn of the century Pentecostal movement. In those days you had to choose between trusting God or trusting doctors, and to go to a doctor was demonstrating lack of faith in God. The elders were called. Hands were laid. Oil was annointed. The prayer of faith was prayed. Sin was confessed (oh yes, and how the godly women told her how there must be some unconfessed sin that was hindering her prayers). By the Book.

By the time the pain became so great that she begged to go to the hospital it was too late. The surgeons fillayed all the tissue off her from the elbows to her sturnum. Then sent her home to die.

My then pregnant (with me) mother, still a teenager, sat by her bed and cared for her, when everyone else abandoned her (except the wicked church women who would litereally come to her death bed and beg her to confess her sin and be healed). What an evil dark backwoods medievel world it was in the Ozarks on 1960.....

She died at 40. My mother by her side, and scarred for life. If anyone should be an atheist it is my mother. She has not lived a pain free day since. Back. Neck. Colon. Fibromyalgia. Migraines. Heart condition. Who kows what else. She has been in chronic pain everyday of my life. Yet, she holds fast to the faith and prayer, although I can't recall one answer. She has learned that God cannot be trusted with the big stuff. She would never put it that way, but if she has a physical problem, first they pray, then they go to the doctor, then they pray again. It is functional atheism wrapped in superstition.

They read the Bible and believe that if two or more are gathered in Jesus name, whatever they ask in faith, believing and not doubting will be given them, but when push comes to shove they put their faith in the physician. The very act of which invalidates the not doubting clause. In my life I have known several more of the hardcore believers like my grandmother. EVERY ONE of them died pre-mature and HORRIBLE pain racked and psycologically tortured deaths. There are few of those hard core believers left. Natural selection kills them off and rewires their offspring and the others around them to change their actual beliefs and behavior.... no matter how much they proclaim their faith in God's healing power.

What is left is a nation of ceremonial Christians. They live accord to the scripture that says, "acknowledge Him in all your ways." Your ways (ie. how you live your life), ie: abiding by the social contracts, avoiding unprofitable behaviors (drinking etc.), get an education, work hard, save money, provide for your family, and go to the doctor just like everyone else, but you acknowledge it is God providing you with the ability to do right, make money, and healing/health. And that is the only thing that separates the Christian from the atheist. Their WAYS are exactly the same, because it is what works. It doesn't work to rely on God for healing, so both rely on doctors. It doesn't work to sell all you have and trust Jesus to give you money, so they keep their stuff and work jobs. It doesn't work to violate local laws, so they don't do things that will land them in jail. Almost all Christian FUNCTION day to day as atheists. They tap into all the natural laws that provide them with as good a life as possible, call them 'Biblical principles', and give God credit for thinking them up. It is interesting that the things that work, work FOR EVERYONE, not just believers. So if an atheist is wise with money, he is "blessed" exactly the same way a Christian is. What is up with that? If the relationship with God through Jesus is the make break between God's blessing what you do you shouldn't get equal results if you don't even believe in god. Trust me, this drives a lot of fundies crazy.

We are a nation of ceremonial and cultural Christians but practical/functional atheists. Remember that as you argue with Christians, nothing in their practical lives, other than denying themselves enjoyment of a few things, is fundamentally different from you.... in direct defiance of scripture. In short you are winning. Because what the Bible teaches doesn't work. They instinctively know it, or have learned it the hard way. This is undeniable. They just feel more comfortable with the idea of someone up there looking out for them. If only they could leave it at that.....