Bible Study Q&A

I'm currently on vacation and out visiting my Mom, she asked if I would be interested in doing a little Q&A with her bible study group and I agreed. I figured I would write down my experience and share with you lovely people.

The night started off with a prayer that was obviously meant to induce a sense of guilt in me.
    "We pray for our brother Kyle that he may know to come the Truth (capital T) we know his mother prays for him daily...." etc.. etc..

The night was based around a potluck dinner and just a general night of friendship. The people were mostly very nice (except for an older gentleman I will call "D") D was the one that led the opening prayer and was very passive aggressive all night, but more on that later.

After dinner we went around the room and everyone shared their high point and low point of the past week. As you can imagine most were centered around church/or blessings from God. If you're curious my high was being on a 10 day vacation and my low was only having 6 more days.

And then the Q&A started
Most of the group seemed a little nervous at first in what to ask me (whether that was from not wanting to hear an answer or just never have spoken to a "real life atheist" I don't know)
The first question asked was
 "what was the one thing that changed your view on Christianity and how old were you?" To which I replied "I was about 23 when I really started to investigate the claims of Christianity and no there wasn't one thing, but many. Maybe the biggest being the history of the church"
This is when D stepped in and started talking and talking and talking and talking. He would start with a point then trail off into who I should read. "X was a former atheist and a smart kid like you, and so was Y you should really read Y, and Z have you heard of Z, well what about ......"

I tried to explain that just because one isn't a christian that doesn't necessarily make them an atheist which then led to another long rant by D talking about Mormons, Catholics, and Jehovah's Witnesses

Honestly the night would have been a lot better if D wasn't there (for all of us as I wasn't trying to debate people but he kinda forced my hand)

One Lady asked me if the death of my brother had anything to do with my deconversion. I emphatically stated NO and was going to talk about my thoughts on heaven but she then informed me about the recent death of her brother in Iraq and I didn't feel it necessary to take that comfort away.

* Another long rant by D*

Another gentleman interrupted D to explain that this isn't why we are here and then asked me what I thought was the best question of the night
"What do you believe in?"
"Humanity" I said "I believe that we are a force for great things in and for the world and that generally speaking people are good, we help each other. We may not always get it right and we can also cause much damage, but generally speaking and especially within small communities we are great for each other"

The night ended with another prayer, but not before D came up to me and said "If I was younger I would beat the Truth into you"
ah there is that good ol christian love!

wish the night would have been a little more informative but it was mostly me trying to explain this isn't a phase and I'm not rebelling

maybe I can convince them to do another one next time I'm out but one that is a little more structured so it doesn't trail off into empty threats and nonsensical tangents

Thanks for reading
-Kyle

Oprah and Atheism - my take

I'm going to go ahead and be the nine thousandth internet atheist that comments on the recent Oprah interview of  Diana Nyad, hopefully my take is just a little bit different than others.

The reaction of the atheist I'm in contact through twitter seem to fall in to two categories "Who cares what Oprah thinks" and the "Oprah is a ignorant bigot" crowd. I firmly fall into the former (with the obvious glaring exception of me writing this blog, yay hypocrisy!)  

Let's look at the exchange that seems to have caused all the "outrage"

“I can stand at the beach’s edge with the most devout Christian, Jew, Buddhist, go on down the line, and weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity. All the billions of people who have lived before us, who have loved and hurt and suffered. So to me, my definition of God is humanity and is the love of humanity.” Nyad said

“Well, I don’t call you an atheist then,” Winfrey said. “I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is. That is what God is. It’s not a bearded guy in the sky.”


 A majority of the outrage I've seen towards Oprah quotes her as saying "You're not an atheist" when this isn't what she said. What she did say I can almost agree with based on Nyad's definition of "god". When Nyad says "my definition of god is humanity..." that does come across as quite similar to that of a pandeist. Now I'm not trying to say or imply that Diana is a pandiest, but when she describes her definition of god I could see how one (in this case Oprah) could be confused.

Oprah's reply almost mimics what Nyad says. If Nyad's definition of god is "humanity and the love of humanity" and Oprah's is "awe and wonder" really what is the difference? They are both using a slippery version of the term "god". When Oprah goes on to say "God isn't a bearded man in the sky" she kind of outs her self as a non theist. Both women identify with some sort of  spirituality the only difference is how they define it. Diana seems to not have a belief in any sort of supernatural element, but Oprah (who has had psychics and the like on her show) does.

So what is the outrage about? Because Oprah has a different definition of atheism (one commonly held)? Or are we just looking to be "offended"? If it's just about the latter we could surely find a more obvious offender, if it's the former then lets take the opportunity to educate not belittle.
Without trying to sound too authoritarian we shouldn't be so wrapped up in a label that we have to be offended anytime someone disagrees with what that label means.

comments welcome
thanks for reading