Question for atheists...?

Question

How do you reconsile statements such as "people who have objectively studied religions become atheists" when you have people such as C.S. Lewis and Lee Strobel who were atheists UNTIL the very unobjectively (in favor of atheism) studied religion?

For the record, Lee Strobel has been around.

http://www.leestrobel.com/bio.html

that was in responce to integri

I'm not trying to offend anyone or anything. I just saw that statement earlier on another post (sorry, should have referenced it) and was curious what the thought was on it.

More than anything, I am curious as to why people choose not to believe in any higher power of any kind.

I didn't mean for this to bring out such harshness. I was just looking for opinions on it.

And yes, I know I don't spell well. Luckily, that wasn't a class in college.

Answer 1

Not to mention hoards of Athiests who have come to know Christ after reading "More Than A Carpenter" by Josh McDowell, who himself once believed that Christians must be "out of their minds". He is also, since then, authored two books on the topic "Evidence That Demands A Verdict", that are awesome as well.

Answer 2

The real question is, why would you want to "reconcile" the two ideas?
To prove atheists they're wrong in their disbelief? It won't do any good. Atheists don't take other's beliefs as an argument for the existence of some God. All they believe is hard evidence, and simple beliefs/ideas/theories that are not backed up by facts aren't evidence.

Slightly off-topic, I find it hard to believe people converted after _studying_ religion. If anything, religion is a thing you must feel. Studies would reveal the controversy and inaccuracies and just ruin it all, you know? C.S.Lewis was probably convinced by the belief of his friends, we know Tolkien was religious.

signed, an agnostic.

Answer 3

Rather than reading Lewis or Strobel, you should read Joseph Campbell more often. He is much more scientific and objective in his study of religion, mythology, and spirituality.

Answer 4

It goes either way, you can accept it or believe it. But CS Lewis, Lee Strobel, haven't been around for current events, like the wars in the Middle East, the Holocaust, etc, so they didn't have any big, religious scandals to base their judgments off of.

Answer 5

That is a good question.

I think we are all different. We should just go by what makes sense to us.

Do you think you are better because you believe? If you don't than join the club. We can just accept each other and respect our differences. Only one atheist ever insulted me here and it had nothing to do with God.

Answer 6

I don't "reconsile" such statements. I don't even reconcile them. I don't make such statements and am not required to defend them.

Answer 7

We don`t know if they were ever indoctrinated when they were children by their parents .Believe me Most ATHEISTS were introduced to religion .
We just had the intelligence or scruples not to admit to something that was not there .
I went to mass for years just to be accepted ,but then i thought ,I was being a hippocrate.

Answer 8

Obviously the first is a sweeping generalization; I suspect it has merit statistically but have no evidence to back it up at the moment.

Those two cases you mention are anecdotal evidence, and you can't really conclude anything from them.

Answer 9

Some people who objectively study religion become atheists; others don't. I won't make judgments about how objective CS Lewis was -- as far as I can tell, he was an intellectual honest, albeit misguided, person.

Answer 10

They did not come to belief through any rational thought process. They made a decision to ignore reason and believe.