Atheist mom: Death threats from angry Christians helped kill my faith

[rug]

Amber Barnhill (Screen capture)

David Ferguson
17 Apr 2015 at 15:29 ET

A Texas woman who spoke out in 2013 against prayer in schools says the vicious reaction she received has driven her away from Christianity altogether.

Beaumont’s Channel 12 News reported Thursday on Amber Barnhill, who joined other non-religious demonstrators at Lamar University’s “Ask an Atheist Day” on Thursday.

Channel 12 first met Barnhill when she objected to officially mandated Christian prayers at her son’s public school pre-kindergarten class. In the wake of that news segment, Barnhill said she was the object of an outpouring of rage and abuse, including death threats.

The nastiness of the response, she said, contributed to her loss of faith in religion.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/atheist-mom-death-threats-from-angry-christians-helped-kill-my-faith/

Link to 2:22 video here:

http://www.12newsnow.com/story/28825967/woman-declares-disbelief-in-god-after-extreme-bullying

[AuntPatsy]

1. For me it was not due to death threats, more in line with none of it exhibits common sense

and or fairness...

[rug]

3. For her, it looks like this was just the icing on the cake.

“That’s not why I lost my faith in God,” Barnhill said. “But it did have a huge impact on how quickly that happened.”

[AuntPatsy]

5. The truth is I feel like I lost my childhood fairy tale bubble which helped keep me oblivious

To the real truth humanity represents.. Sometimes I wish I could hide back in that bubble...

[rug]

6. I haven't left my faith. Instead, I just dug in and learned more about it.

That, and I haven't let cretins like these people define it.

[AuntPatsy]

11. i have somewhat strange beliefs regarding where to place my faith, I only have faith

That we are doomed to constantly repeat our own disturbed history regarding our present life forms on this small and insignificant planet...

And with thus constant repeating of the same mistakes we are bound to flame out sooner than later, it's inevitable for a species who continues to take while giving so little back in return...

I believe we were put here yes, but not by some incredibly brilliant compassionate and loving so called God...

I believe we were nothing more than an experiment....

Sadly a failed one, we, the whole population of our species continue to prove our biggest failing to date...

Our inability to except each other based on differences we cannot even seem to fully understand..

The seven deadly sins, they are real to me and our reality is proof they very much govern our very existence...

But hey, I could very well be misinformed

[rug]

12. Well, welcome to the Religion Group.

We discuss all sorts of strange and misinformed things.

[AuntPatsy]

13. ..

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Eh, I'm sure they'll go all No True Scotsman on her now

and claim she must not have been a 'real' Christian in the first place, or else why would she object to prayer in schools?

[CrispyQ]

4. The hate mail that Freedom From Religion Foundation receives is stunning in it's

mean-spiritedness & vulgarity.

[rug]

7. They should put some up on their site like DU used to do.

[procon]

8. And for me, it was the

hypocrisy, intolerance, aggression and violence, and the proud ignorance, the self-righteous dogmatic hatred of everyone who is not totally aligned with their stifling bigotry and prejudices, not to mention the self-serving cherry picking of selected biblical passages while ignoring the most basic teachings of their own prophet. There's a very long list...

[rug]

9. I follow you.

The main difference is my enmity is directed against them not the caricature they promote.

[procon]

10. I try not to let the feelings of enmity gain a foothold over my logic and reason.

I admit that sometimes it is a struggle, but more often than not, I think that I'm just profoundly saddened with all the pretentious, artful guile that is held up as a Quixotic chimera of "faith".

[struggle4progress]

14. Some fundamentalists do seem to have that effect on people