What happens when Religious Leaders Lose Their Faith?

[Synnical]

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/02/watch-out-for-those-terrible-atheists/

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The January/February 2008 Psychology Today magazine contains an article, “An Atheist in the Pulpit, what happens when religious leaders lose their faith.” The author interviewed Lutheran, Pentecostal, Catholic and Episcopalian clergymen and recorded theism’s cognitive dissonance in their own words. “We tend to ignore how much cognitive effort is required to maintain extreme religious beliefs, which have no supporting evidence whatsoever.” “The disjunction between what clergymen say publicly and what they believe privately is so common that serious cognitive dissonance comes with the territory.” “We spend our lives impersonating who we think others want us to be and end up living as impostors. So when someone comes to me and tells me they are losing their faith, I congratulate them. You’re starting to embrace your own thinking self – the essential, immutable, immortal self – as opposed to the accidental criminal you have been made to think you are.” Integrity and cognitive health are theism’s real sacrifice.

A question seldom asked is what does the prejudice against atheists tell us about those who hold that prejudice? Are theists fearful that their god may not really be omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent? Does the cognitive dissonance experienced when trying to explain their god’s indifference to events like 9/11, Katrina, and the 2004 Christmas Tsunami trouble their psyche? Maybe their religious fire insurance has been shaken. When theists must struggle with the ineptitude of their god, who better to lash out at than atheists?

Has religious tolerance for prejudice and bigotry toward atheists so intimidated Americans that they do not even recognize it? Evidently yes, especially when one might be branded one of those terrible atheists. Nevertheless, an intellectually free America, as intended by our founders, remerges as more and more atheist/agnostic freethinkers come out of the closet and stand against theism’s last bigoted prejudicial stronghold of intolerance. As one astute college student said to me, “a man without religion is like a fish without a bicycle”— who needs it?

-Cindy in Fort Lauderdale

[trotsky]

1. I think that is a big reason why atheists scare many believers.

Those that ride that line, struggling to wall off their beliefs from the same level of inquiry they give everything else in their lives, see in an atheist that which they are trying the hardest to suppress in themselves. Part of the self-convincing they've done is that without gawd, they'd be a depraved sinful lunatic... and then a normal, happy atheist just blows that out of the water.

[onager]

2. That, and our orgies...

:hi:

[trotsky]

4. Well, duh, I thought that went without saying.

Along with the goat blood drinking and baby sacrificing.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. Oh, shit, don't tell me I've been doing it wrong all this time.

Wasn't it baby blood drinking and goat sacrificing?

[cosmik debris]

10. Every time you get near a goat

We have another one of these to explain.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. C-section, I assume. -nt

[progressoid]

13. Eww, that reminds me of a video.

A Giant python eating a springbuck antelope - horns and all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDW5HpdFals

[immoderate]

16. That looks like a kid I went to Hebrew School with...

We used to make fun of his ears...

--IMM

[funflower]

18. No, no. It's cuz we hate Amurika. Dontcha know anything?

[HelenWheels]

3. I had a college prof that used to be a minister

He told us that there was quite a few ministers that didn't believe but that they continued to preach because they felt that people needed faith to keep their lives together.

This was in the early 80's and he had gotten his doctorate of god at a university in Chicago. His name is Thomas Madison. That's all I remember as it was quite a while ago and I was having too much fun back then to commit too much to memory if it wasn't going to appear on a test.

Edit: whoops, this is goddess40, I forgot to sign in to my own account.

[JNelson6563]

6. They smoke meth and join NAMBLA?

:shrug:

[moggie]

8. National Association of Marlon Brando Look-Alikes?

Careful, though: it sounds like you're suggesting that only the godless fiddle with kids and do drugs: you know, because we're so amoral, compared to those virtuous believers. This is, of course, bullshit, and I'm sure that plenty of those boy-loving priests are still True Christians(TM).

[JNelson6563]

17. Something like that....haha

And you're right about the inference. Though it seems it was the hard-core preachers who fall away suffer the fate I mentioned, we rank and file that awaken basically go on with our lives, though a bit more enlightened.

Cheers,
Julie

[progressoid]

7. I once gave my fish a bicycle.

Didn't work out too well. :(

[immoderate]

9. the answer is pedal extentions.

:)

--IMM

[progressoid]

12. That probably would have prevented the unfortunate "bicycle chain incident"

I'm a bad pet owner.

:spank:

[immoderate]

14. What's bad for the fish...

is good for the bouillabaisse. :)

--IMM

[deepthought42]

15. So that's how my fish got out....

Oops.


Nothing like finding a crispy fish when cleaning your room! ;)

[onager]

19. Here's one example

Charles Templeton, who was once an evangelist touring with a young Billy Graham:

However later, in 1995, Templeton published "A Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith" which put forth his arguments for agnosticism, while also depicting Graham as a fraud who didn't believe in his own crusade.

In the latter part of the book, Templeton includes several quotes that have been described as "devastating" to Graham and his career of evangelical teaching, setting up the case that the latter was simply caught up in good way to make a living.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Templeton

[Ezlivin]

20. They keep working because of the investment they've made

I graduated seminary and entered the ministry in 1993. After two years I belatedly came to the conclusion that religion was man-made and that god did not exist.

Fortunately I had an undergraduate degree in computer systems and was able to secure work in that field. Many of the people who enter the ministry have nothing to fall back on; they have to make a living. I'm not saying they are correct in continuing, but I understand why. In some ways it's similar to a salesman who no longer believes in the product he/she is peddling.

[Deep13]

21. They continue defrauding people...

...often telling themselves that people are better off as believers even if the belief is false.