Christians persecute Pastor for experimenting with Atheism

reply to post by OccamsRazor04


Fireman fired for deciding to try out telepathy to put out fires instead of doing his part on the hose..... Etc etc.

People who send their children to religious schools expect the teachers to be strong in religious faith to indoctrinate, I mean teach their children from the faith perspective. They pay extra to make sure their kids are being taught by a person of that religion. A jew or muslim or hindu would not be getting a job at the school anymore than an agnostic or athiest would. It's "common sense" really.

This story has a certain bit of irony to it.

The pastor leaves his faith to test athiesm, perhaps for a learning experiance. It seems like he's learned a valuable lesson. God takes care of those who love and worship him. All that is God's, responds in kind. So maybe this is the lesson he's looking for, but instead of taking the wisdom from it, he's taking a hard stance agaisnt it. This can be said of anyone in similar situations when dealing with their faith and their beliefs. I see a lot of irony here. I also see a real portal for wisdom as well. When he pulled away from all that is God, perhaps God and all that is related to God left him to his own devices. A way of saying to him in wisdom, when you pull away from God, you're left in the darkness on your own. When you return, I'm sure this applies here as well, he would be accepted back into the fold.

Just as a reminder... Man cannot live on bread and wine alone, as this man is only suffering of that which is caesars... money. The very thing he's getting from the athiests who rather seems to relish from the idea that he's pulling away, and that they can come to his "rescue".

There is so much irony here, it bleeds from every word. It's more than simply him loosing his ability to participate in something that he's alienated himself from. It's irony on a spiritual level as well.

I will thank you for the OP, even if I dont agree with you. By posting this and bringing up this discussion, you've actually lifted my faith just a little more based on the wisdom and understanding I see in all of this.

I think one should keep an open mind to all things, but always do so by first having a solid a robust pillar on one's own faith, beliefs so when examining new ideas, concepts, history, "truths", he/she can challenge the pre-concepts to trully uncover true facts based on conteporary or ancient knowledge.

reply to post by CB328


religion is a meme. Memes have rules of conduct.

The more powerful the meme, the more stringent the rules of conduct.

This guy should really quit while he is ahead. Things would be dramatically different if we were talking about Islam. A million people would personally want to kill him. That's stringent.

reply to post by m3lh4d0


I don't want to seem rude but I often wonder, do you feel fortunate that your parents taught you the correct religion? What would have happened if they had taught you the wrong one? Talk about a conspiracy!

He probably said something along the lines of..."Hello everyone, what would the world be without go..."

"BURN HIM!!!"

Hopefully this could be a wake up call, so the Pastor can 100% steer clear from the Christian cult.

“Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.”
― Thomas Jefferson

This is why there are Atheists in the clergy actually seems there are a lot. Clergy who’ve lost their faith due to patriarchy i.e. The Clergy Project

This guys story is a good example of why they kept quite when they went through the doubting phase.

Christians persecute man for thinking outside the box?

This is kind of like if you're an atheist and your new roommate is a diehard christian fundamentalist. Is it bigoted to want a new roommate?

Can our society tolerate people being intolerable in their private lives or purchases? Am I bigoted for buying new age music and not hindu or hard metal music?

Am I bigoted for not visiting enough websites representing opposing views? Will they in the future require us to view things which we don't agree with or like?

Am I bigoted if I vote for someone just because I think they talk TO ME? Or what if I vote for them because I like the clothes they wear?

My own opinion is if christians want their pastor to be a christian then that's their choice. Nobody is forcing anyone to go to church. And there're many kinds of churches. This whole discrimination thing is stretched too far.

In this case, people aren't discriminating the pastor on race, but on religious belief. Why should religious belief be comparable to race?

Update? (Dec 14)
After Year Of Atheism, Former Pastor: 'I Don't Think God Exists'
Ryan Bell

a reply to: and14263

Well his decision to live atheist according to the article was because of faith already being lost. I don't think this change was all that genuine, he lost his faith then made a TV deal out of it, which is why he got a documentary crew to follow him around.

He would have still come out an atheist even if he didn't decide to "live as an atheist".

Kudos to the pastor for being honest about his doubts, and shame on the community for immediately ostracizing him. Is it not the responsibility of a good Christian to help those who are steering away from faith, help them come to terms with their doubts and hopefully, realize that God is the correct path? The community had a major opportunity to demonstrate some genuine goodness in their hearts. Instead, they stripped him of his livelihood and unceremoniously shoved him to the street.

And I'm seriously taken aback by all the comments from Christians in this thread. "Serves him right?" "He should have known this would happen?" How very unchristian of you. The very tenets of Christianity is to help those in need, and tend to those being led astray. Would Jesus have abandoned a disciple who began to doubt his faith?

Deplorable.

a reply to: CB328

Thanks for the laugh.

Pretty good story but i think your remarks about it are way off base but have been called out well.

And christians wonder why people call them intolerant and hypocritical?

I think you are overall wrong in your assumption of christians wondering about this.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
reply to post by Grimpachi

 

He stated he is not going to pray. So a student comes to him and says hey can you pray for me? No sorry I refuse to pray for you because as far as I am concerned there is no god right now.

Yeah you're right .. perfect fit for a CHRISTIAN school. Some serious stupidity in this thread.

For the next 12 months, Bell says he will live as if there is no God.

He will not pray

i can see what its a private establishment now. only under private ownership can it get away with being called a 'school'....

still, what did he expect when he switched teams, even if it was on a trial basis. everyone knows you dont test god. even if that IS how science works.