Things Christians Say, part 25: Being rebellious

A weekly series of responses to the things Christians say to atheists, based on the video reproduced here on 30th January 2012.  The aim is to tackle one every weekend, to give both a moderate, polite response to each question ('Piano'), followed by a more forceful rebuttal of the same question ('Forte'). 

Atheism is the thing you do when you are being rebellious.

Piano

Some young people might indeed take up an atheistic viewpoint in order to rebel.  Perhaps they are rebelling against their parents views, or perhaps they are doing it so that they stand out from the crowd at school or college.

In general though, I think that middle-aged adults tend not to rebel in the same sort of way.  For me finally realising the impossibility of reconciling the claims of Christianity with the way I see the real world that was the final straw.  I didn't think of changing to any other religion, but my awareness of their very existence helped me to realise that none of them seem to offer more in the way of explanation.

Besides rebelling against people or institutions is one matter, but in order to rebel against gods one would have to believe in them.  By definition, the one that that atheists have in common is the lack of belief in gods, so how can they be rebelling?

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Forte

Ask a buddhist.  Buddhists are religious atheists.  Do you think they are rebelling too?


Last week: I have a personal relationship with Jesus - it is not a religion
Next week:  All the evidence you need is right here in the bible.