left biblioblography: And Another One Bites The Dust

Sunday, December 28, 2008

And Another One Bites The Dust

Cross-posted @ God is for Suckers!

(Hat tip to Pharyngula)

So it seems there was an Xmas re-conversion recently - a well-known blogging atheist was 'born again'.

I have always found this phenomenon fascinating. In fact (have I mentioned this before? If so, apologies), I've always rather fancied the personal visitation these folks have. But in the years of dropping psychotropic drugs (back in the days of my wastrel youth, I hasten to add), not once did I ever encounter an external manifestation (read: embodied hallucination). I saw the walls breathe, the colors dance, and caught my hands, but no seraphim serenaded me, no booming voice from above, not even a sweet whispered nothing in my ears.

Now granted, I used to hear voices in my head, but again, these were all internal, and so I don't count those.

I am sufficiently versed in the wholly bibble, so it can't just be the written rhetoric, can it? Or is it simple overexposure?

This siren's song of madness calls, and minds dash against the rocks of the psyche's Scylla...

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4 comments:

vjack said...

The more religious someone is when they dabble in hallucinogenic drugs (or have their first psychotic break), the more likely it is that they will have confirming hallucinations. Like you, I did not have unambiguous dealings with gods. I did however interpret some of my earlier experiences as "spiritual."

Krystalline Apostate said...

Hey vjack.
Yeah, quite a few of my old stoner friends 'saw the light' in a matter of speaking.

Spanish Inquisitor said...

Statistically, it is inevitable that some atheists will convert to some religion. It has to happen, just as the reverse must happen.

However, I find it heartening that the occurrence of deconversion to Atheism far outweighs the reverse.

Anonymous said...

I made the fatal mistake of reading a few of the comments on that link. Aside from the incredibly high Christian to Atheist ratio, the Christians actually outweighing the Atheists, I found a couple of things that make me want to bang my head against the desk.

"I understand how you feel about “religion” and why you might be hesitant in giving Jesus a chance. Though, let me assure you, Jesus is NOT “religion”. Religion is man made. Jesus Christ and His Word have been here since time began."

Seriously? Jesus = deity. Worshiping a deity = religion. What am I missing here? Oh right, "faith in the TRUTH of the LORD!"

But the mild flavors of religion zaniness aside, there is something much more painful.

One of the comments basically amounts to "some of the comments I read by Christians on Atheist blogs were nice, so now I'm a Christian!" Now maybe I'm crazy, but I've met nice Muslims, Jews, etc. I'm even totally in love with a Catholic (although being a religious lesbian she doesn't have any kind of non-platonic relationships at all, talking about becoming a nun :( And yet I'm still an atheist. Somehow conversion based on "I met some nice people." seems kind of...dumb to me.

I suppose it should be no shock though. I just recently read some research done on importance of religion based on level of IQ. Handy little graph included and everything. The numbers for the importance of religion were very high around the 80 IQ mark and quite low in the above average intelligence levels.