Every so often when I am discussing or debating religion
with someone, he or she will tell me that at one time they
were once an atheist just like I am now. I even had one
person call himself an “ex-atheist.” I always found this kind
of odd considering that all Christians (and even all theists
for that matter) are by definition “ex-atheists.”
What most Christians don’t realize is that we are born
without belief in a deity... any deity. Babies don’t believe in
deities and religions because they are babies. Their minds
have not yet developed and they can’t even recognize
themselves in a mirror. They don’t believe in ghosts or
tarot, nor do they believe in the boogieman, Santa Claus, or
Gods. They are a blank slate as far as complex beliefs go.
All babies have are instincts and the nurture of the womb.
In other words, people are born without the belief in deities.
We are all born atheists.
However, religious indoctrination starts very early on in most
families and so by the time a baby can express any kind
of thoughts at all, they have probably already been
brainwashed to believe in a deity and/or in some sort of
religion. This is a sad fact about religious institutions that
they can’t even wait until someone has reached the age of
reason to start warping young and fragile minds with
indoctrination.
So why do some Christians pull out the “ex-atheist” card?
Well, one technique in the art of persuasion is to identify
with your subject. In this case, a Christian claims to identify
with his or her mark by claiming that they once didn’t
believe in God and the Bible. The problem with this is that
a simple lack of belief is all that qualifies one as an atheist.
In other words, a person who has never thought about
religion is just as much of an atheist as someone who has
studied the claims of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and
has researched the Torah, Bible, and Koran and found that
those belief systems are ridiculous.
Kirk Cameron of Growing Pains fame is one such person
who frequently uses the “ex-atheist” card. But I doubt very
much that Kirk Cameron cared about religion at all before
becoming religious. He almost certainly didn’t study the
claims of religion with any seriousness or rigor nor did he
look at the history of Christianity and the Bible before
becoming a fundamentalist Christian. He probably never
argued with religious believers and probably never thought
about any of the philosophical arguments. Yet he still can
claim honestly that he was once an atheist.
On the other hand, many atheist activists (i.e. atheists who
have actually studied religion and still don’t believe) were
once religious. Many were even very religious and some
were even fundamentalists. These particular atheists are
often very knowledgeable about their particular religious sect
and so when they de-convert it really means something. In
other words, the claim of ex-Christian may actually carries
philosophical weight while the claim of ex-atheist is usually
pretty much just meaningless. I know many Christians will
claim this is a double standard. But the reason for this
double standard is a valid one and so the ex-atheist
Christians really have no persuasive ground to stand one.
So when discussing religion with someone who throws out
the “ex-atheist” card, it is important to ask them about their
former atheism. How knowledgeable of an atheist were
they? Did they read and understand the counter-arguments
to religious belief? Did they debate or discuss religion with
believers when they were a non-believer? What’s their
“street cred" so to speak?