MiloCast

A common claim among Christians who found their faith later in life (after childhood, when most people are indoctrinated), is that they “used to be atheists.” Technically, that’s true. Everyone is born an atheist, by definition. However, there are different types of atheism. There is “default atheism,” also known as “weak atheism,” which simply describes a person who was never indoctrinated into a religion. Then there is “strong atheism,” which describes people who have decided based upon actual information that there is no valid reason to believe in any gods.

So a weak atheist converting to a religion is simply a gullible person accepting irrational claims made by other human beings. You don’t see strong atheists converting to religion, because they value the truth. The closest we can come to knowing the truth is to base our opinions on the best evidence we have. If a strong atheist were to convert to a religion, there would have to be a reason compelling enough for him to explain to other strong atheists. If such an argument existed and was valid, all strong atheists would convert to religion, because it would be the most convincing position based upon the facts. However, this has clearly not happened.

I am well aware that I have used strong language in this article, including repeated use of the word “indoctrination” to describe the way people gain their religious beliefs, and the use of the word “gullible” to describe adults who accept baseless claims about a religion as holy truth. I stand by everything I have said. However, any evidence which shows that I was mistaken will be acknowledged and I will amend my statements if such information is provided. At this time, the only exceptions I can think of to what I said above is that I believe a strong atheist could convert to religion without evidence if he experienced brain damage.