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| He still looks like clergy and even a little like PZ. Mmm, go figure. |
Here's the nutshell...He was a well liked pastor in a community where just about everyone went to some kinda church. Because of the concept of hell and the one that always converts believers, the problem of suffering, he started to question his faith and faith in general. One day someone called him up to ask if he could pray for a person going thru some shit and...he couldn't do it (because he knew it was bull of the shit).
Now former Pastor DeWitt is a pariah in his community. His congregation of friends have turned their backs on him, his house is in foreclosure, the marriage is rocky (after all who wants to be married to the most hated guy in the community), he is unemployed because the towns belief is that because he is now on Team Atheist, he is unemployable, and in general the shit sucks.
What would or could you do for employment if the thing you did for 20 years you no longer believed in. All your training and experience was this, but now you don't believe in this (1). Simple, you do the same thing but different.
Slowly, but slowly, but surely, DeWitt is getting speaking engagements at atheist and humanist type conventions. I know for me personally, I really really, and I do mean really heart the conversions, the stories and the knowledge of former clergy that have the courage to come out. Fo sho the Christopher Hitchens and the Richard Dawkins of the world can and do totally crush religion in their areas of expertise...but that is from the outside. What former clergy can do is crush religion from the inside.
A couple of years ago at Debunking Christianity, one of John's post was a quote of mine that said something like the best way to debunk Christianity is with Christianity (thanks John, hope your billiards game has improved since you blog retirement. Miss ya man). It's the good ol' fight fire with fire tactic.
Dr. Hector Alovlos (I think I misspelled his name), just like John and DeWitt, is a former preacher. However this dude knows shit like ancient Aramaic which is the language that Jesus (probably) spoke. This guy can read ancient tablets and scrolls. He can read the original writings (what is left of them) and he doesn't need to rely on watered down, corrupt, interpolated, incorrect translations of what (supposedly) Jesus said. He can go to the source (2).
What these guys bring to the table, in my opinion, is the most valuable tool needed in debunking Christianity. These guys walked the theological walk and talked that talk that all the cool kids keep talking about. They offered Godly assistance and advice to entire congregations. They prayed to God and urged others to do so. If these guys are saying that there is no God, then WTF.
Of course the typical response is well, they were never a true Christian. Bull cocky I say. That is a cop out on the level of hate the sin, but not the sinner. Don't tell me that I was never a true Catholic. I believed that shit with my whole heart. I was a dam good Catholic. I joined Team Atheist because after examining (some) evidence, I concluded that the probability that a deist God, much less a specific God of a specific denomination, is highly unlikely (3). To say that I as a lay believer, and former preachers, were never true Christians, is bull of the shit.
I feel bad for these ex-preachers that have lost so much just because they came to, what I believe is, a logical conclusion (4). When I joined the team I woke up the next day and everything was the same. These guys lost/are losing everything: friends, family, marriages, opportunities, jobs, houses and happiness. Yeah, nothing says Gawds love like destroying a person, in totality, because they no longer believe what you believe.
Oh wait...that's hate.
* Article RNS
* The Clergy Project is the super awesome philosopher Daniel Dennent (and someone else) researching a book that chronicles clergy members that are still practicing, ya know, with congregations and all, but they are not believers. They offer support services for those trying to recover from belonging to the Jesus cult and they are more Christian than the Christians that turned their backs on people they supposedly loved. Wow, that must be so tuff.
(1) I don't know what I would or even could do if I lost my job of aprox 20 years. It's worse for DeWitt because it involves faith. Sorry man.
(2) In his debate with William Lane Craig, one of the very few losses that Craig has experienced debating Team Atheist, he totally blows him up and says something like your interpretation of Aramaic is wrong, even a first year student knows it's wrong. So epic, and that is what Craig does in debates. He spews all kinds of stuff and if you didn't know any better then you would think that he's correct. I guess God told him to be deceptive-n-shit.
(3) Because I'm also on Team Skeptic, I do leave the door of belief open. It would be intellectually dishonest to say that absolutely there is or there is not a God. And don't call me agnostic, I'm an atheist, yo.
(4) Team Atheist can easily say the equal and opposite to believers and say you were never a true atheist. The difference is that, and I could be wrong-and I would admit it, when the evidence is weigh'd out, all fingers point to atheism. If a believer studies and questions on the scale of the average Team Atheist member and still doesn't not believe I would have respect for that, but also think that's cognitive dissonance. I just don't see that the average believer questions to the extent, or even knows how to, to become an atheist.
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