A challenge to atheists and theists alike. For one week you have to change your opinion to the opposite side. Life your life how you think the other side lives theirs. Atheists have to go to church on Sunday, pray every night, cant do bad ****, have to really believe that god exists for 1 week etc. Theists have to really believe that god does not exist for 1 week, and cant lie to themselves about it.

I could do it. Any other atheists and theists who could do this challenge? If not do you think this points to any insecurities / closed-mindedness about your beliefs?

I could go through the motion but the ocean would still be the ocean.

Why would I do all that pointless crap when I could do other things that bring me real happiness and success like:

reading books to increase my knowledge
****ing my girlfriend (I highly suggest this one if its within your range)
working out, rock climbing, brazilian jits, tearing up trails with my new 29er mb
playing poker
working on programming side projects
hanging with friends
listening to music, and going to see live concerts (helps to be in live music capital of world)
ect...

Life is short and I'd rather spend it doing the important things, and constantly believing some ****ed up father figure created, runs and judges the universe doesn't even make the list. I mean if I had a reason to believe it, I would because I'm a rational person but as it stands now I'd rather go rock climbing.

I could douse myself in gas and light myself on fire in protest of the Tea Party, but I don't think I'm going to do that. Youknowwhatimsayin?

Outside of going to church, I don't think there is much, if any, difference in the way we live our lives now. In fact, I probably go to church in any given week as much as most of them do.

I don't think I could pull off the " ..oh,well, god works in mysterious ways" very convincingly. Not to anyone else, not to myself.

I asked the same thing to a christian, she answered that her life wouldnt change, other than not going to the church on sunday.

Other than that NOTHING would change for her. So whats the point?

one can go through the motions, but i don't know how i could suddenly go about believing something I absolutely don't

life your life son

Yeah, I don't know how the OP plans on getting around this.

You can't be serious with the "can't do bad ****", can you?

I'm an atheist and I think I'm much more moral than many religious people I know who are racist, close-minded xenophobes.

Also, this challenge would be akin to you believing in the tooth-fairy for a week. If you really want a challenge you should go through some spelling lessons.

Surely instead of actually changing your opinion (which is pretty much impossible to do with just the flick of a switch), a more realistic challenge would be to spend the week immersing yourself in the culture of, and being totally open to the arguments and beliefs of the chosen religion.

If you're a Christian, spend time with athiest people. Don't go to church, or pray, and see what happens. Embrace the logic, reason and science that the athiests talk to you about.

If you're an athiest, spend time with Christians. Listen to what they have to say. Engage in debate, attend their services and immerse yourself in their culture.

Do this and see what happens?

This is pretty much how I wound up a christian again.

Trust me, you will get no takers.

A christian can't do it because it is sin, and fighting against God's kingdom.

The fundy-atheists here have no good reasons not to do it, however, except a deep fear that they would be forced to open their eyes and minds, and possibly wind up in alignment with their parents' views, which is way worse than water-boarding.

I didn't see one important thing on that whole list.

That, in fact, looks like a wasted life if I ever seen one.

This part just isn't true, and I imagine it's somewhat insulting to atheists that you would truly believe this.

I know this will come as a shock but some of us atheists are former believers who did this challenge for years (not a week) after we lost our faith in a attempt to regain our beliefs.

If you aren't a fundy-atheist, don't sweat it.

unpossible, imo. please explain how this is done.

would love to see your list

You would probably consider me a fundy based on my politics and wanting God out of my government.

I'm tired of hearing that, mainly because I don't believe it.

If so many of you were willing believers, then how come only a handful of you demonstrates a basic, fundamental, grade-school understanding of important theological themes?

Salvation.
Original sin.
Resurrection.
etc etc.

I'm sorry. I just don't see evidence of it, except in a few exceptions.

There is a big difference, I think, between attending church in tow, because your parents dragged you along, and attending church by yourself on a friday night when you could be blasted at some bar, or 'hanging with some girl.'


I mean... I don't see any discretion shown.
Everything is thrown up against the wall, and at us.

As an ex-christian, I might know that some atheist's arguments are weak, or that christians already have a solid defense prepared, if I had really once thought as a christian thinks.
I might be able to sympathize with some logical line or another, but no such flexibility is demonstrated here.
I see no such discretion or foresight.
It's just a never-ending assault of copy+paste.

And as someone who opposed belief for years, I know there were places I would not go.
I knew it wasn't about 'winning' at any cost.
I knew that the subject matter was serious, and deserved attention, discretion, and thoughtfulness.

You are right. I was never a True believer and i never tried to recapture that belief. Thanks for enlightening me and showing my failed ploy. Ill give the week a go.

I dono I would just assume that god exists. Take this as a foundational truth then base my week off of it. Maybe the reason I know I could do it is b/c I was a christian for the first 22ish years of my life, so I know the motions.


The point I'm trying to get at is if you are not willing to accept the opposite opinion as true, even for a week, just to see what it is like, I dont think you can call yourself open-minded. Yes, obv there is no god, but I'm not afraid of assuming there is one for 1 week. However many atheists and theists alike would not be willing to do the same it seems.

I'm an atheist and I think your a bigot.

If i can just assume whatever i want to be true. Can i start with Adriana Lima being my girlfriend and then do God?

Nice, just call us liars, NBD.

Personally I was a catholic and then a Born again for about 4 years, and have believing but very non committal parents so the "parents dragged you" part doesn't apply.

I'm not sure what exactly you mean by "grade school understanding" presumably you mean "people who don't interpret this event the same way I do." Problem is there are 30,000 different denominations so... lots of people have different ideas about what this stuff is and isn't. To say someone has a "grade school understanding" because there interpretation of something doesn't fit with yours is pretty ridiculous IMO.

And of course some atheistic arguments are weaek, "the problem of evil" is substantially weak IMO, "Atheism is the default position" is weaker still, so what? As for "having sympathy" for certain arguments, I don't see why that should be necessary. I think all the arguments fail now, so even if I did believe them before, I view them as incorrect, why should I show them any charity?

Honestly though, if you want to have a dialogue, I think the first step would be not calling people liars from the jump, but that's just me.