Andrew Hall writes ...
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"Atheist Martin “Marty” Young converted to Christianity after his neighbor Bob asked him “What if you’re wrong about there being no God?”

The two men were chatting by the fence that separates their two properties. Marty was mowing his lawn, and Bob was weeding his prize winning beef steak tomatoes when the two thirty-somethings took a break. What started out as an innocent conversation about the evils of crabgrass quickly turned serious.
“Marty, we’ve been neighbors for ten years now. I can’t help but notice that your daughter, Abby, is a lesbian. Your boy Stevie is a sissy. Your wife, Mrs. Young, has a reputation for spreading her virtue around town,” Bob observed.
“Yes, that does seem to sum up my horrible family life quite well, Bob.”

“I’ve never seen you at church, Marty. I couldn’t help but notice you celebrating Darwin Day every February.”
“That is correct, Bob. As you know my family and I are Atheists. We hate Christmas, and that’s why we celebrate Atheist Christmas, i.e., Darwin Day, every February,” Marty replied.
“Since you’re an Atheist, you don’t care about what happens to your kids or to that immodest wife of yours,” Bob leaned over the fence to give his next point extra emphasis. “But have you considered everything about being an Atheist? What if you’re wrong ?”
It hit Marty like a ton of epiphanies. His eyes got that far off look. Without saying another word he left Bob, the fence, and those prize winning beef steak tomatoes and ambled into his house to have a lie down in bed.

Marty grew up Baptist. His parents were God fearing Christians who believed in Genesis, the disciplinary belt, and Prohibition. Marty fell into the wrong crowd during high school. Those punks in the Science Club showed Marty how cool it was to read Richard Dawkins and talk about selfish genes. Soon Marty bought a leather jacket and started rolling his own cigarettes, unlike the Jesus certified ones Dad bought.
It was the Satanic rituals in the basement that caused his parents to throw him out at 17.
Now, in bed and looking at the ceiling Marty reflects on his sinful life. Bob’s words were on repeat in his mind What if you’re wrong ?

It must have been all the sin in his heart that prevented Marty from asking that question himself. He could give several theories on why altruism and compassion evolved in humans but never had he considered the implications about the possibility of his being wrong about Jesus.
Jesus said All come to the Father through me. For years Marty made snide comments on Facebook on how non-heterosexual that sounds. Marty wasn’t laughing anymore, however.

What if he was wrong? If he were wrong, he’d be tortured forever in a hell. If he was going, to be honest with himself being tortured forever didn’t sound nice. Marty had several health concerns and felt sure they would flare up if he were in a lake of fire. His allergies would kick up like the devil.

Marty knelt on the floor and prayed to Baby Jesus for forgiveness. From that day forward he stopped rolling his own cigarettes. After asking his daughter What if you’re wrong? she became straight. After asking his son the same question, the boy started beating up homosexuals.
Marty never asked his wife that question. He liked her dirty ways."

Web fiction? ;-0

Isn't everything on the web fiction ?

like this website?

Why not read C.S. Lewis's conversion story?

http://www.ewtn.com/library/SPIRIT/cslewconv.htm

He actually wrote an entire book about it:
https://www.amazon.com/Surprised-Joy-Shape-Early-Life/dp/0062565435/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500917213&sr=8-1&keywords=surprised+by+joy

Want a more contemporary story? Democrat strategist and commentator Kirsten Powers describes her conversion to Christianity:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/november/fox-news-highly-reluctant-jesus-follower-kirsten-powers.html

Tall Man, Short Hair Wrote:
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> Why not read C.S. Lewis's conversion story?

> Want a more contemporary story? Democrat
> strategist and commentator Kirsten Powers
> describes her conversion to Christianity:

Read both of 'em.
Neither have any good reasons to believe on offer.

The latter is particularly silly:

"After about eight months of going to hear Keller, I concluded that the weight of evidence was on the side of Christianity."

Yeah...no.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2017 01:40PM by ificouldhietokolob.

helamonster Wrote:
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Do criticisms of "belief" bother you so much that you feel you need to demand they not be written?

How sad for you.

I think, and I could be wrong, but helamonster seems to be replying to Tall Man, Short Hair. If so, it would make his post a "criticisms of 'belief'".

"or to that immodest wife of yours"

wow what an ass-hat that neighbor is!

And wow, double wow to the rest! What a totally ridiculous 'story'. I mean, come on! So atheists are apparently satanists as well and just a result of 'falling into the wrong crowd' (wearing leather jackets, oh my!)

What a load of crap!

Haha. Love the way the story highlights the twisted way some of the religious view atheists. Or should I say "most of the religious?" Beauty--and sin--are in the eye of the beholder, in this case, one Bob and what he stands for--judgement and fear of a vengeful god.

"What if" is a lousy foundation from which to make life's decisions.

"What if he was wrong?"

Well he found out he was wrong. Shiva was the one true god, and Shiva did not like people praying to baby Jesus.

He, if religious people can make up stories, so can I.

Quoting Triz Trzcinski from 'Stalag 17': "I believe it! I believe it."

In context; US soldier in a German POW camp reading a letter from home:

"I believe it. My wife says, "Darling, you won't believe it, but I found the most adorable baby on our doorstep and I've decided to keep it for our very own. Now you won't believe it, but it's got exactly my eyes and nose." Why does she keep saying I won't believe it? I believe it! I believe it."

It appears that human beings have an innate desire to make an emotional attachment to something outside themselves.
Call it: mysticism, paranormal, spirits, after life, visions, ethereal, spiritual, deity/s, supernatural, etc. somewhere in every culture there is a system of belief that unites them.
It's not about what is true or false, it's about belief by faith. That is an important distinction.

There are thousands of belief systems that create a World View that makes sense to different people.

Belief systems are predominantly determined by the geography and time period of your birth. What you are born into often remains for a lifetime.

In this world we live in, there is a larger connection to more peoples and their ideas and beliefs and people can more easily make changes in their belief systems, or discard them as they choose.

It's important, in my view, to give everyone the same respect and honor we want for ourselves when we live by a World View that is constructed by our own choice of belief system.

There is no right or wrong one on some kind of sliding scale, for instance. It's about personal choice and our right to change our minds if and when we want to, also.

We can chose a religion, a deity, a savior, or none and change our mind at anytime. It's all part of being a human being and figuring out what makes sense to us as we follow our life path.

I like the idea of letting go of any need to tell someone what kind of belief system and World View is acceptable or not acceptable.
It's all OK. It's a personal choice and the more we take that perspective, the more we are compatible and can communicate and understand one another.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2017 03:42PM by SusieQ#1.

Reality check.

It's satire.

If "Marty" had really prayed to Jesus, the missionaries would have showed up that afternoon and shown him the Restored Gospel.

Then it would have been true...

"If a man is not a liberal when he's twenty, he doesn't have a heart. And if he's not a conservative when he's forty, he doesn't have a brain." (Churchill)

...I was an atheist in my twenties...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2017 10:26PM by caffiend.

I am 67, have always been a liberal and not planning to change.Sorry, Mr. Churchill.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2017 11:52PM by bona dea.

Yeah, Churchill was wrong. Completely. :)

...So he was a liberal for today's standards!

Also, if you read his criticism of religion (like islam being "the greatest force of retrograde in the world") he doesn't come across as a deeply devout christian at all.

Love it----

After asking his daughter the same question, "What if you're wrong?", she became straight. The same question to his son resulted in the son beginning to beat up homosexuals.

This isn't ridiculous? More wrong than the original question, IMO. To me, more than a little disturbing.

Yeah, stereotypes both atheists and Christians

I think the punch line was a little weak...

This stuff is terrible. His lesbian daughter and "sissy" son. This reminds me of a Christian movie I saw. There is an atheist guy that has a lot of anger about God from his childhood. I kept thinking here would be some sort of moment when the love of God reaches him, a moment of redemption. I stead he gets hit by a car and dies. A born again preacher happens to be there to get him to confess Christ right before he does. My parents were watching the movie like it was this amazing thing, I was horrified by it. It was then that I realized the point of the movie wasn't the redemption of the atheist guy, it was seeing him get hit by the car. I guess God triumphed in the moment the athiestbwas struck down. I still find it disgusting.

I am and always have been a universalist and a humanist. But 9-11 convinced me once and for all that God did not exist, not the God I knew and loved. Not the God of Islam, Christians or Jews. Not the God that created the Earth and Adam and Eve 6,000 yrs ago.
Now I see it a little differently.
I discovered something that had been lost in translation that changed my mind.
In the original Greek Bible, John 1:1 it ssys,"In the beginning was the Logos. The Logos was God, the Logos is God. Nothing was made without the Logos and the darkness understood it not." (Paraphrasing) It says the Logos became Jesus.
In ancient Greek (Stoic) philosophy "Logos" was the "divine reason that permeates and animates the cosmos" Logis is where we getvthe word Logic, but it is much more than that.
Logos, meant "Spitit" in ancient Latin philosophy since prior to the meridian of time.
I never realky had a problem with Christ, just Chrisyians, until recently.
Now I work for Christians who take me to Maui to surf twice a year, drink fine wine at sunset on Big Beach with 150 great people, with 10,000 humpbacks singing love songs while flying toward the Great Attractor, splashing in the God Patticle with zen masters,
Imagine,
you'll be a true believer too.

One of my oldest friends is Winston Churchill's great nephew...

Never forget that, despite his considerable talents, Winston was constantly drunk - and World War II was about the only success in his long career...

Tom in Paris

But at least he had a parrot.

And he also enjoyed brick laying.

Soft Machine Wrote:
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>
> Never forget that, despite his considerable
> talents, Winston was constantly drunk - and World
> War II was about the only success in his long
> career...

"Constantly drunk"? Hardly. But he also smoked cigars!!!!!

He was prescient about the growing Nazi menace when all the liberals thought they could accommodate (appease) Hitler, then steered the UK through the darkest days. After all, the only thing Lincoln did was save the Union.

Regarding drinking, there's the retort he delivered to Socialist MP Bessie Braddock (often misidentified as Lady Astor).

Braddock: "Sir, you are disgustingly drunk."
Churchill: "My dear, you are ugly, and what’s more, you are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober and you will still be disgustingly ugly."

Another:

Churchill was on the toilet when he was summoned by the Lord Privy Seal (ironic). Churchill called out, "Tell him I can only deal with one sh*t at a time!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/2017 11:59AM by caffiend.

I agree I didn't give a totally rounded image of Winston, but he gets such a good press that it needs reminding occasionally.

However, Caffiend, your assertion that "He was prescient about the growing Nazi menace when all the liberals thought they could accommodate (appease) Hitler" is not correct.

You should check your history. All across Europe, the appeasers were not just "liberals" (although there were some too). Much of the appeasement across Europe came from the Right (and even the extreme right - Hitler supporters, don't you know). Most of the prewar anti-fascists, however, came from the Left.

Tom in Paris



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2017 05:39AM by Soft Machine.

I was thinking of Great Britain when I wrote that. On the Continent, as the Hitler-Stalin face-off intensified, sympathizers to the Soviet Union were anti-Hitler. (Which put them in a conundrum with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-Aggression Pact. In the US, however, the center of gravity for the isolationist movement was the Republican Party.

Until more recent times the the term liberal had a very different meaning in British politics than its typical use in American politics. If you are reading history from the time, Liberal likely refers to members of the British Liberal Party which was hardly synonymous with the new usage of the term. Herbert Asquith and the great David Lloyd George were prime ministers from the Liberal Party and Churchill ran as a Liberal before he switched to the Conservative Party. Neville Chamberlain, the great appeaser of the time could hardly be referred to as a liberal in whatever sense you use the term.

On a personal note the first time I saw Churchill was as a very young child at the end of WW2. We were informed that he would be riding in some kind of victory procession passing along a main road at the end of the street on which we lived in London. We all trooped down to see him as he rode by in an open topped car, sitting on the rolled down top with his fee on the back seat. Being very young I did not fully understand at the time exactly who he was and my impression was that Humpty Dumpty was riding by.