Conversando com Chris (youtuber Evidence)

Chris.
I was born in a very fundamentalist Christian home (Baptist at first, then pentecostal), I used to go with youth groups from the church to evangelize on the streets, I spoke in tongues (balashaya, balashuria and so on! LOL). Just like you, I was honest and sincere to the most in regard to my faith. That was the one meaning to my whole life and existence. I'm 39 now, but my faith really started to collapse before reason when I was about 34 or 35 (much older than you where in your process). I consider myself an atheist now, but perhaps agnostic would be a more suitable term. Just as another deconverted fellow of mine said the other day: "this is a way with no coming back". Anyway, I want to congratulate you for all your videos, and say that you just described the personal undergoings of millions. I don't have to write a book or make a speech about what I went through. You have already done it for me and for many people. Thanks a lot, Chris. Best regards. (Glaucio Alves, Brazil).

 

Evid3nc3 Great explanation. Remember: most atheists are consciously or unconsciously Agnostic Atheists. The terms are not mutually exclusive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-BQVmvulmQ

Glaucio Alves That's a very acurate and helpful piece of information from you. I used to get confused sometimes when thinking about what definition would best suit my way of seeing that all. But reading about the teapot metaphor from Bertrand Russel some years ago, I agreed that it was impossible to prove that a theistic god doesn't exist - the same for centaurs, elves, fairies etc. And yet it would be unreasonable to believe in this God due to lack of convincing evidence to it. It was Occam's razor principle already working in the back of my mind, though I'd never heard about it before watching your videos. I began to define myself as an agnostic since then, for I defectively reasoned that being atheist was the same as being "absolutely sure about the non-existence of a God" - as if it were scientifically verified with the technology we currently have. Now on seeing the video you just sent, I don't feel inadequate to call myself an atheist anymore. Interesting reasoning... I am an atheist (under the agnostic poing of view). An Atheist. Sounds good to me. It just came to me the guess that there are lots of atheists out there who'll never be conscious that this definition suits them perfectly.