We hereby interrupt our regular broadcast with a message to all Evangelicals in the field. This special is the first of a series of three, aimed at making your ministry to atheists more effective and successful.
I suppose one of the biggest accomplishments an Evangelical Christian could hope for, is to convert a hard-core atheist to Christianity. The biggest problem is that evangelical Christians and atheists do not speak the same language.
The most important thing you need to do, before you start sharing with atheists, is to learn how they think. Like Paul, you need to walk the streets of Athens, you need to immerse yourselves in their culture, to walk their streets, to see and understand their altars “to an unknown god”. Only once you understand, once you can speak their language, will you be able to share the Good News. In fact, only then will you be able to fully understand the Good News yourselves. I repeat, the crux of the matter is this:
You need to learn to think like they do.
This more or less concludes the advice in the first post in this series. Continue thinking until next time, and please keep in mind that arguments such as this one by Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort:
are not at all effective. Such arguments will merely turn you into the laughing stock of the rational scientific world.
This series will continue next week, when we will look at the gap in communication between atheists and Christians. We will show you what not to do, how not to share the Good News, as it will immediately push them away. The third post is the clincher, and will accomplish what Kirk and Ray can only dream about. Please share this series with your friends. May the world become a better place, may the kingdom come!
22 responses so far ↓
1 emily // Oct 4, 2007 at 11:37 am
I had a thought last night about the cult thing you joined and had to return to this site. If I’m correct, it must be Shophar. The hurt they are causing with their rules and rituals to people (non-members) near to their members is unbelievable. They infiltrate everywhere and the saddest is that they make people from other denominations feel that their relationship with God is inferior to theirs.
I see I am just in time for an interesting bit of reading.
Atheists know the Bible better than most Christians and being slightly cynical, I have always been of the opinion that Christians do not reach atheists because they see themselves as more superior, holier. They do not read Luke 10 where Jesus sent the disciples out to go into peoples houses and eat what they are eating. Join them, don’t try to beat them, and you might save them (and yourself). There’s a saying that most Evangelist preach like a fire on television, fierce, but without any warmth. Well, most Evangelists like to see themselves on television too. 
2 Negate // Oct 5, 2007 at 10:42 am
I am a Atheist, Even if you think like an atheist, you chances of converting a hard core atheist is none, because theist and atheists don’t and will never speak the same language
Allot of religious people get angry at god for some reasons and then turn to atheism, it is these people you must aim at helping if any!
I agree with emily i do know my bible better that most of the Christians that try and convert me, it is because before i started thinking like a atheist, i was a Christian but Christianity started to make no sense to me, so i turned to the bible for answers, and the more and more i looked the more doubtful i became of god
Leave atheist alone with this crap. you are only making yourself look more stupid, atheist are on a different level of logic, the more you try the evangelic crap on them the more we are going to hate and laugh at you
3 Hugo // Oct 5, 2007 at 10:55 am
@emily: no need to make excuses for reading this blog. Glad to have you on board, feel free to stay.
@Negate: I hope you will give me a chance to finish my story. I’m sorry you gave an invalid email address. (I understand, though.)
The schedule has a post every two days (working titles, they may change):
6 October: What is Science (4 of 12)
8 October: Know the Good News (2 of 3)
10 October: TBA (I don’t want to give any hints away, its a little special about the afterlife and heaven…)
12 October: TBA (3 of 3) (the final in this little series)
4 emily // Oct 6, 2007 at 9:15 pm
dankie
5 Get the Good News Right (2 of 3) // Oct 8, 2007 at 4:38 pm
[...] making evangelicals in the field more successful in their ministry to atheists. The first post was How to Convert an Atheist. Go and read that one first if you have not already done [...]
6 Grace // Oct 8, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I think the first thing, and the most important thing to remember is that God converts people. Not us. Our job is to tell them the gospel in a gentle, and respectful manner. That’s it. We don’t bash it down people’s throats. If people don’t want to hear it, we respect that decision, and back away. I think that’s where many of us are making a mistake -we get so caught up thinking that WE’RE converting them, that OUR words are going to change them, but meanwhile it’s all God!
7 Coenie // Nov 10, 2007 at 7:26 am
At this moment, I am attempting to keep this response as civil as possible. Please, I beseech you, do not make it your personal meaning in life to try and convert atheists to Christianity. Atheists have a choice, do not take it upon yourself to try and elucidate this choice.
I grew up in a Christian family. I was a born again Christian, then I became an Atheist, a very devout atheist. I had a choice. The decision was not preceded by some life altering event of an enigmatic trauma saturated nature. I simply chose atheism as it makes me happy, and is fundamentally based upon science. Can you not accept this?
How many Atheists do you see who try and convert Christians? How many atheists do you know that are less moral than Christians? How many atheists do you know?
If it is your desire to live in a delusional world, believing in a plagiarised fairy tale, so be it! But please, leave us be. If you have a deep seated worry that we will burn in hell, then so be it! At least I’ll have Einstein, Nietzsche, and Ghandi to keep me company.
If you have a deep rooted desire to spread your ‘’good news’’ then try it on your own religious fundamentalists who preach nothing but intolerance.
My email address is valid and you can find me on facebook.
8 Hugo // Nov 10, 2007 at 9:17 am
Coenie, you are eavesdropping on a conversation that was not addressed to you. Of course, you are very welcome to do so, this is a public conversation on the internet. However, I beseech you to check the whole conversation then, not just part one of three.
Maybe this helps: check the bold/italic sentence, and add a comma about two thirds of the way through.
9 Hugo // Nov 10, 2007 at 9:18 am
Check the “You New?” page at the top, that might also help you get some context here. More reading, less writing. Thanks.
10 Hugo // Nov 10, 2007 at 9:26 am
(For the record, I do completely agree with Grace… At the same time, my perspectives are very Einsteinian.)
11 Fearing The Golden Compass? How small is your God? // Nov 10, 2007 at 4:28 pm
[...] the wisdom of Jesus, encourages us to not fear foreign culture. Go, Walk the Streets of Athens (1, 2, 3). Learn to understand “their” culture. In the process, you not only get an [...]
12 Erwin McManus on Eating Meat on the Streets of Athens // Feb 8, 2008 at 10:36 am
[...] have been talking about “Walking the Streets of Athens” in a number of places. This idea applies to anyone wanting to make a difference in other people’s [...]
13 Alisha Pennington // Oct 9, 2008 at 12:01 am
This is the truth about religion though you may see it as just an opinion. I am an Atheist surrounded by lots of christians and I have practically been raised in the church. The bible says “train up a kid in the way it should go and it won’t ever stray” (not exactly word for word) but I’m an example in the flesh of how that statement can be proven wrong. The bible isn’t truthful. Here is a peice of advice: LEAVE US ALONE!!! Don’t try to convert us. Curveball? Most religions have issues with homosexuals. Here’s an even bigger curveball: THERE’S ALOT OF ‘EM!!! Religion is sexist. Many religions say that men are inferior to women. Hogwash! Bologna! Women aren’t better than men and men aren’t better than women. You’re going to have to deal with the fact that people beleive differently than you. You might think I’m going overboard with what I’m saying here, but the thought of actually converting someone to serving a false God is wwwwwaaaaayyyyy overboard, too, don’t ya think!!!!!!!!!! Yes, I celebrate Christmas, but for teh presents, not for Jesus. I celebrate Easter for the little chocolate candy eggs and Easter egg hunting and the Easter Bunny, not for the reserection, but I accept the fact that thet’s what everybody else around me is celebrating these holidays for. I have to hide what I think to keep from being rejected? That’s not right. I have respect for the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus is my homey! And Halloween is not the Devil’s birthday! lol! You can email me at ishihomeeg16@yahoo.com. Send a comment or a flame about what I just said. I stand by my right to speak my mind and want everyone else to do the same.
14 Hugo // Oct 9, 2008 at 1:17 am
Alisha, thanks for stopping by and speaking your mind. I don’t know if your comment will find the audience it is looking for though, because I’m not it. How many people read comments on old posts? I don’t know.
Firstly, this post is not addressed to you. This post is addressed to Christians that want to convert Atheists. You are outside of its target audience. What did this post say? Not really that much. Think about the contents of this post, get past the title. How did you get here, by the way? It at least doesn’t look like you got here by looking for “how to convert an atheist”. I get many of those, or variations of those. If that is what someone is looking for when they find this, they’re at the right place, as in they are the people I’m writing for. Not you.
Now much of my campaign on my blog is indeed about how to “evangelise”, irrespective of the worldview. And my belief is that it is important to build relationships, to understand one another as human beings, rather than hitting one another over the head with whatever arguments hit the hardest. In that case, I think maybe you might actually be in my target audience, broadly speaking.
I believe that your comment is largely a knee-jerk reaction at the frustration that you experience being in a minority in your neighbourhood/culture. If you’re the one that got here by searching for “how to give hints to the christians around you that you are atheist”, we can discuss that later. First back to this post though…
This post is the first in a series of three, not aimed at you. I don’t expect you to have the patience to read them all. However, if you want to understand the context of this post, I can suggest you take a look at the second and the third. I should probably make that clearer. And make it easier to access them. The second and third are at:
http://thinktoomuch.net/2007/10/08/get-the-good-news-right-2-of-3/
http://thinktoomuch.net/2007/10/12/language-differences-3-of-3/
Please remember my target audience, keep in mind that my language and descriptions are aimed at them. Once you have read all three, you can flame me from an informed opinion and understanding, if you want. Then we can have a real discussion. Otherwise, the exchange could develop into something reminiscent of a bunch of silly and immature youtube comments where people hack at each other for the hell of it.
If you were looking for “how to give hints to the christians around you that you are atheist”, my suggestions would be this, take them or leave them:
These are some ideas to get you started. Feel free to discuss this further if you want or think it could be helpful to you. Let’s open up some cross-cultural cross-worldview dialogue, might be useful, don’t you think?
15 Kevin // Nov 8, 2008 at 3:19 am
Why must you Christians INSIST on trying to change the views of others, are you so insecure in your own faith that you need to make sure that others know you’re right? If your “god” condones this kind of asinine, narcissistic intolerance, than fuck you, and fuck “god”.
16 Kevin // Nov 8, 2008 at 3:22 am
If any of you ASSHOLES would like to converse about this, get in touch with me, Buhglahgluh@hotmail.com. No it’s not fake, add it to your list to find that out for yourself. Cunts.
17 Hugo // Nov 8, 2008 at 3:53 am
Can I have a quick vote? I’d like to censor this guy. I know he’s got a knee-jerk reaction, which is why he comments before he has a clue who he’s insulting…
*sigh*
18 Hugo // Nov 8, 2008 at 4:56 am
Or shall I radically stick with my “no censorship” policy? We could turn this into a discussion of human nature and the relative value-vs-worthlessness of comments like that?
19 Ben-Jammin' // Nov 8, 2008 at 5:41 am
Your blog, your preferences. If it doesn’t cause you grief, I don’t think it will hurt anything to leave it there.
20 Hugo // Nov 8, 2008 at 5:47 am
Fair enough. I have my own initial knee-jerk reaction when I read something like that, and it takes me a couple of moments to calm down.
*snip further pointless blabber*.
21 Paul // Dec 24, 2008 at 9:14 am
Come on people. Please stop embarrasing me as a human being. Believing in a higher power is very primitive and superstitious. If you can’t see how religion has poisened society since the beginning of time then you really need to start using the grey slimy thing that’s embedded in each of our skulls. If you knew anything about atheism you would also know that an atheist cannot be converted to believing in any form of religion unless they lose the part of their brain used for reasoning and logic. Atheism is about taking resposibilty for our own actions and treating people as we ourselves would like to be treated. If the world was free of religion it would be a far greater, safer place to live in. Please start thinking for the sake of mankind!
22 Hugo // Dec 27, 2008 at 11:07 am
Peeps, what do you think? I think I should disable comments on this post. That might encourage people to actually read the rest of the series before being so kind as to bless us with their thoughts…
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