YouTube atheist Optimistic17 is now Christian! She will be posting a video telling us about it tonight!

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YouTube atheist Optimistic17 is now Christian! She will be posting a video telling us about it tonight!

Some of you may have heard about this already but take a look at her account profile. Sorry I cannot post links on this site.

She will be posting a video talking about what happened tonight so get ready with your video responces!

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shelley
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sounds like she just had a

sounds like she just had a "personal experience" conversion...


Raki
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Poor girl gave in. What a

Poor girl gave in. What a shame.


D-cubed
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She probably experienced

She probably experienced some emotional trauma and regressed back into her religious childhood to deal with the stress.


Renee Obsidianwords
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How long as Optimistic17

How long as Optimistic17 been an atheist...how long on you tube....possible for her to have 'planned' her atheism being a christian the whole time just to 'convert' as a statement to support her theism?

Slowly building a blog at ~

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aiia
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theism is a debilitating

theism is a debilitating mental disorder. Its understandable that she has succumbed to this terrible emotional addiction. But there's still hope.[/sarcasm]

People who think there is something they refer to as god don't ask enough questions.


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I've honestly never

I've honestly never understood the "argument from conversion."  I would be terribly surprised if there weren't converts both ways.  After all, it's safe to say that the vast majority of atheists probably don't understand the intricacies of the argumensts the way that some of us do.   People come from different backgrounds.  Even though there aren't many of them, there are some atheists that make theists jump for joy -- there are "rebellious atheists" and the like.

It's like the whole Flew thing.  So what if an atheist converted?   Have the arguments changed?  Did someone prove god's existence?  Until I see the proof, I don't see what any of it has to do with the price of rice in China.

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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It sounds like from her

It sounds like from her comments she's more upset over losing her subscribers than her conversion/deconversion.


Raki
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Did she think people would

Did she think people would still subscribe to her if she became a Christian?


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shelleymtjoy wrote: sounds

shelleymtjoy wrote:
sounds like she just had a "personal experience" conversion...

 

I never understood why conversion stories are touted as proof of anything.  I had a pretty drastic conversion away from Christianity but I don't know a single Christian who thinks that means their religion is false.


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I don't really know

I don't really know anything about her, but It seemes that she did post a lot of material as an atheist beffore her conversion.

 I don't think she was trying to convince anyone of anything. It seemes more like she was just trying to explain why she made that decision, since others were asking about it.

Mabey she actually found God?


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Watch her video...

Watch her video... apparently she really did find god... I can't contain my laughter...


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I've never heard of her,

I've never heard of her, but I don't really follow YouTube atheists anymore.

Have you looked at her latest video? She says she experienced sleep paralysis and heard a voice during a thunderstorm, then she felt raindrops on a clear day while reading the bible. That's it. Her unblinking eyes and manic diction tell me there's something she's not telling us. Her accent, and her emphasis on her education, make me wonder whether she's suffering an extreme pressure to succeed that's common in immigrants. Cos, frankly, it sounds like she's snapped.


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Anyone have a link to the

Anyone have a link to the video?


Mental Eclipse
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I wasn't kidding when I

I wasn't kidding when I said "Maybe she found God". I may be an atheist, but I don't feel bad admitting that the existence of the Christian God is a possibility (despite the chances).

It seems she has found all she needs to believe in God whether he/it actually exists or not. Perhaps she is deluded? Perhaps she's not? I'm not going to judge her, but accept her decision and acknowledge the possibility that she may actually be sane.


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- Sorry...Mod's can delete

- Sorry...Mod's can delete this.


blueocean
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the hypocrisy on this board

the hypocrisy on this board is amazing. you all get upset if your theistic friends and family don't accept you if you become atheists, but look how you treat someone who goes from atheist to theist. maybe she just made a personal choice. it's not a crime, despite some people's wishes that it was. as long as she doesn't hurt anyone, I could care less.


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blueocean wrote: the

blueocean wrote:

the hypocrisy on this board is amazing. you all get upset if your theistic friends and family don't accept you if you become atheists, but look how you treat someone who goes from atheist to theist. maybe she just made a personal choice. it's not a crime, despite some people's wishes that it was. as long as she doesn't hurt anyone, I could care less.

First off, we're in the minority, so not having our acceptance isn't quite equivalent to being demonized by the religious majority. Second, I don't know her, and I'm just working off the information she provides and the definite claims that she makes. Third, the point many of the vocal atheist groups are trying to get across is that faith can't be treated as a conversation stopper anymore. Either you have support for your views, or your views can be disregarded. She wants to walk the line: give her answer, make her claims, and cut off the conversation immediately after. I tried posting a comment, and she's moderating it. She disabled ratings, and she says she's going to delete her account in six days. If she thinks it's important enough to say, she can damn well stand by it in the face of scrutiny. 


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Yeah, it was as I expected

Yeah, it was as I expected as she met the profile for new converts.  She experienced sleep paralysis and thought she was communicating with the divine.  It's the same sort of act that happens when people think they are experiencing alien abduction.  This is the emotional trauma which got her to reject reality.

 In order to find justification for her experience she turns to rain.  Rain is actually quite common but she irrationally assumes that it can't possibly be raining where she is at.  However, rain comes from clouds and doesn't have to cover a certain area.  Water can be spread a long distance through wind.  It can be a light rain so it won't be visible in other parts of the neighborhood.  Using rain is not a rational justification for deciding that the Bible is true.

I suspect that if she calms down and looks rationally on her experience with knowledge of what happened to her (although she said she is majoring in science but there isn't such a thing as a major in science just a field of science but whatever) then she can reject her regression to childhood magical thinking.  But that's only if she wants help. 


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sounds like a drama queen.

sounds like a drama queen.


shelley
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it's was actually possible

it's actually possible to go 9 minutes without blinking?


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It looks like it was sleep

It looks like it was sleep paralysis, but her rapidfire speech and unblinking state makes me think that she might be suffering from Bipolar and in a manic episode.  The lack of sleep might have thrown her into sleep paralysis and a resulting psychotic break.

I hope people give her support instead of just trying to criticize her.  There's a chance that she might be under the effects of a mental illness. 


Iruka Naminori
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D-cubed wrote:

D-cubed wrote:
She probably experienced some emotional trauma and regressed back into her religious childhood to deal with the stress.


Actually this sounds about right. D-cubed, I'm not sure if I know your educational background, but I've seen this happen before. In fact, Christians specificially go after people who are vulnerable. Most of the Christians think they are helping and don't realize how predatory it looks to those of us who understand reality doesn't include galactic sky daddies.

Religious nuts tend to go after me when I've suffered some kind of health setback. They think I'm "weak" and will therefore be more receptive. This week the lyrics to Green Day's F.O.D. (Fuck Off and Die) have really resonated with me:

Green Day wrote:

something's on my mind
it's been for quite some time
this time i'm on to you
so where's the other face?
the face i heard before
your head trip's boring me 

stuck down in a rut
of dislogic and smut
a side of you well hid
when it's all said and done
it's real and it's been fun
but was it all REAL fun?

lets nuke the bridge we torched two thousand times before
this time we'll blast it all to hell
i've had this burning in my guts now for so long
my belly's aching now to say..say..

you're just a fuck
i can't explain it 'cause i think you suck
im taking pride
in telling you to fuck off and die



Anyway, that's how I've felt about the religious nuts in my life that try to pressure me into their religion if they think I'm vulnerable: FUCK OFF AND DIE!!!

On edit: I really do consider turning to religion to be irrational, but understandable under extreme duress. I didn't watch the video(s), but I wish her the best. Breaking under pressure won't make the ridiculous any more real than it was. But I understand why someone would give in.

It's hard out here for an atheist.

 

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D-cubed
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Iruka Naminori

Iruka Naminori wrote:

Actually this sounds about right. D-cubed, I'm not sure if I know your educational background, but I've seen this happen before. In fact, Christians specificially go after people who are vulnerable. Most of the Christians think they are helping and don't realize how predatory it looks to those of us who understand reality doesn't include galactic sky daddies.

My background is graduate studies in psychology.  Never have I come across an instance where someone turned to religion because they were completely content and happy with life and decided to embrace the guilty of Christianity or self-imposed persecution of Islam.  In Altmeyer and Hunsberger studies every case was due to emotional reasons when the person experienced an emotional break or some event they couldn't understand like sleep paralysis.

 Dr. Michael Shermer related an excellent story when he experienced a similar event.  He was doing some bike tour and collapsed due to sheer exhaustion.  He was barely conscious so he interpreted his experience of being hauled back into the van with his crewmates as an alien abduction since everything was foggy and he couldn't move.

 Given Optimistic17's knowledge of the Bible and ready adaptation of the Christian religion it was reasonable to conclude that she has a religious background.  People are often drawn to religion, especially orthodoxy, for the security it provides and freedom is frightning because it opens up the unknown.  Since Optimistic17 was clearly shocked by the event she regressed to the security she experienced when she had her religion since it provided all the pat answers and comfort she was looking for.

The recommended therapy is naturally education since it'll provide a rational basis for her experiences.  However new converts are often highly fanatical so they are often unwilling to listen to anything that doesn't reinforce and justify their new beliefs.