Richard Deem was an atheist
Offline From: "Tony J Schwartz”
> To:
> Sent: Saturday, May 12, 2007 3:18 PM
> Subject: Background
>
>
>> Did you write any atheist material? I would be very interested in
>> reviewing it. I am doing my best to understand your point of view. If I
>> do not hear back I will accept your word at one point in time you were an
>> atheist.
>>To which he said:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Deem"
To: "Tony J Schwartz"
Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2007 12:59 AM
Subject: Re: Background
> Tony,
>
> I was an atheist over three decades ago. Obviously, I did not write
> anything for the Internet at that time, because there was no Internet. In
> fact, there weren't even personal computers at that time. I might have
> hand written some letters to friends, but I wouldn't have access to them,
> if they have even survived.
>
> Rich Deem
I have had similar dialogue with John Clayton a high school science teacher, and many others. They shamefully admit they were atheists at one time. Almost every theist I have personally contacted who places themselves in the public forum or is in a position of authority seems to claim they were atheist at one time. However, all the "hand written notes" are magically misplaced, burned in a fire, eaten by "Sparky" or written before the invention of the internet – interesting. It seems so shallow to lie about things so simple - what next.
Statistically speaking I would think it is very logical to assume most atheists were theists at one time if born in the USA.
Is this a common theist tactic? Can someone share additional experiences?
What is the purpose of tolerating theism
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If you want the honest truth, I'm not really sure that many of them were atheists at one time. I think they believe it's good PR to say "I was once an atheist, but I saw the light!"
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I'd like to think they wouldn't lie, but some might be. Now they might be telling the truth, but they don't seem very good at telling me the argument that won them over...
You might also want to consider what they mean by atheist and their reasons for being atheist. They might have been the "I hate god" type. Just remember that old joke, "I understand not believing in god, but atheist?!?!?" I've talked to a guy who says he is atheist, but sounded more pantheist to me and once when I told a guy I was atheist he asked me if I believed in a higher power. Honestly though it doesn't really matter if a person went to X side, a solid argument is a solid argument.