Following is written from a xian perspective but ....
Here is how the atheists I knew helped me escape from religion:
1. They were visible signs of dissent from Christianity.
I can’t overstate the importance of this point. I grew up in a deeply Christian culture, surrounded by deeply Christian imagery and fervent believers. I’d never even met atheists before going to college, remember. And I was 100% convinced that the talking points I was learning were true ones and trustworthy. When atheists argued about these points, I might have seemed maddeningly dogged in clinging to the party line, but I was learning that they weren’t as persuasive or as settled as I’d thought they were.
2. They were living proof that my religion wasn’t right about at least one thing.
I’d grown up thinking atheists were weird and strident, though I wasn’t as immersed in hatred or distrust of atheists as my church was. By the time I realized just how much hate and distrust my church had for them, I’d already learned that atheists were just folks like me–and that none of the Christian wisdom about them that I’d absorbed was true. They seemed perfectly happy and seemed to have plenty of meaning in their lives. So if my religion was wrong about atheists, what else might they be wrong about?***
3. They offered a counterpoint to my talking points and kept me honest.
In an age before widespread internet use, you can imagine I didn’t have access to a lot of materials or people refuting what I was learning in church about science, history, or even how to talk to others. By demanding proof of my assertions, they reminded me–constantly–that I had none. By critically assessing my apologetics arguments, they showed me that these arguments were ridiculous. By debunking my claims, they made me feel ashamed for not having done that in the first place.
All of these assertions, arguments, and claims were ones that my religion made constantly and without even thinking about it–and thought non-believers were pretty silly for not agreeing with these extremely rational and cogent points. But my friends showed me that they weren’t valid.
4. They demonstrated that life was possible and perfectly satisfactory outside the bubble.
I’d never encountered people who didn’t make Christianity the focus of their lives to at least some extent or another. I wasn’t even sure how that worked or what it might look like. Well, they showed me exactly what it looked like. They weren’t experiencing horrible luck or excruciating sadness as a group. No bolts from the blue smote them; few if any niggling doubts plagued their minds. If it weren’t for Christians like Biff getting in their faces all the time, they wouldn’t have thought much about Christianity at all.
5. They put a human reaction to my religion’s inhuman doctrines.
Before meeting atheists, I’d never even thought about some of the more egregious atrocities contained in the Bible’s pages or in its apologetics contortions. I was as chirpy as a baby bird and I’d never met a talking point I didn’t like. By reacting with true human horror to these atrocities and showing me exactly why those contortions made my god look even worse without my realizing it, they made me see my god–and my whole religion–through very different eyes. It wasn’t even just apologetics and rationalizations, either, that they foiled. It was also those “modesty” doctrines and my religion’s weird and obsessive demands for control over my sex life. I’d thought those demands and doctrines were for my own good, but the atheists I knew made me deeply uncomfortable with a stirring, dawning awareness that how they were anything but. They voiced the doubts I was too cowardly to face
- See more at:
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/excommunications/2015/06/5-ways-atheists-helped-me-escape-religion/#sthash.EnE37cJF.dpuf
Topic: The importance of atheists