The Rest of the Story

Here is an excerpt from my book, Why I Became An Atheist: Personal Reflections and Additional Arguments:

There is one factor in what I do that may be among the biggest motivators of all. I like taking on challenges...big ones. Throughout my whole life people have told me from time to time that I cannot do something, and I liked proving them wrong. I also challenge myself. I want to see how good I can get at something.

Several years ago I started writing up some lessons about 8-Ball for our pool league. The league operators begrudgingly copied them on the back of our score sheets. When pool players in our area saw them, they laughed at me…repeatedly. Whenever I missed a shot they would say, “Hey, Loftus, write that up as a lesson next week will you?” Sometimes people can be unmerciful, and they can hold you down. Apparently only the pro’s could give advice about pool, and since I wasn’t a pro, I shouldn’t presume to tell others how to play the game. Who did I think I was? It’s these naysayers who browbeat others into not even trying to do well. But they motivate me. Those pool players are no longer laughing. For over five years I wrote monthly instructional columns for the best national billiard magazine in America, and I have a book about pool that is getting some excellent reviews.

Anyway, I hate being laughed at. Being ridiculed and mocked by Christians motivates me like nothing else. It’s like pouring gasoline on the flames of my passion. I want to make these people eat their words. I know what I am capable of doing if I set my mind to it. I get stronger when personally attacked. I even warned the very Christians on the web who daily attacked me. But they ignored my warnings.

If you want to motivate me, just mock me. Belittle me. Harass me. Christians have done this to me repeatedly on my Blog, and elsewhere. In my opinion they are Christianity's worst enemies, for in doing what they have done, they made me stronger. It motivated me to debunk the very faith that justifies their treatment of me. Their actions convinced me they would’ve lit the fires that burned me at the stake for heresy in a different era. So it made me want to go for the jugular vein of their faith.

There is one obnoxious online Christian who mischaracterizes almost anything he can get away with when dealing with a skeptic’s argument. There is also a blog terrorist who visits at DC under so many names I can’t remember them all. He harassed me almost daily. I’d ban him. He’d start another Blogger account and do it again. This process repeated itself almost daily. Then he went around claiming I delete any comment that I don’t like, hindering a free discussion of ideas. You’ll see him saying this on several blogs. [I am reminded that the more famous a person is the more stalkers he has. Well, I have one! Woooo Hoooo!]

All I can say is that this motivates me. If these obnoxious Christians were concerned about the Christian faith against my arguments they shouldn’t have personally attacked me like they did. They should have simply engaged me with good arguments. It was they who motivated me to beef up the arguments in my book. So let me just take a moment to thank those Christians who have ridiculed me for also motivating me. To you I owe a debt of gratitude. Your God must be very pleased with you. The question remains whether the sum total of your individual efforts as Christian apologists will ever be in the plus column after we factor in how you have motivated me to debunk the very faith you claim to defend.

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