Today I got a kindly worded invitation from a member of the church I went to growing up inviting me to return to their Sabbath morning classes.
I doubt I will respond at all, but if I were to do so, it'd go something like this:
Thanks for the invitation. :)
Unfortunately I'm unlikely to come for reasons that have nothing to do with feelings of family (that's the one part I do miss!). You mentioned I have 'out of the box thinking', and that is true. I've become an atheist. I don't think god exists. I'm not angry or afraid and thanks to my upbringing and my own searching I'm better informed on this one topic than many people who debate this topic professionally.
If I came to sabbath school and kept my peace, I'd be miserable in the same way you probably feel when you listen to a political speaker that you completely disagree with go on and on about something that isn't important to you. And that would be the best case scenario.
If I came to sabbath school and shared what I think, I'd end up in an no-where argument with someone every time. We'd argue in circles about the existence of god or the reliability of the bible for any purpose and usually neither of us would budge in our opinions.
Say I did manage to convince someone, what good would it do? Changing your epistemology drastically is *stressful*. I think most of the church goers could handle that stress, but why should I try to make them do it? None of the members are bad people or do bad things. In fact they're better than most. Changing your epistemology means having to *rediscover* a reason for every good thing you do, and giving up some things you enjoy if your new thinking tells you they're harmful. Worse, there's no guarantee that you will discover all the reasons you should, and your behavior in the mean time can be a bit erratic. (I think this is one of the major reasons teens are so ill behaved.)
The people at church are old, and unlikely to have a bigger impact on the world than they've already had. As long as I don't see significant harm coming from wrong beliefs, I have little incentive to work hard to try to change them. Changing epistemology is harder as you get older, and even if I were wildly successful, many would be dead of old age before they became comfortable with their new beliefs.
Even more likely, I'd convince no one in which case, almost *anything* I choose would be more productive. Argument isn't something I do for fun. It's something I do to think, learn and teach. If I'm not learning, and others probably won't either, then I shouldn't do it.
And I'd be arrogant not to consider that you all might convince me. It's completely unimaginable to me that the people at church might have an argument that the internet, years of bible classes, and hours of reading and debates haven't presented. It seems as silly to me as my convincing you that god doesn't exist probably seems to you, and I don't think it would change me for the better.
That's why I think it's much better for me to spend the time during church making sure that I get As in my classes so that I can win the grad school entrance game and start doing research that improves people's health as soon as possible. Making people healthier is at least one thing we can agree is good, so I'll get back to it.
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