Another day, another post written by “Dr.” David Tee (David Thiessen, Theologyarcheology, TEWSNBN) detailing his objections to something I have written or his continued hemorrhoidal inflammation over my writing style. If I responded to Tee every time he mentioned me on his blog, I wouldn’t write on anything else. So, I only respond to the fake doctor when his words are so egregious that I cannot ignore them.
Today, Tee wrote a post titled Atheists Say We Have Crazy Beliefs. My response is indented and italicized.
One of the first things we are going to say is, if BG does not want to be disagreed with, he should stop putting his content out in public. He doesn’t like it when we use his words as teaching moments and trashes us every time that we do.
I don’t care one way or another if people disagree with me. What I do care about is when Fundamentalist Christians such as Tee lie about me, misrepresent my beliefs, or attack my character. Tee does these three things so often, it is safe for us to assume that doing so is just a part of who he is.
I am concerned that Tee has an unhealthy obsession with me. Even after I sent him scantily-clad pictures of me pole dancing at Santa’s Workshop, Tee continues to obsess over me. Maybe he wants an enlarged photo of me nekkid he can tape to the ceiling over his bed. (This is all sarcasm and snark, by the way. I charge big bucks for my stripper photos. No freebies, David.)
We wonder about him as he keeps mentioning the number of years he has spent in the ministry, the number of years he has believed in God, the Bible, and many other Christian activities.
I have explained “why” numerous times to Tee. The things mentioned by him are relevant to the work I do. Continuing to whine about it just makes Tee look jealous and petty.
Why he does it we do not know because he is not the first to do it and he is not the only one to spend decades believing in Christ. We are coming up to our 57th year. So he is not special nor is his story unique.
Tee knows exactly why I do it. I have politely explained it to him several times. His continued obsession with this is baffling.
I don’t believe I have ever said I am “special.” That said, my story is most certainly “unique.” Most clerics who leave the ministry or deconvert do so when they are younger. Rare is the pastor who walks away from twenty-five years in the ministry. It happens, but it’s not common.
There have been many more people who have turned from the faith and they did it long before he did. His deconversion is not the first nor is it unique; nor is his story something worth hearing.
Here, I believe, is Tee’s motivation for his continued personal attacks — jealousy. Tee toils away day after day writing blog posts few people read. (In his mind, God reads them and that’s all that matters.) Yet, the Evangelical-preacher-turned-atheist has thousands and thousands of readers — 750,000 page views this year. I have attracted loyal readers, many of whom regularly leave comments. Tee? Most of the comments on his blog come from readers of this site. Try as he might, he’s been unable to build a following. No longer a pastor or involved in any meaningful ministry, Tee’s only way of preaching is his blog. Thus, it is hard not to conclude that Tee is envious, bitter, covetous, and resentful over my success. Why doesn’t God bless and use his writing? Why does God allow a vile atheist to attract a large following, yet he labors in obscurity?
The information is all the same. In his post that we will look at here or at least key parts, he says nothing of value, nothing new, and nothing unique. Why he thinks people need to hear his story is beyond us. He is no one of note but just one of the many fools God spoke about when they say he does not exist.
Did you notice Tee spent the first five paragraphs trying to discredit me and make me look insignificant?
I am not, by nature, a prideful man. All I try to do every day is be open, honest, and authentic. While I don’t share every minute detail of my life, I have tried to be an open book. I think it is important for me to be as transparent as possible. I am accessible. Anyone who wants to contact me can easily do so.
Let me see if I understand Tee’s thinking here. He thinks my story is uninteresting, not worth telling, yet he blogs about things that Christians have been “blogging” about for 2,000 years. SMH.
It is up to readers of this blog to decide whether my story is “interesting.” I have been blogging since 2007. My deconversion story quickly caught the attention of Evangelicals and atheists alike. Is it my fault that people find my writing engaging and helpful (much as church members did with my preaching)? Millions of people have read my writing, many of whom are Evangelical or Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Christians. What Tee should be asking himself is why my story resonates with so many people –Christians and atheists alike.
“One of the hardest things for me to admit is that I, at one time, believed things that I now know to be untrue.”
We hear this a lot when we have discussions with atheists. They keep telling Christians that their God is not true, their Bible is a myth and their faith is based on nothing. However, not one atheist has provided any physical evidence to support their claims.
Not one. They just do not believe and then make these declarations like they are saying something that is powerful, unique, and wonderful. We have been told constantly by different atheists that the onus of proof is on us because we make extraordinary claims about God, Jesus, and the Bible.
I chose not to excerpt all of Tee’s word salad. I will say this: extraordinary claims required extraordinary evidence. Tee believes ghosts rape teen girls, virgins have babies, and humans walk on water, teleport, turn water into wine, and heal blindness with spit and dirt. Tee also believes there’s a Heaven and Hell, the universe was created in six twenty-four-hour days, and the earth is 6,024 years old. And then there’s his belief that a dead human named Jesus resurrected from the dead and ascended to the International Space Station. All of these claims are extraordinary in nature; claims which Tee provides no evidence for outside of quoting an ancient, errant, fallible religious text.
Memo to “Dr.” Tee: I don’t believe because the claims of Christianity make no sense to me. Want me to believe? Provide better evidence. (Please see The Michael Mock Rule: It Just Doesn’t Make Sense.) The ball is in your court.
If anyone is living a life of folly, it is the atheist as they have nothing to look forward to, nothing to rely on, and nothing to share with anyone else. In other words, they are the fools for they think they have something when they have nothing at all.
Again, I chose not to excerpt parts of Tee’s word salad. In the deleted paragraphs, he repeatedly calls atheists “fools.” Aww, he hurt our feelings. Isn’t this the first slur Evangelicals go to when they have no answer to the claims of atheists? Tee sure spends a lot of time reading and responding to a fool, in direct disobedience to the Word of God. The Bible says Christians are not to answer a fool according to his folly.
I would rather follow the Bible and all of its commands than live a life like that. As you have noticed, we are not taking apart BG’s article sentence by sentence. he is really saying nothing new so we do not have to.
We are not even going to quote his top ten list at the article he penned several days ago– Bruce’s Top Ten List of Crazy Beliefs.
At least Tee admits that his post is a personal attack, not a response to something I wrote. How could he possibly take apart my post? It was a personal list of beliefs I held as an Evangelical. That’s it. A short reflection on crazy beliefs I once held.
You can click on that link and read them for yourselves [sic]. The key point is, he says those things are not what they claim or do not exist. BG and other atheists are great at making these comments but they all have one thing in common.
When you read his article, you will notice that he does not even attempt to support his claims. Not one shred of evidence is given that can be verified and double-checked for accuracy.
Sigh. The post was a list of ten beliefs I once held — most of which Tee himself believes. All Tee needs to do is use the search function on this site to find the plethora of words I have spilt on these subjects. Tee is being disingenuous when he says ” he does not even attempt to support his claims. Not one shred of evidence is given that can be verified and double-checked for accuracy.”
In danger of repeating ourselves, we do not know why he and his wife took that sudden turn to unbelief. Maybe he was like us and was treated poorly by other Christians.
Tee is not in danger of “repeating” himself. He crossed that line long ago in this post and other posts on his site. Tee knows EXACTLY why Polly and I aren’t Christians. To feign confusion on this issue is dishonest, to say the least.
Further, I have repeatedly addressed the claim that we were “hurt” by other Christians. Hurt played little to no part in our deconversions. Tee knows this, yet he continues to misrepresent my story and that of my wife. Again, it is obvious that the purpose of his post was to belittle and discredit me. That he felt the need to drag my wife Polly into his attack is reprehensible, to say the least. (David, if you read this post, Polly wants you to know you are a fucking asshole. Her words, not mine. Good job!)
We cannot say for sure but his decision to do so makes us sad every time we read some of his content. How can one be happy when another believer gives up his salvation for lies.
It is impossible to be cheerful when one thinks about it. We wish he could change back and then we could be happier knowing he will make it to heaven. But he has made up his mind and we are not going to press him on this issue.
Tee is “sad” that I am an atheist. Okay . . . don’t read my writing if it makes you sad. Tee’s feigned compassion and concern have never rung true with me. He routinely trashes me, yet he wants me to believe he is a kind, caring person. Behavior matters. I”m not buying what he is selling.
If Tee’s goal is to reclaim me for Jesus, he might want to rethink his tactics. His words have produced great harm to the cause of Christ. Forget what I think. Just ask the atheists and agnostics who read this blog what they think. Better yet, ask Evangelical readers what they think. I doubt Tee will find one reader of this blog who agrees with his approach to me personally and my writing.
Here’s what I know about the afterlife, if there is one. I want to be as far away as possible from the David Tees of the world. Hell is being in the same room with David Tee.
BG and the other atheists are wrong, of course. The Christian life is not folly and the atheist does not have some secret knowledge letting them know that the Bible is not true or that God does not exist.
It is the Christian that has the truth because Jesus exists, he did die for us and he did rise again. We have hope, love, and guidance along with something better than what the atheist offers.
Atheists don’t claim to have secret knowledge. It is Tee who claims he has secret knowledge, that which can only be known by saved, baptized, circumcised, and caramelized Christians. He is the one that says he “knows” the mind of God; that he “knows” exactly what the Bible teaches (even though 2,000 years of church history suggests otherwise).
Atheists have all that Evangelicals have and more. We have freedom. And that, above all else, is why atheism is superior to Christianity.
Saved by Reason,
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I read this on the book o’ face this evening. Wish I’d been the one to say it first.
The gulf of meaning between the terms “horse play” and “pony play” illustrates why expecting your culture’s translation of another’s ancient texts to be 100% true to their original intent is dangerous and probably not a good idea.
Tee is a delusional person. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn there are several skeletons in his god closet, either.
He is what he is. David Tee is quite delusional. That’s not surprising. It is woefully human to be delusional. It’s part of human Nature.
But here’s the thing.
When you look at the bigger picture here, what do you see?
An America that is wealthy and corrupt, powerful and weak, a world leader and ignorant. A bastion of freedom and threatening oligarch. Americans do not believe in the fleeting moments of empire. They believe as the Romans once did. That their gods will save them, no matter what.
The Roman empire lasted over a 1,000 years in one state or another. If we had been part of that empire, it would have been difficult to believe that their gods were false and not really protecting them at all. We atheists would have surely been seen as the fools we were for questioning the ancient Pagan texts . How could you not believe that Zeus hadn’t made a covenant with the empire ?!? God was with the empire and his name was Zeus. And those bloody atheists ! Who the hell do they think they were ?!? They offered nothing to the people.
Now today, a great repeat of history. A shiny, proud Republic about to trash it’s own freedoms to become a more powerful oligarch of an empire. Again the atheists are heard and disbelieved as the fools they are. America’s Caesars are getting ready to take the helm of their Republic once again.
What is unnerving is that they believe their gods are shielding them from disaster. We will say what we told the Romans There are no gods protecting your imperial ambitions. You may last a 1,000 years. In the end, the ash heap of history for you and anyone else following your example. And you will have done it to yourselves. You are so, so vulnerable when you believe in these gods as your personal protectors.
But alas, in your little box, we still play the fools when we open a window for you to see out.
“He doesn’t like it when we use his words as teaching moments and trashes us every time that we do.”
On the contrary, Bruce merely uses your posts as “teaching moments” just as you do his. Fair is fair, after all. I don’t think it’s an entirely good idea, but you can hardly object when you’re doing the same thing. You’re always free to take up other topics, or golf, or solitaire, but I suppose that’s too much to hope for.
Probably healthier, though — emotionally speaking, and no threat intended.
He’s certainly fixated on you. There are other atheists writing posts against religion and Christianity. He must like hate-reading your work.
Tee responded on his site with this comment:
We must be striking a nerve as BG does seem to care what is said about him. He wrote another response http://brucegerencser.net/2021/12/dr-david-tee-continues-to-foam-at-the-mouth-over-this-blog/ and in it, he accuses us of doing the very thing he does. It is not worth a response. What makes things really bad is that he seems to think he can read minds as he tells us our compassion and sadness is not real.
He is wrong and he is wrong about our trying to reclaim him for Jesus. We are not doing that as we know it is too late for him and his wife. His accusations only distort what we write and his trashing of how we look at him and other aspects of life are way off the mark. But then there is nothing we can do. He is so bitter and hate-filled he cannot see the truth at all. He just makes himself look bad.
Oh and we do not care about page views, the number of comments. We leave our content in God’s hands and he sends the right people to read it and then they help others. God’s message still gets out there even if we have small numbers. That is the difference between the narrow road and the broad path- people love darkness over light.
Yes, I care about what people say about me, especially when they attack me or Polly personally. By all means, critique my writing. In fact, I encourage it. However, I’m not inclined to let personal attacks slide. Tee’s goal in his latest post is to belittle me — the words of a petty, jealous man. He made no attempt to respond to my post.
Nor will he. Actually responding to points raised with clear coherent counter-arguments and relevant points? That’s not really his thing.
” However, not one atheist has provided any physical evidence to support their claims,” says TEWSNBN. My response is, “However, not one Christian has provided any physical evidence to support their claims.” Fixed it for him. I’m helpful that way.
Indeed-using that argument what physical claims have Christians made to disprove every other religion? When I was a Christian I used critical thinking skills to make the judgment that all religions other than mine made outrageous unprovable claims. Christianity of course was not to be subject to the same scrutiny. Now that I have deconverted I cringe to think that I ever allowed myself to believe in such wild fairytales
“I would rather follow the Bible and all of its commands than live a life like that. As you have noticed, we are not taking apart BG’s article sentence by sentence. he is really saying nothing new so we do not have to.”
and funny how ol’ T doesn’t do this at all. I do wonder, what does his god, if it would exist, think about these lies he tells?
That atheists have “not one shred of evidence” to support their non-belief is probably the reddest herring that folks like DT serve up. Well, guess what: No Evangelical, or any other religious person, can offer “one shred of evidence” to support their belief– because that is what belief is, by definintion.
If there were any physical evidence to prove or disprove the existence of a supreme being–let alone one that acts in contradiction to basic tenets of biology or even “the facts of life” that parents teach their kids–there wouldn’t be any need to believe, or not.
Then again, I have to wonder whether things would actually be that simple if there were proof for or against. After all, look at how many people are acting in denial of science during the biggest public health crisis in a century.
Why would we need evidence to prove that something undetectable isn’t there? Skepticism works just fine. If someone wants us to believe in something, the onus is upon them to support their claim with evidence that meets our (not their!) evidentiary requirements. If they can’t meet or surpass our standards, it’s not worth pursuing any further unless new information comes to light.