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Responding to an Atheist professor?
Hello everyone,
I have this professor for a higher-level psychology class that is really admired by many students. He is an Atheist and makes a point of constantly bringing up his viewpoints whenever he can, and then at the end of a VERY offensive statement he'll say "I don't mean to offend anyone." Nice disclaimer. Anyways, what he says really does offend me, and what bothers me as well is that he has a few groupies in the front row who agree with him too. The thing is, I also feel extremely guilty for not standing up to him. A priest that I briefly discussed this with said that I should pray for him if I do not feel that I am knowledgeable enough to respond.
What do you guys think? Should an outwardly Atheist professor be confronted? Reported? Prayed for? How would you approach this?
Side story:
This has nothing to do with my question/ dilemma but has to do with the aforementioned professor. He told us that years ago (he is only 33), he was in the seminary studying to be a priest. He always tells us how religious people, especially Christians, never practice what they preach and are extremely judgemental. It always baffles me how a prospective priest is now standing in front of hundreds of students, lecturing against the very thing he once believed in. Just a reminder that by our actions, we can either bring people to Christ or deter them from Him. As Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
I have this professor for a higher-level psychology class that is really admired by many students. He is an Atheist and makes a point of constantly bringing up his viewpoints whenever he can, and then at the end of a VERY offensive statement he'll say "I don't mean to offend anyone." Nice disclaimer. Anyways, what he says really does offend me, and what bothers me as well is that he has a few groupies in the front row who agree with him too. The thing is, I also feel extremely guilty for not standing up to him. A priest that I briefly discussed this with said that I should pray for him if I do not feel that I am knowledgeable enough to respond.
What do you guys think? Should an outwardly Atheist professor be confronted? Reported? Prayed for? How would you approach this?
Side story:
This has nothing to do with my question/ dilemma but has to do with the aforementioned professor. He told us that years ago (he is only 33), he was in the seminary studying to be a priest. He always tells us how religious people, especially Christians, never practice what they preach and are extremely judgemental. It always baffles me how a prospective priest is now standing in front of hundreds of students, lecturing against the very thing he once believed in. Just a reminder that by our actions, we can either bring people to Christ or deter them from Him. As Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Comments
Also, can I assume that your advice would be to respond to the professor?
Here is a helpful syllogism:
a) anything with a beginning has a cause
b) the big bang started everything
c) the big bang has a cause
(that is if he's using this as his argument of how everything started).
Since the big BANG has a cause, therefore it is pretty much certain that God exists (as you cannot have particles randomly coming out of nowhere). A begin has a cause, and that cause is not random therefore intelligent design is responsible, and that is God.
Go now!! Get out'a here!
Anyways, I know about irreducible complexity and all that good stuff, but sometimes he'll say things such as "People who suffer from delusions of grandeur have schizophrenia, such as those who believe they are the Son of God, those who believe they can walk on water, or believe they were born through virgin birth." He seems to be able to connect EVERY mental disorder in the book to God, Jesus, or the Holy Theotokos...
Might I suggest making this book in a Kindle version as well? It would reach a broader audience!
Also, can I assume that your advice would be to respond to the professor?
I would, but only because I am confident in my debate skills and what I know. It is best not to respond to him. He has no interest in what you have to say. DEFEND but do not confront.
Hello everyone,
I have this professor for a higher-level psychology class that is really admired by many students. He is an Atheist and makes a point of constantly bringing up his viewpoints whenever he can, and then at the end of a VERY offensive statement he'll say "I don't mean to offend anyone." Nice disclaimer. Anyways, what he says really does offend me, and what bothers me as well is that he has a few groupies in the front row who agree with him too. The thing is, I also feel extremely guilty for not standing up to him. A priest that I briefly discussed this with said that I should pray for him if I do not feel that I am knowledgeable enough to respond.
What do you guys think? Should an outwardly Atheist professor be confronted? Reported? Prayed for? How would you approach this?
Side story:
This has nothing to do with my question/ dilemma but has to do with the aforementioned professor. He told us that years ago (he is only 33), he was in the seminary studying to be a priest. He always tells us how religious people, especially Christians, never practice what they preach and are extremely judgemental. It always baffles me how a prospective priest is now standing in front of hundreds of students, lecturing against the very thing he once believed in. Just a reminder that by our actions, we can either bring people to Christ or deter them from Him. As Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
i have so many teachers who don't directly offend religion, but allude to it in an offensive way. one teacher, who is a clear athiest, was talking about how this student tried to convert him to christianity. he basically said if muslims claim their God is the God and christians claim their God is the god, which one is it...basically, because there's so many claims to God, there is no God. i of course, would have liked to point out the defects in islam to him, but i just stayed silent. but i've come to a conclusion: to believe in God, you have to want there to be a god. if they sought God, they'd find Him. & they're clearly not at a lack of resources. but anyways, we should always pray for them, because miracles can happen, look at Saul.
Side story:
This has nothing to do with my question/ dilemma but has to do with the aforementioned professor. He told us that years ago (he is only 33), he was in the seminary studying to be a priest. He always tells us how religious people, especially Christians, never practice what they preach and are extremely judgemental. It always baffles me how a prospective priest is now standing in front of hundreds of students, lecturing against the very thing he once believed in. Just a reminder that by our actions, we can either bring people to Christ or deter them from Him. As Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
I'd like to point out a few things about Gandhi.
First, even though this quote is all over the internet, there isn't a single reference showing Gandhi actually said this. It does, however, sync with Gandhi's teachings. Secondly, this quote is not an indictment on Christian behavior and Christians, it is the philosophical ramblings of a person who is a "self-proclaimed philosophical anarchist". Source. Gandhi criticized his own religion Hinduism, as well as all major religions when he was asked if he was a Hindu. He said, "Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew." (Same source). Obviously, this comment only shows his incredible contempt for authority, not the religions or the followers.
He only believed in morality as a religion; which by the way he was criticized for moral hypocrisy. The guy who preached non-violence to the Hindus against the British government also told Hindus take up violence if you must. For the Jews of the holocaust, he said they didn't do enough to enact non-violence. "The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions." Then he had to do damage control after the war.
The man known as an example of peace was at one point in his life a racist. Gandhi called the blacks of South Africa "Kaffirs" (equivalent to the "n" word). "Kaffirs are as a rule uncivilised—the convicts even more so. They are troublesome, very dirty and live almost like animals... The kaffirs' sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness. They're loafers... a species of humanity almost unknown among the Indians."
Gandhi was an anarchist. If he had known about the Copts, he would have cursed them because the Copts are the epitome of political oppression. Atheist like to use his philosophical thoughts as a framework for religious or theological anarchy. The fact is no matter how much chaos there is in the universe, there is order and a governing entity or force. The anarchist cannot accept any form of political subjection, as much as the atheist cannot accept subjection of God.
PS: If I were you Gabriella, I would stop at nothing to make your professor stop. He is not teaching a religion class. He is breaking the rules. Every university has code of conduct for teachers and students. He would loose a lot if he was reprimanded by the university. You pay the university for higher education, not four years of lies.
I agree with what Remenkimi says above. As a university teacher myself, I am bound to teach the subject without putting in my own religious beliefs in the course. That psychology professor only has the right to teach the psychology material, and not his own atheism. You have the right to complain to your department or registrar in this case.
Yea, agreed. I think that is rather classless to inject personal religious beliefs into a course. What do you teach?