I got this message on Atheist Nexus:

Hi Dustin, I saw your post on SDA A [Probably referring to the Ex-Adventist and Seventh-day Atheists Group]. I have a friend who I’ve not known for long and she is a SDA.  I wondered if you might give me some more understanding about where she might be at…  Can I talk to her about my being an atheist?  What would her views of me be?  Is there any chance that she might be going along with it, but not believing?

Apparently I’ve fallen into the role of the atheist movement’s resident expert on the SDA church. You know what, I can live with that. Anyway, someone else who doesn’t have an Adventist background might find this useful. Ex-SDAs feel free to provide more insight in the comments.

I see that you’re in Australia. I’m not very familiar with the SDA church down under, but from what little I know I think it’s pretty well in line with the church in the US. It was one of the first countries that the SDA church spread to and Ellen G. White, the church’s prophetess, spent the 1890s living in Australia.

You’re friend is likely to fall into one of three categories:

1. A devout Adventist who whole heartedly believes the whole thing.
2. An apathetic Adventist who tows the party line, but doesn’t really think about it or care too much.
3. A cultural Adventist who doesn’t believe many of the theological or scientific positions of the church, but sticks with it for family and community reasons.

The best way to find out where your friend fits in this is to find out more of her story. If she personally converted to the church because she was convinced of its message (as opposed to because her parents or husband were), she would likely be very devout and fervent. To tell her you’re an atheist would open the door for her to spend the rest of your friendship trying to convert you.

If on the other hand she or her husband were raised in the church, it’s much more likely that she may be an apathetic or cultural Adventist. As a matter of fact, the more generations between her and the original convert the more likely it would be cultural (I was 5th generation). If this is the case, then she would probably be quite tolerant of your atheism.

Keep in mind that Adventists are a much smaller minority than atheists are and they are also typically staunch secularists, so you would have a few things in common. Differences in lifestyle and any discussions about evolution would most likely create more friction than her mere knowledge of the fact that you don’t believe in god.

As a reminder, Thursday is question day when I have one to answer. I haven’t gotten many of them, so ask away Zeus Dammit!