Why do Christians keep telling atheists that they should "choose" to believe?

Worse is that they ask us to believe "just in case"--which is tantamount to lying and probably a greater wrong than not believing in the first place.

I wonder if Christians get points for every convert they get.

It is true that belief is not something you can choose per se. However, it is also not quite the same thing as attractiveness. Belief essentially means to exercise a level of faith without complete empirical proof. This means that, at some stage you have to decide, or "choose" to exercise belief/faith. This does not mean belief in God is ever less than rational, or devoid of any empirical evidences, it merely means that the case for God cannot be proven to an extent that no one would deny His existence. Therefore, there comes a point when everyone has to make a choice - based on the evidence they see for/against the existance of God, as to whether they are going to 'believe' in God - that is to take a final small step (not giant leap) of rational (not blind) faith.

The best analogy I can think of is that of catching a train in a station. The display board claims your train is departing from platform 2 and is going to your destination (Y). The sign on the platform also claims the train is going to destination Y, as does the sign on the train itself. But if you ever want to get to destination Y you have to believe the signs and get on the train, and find of if indeed you do arrive in destination Y. Stepping on the train is not irrational - we do it all the time. Yet neither is it provable by theempiricale standards manyatheistss demand for proof of God, that the train is going to destination Y. You cannot demand one level of proof for God, and a lower level of proof for most other things in life. You also cannot expect to findempiricale proof for God in a world in which he is not physically present.

Thus belief, is to all intents and purposes, a choice.

Because they got nothing.

They demand as many converts to tip skepticism towards the fantasy trumps reality in their favor.

To demand "belief" is tantamount to demanding gay people to voluntarily switch off or on the religiously correct genetic code in their DNA, until such time as their normal, (genetically predisposed) behavior no longer offends the narrow minds of religiously correct control freaks.

The just in case appeal to ignorance reminds me of that verse from the Santa song, "so be good for goodness sake"

and don't get me started on how Santa is a proxy for the Christian deity, who does this sound like? "he knows if you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake"?

It sounds like Hey-Zeus's dad narrative is all of the above, sky-daddy, satan & santa.

One can only guess how many other religious proxy's are merely poorly thought out religious metaphors designed to infect all aspects of secular society with sectarian mind poison.

They are operating under the false assumption that religion or lack thereof is a choice someone makes. They believe that lack of belief in deities is a choice, as if they themselves could have decided to believe in thor but instead chose jesus.

It's the dichotomy between believing because you're driven by curiosity, so become convinced, and being driven by wishfulness, so choose a preference.

Most atheists need to be convinced, while many believers, such as the ones who say that or argue for Pascal's wager, seem to be able to choose.

Religion has always worked on the understanding that once you have faith you will discover any proof you need.

Verdict first, evidence later. Just like in Alice in Wonderland.

well, my christian friends do not seem to have a problem in that with me

i'm an atheist, yeah yeah

some people are just overwhelmed by religion. and that's not a good thing. overwhelmed by your religion to an inappropriate extent will cause REAL trouble

No, you are wrong. It is with our hearts that we believe, not the mind. That is the fallacy atheists always preach, that they can't reason out God. You refuse to believe, and that is a conscious choice. It has nothing to do with evidence, or reason, it has to do with a heart that hates. You hate the concept of a God that judges sin, rewards the just, and makes demands.

Belief is a choice. We are all agnostic if you want to get technical, we choose to believe one way or the other whether or not there are gods, based on our experience and evidence.

I know. Its disgusting that, because they have had it shoved down their throats by their parents, relatives & church they think its their RIGHT to harass us. WE ARE NOT WEAK.