Do any of you believe that actor Kirk Cameron was actually an atheist before he became a born again Christian?

I guess it depends upon what your definition of atheist is.

If you feel being apathetic towards religion isn’t sufficient to qualify for atheist status, then you would likely disregard what he says.

Im a firm believer in allowing people to define themselves in whatever way they choose. If he says he was previously am atheist, I’m willing to take his statement at face value.

Do you think there are any specific criteria to be met before one is allowed to call himself an atheist; a litmus test, if you will?

I guess you must be doubting his statement or else why ask the question. So, what do you think he was prior to his conversion experience, if not an atheist? And why does it really matter?

As far as I’m concerned, its a moot point because he has make it crystal clear on what he is now (a Christian but an obnoxious and judgemental one to be sure.)

I liked him better in his atheist days :)

I neither know nor do I care, I just love the irony of that old video of him and his pal Ray Comfort “disproving” evolution but holding the cavendish banana as an example of God’s perfect design. The cavendish – a variant that did not exist naturally. A product of careful cultivation by humans which could not exist if the principals of evolution were untrue.

Maybe he was, maybe he was not.
“Atheist” also includes people who never thought about it, not just people with a rational underpinning of their rejection of the God hypothesis.

But then again, christians, especially the vocal ones, have a habit of lying to push their beliefs on others.

I couldn’t care less. Why would anybody?

Everyone is born an atheist.

Ditto @Jak my reliable beacon on practical cynicism.

Practical cynicism. Is that even a thing? I kinda like it, though I prefer to think of it as being grounded in things that matter.

Grounded in things that matter sounds practical to me!