Dare to Question (Site Core Series)
I remember my decision to question. I had been defending creation in an online debate. I could see the futility in trying to convince scientists that the world was 6000 years old, or that the fossil record was formed during Noah’s flood. Could l even convince myself anymore?…
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Recently I ventured into a place with different ideas, ideas that are sometimes referred to as woo. All this takes place at Psience Quest, “a discussion site for everyone who’s interested… Read more: Adventures in Psienceland - If Only Souls Had a Brain
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Jeremiah steps to the plate. Here’s the pitch. Jeremiah swings–“After seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place”–and he misses. Strike one! It was… Read more: Prophecy Strikes Out - Billions of Angels Did It!
In a recent discussion of my post, Flood Geology, AV1611VET argued that the Earth was created in 4004 BC. The evidence indicates otherwise. How can he explain the evidence? Miracles. Billions… Read more: Billions of Angels Did It! - Flood Geology and Scientific Creationism
In a recent online debate (here), Inquiring Mind asked me to consider a different view of geology. Perhaps most of those rock layers and fossils down there had been formed in… Read more: Flood Geology and Scientific Creationism - How Can Molecules Think?
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For years I have debated at the Christian Forums website using the name Doubtingmerle. My favorite thread was titled Are there Credible Witnesses to the Resurrection Part 2. There was a… Read more: Are there Credible Witnesses to the Resurrection? - When You Feel Like a Loser
Losing one’s religion can be a traumatic experience. Many have spent their entire lives in a restrictive religion. When they see the problem, they are often faced with an overwhelming sense… Read more: When You Feel Like a Loser - When Were the Gospels Written?
One of the arguments against the historical reliability of the gospels is that they were written sometime after 70AD, a generation after the events they report. This makes it doubtful that… Read more: When Were the Gospels Written?
Table of Contents
- Dare to Question
- How Old is the Earth?
- Did We Evolve?
- Is the Bible Perfect?
- Is the Bible Inspired?
- Is the Bible the Best Moral Guide?
- What Happens to Unbelievers?
- Are the Gospels Historical?
- Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?
- Is There Life after Death?
- Is God in Control?
- Does God Speak to Us?
- Is There a God?
- Is There Happiness without Jesus?
- How My Mind Was Set Free
- About
- Blog
- Links
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OK, here is the original post to the ExChristians.net site that was never posted due to “detected as spam”. My previous trouble with this site related to going thru the “Contact” option which required filling out a form and which was repeatedly rejected as “invalid form”. I think I didn’t post here because i wasn’t sure if the relationship to your testimonial on ExChristians would be evident. Chalk it up to a forum/blog neophyte.
Thank you for your reply, Merle.
Here are some quotes from your remarks above:
“In desperation, I turned to Christian books. I had no intention of going back to my Independent Fundamentalist Baptist days. I thought that perhaps a milder brand of Christianity could help. As I read, I felt encouraged. Was God leading me back to himself? I thought that he was. And so, I made a commitment to walk close to the Lord again. I found that Christianity worked much better for me than apathy.
I had found this one great pillar to support my rebuild of faith: Christianity is worthwhile because the path that I had found within Christianity works, at least it works for me.
Other things in the Bible may perhaps be wrong. I was finding simply too many problems with the Bible. But I had these two great pillars of my faith: a belief that Christianity as I knew it worked; and a belief that Genesis was the best explanation of origins.
Others told me that my religious philosophy did not work, that other philosophies worked better. There were big differences.
Did my Christianity really not work as well as I had persuaded myself it had? Slowly, microscopic cracks began to develop in this great pillar of my faith. It was slow and subtle, but the cracks were beginning.
Meanwhile the other pillar of my faith–the one that said conservative Christian philosophy worked–was severely cracking.
As this was happening, I was also needing to deal with the errors in the Bible. I had known about these problems for years, ever since I had read through the entire Bible six times in my youth. But I had found those two great pillars of my faith, and thus could ignore the Bible’s problems. Those pillars were now in shambles.”
Obviously, these are lifted out of context in an attempt to be brief. And you are correct that you say early in your journey that Christianity made you happier than apathy. But in your later usages of the word “work” it sure seems to me that when you found the pillars of your faith in a shambles, you decided Christianity did not work for you. Please correct me again if my conclusion is wrong.
Regardless, the point I attempted to make, unsuccessfully it seems from other comments, is that many professed Christians become disenchanted with the faith because it doesn’t seem to work for them, or stated another way, meet their expectations for what it can do for them in this life. And, as I stated above, that is an erroneous expectation for Christianity-that is not it’s purpose. That is part of why Jesus was so radical to the populace-He did not come to fulfill their hope, but to replace it. This is not just theoretical for me-I have a close family member who rejected the faith because it didn’t “work” for him and I wish I had known this earlier in his life.
I will respond to your question above re: Life After Death when I get time. Thank you again for your response.
Sinistergolfer, my problem with the faith was not that it failed to live up to my expectations, but that I found it to be based on things I no longer thought were true. I detail those reasons at this site, starting at https://mindsetfree.blog/dare-to-question/, so I invite you to read here. If I missed something, please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what I missed.
Regarding my statement about the second pillar of my faith collapsing, my point was that I could no longer find the argument “Christianity works for me; therefore it is true” valid. I still thought it worked for me. I just no longer thought that this fact could override the flaws I was finding in the content of the message.
If you read on from the part where you quoted, you will see that I said, “Perhaps people were helped within Christianity because they were in a nurturing relationship with caring people, not because of the specifics of the Bible. I had been caught by my own argument, and I had no answer. I knew I could not be sure that it was Christianity that made the difference.”
So yes, many have found Christianity helpful, including me. But one day I saw that this help had more to do with the fact that people were in a nurturing relationship with other Christians rather than the specific claims of the Bible.
By the way, my story is on this site at https://mindsetfree.blog/dare-to-question/how-questioning-changed-me/ . If you have more comments on my story, please post your comments on that page rather than this page.
Thank you for the clarification.