It's been a while since I posted and I realized that I need to consolidate some things here from another site I have. So here is the first item, an article on my Reality Check.
I was raised in a conservative Christian home, by good parents, in a good church around lot's of good people. I had fully embraced Christianity, I believed, I prayed, I repented, I asked Jesus into my heart. I also studied, I led Bible studies, had people encourage me to enter the ministry. Now I am an atheist, so what happened? I have to say that it goes to the fact that I studied the Bible, my faith, and I kept questioning. Even with that it was a very long road out. Sadly many people who believe in God read the Bible about as much or in the same way that most people read terms of service agreements online. They either don't, or they just skim them, reading the highlights. The highlights in Christianity are all the nice, loving stuff, they skip the rest. Some of the things I questioned where if the Bible is the inherent word of God, why are there so many contradictions in it? They start right off the bat in Genesis and run through the whole book. I mean did God Create animals first and then people (Gen 1:24-26) or Adam first and then the animals (Gen. 2:18-20)? Did he create male and female together (Gen. 1:27) or female later from males rib (Gen. 2:22)? That's just two examples in the first two chapters! Further how can this book be the infallible, inherent word of God, not only when it is filled with clear contradictions but when it is translated from ancient extinct languages over thousands of years when we can't even say that our own history record is infallible over the past few decades in our modern times? But what really got to me as I studied wasn't even all that. I mean of course the Bible is the infallible, inherent word of God because God is in control of everything and He ensures that His word is perfect regardless of our weak, sinful human perceptions of it. I mean the wisdom of God is foolishness to man, right? So all I have to do is check my sinful human brain at the door and just believe by faith. What really got me as I studied was the character of God. This “loving” God routinely commanded or caused the death of tens of thousands, including young children and infants.
This a few samples of many. I could go on about many other areas but one that troubled me the most was: Forgiveness In Matthew 18: 21, 22 Jesus teaches us to forgive not seven times but seventy times seven if someone wrongs you. That is a very good teaching, but God doesn't hold to his own teaching. According to Bible teaching someone could be, well say like Hitler, have a death bed conversion, believe, accept Jesus, be forgiven and be saved. Someone else could lead a good life, one of service and kindness, not believe, not even hear of Jesus and never be forgiven. Instead of being forgiven even once, let alone seventy times seven times, they would be tortured forever after their death with no hope ever of forgiveness. Just for simple unbelief. This would mean that most of the self-aware, conscious humans that God ever created would be cruelly tortured in Hell forever with no chance of redemption. Much to my great shame I knew this teaching for years and was still believing that I was loving a real God who was “worthy of my love”. Amazing, how could anyone believe that? Especially for many years, decades even. Yet millions of smart, intelligent, capable people do. You may be one of those. There are proven reasons why this happens but those will be for later posts. As time went on I knew that this God wasn't worthy of my love AT ALL but I kept believing due to fear, not love. After many sad years I finally got to the point where I knew I wasn't fooling God, I simply couldn't love such a vile God, and I would rather burn in Hell than serve such a God. In my study for a short time I followed a belief called Christian Universalism which teaches that God will redeem ALL of of his creation including the most wretched sinner. That felt good for a while but those teaching that still taught the infallibility of the Bible. I could clearly see that the Bible is not infallible, so that all fell apart for me too. Still as I looked at this world and see what it is I had a longing for something better. I felt there had to be something better, there had to be a loving God that will shelter us in his loving arms after this life. I think that longing is part of why most people cling to their beliefs. That is understandable. There is a chapter in the Bible often called the love chapter, it is 1 Corinthians 13 and it like many passages it is quite good. Years ago I learned to replace the word love in verses 4-7 with the word God to described the character of God since “God is Love”. It would read thus:
That was helpful for a while, the problem was it just didn't fit with the character of God described in most of the Bible. What finally did it for me though, what finally made me an atheist was not science, or evidence, or facts, (which all point to the reality that there is no god) it was the hard realization that if their really was a kind, loving, caring compassionate, and just God simply by the characteristics of those virtues there would be absolutely zero belief needed or required to know that such a God is real. Let me say that again. Simply by the characteristics of those virtues, kindness, love, compassion, justice, there would be absolutely zero belief needed or required to know that such a God is real.
Reality Check. Look at the world, open your eyes, clearly, such a God does not exist. That reality check made me an atheist. At last. It made me realize there is no perfection here and there is no after life that holds the promise of perfection either. It also made me realize that if we are going to have a better life, it's got to be this one NOW, as there is no other. That is one reason why I came out of the closet as an Atheist. (Actually I prefer Humanist as it is a positive affirmation being pro-human, rather than negative, non-theist, but Atheist is a bolder statement.) So why do I want to make bolder statement? Why not just quietly live my life letting people be content in beliefs that give them hope in a world that often has very little hope? Whats the harm in that? The harm is that many Christian beliefs are putting the world in danger, or are working to limit the freedom of others. For example: Many Christians embrace the problems of this world, political, ecological, social, etc. as signs of the soon return of Jesus Christ. I know I was one of them. We need to wake up, realize that is NOT going to happen, there is no magic God genie in the sky to save us. If humanity is to have a future and not wipe ourselves out by self-fulfilling prophecy we must do the work ourselves to continue advancing and creating a better future. I hope some of my musings on this subject will help some wake up and join us in building a better future for those who will follow. It will include a blog with thoughts along my journey of humanism and a list of resources I have found helpful and you may as well. Sincerely, David Mitchell Blood BTW: The photo at the top is of me at the Reason Rally in Washington D.C. On March 24th, 2012. It is when I firmly decided I needed to come out and rock the boat a bit. With me in the photo are Deanna Joy Lyons to my left and Rich Lyons to my right. Rich is a former Pentecostal preacher he and his wonderful wife Deanna Joy are hosts of the Living After Faith Podcast, a wonderful resource. To Rich's right is Sarah Morehead of Recovering From Religion another great resource for those coming out of faith.
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