I've talked quite a bit about different aspects of my religious transition, but I haven't talked to much about how it has changed how I think.
Over a year and a half I transitioned from a young earth creationist to.... something.
I don't really know about a lot of things. I wouldn't consider myself truly atheist, because I just don't know. I can prove the biblical story false on many fronts, but does that mean there is no God or spiritual aspect to life?
I wish I had direct answers to those questions, but I don't know.
It may be an artifact of my Christian beliefs, but I feel like existence itself may be evidence for God. I know it leads down a road of circular reasoning, but what is the cause? Even the big bang is a reaction. Hawking said time didn't exist before it, but I would disagree based on pure logic. Something happened, and if something is happening there is an element of time, and our universe came into being. So I wont discount there could be a God. (Every pure atheist is shaking their head asking what caused God right now.)
I believe my mind is my own, it's a private space that belongs only to me and I can share or keep secret whatever I like.
I have this one life to live, and even though I wish there was an eternity on the other side of it, I see no evidence for that, so I have to do the best I can with what I have.
As a Christian I took a lot of comfort in thinking I would have eternity to explore every crevice of the universe. I thought eternity with God would be awesome. I imagined millennia to spend learning everything I could possibly be interested.in. Now I have to learn and grow while I can and use my time wisely.
I have an obligation to treat others fairly and be respectful of their happiness.
The constitution of the U.S. was written for people who have a sense of responsibility, not a sense of entitlement. People with a feeling they are owed something mess up rules that work by taking advantage of the system. I cannot decide for other people what will make them happy, we are not all the same, but I can support others being happy as I would hope they would support my happiness. I cannot make decisions for people based on a set of rules governed by the authors of the book of the Bible.
I'm still on this journey and now that I'm not basing my opinions on the Bible, everything is fluid and changing on a consistent basis. Its wonderful to know I have the freedom to make up my own mind what works for me.
Having a Biblical standard works if you pick and choose, but following it in it's entirety?
I Timothy 2:9
Over a year and a half I transitioned from a young earth creationist to.... something.
I don't really know about a lot of things. I wouldn't consider myself truly atheist, because I just don't know. I can prove the biblical story false on many fronts, but does that mean there is no God or spiritual aspect to life?
I wish I had direct answers to those questions, but I don't know.
It may be an artifact of my Christian beliefs, but I feel like existence itself may be evidence for God. I know it leads down a road of circular reasoning, but what is the cause? Even the big bang is a reaction. Hawking said time didn't exist before it, but I would disagree based on pure logic. Something happened, and if something is happening there is an element of time, and our universe came into being. So I wont discount there could be a God. (Every pure atheist is shaking their head asking what caused God right now.)
I believe my mind is my own, it's a private space that belongs only to me and I can share or keep secret whatever I like.
I have this one life to live, and even though I wish there was an eternity on the other side of it, I see no evidence for that, so I have to do the best I can with what I have.
As a Christian I took a lot of comfort in thinking I would have eternity to explore every crevice of the universe. I thought eternity with God would be awesome. I imagined millennia to spend learning everything I could possibly be interested.in. Now I have to learn and grow while I can and use my time wisely.
I have an obligation to treat others fairly and be respectful of their happiness.
The constitution of the U.S. was written for people who have a sense of responsibility, not a sense of entitlement. People with a feeling they are owed something mess up rules that work by taking advantage of the system. I cannot decide for other people what will make them happy, we are not all the same, but I can support others being happy as I would hope they would support my happiness. I cannot make decisions for people based on a set of rules governed by the authors of the book of the Bible.
I'm still on this journey and now that I'm not basing my opinions on the Bible, everything is fluid and changing on a consistent basis. Its wonderful to know I have the freedom to make up my own mind what works for me.
Having a Biblical standard works if you pick and choose, but following it in it's entirety?
I Timothy 2:9
I also want the women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes,
Go to a church and see how many women have gold or pearls, but homosexuality is an abomination. The truth is all Christians pick and choose and apply a few catch-alls to what doesn't work. Like Galatians 5:18 or I Corinthians 8 or simply citing the blessing of grace. I've used these same verses in my life, but the Bible can be used to argue against itself all day long. It's not the single cohesive work that I once believed it to be.
According to this article, God gives everyone enough rope to hang themselves in the pages of the Bible. What, in all the universe, is fair about that? God wants us to willfully ignore the contradictions in order to be saved?
There are a lot of excuses to explain these contradictions, but even the excuses tend to lead to contradiction. If all scripture is God breathed, does that mean he's points people in the wrong direction if they study too hard? I know the "Christian answer" here is that it's only me causing the contradictions and not all contradictions can be taken at face value because context must be taken into consideration but it still doesn't account for all.
My standard is looking out for my fellow humans with regard for their ability to be happy.
Who am I to make the rules for how someone else lives? As a Christian I thought that standard was set by God and was cut and dry, but life is not so simple. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of excellent lessons in the words of the Bible, but there are in any good story. If the Bible was 100 percent perfect and never contradicted itself, I would still believe in that standard as the word of God, but it does not stand up to that kind of scrutiny.
Even as I write this, I know my words do not perfectly explain every aspect of what I mean, but I will continue to flesh it all out in further posts as I don't think anyone has the time or desire to read a book of a post on that in one sitting.
I can also be wrong. As a Christian there was only one way and my biggest concern was always: does a person accept Christ as their savior? It was that exact thinking that lead me down this road.
Now that I'm beyond that, I have the freedom to view things through my own eyes, evaluate and re-evaluate them. Being wrong is okay. There are more lessons to be learned from mistakes than successes and I'm free to learn, change and grow as a member of humanity and not be a "slave to the law" as the Bible puts it.
According to this article, God gives everyone enough rope to hang themselves in the pages of the Bible. What, in all the universe, is fair about that? God wants us to willfully ignore the contradictions in order to be saved?
There are a lot of excuses to explain these contradictions, but even the excuses tend to lead to contradiction. If all scripture is God breathed, does that mean he's points people in the wrong direction if they study too hard? I know the "Christian answer" here is that it's only me causing the contradictions and not all contradictions can be taken at face value because context must be taken into consideration but it still doesn't account for all.
My standard is looking out for my fellow humans with regard for their ability to be happy.
Who am I to make the rules for how someone else lives? As a Christian I thought that standard was set by God and was cut and dry, but life is not so simple. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of excellent lessons in the words of the Bible, but there are in any good story. If the Bible was 100 percent perfect and never contradicted itself, I would still believe in that standard as the word of God, but it does not stand up to that kind of scrutiny.
Even as I write this, I know my words do not perfectly explain every aspect of what I mean, but I will continue to flesh it all out in further posts as I don't think anyone has the time or desire to read a book of a post on that in one sitting.
I can also be wrong. As a Christian there was only one way and my biggest concern was always: does a person accept Christ as their savior? It was that exact thinking that lead me down this road.
Now that I'm beyond that, I have the freedom to view things through my own eyes, evaluate and re-evaluate them. Being wrong is okay. There are more lessons to be learned from mistakes than successes and I'm free to learn, change and grow as a member of humanity and not be a "slave to the law" as the Bible puts it.
With regards to women wearing gold and pearls in church: http://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=1210 I'd encourage you to think carefully about what you are believing now, because even if you don't think you believe anything, everyone's pattern of thinking (even the thought processes you go through to dismiss that which doesn't seem to make sense to you) is standing on something. If you're building a crane with a wrecking ball to knock over Christianity, your crane is still standing on some kind of foundation or it would already have collapsed. I encourage you to keep thinking seriously about what your foundation is. I hope that someday your feet will stand again on the solid Rock, but if you sink in the sand someday, at least I'll know I helped point out you're certainly not standing on just air, or you wouldn't be standing at all.
ReplyDeleteI can agree that you can extrapolate a meaning from it that is different from what it actually says(this happens quite a bit in the Bible such as Luke 14:26. Why would God send his message so cryptically instead of speaking plainly? Is he hiding his message? Matthew 11:25 Jesus praises God for hiding his message, think about that.) I know it's hard to understand from your perspective, but I have been more careful than you know. Going from a position where I believe I am saved for all eternity to realizing that it's just not true is not an easy change, and definitely not one that came from a desire from anything other than to find the examples of supernatural intervention by God in reality. I'm not building a wrecking ball to attack with, I've lit a candle that has taken me out of the dark and I'm just sharing with others that process with some perspective from both sides.
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