Religion Lost
Sunday, December 20th, 2009
When I write a guest post somewhere or someone else links back to my blog, I don’t usually discuss it unless it’s relevant to another post (like my Hanukkah post). I will post it on Twitter, but I try not to toot my own horn too much (not that it’s a big horn. It’s actually pretty small!).
However, dwasifar wrote an excellent post on the True Christian phenomenon, and I can’t resist sharing. It talks about me, yes, but that’s not why I’m telling you about it. I think he has an excellent analogy that could be useful to those of us who have to deal with “You weren’t a true Christian!” type comments. I even know of a few former fundamentalists who kept a more liberalized version of their faith who could possibly benefit from this analogy. So click here for the post, Losing Her Religion!
Tags: atheism, Christian, deconversion, fundamentalism, religion
Loading ...
December 20th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
A spiritual journey has many ups and downs. God purposely takes us through valley’s in order to build character. I really believe that God is going to use this experience you are currently having to bring Him greater Glory. The fact is that a person who knows the love of God can never leave because nothing can separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord!
December 20th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I wonder if little girls sold into sex slavery or babies orphaned by AIDS feel the love of jeebus very deeply. Quit trying to preach; your god is just as false as all the others you dismiss without reason.
December 21st, 2009 at 1:18 am
@zdenny: I would like to be nice, really I would. But what a crock of crap. I’m sorry, but it just is. Let’s look at it piece by piece.
God purposely takes us through valley’s in order to build character. Why is this necessary? Isn’t your god omnipotent? If he wanted you to have character, couldn’t he just twitch his nose like Samantha and give it to you? Why make you suffer for it? And don’t tell me that this is the only way character can be built. By definition, nothing is impossible to an omnipotent god, so if he wanted you to have some specific quality, bam, you’d have it. There should be no need to be taken “through valley’s [sic].”
I really believe that God is going to use this experience you are currently having to bring Him greater Glory. Wait a minute. Last sentence it was about a person’s gain and growth, and now in this sentence, it’s about god’s. Which is it? Is god putting you through misery so that you can learn something, or is it just to puff himself up?
The fact is that a person who knows the love of God can never leave because nothing can separate us from the love of God that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord! Sure they can. “The fact is,” they do all the time. I know you’d like to believe it can’t happen, but it does, and rationalizing it away by claiming that people who lose their faith never had it in the first place is just playing with words – arbitrarily redefining faith as something that can never be lost so that you can claim anything else isn’t faith. Why don’t you redefine “sin” while you’re at it? You could define it as “things done by non-christians” so that you can say that christians never sin. You wouldn’t be the first.
A person who “knows the love of god” is a person who has successfully created a self-contained internal system of delusions, no different from a person who fully believes in, say, astrology or leprechauns. Saying that this belief is unshakable doesn’t mean there is no evidence against it; it just means you’ve closed yourself off from evidence to the contrary. That’s not a commitment to truth, it’s a commitment to ignorance.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:30 am
I always feel that there appears to be a hypocrisy from atheists on these points (but only appears).
For instance, we would reject CS Lewis’ or Lee Strobl’s claims to having been atheists, on the grounds that they were never true atheists. Or the corollary for “you just hate God” is “you are delusional”.
But this only appears to be the case, because in actuality, one is about outward appearance, while the other is an attempt to claim mind-reading skills. If someone is delusional, they talk delusion. Similarly, a true Christian, believing themselves to be atheists, would never be actively dismissive or condemning of the “God” character in the bible (as is the case with Lewis and Strobl).
December 21st, 2009 at 8:06 am
I’ve encountered something similar with my mother, but from the other side of the coin. My family is “religious” in a sort of vague non-church-going way, but when I “came out” as an atheist a few years back, she simply wouldn’t believe me– no matter how emphatic I was or whatever points I brought up she would dismiss it (every now and then I bring up something that genuinely gets to her).
The main idea I think is that she sees me as a “good person” (after all, she’s my mum) but this goes in direct contradiction with her idea that “atheist = bad.” She’ll say I really DO believe in “God” or that I’m just a little mixed up but I’ll sort it out (I’m 39 years old, I’ve been an atheist for 9 years).
It annoys me because I don’t feel like I’m taken seriously about it. Oh well. LOL
December 21st, 2009 at 11:06 am
Life for Christians is merely a preliminary to the Glory of God. Our life now provides a contrast for our appreciation of His Glory later on. The fact that the world is cursed with depraved individuals who may harm or hurt us merely proves that man is need of the Savior.
Our depravity does not in anyway reflect on God’s plan for our life which is to be with Him for eternity. Laura has said on many occasions that she felt like she was being abused; however, this experience has taught her that she cannot be a carpet; rather, she has to be proactive in molding her environment. Love is the way you mold your family and life and provide a guide to the greatest good in life. In order to know love though, you first have to know the love of God.
Laura has seen the beauty of Christianity as well as experienced the ugliness of man’s depravity. The contrast will pull on her all the days of her life because beauty and love are constantly speaking to her even when she tries to throw it out of her mind. I am sure by now that Laura nows knows that love itself is only a feeling in atheism that can result in some of the greatest sins against mankind withy love of oneself being the worst.
God Bless.
December 21st, 2009 at 11:41 am
[...] last post was picked up in a couple of places, including the Redheaded Skeptic’s blog it mentions. Redhead’s blog gets more religious apologists than I do here, probably because [...]
December 21st, 2009 at 12:16 pm
@zdenny: “Life for Christians is merely a preliminary to the Glory of God. Our life now provides a contrast for our appreciation of His Glory later on.”
Nice death cult you have going there, friend.
Personally, I’d prefer to make the life we actually have better, rather than make excuses for misery and look forward to death like you do.