Via Allen Thomson, here's a long essay on how a Christian came to become a non-believer.

If I have to read that entire thing to change my faith, I'll just keep mine.

Rand, now I am curious. What are your views on this essay?

I've never been a Christian, but it makes sense to me.

His experience is somewhat like mine. About the time I turned 18 and moved out of the house, rationality asserted itself and I abandoned religion. It wasn't easy at first, but abandoning that superstition is easily one of the best things I ever did for myself. It unchains your mind.

I must say that I have had a very different than him. I was "saved" at roughly the same age as Mr. Hobbs but I took a very different pattern in life. While he went to IVCF meetings and did Bible studies, I looked at porn and cheated on my girlfriends. Unlike him, when I headed off to college, I found God. For a long time in my life, I asked the same questions he did, only I found answers. For example, he and I have both wondered why a believing Christian might be miraculaously saved or pray to be healed. He found no answer. I found one (as an Evangelical, this should have been easy for him; the only things that man can do on Earth that he can't in heaven are to witness and minister to your fellow man). I wish that he had looked a little harder in his search. He might have found what he was looking for.

I gave up on organized religion when the church of which I was supposedly a member determined that the Sandanistas were the modern successors to the twelve apostles. Since then I check up on them every so often, and as far as I can tell, they've never met an anti-American/Leftwing dicatatorial thug they didn't like, with the possible exception of Milosavic, where they took a "pox on both your houses" stand.

I used to argue ... er ... discuss religion. Eventually I realized that the worldviews are often just too far apart: You end up talking past each other, so it is pointless at best. But it was interesting to see how he changed his worldview by himself.

I can see how church makes for an important social institution. But the Bible just has to many contradictions and I get tired of the Holy rollers saying well this morning I woke up and God told me to drink coffee instead of tea and now I've been saved.

Just another example of how a liberal arts education can completely screw up a decent human being. Philosophy over engineering?!? This guy was doomed from that moment on.

I realised I didn't believe in God when I was about 6; I'd done, and continued afterwards to do the sunday school thing- but at that age I knew it with reasonable certainty.

What I really love though is when professional athletes win the big game and then start running around pointing at the sky and screaming "Thank you Jebus!!" I mean do they really think the son of God was up there rooting for a NFL football game. I can't help but to roll my eyes at Kurt Warner almost every time I hear him speak about how God filled his heart and made him throw the football.

Rand, interesting link, and certainly under the category of "Infinity & Beyond". I'm a Bible believing Christian. That aside, if there was a god who created all things at some time, he/she/it would naturally be beyond our ability to understand.

I don't claim to understand everything about God and the Bible and how it applies to everyday life. However I think many people approach the God and the Bible, just like they do politics. They may be comfortable as a democrat, therefore they are more likely to believe whatever bad things they hear about Bush. That is a stupid approach whether for politics or religion.

I personally have not seen any internal inconsistencies or contradictions in the Bible that can't be reasonable and rationally explained. And that is not because I "want" to believe. My life would sometimes be easier and more pleasant if I weren't a Christian.

Man, I feel sorry for people that have to go through this kind of tortuous philosophical journey just to enjoy life. But, hey, at least he found happiness. Me, I'll stick to my beer and TV, church on sundays.

Seriously, if this is a good example of what it takes to live a balanced, moral life as an atheist, I think atheism is always doomed to remain a minority philosophy. Anybody spending that much time thinking about life, the universe and everything isn't spending enough time procreating.

Besides, the answer's 42.

dex

>>If I have to read that entire thing to change my faith, I'll just keep mine.

..... or you could read Bertrand Russell's 1927 lecture on why he was not a christian:

http://www.libmansworld.com/BertrandRussell.htm

Russell was a loon. In his moral arguments he doesn't consider a third alternative: God's fiat is good because God's nature is good, and He never deviates from His nature.

On the subject of utilitarianism, which arises in the featured essay, on separate occasions I scored 100% Kant and 100% Mill on that philosophy quiz. Maybe it's because the utilitarians and Kantians are seeing different portions of what defines good and mistaking their respective portions for the whole thing. Like saying WMDs were the only reason for war in Iraq.