How A Christian Lost His Faith
I was raised in a Christian fundamentalist home. My uncle is a Petroleum Engineer which he thinks qualifies him in the area of Geology as well. I was raised to believe the Earth is 6,000 years old and God created the Heavens and Earth in 6 literal days. I believed this well into my 20s. I only lost my faith ~2 years ago and I am now 29 years old. I am partly embarrassed to admit that but I only learned about Evolution from people who were apposed to Evolution. Something I never would have done with the Bible but with Evolution it made sense at the time.I was so immersed into this dogma and delusion that I actually decided I wanted to be a part of it. I was going to start blogging on Creation and stumping the top Evolution myths. I also decided that once I had built a large base on evolution blogs I would turn it into a book. I first needed to learn the top arguments for Evolution. I looked through AiG and ICR.org and finally made the greatest decision of my life. I wanted to hear it directly from the horses mouth. So I Google'd it!
What really got me was a link to a documentary that covered Biogeography. Specifically, the evolution of Marsupials. It was brilliant. Discovery was made in South America of early Marsupials which only exist in Australia. A prediction was made that fossils would one day be found in Antarctica of all places. Then 10 years later, a treasure troll of Marsupial fossils were found in Antarctica. This obviously did not fit with the Global Flood model! It was just enough to spark my interest. I started with the obvious questions. How did the Eye evolve? What about the heart? Or the ears or nose? Everything made sense. It suddenly dawned on me that I was only learning about Evolution from people who were admittedly apposed to it. After that, I read Richard Dawkins "The God Delusion" and I could no longer believe in the Supernatural.
Science softened me up and logic killed every bit of faith I had left. I have since then researched the answers to many of the arguments from a Creation side and found them all to be false or blatant lies. I can no longer stand my children being indoctrinated into religion and see it as a form of child abuse. I now see the problems caused by religion and cringe any time I hear a politician talk about God or Jesus. I cannot hear religion discussed without fighting back the chuckles. I do not have a problem with the liberal Christians. The ones that believe Jesus died for their sins but think the rest is just the ranting of a book. To them I wish the best and I hope you make it to Heaven. For the rest however, I think they are damaging my country. I believe they are raising their children into a hateful religion built to spread like a virus.
To the fundamentalists I ask:
• Would you learn about the bible from an Atheist? Then why learn about Evolution from a Creationist?
• Why was God so involved in a time of desert nomads who still believed the Earth was flat and disappear when we had real questions to ask?
• If God can heal the sick, why can't he grow back limbs as well? Is this beyond God's power?
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Comment by booklover on July 5, 2011 at 2:29pm -
Glad you got un-brainwashed. Some people never do. The fundies would maybe answer your questions with lines like "you're not supposed to question god" and "it is a mystery, only god knows". I don't really know, because once I meet one I run screaming in the opposite direction. Life is too short to listen to that crap.
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Comment by Raven Z W on July 5, 2011 at 10:38pm -
Your story is very inspiring. I hope more people that are living lives of blind faith can discover the intellectual integrity to break free like you have.
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Comment by roland707 on July 6, 2011 at 8:55am -
Good story. Welcome. Glad you made it.
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Comment by Wanda T on July 6, 2011 at 6:20pm -
Hey neighbor! I'm a little south of you in San Antonio. Yeah, Dawkins helped me through the fence too, but it was "The Selfish Gene" and that got me to start thinking. Maybe I'll blog my story; I've never shared it here. Welcome to the Nexus!
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Comment by mike larson on July 6, 2011 at 10:34pm -
Hi, your just the person I need to talk to!
A co-worker I've know for almost 10 years, and has deep respect for me.
Lately I've tried to engage in questions about his faith. I'm a life long atheist, and "faith", regular church attendance, tithes, confuse me and wanted his side.
Anyway He takes questions about bible content and church with defensive anger. I haven't even hit him with a debate! I feel he knows my position and knowledge and is intimidated.
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Comment by Moral Atheist on July 6, 2011 at 11:23pm -
Atheists fight to keep religion out of our lives. Keep them out of our politicians mouths etc... I love a debate as much as the next person but unless he is cramming Jesus down your throat, I don't think you should be cramming anti-theism down his. If he is deeplt offended by it, don't bring it up. Let him.
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Comment by Moral Atheist on July 7, 2011 at 2:39pm
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If he starts the conversation then he should be willing to have the conversation I think. Pointing out the absurd just made me think you didn't "understand" the bible. Just pointing out that God has power over his creation. The way to go is ask difficult questions about the New Testament. Ask why Paul never mentions a single account of the life of Jesus. Never mentions communion or virgin birth or any direct quotes. Then decades later, others were able to build a full account of the life of Jesus.
A GREAT book is "Jesus Interrupted". This will give you powerful questions to ask him. The best arguments I have had with anyone was not where I was talking my points but forced them to talk their own. Turn your comments into questions. Tough questions.
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