de-conversion

The call for miracles

I wrote this just about a year ago when I was trying to explain my doubts and thoughts on another site. Some responses to the recent “slain the spirit” post brought it back to mind.

There are certain responses that I get to my rather simple idea that a God who wants people to believe in Him and worship Him, ought to give us clear proof of His existence. By clear proof, I mean things like supernatural events, visitations, visions, revelations, and so on. And of course, I also mean that they need to be things that we can be sure are real and not just illusions, delusions, wishful thinking, or what have you.

The two main types of responses that keep coming up are what I’m calling the “normal miracles” and the “you just won’t buy it” responses.

The first goes something like, “Just look around. There are miracles you’re missing every day.” This will usually be followed by examples of what they mean by miracles, which tend to include sunsets, babies being borne, life, stars, breathing, and so on. I call this the “normal miracles response”. This response is easy to dispense with so I’m dispensing with it first.

The problem with the “normal miracles response” is that the person giving it ignores what I’m talking about and ignores the accepted definition of “miracle”…

Continue Reading 128 comments December 13, 2007

Praying my way to losing faith

There was a lady in our church who developed a mental illness. She was a terrific gal and, of course, I prayed diligently for her. So did a lot of folks. However, she did not get better. For whatever reason, at the time this struck me hard. As a result, I began to carefully sift through 25 years of praying. Not just my praying, but prayers of others also. And I realized that, as far as I was aware, no prayer had ever been answered in a clear, unmistakable way. No cripple ever walked, no blind person gained sight, no deaf person started hearing, nothing. Oh sure, there were some folks who beat cancer and other things like that but nothing outside the realm of medical probability. There were other coincidences too but nothing one could put a finger on and say, “There! That was outside the realm of the natural or possible.”

It became obvious to me that I was talking to the air- no answers, no response of any kind. Initially I read several books on prayer, on the existence of God, and on struggling with unbelief. None of them dared to go where I was. They all pulled up short and scurried off into comforting, yet unsatisfactory answers.

Being a scientist, I dug into the literature for any studies on the efficacy of prayer. Lo and behold, there were actual, controlled studies that had been done. And the result? Drum roll, please….. nada, nil, zip, zilch, zero… no efficacy at all…

Continue Reading 120 comments December 3, 2007

Reactions to truth

In the opening chapter of the book “Why Truth Matters,” the authors talk about how people often hate to hear the truth. Some examples of this would be the reactions people have to hear about their health (”You have a cancer and need surgery”), or their finances (”You are living beyond your means and must economize”), or their ancestors (”Your grandpa was commandant of an SS extermination camp”). Also, people who hear the truth often have the most irrational reactions.

This phenomenon interests me, and I must admit that it annoys me too. Why don’t we welcome truth when we see or hear it? Why do we go to such elaborate extents to cover truth, or hide from it, or deny it, or reinterpret it?

Before looking a bit more at those thoughts though, I want to be sure that no one reading this tries to pat themselves on the back and say, “Boy, that is silly. I’m glad I don’t react to truth like that.” So…..

Continue Reading 29 comments November 22, 2007

Humor break anyone?

There are always some great discussions going on here and I love them. But just for fun, how about a short break purely for laughs? Y’all contribute your favorites. Make the theme of your contributions religious; Christian, atheist, New Age, whatever, just religious.

Here’s my contribution:

How To Get Rid of Door-To-Door Missionaries

• A chalk outline of a human body on the sidewalk, and a few copies of The Watchtower scattered around.

• My mother (a second-generation atheist) used to say (in a very sweet voice): “I’m sorry, I don’t give a damn about Jesus.” Worked every time. The missionaries just backed off the porch in slack-jawed, bug-eyed disbelief.

• A friend claims that when missionaries knock on her door, her first response is to ask for their address. When they ask why she wants to know, she says it is so she can visit them to push her beliefs. So far, none of them have given their address. It also marks the end of the interview. SLAM!…

Continue Reading 25 comments November 15, 2007

Reasons why I can no longer believe: 3 - Unchanged lives

[This is the last of the series. I have other reasons that wouldn't resonate with many folks, (e.g. issues with the EOC in particular) so I'll leave those lie.]

Changed lives are so often trotted out as testimonies or evidence of the truth of God/Christ/the Gospel. So shouldn’t unchanged lives constitute counter-proof?

Just look at what the Bible says about believers:

- If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away.
- Those who have put on Christ have put off the old (sinful) nature.
- How can you who are in Christ continue to sin?
- You are being made into the likeness of Christ.
- You have been given the mind of Christ.

And that’s the sort of stuff people love to talk about when they preach, give their testimony, counsel others, and so on. But where’s the reality of it to be seen?

Go take a look into any church. You’ll see that believers behave just as badly, and sometimes worse, than non-believers. There’s no God/Christ within them, making them perfect, or making them into His likeness…

Continue Reading 18 comments November 11, 2007

Reasons why I can no longer believe: 2 - God as a ‘no show’

When you look through the Bible, you don’t see God hiding. He’s quite visible in many ways. Here are just a few appearances by God and company: a booming voice from the mountain, a pillar of cloud/fire, sending angels to wipe out armies, sending fire to consume sacrifices (and people), causing earthquakes, choirs of angels, Jesus, voice + blinding light. There are many more. And you read about a fair amount of miracles and theophanies in early Church writings. In fact, when you read the New Testament and very early fathers, visions, miracles, visitations and so forth seemed to be expected.

Pardon me then if I expect that the same God ought to be similarly visible today. But of course He isn’t. The best anyone seems to be able to do is vagaries like, “He lives in my heart”, “I feel His spirit in me”, or “God miraculously fixed my bike.”

Sorry but I can’t live on vagaries and apologies for a no-show God. Nor do centuries old stories carry the day. Like the song says, “Used to be’s don’t count anymore.”

All the apostles needed more than vagaries and promises. They hid in the upper room and were convinced it was all over, until the risen Jesus appeared to them. Thomas wouldn’t believe the other apostles until he could see Jesus…

Continue Reading 21 comments November 8, 2007