What do you do when you don't believe any more?

OK, so I'm 40 years old. I was a devout Christian (short-term missionary, lay leader, ...) for half a lifetime.

Then, in pursuit of truth and in hope of confirmation of my faith, I went out in this intense reading spree over the last several years.

I read everything I could find time for on cosmology, physics, abiogenesis, natural history, evolutionary biology, linguistics, history, economics, Biblical scholarship, and apologetics. Probably three books a months for four years.

Last autumn I reached a tipping point. Where prior I had faith that could move mountains, it just couldn't move this mountain of evidence.

This isn't some lightly taken whim. And it's not based upon some sort of I-got-my-feelings hurt experience with some church, some group of Christians, or a church.

It has been rationally and intellectually driven. It has been honest.

After my investigation of the evidence (which shamefully I had never done prior), I am no longer convinced in the divine inspiration of the 66 canon Protestant New Testament. I am no longer convinced in the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth.

I no longer am willing to believe something without supporting evidence.

So I guess my question is, what do you do with stuff you don't have evidence for? How can you believe something as truth when it just as easily (perhaps even moreso per Occam's Razor) have been just made up a really long time again and incrementally added to and adjusted to suit the times at hand?

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling… ~ Philippians 2:12

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. ~ 2 Timothy 4:3

Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, ~ Proverbs 3:13

Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, [a] get understanding. ~ Proverbs 4:7

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. ~ Proverbs 4:23

Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. ~ Hebrews 13:9a

"How long will you simple ones [a] love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge? ~ Proverbs 1:22

A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions. ~ Proverbs 18:2

"Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd, ~ Exodus 23:2a

At the risk of irritating you rather than being of help, I would like to ask some clarification questions, please.

Is the question "what do you do with stuff you don't have evidence for?" or "what do you do with stuff you don't have proof for? I get the impression you may be looking for proof as you have plenty of evidence for and against your beliefs.

The statement "I am no longer convinced in the divine inspiration of the 66 canon Protestant New Testament."
confuses me. Does this mean that the Protestant New Testament is no divinely inspired compared to the Catholic or Greek Bibles?

Or does this mean that all Christian Bibles are not divinely inspired?

What definition is being applied to the phrase "divinely inspired"?

The statement "I am no longer convinced in the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth." also confuses me (I confuse easliy as you can tell ). What is meant by the word "divinity"?

Sorry for the questions, but for a discussion of this depth to be meaningful, a clear understanding of terms is important to be certain we are all understanding each other as clearly as possible.

OCG, thanks for the interest.



Actually proof is not what I'm looking for. Outside of mathematics one can't really prove anything. For instance, there I can't really "prove" the theory of gravity.

Evidence is a much better word. There's plenty of evidence for gravity.

What do I do with stuff I do have evidence for? Generally take heed. Like take care not to trip and fall.

What do I do with stuff I don't have evidence for? Maybe disregard but also keep a skeptical open eye to. I don't have evidence that there are fairies in the garden. While I do seriously doubt, I suppose that always is a possibility (albeit with a very low probability from what I've observed).

I suppose this is all generally in line with how all of us learn.



Rather than "divinely inspired," perhaps I simply should have said attributable to anything other than human imagination.

That kind of fills it in for the different canons too.



Err, uhh. There's the third alternative category of answer.

1. All Christian Bibles are inspired.
2. All Christian Bibles are not inspired.

Albeit those beg which Bibles (Jewish, Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental, LDS, ...) and whether or not they are equally and unequally inspired and what "inspired" exactly means, I'll skipp those issues for the moment.

The third category of answers would be.

3. I do not have sufficient evidence to answer the question.

That said, the preponderance of evidence indicates each can be fully attributed to human authorship and imagination.

Interesting. Let's presume that the manuscripts which make up the Bible (Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, etc.) can be attributed to human authorship and imagination. At the risk of sounding like someone ignoring the obvious, how would that affect your faith?

Yeah, I should have just said it was all "made up."

Anyhow, "definitions" are a bit indicative.

Generally "definitions" are tied to discussions about concepts, things that exist principally in our human minds.

On the other hand, "descriptions" are generally tied to things that really exist.

Given I'm the one approaching absolute materialism, I'll return it to you and ask how do you describe divine inspiration?

I would describe divine inspiration as it relates to the Bible as "God breathed". That is to say that God influenced the writer in their choice of words whether the writer knew it or not. How do you describe divine inspiration?

Err, uhh, wasn't this what the Council of Nicaea was about? Or are we back to the Arian controversy?

I don't know. How did you understand the divinity of Jesus the Christ prior to this research? How do you understand the divinity of Jesus the Christ now?

No worries. Hope these responses can help you answer my OP.

Thanks.

Interesting. Let's presume that the manuscripts which make up the Bible (Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, etc.) can be attributed to human authorship and imagination. At the risk of sounding like someone ignoring the obvious, how would that affect your faith?

I would describe divine inspiration as it relates to the Bible as "God breathed". That is to say that God influenced the writer in their choice of words whether the writer knew it or not. How do you describe divine inspiration?

I don't know. How did you understand the divinity of Jesus the Christ prior to this research? How do you understand the divinity of Jesus the Christ now?

Aside from the replies about in green font, please know that I refuse to tell you what you should believe.

That is insulting to you and accomplishes nothing.

Thank you for your patience. The situation you describe reminds me of Jacob's wrestling match with God in Genesis. Jacob was renamed "Israel" which to my understanding means "One who wrestles with God". Perhaps each of us is an "Israel" as we attempt to explain our faith based on new evidence / information.

As always,

OldChurchGuy

After my investigation of the evidence (which shamefully I had never done prior), I am no longer convinced in the divine inspiration of the 66 canon Protestant New Testament. I am no longer convinced in the divinity of Jesus of Nazareth.

I no longer am willing to believe something without supporting evidence.

What would you consider supporting evidence? How do you view miracles?

Either you understand (and have a naturalistic explanation to) its causation or you don't. If there's such an explanation, it is based upon evidence.

If you don't have an explanation it is then either because:

a) either we as 21st century humans or you individually just don't understand the causation, or
b) something magical or otherwise supernatural just occured breaking the laws of nature.

Now here's the tricky part. There no way, based upon evidence, to assess the difference between a and b.

How would you consider these situations?

A person prays for another person's healing and actually feels the bones move beneath their hand while they are praying. There was no bone movement prior to the praying.

A person who was blind sees for the first time when he was prayed for.

A child who was never able to walk starts walking when the mother brought her child to be prayed for.

These situations I am referring to here are ones where something immediate and drastic happened when a person was prayed for and not simply events that happened that were unexplainable to medical science.

Is your argument based upon that it is "immediate and drastic?" (Which should be testable per the scientific method. And I also wonder if thus all "immediate and drastic" changes would be like attributable to supernatural cause.)

Or that it is "unexplainable to medical science?" (Which appears to be an appeal to an Argument from Ignorance.)

Furthermore, where is your evidence it would have been attributable to El vs. Yahweh vs. Allah vs. Jesus vs. Ganesh vs. crystals, etc.