- Sep 2, 2017
- 7
- 13
- 35
- Country
- United States
- Faith
- Atheist
- Marital Status
- In Relationship
I'll try to keep it reasonably brief, since I know people don't like reading a wall of text. I was raised protestant Christian, and invited Jesus into my heart during Bible camp at age 9. I was part of a Christian group in my high school at age 14. Around age 16, I started to doubt. There was no event that triggered this; I just finally started thinking for myself, which is something I realized I'd never done previously. By 17 or 18, I decided that not only was there reason to doubt, but there was actually no verifiable evidence that God existed. Since then, much to the disappointment of my parents, I've called myself an atheist. I'm now 29.
Over the years, I've become far and far less "militant", for lack of a better word. A decade ago, I would've been the angry atheist poster on various forums, writing mean and belittling posts about Christians (or religions in general) and accusing people that raised their children in their beliefs as brainwashers. As each year went on, I more or less settled into an uneasy peace with religion, acknowledging that it was never going away, and that it was not all bad, and that it was as with any other group -- both good and bad people exist within Christianity, and both good and bad things have been done in its name.
So, without going into much more detail, long story short is that my anger towards Christianity as a whole is pretty much gone, but I still do not believe any of it. I don't believe in any sort of supernatural phenomena; I have an undergraduate degree in biology and a doctorate level degree in a health care profession; I've taken courses regarding analyzing data and what constitutes "verifiable, objective evidence" of something, and nothing I've heard regarding God seems to fit.
Most people that "know" God exists tell me this is so because of personal experience. Personal experience is certainly not objective, verifiable evidence. They may think they have experienced God, but they cannot possibly know this for a fact. I remember reading a study a while back about how scientists were stimulating different areas of the brain in patients and they found a particular area that, when stimulated, made the person think they were experiencing God's presence. How does everyone who has had an alleged personal experience know what it is that they were experiencing?
I don't know....I just would very much like to believe in God and come back to Christianity, but I can't truly believe something in my heart if I think there is no proof that God is real. I have a very strong sense of right and wrong and I always have, and I more or less live my life the way the Bible teaches, just because most of it resonates with me and the lessons I learned when I was a kid have stuck with me, I suppose. But I can't get past this huge hurdle, which is believing in something supernatural. I believe that everything has a logical, rational, scientific explanation -- we just may not know it yet.
Over the years, I've become far and far less "militant", for lack of a better word. A decade ago, I would've been the angry atheist poster on various forums, writing mean and belittling posts about Christians (or religions in general) and accusing people that raised their children in their beliefs as brainwashers. As each year went on, I more or less settled into an uneasy peace with religion, acknowledging that it was never going away, and that it was not all bad, and that it was as with any other group -- both good and bad people exist within Christianity, and both good and bad things have been done in its name.
So, without going into much more detail, long story short is that my anger towards Christianity as a whole is pretty much gone, but I still do not believe any of it. I don't believe in any sort of supernatural phenomena; I have an undergraduate degree in biology and a doctorate level degree in a health care profession; I've taken courses regarding analyzing data and what constitutes "verifiable, objective evidence" of something, and nothing I've heard regarding God seems to fit.
Most people that "know" God exists tell me this is so because of personal experience. Personal experience is certainly not objective, verifiable evidence. They may think they have experienced God, but they cannot possibly know this for a fact. I remember reading a study a while back about how scientists were stimulating different areas of the brain in patients and they found a particular area that, when stimulated, made the person think they were experiencing God's presence. How does everyone who has had an alleged personal experience know what it is that they were experiencing?
I don't know....I just would very much like to believe in God and come back to Christianity, but I can't truly believe something in my heart if I think there is no proof that God is real. I have a very strong sense of right and wrong and I always have, and I more or less live my life the way the Bible teaches, just because most of it resonates with me and the lessons I learned when I was a kid have stuck with me, I suppose. But I can't get past this huge hurdle, which is believing in something supernatural. I believe that everything has a logical, rational, scientific explanation -- we just may not know it yet.