My name is Mitchell McKain and I am surprised that username was taken. This was the hardest forum to register for of any I have been in.
I asked Jesus into my life to save me from myself when I was in high school. But I grew up in an extremely liberal family and so I did not have a clear idea what it is that I had done and I did not have guidance from a proper Christian community for a very long time.
Growing up in Utah, it should not be surprising that I studied with the Mormons as well as the Jehova Witnesses but neither really offered to me what attracted be to Jesus in the first place.
I studied a little philosophy and liked both existentialism and eastern mysticism. And then I met the moonies and was member of that group for about ten years. I was married in it and I am still married to it. It was during three years at their seminary (whose teachers are from many different faiths) that I began to take teachings of Paul in the Bible more seriously. But it was not until around eight years ago after being the father of two boys and working on my masters degree in physics that I finally had enough of the moonies and looked for a more traditional Christian church.
Thus I started going to Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake. I respected their very serious study of the Bible and their desire to leave behind some of the cultural baggage of traditional Christianity.
So here I am with a respect for both fundamentalism and the roots of liberal protestantism in the 17th century. However despite my respect for fundamentalism I can hardly call myself a fundamentalist because my commitment to science, love of all types of religion and philosophy, and because my opinions stray from the Bible too often.
I call myself a minimalist anti-gnostic born again Christian. Born again Christian means that I have asked Jesus into my life, asking him to take up the shreds of integrity and goodness, that were left of living my life my own way, and to save me and transform me. And so I placed my salvation in the hands of God. I am anti-gnostic because I do not believe that any knowledge or belief can save a person any more than works. Too many Christians think that they are saved by their belief in Jesus, under impression that they have what it takes to hold God to a promise they see in the Bible. I am minimalist because although I love, respect and study the Bible, I do not pretend that I really know what it means. Minimalist means that although I have many opinions, I hesitate to call them knowlege and I certainly put no faith in them for my salvation.
I feel called to heal the breach between science and christianity particularly on the topic of evolution. So I mostly post in science forums explaining science to the nonscientist while reminding the science-lovers (mainly atheists) of the limits of science, and explaining Christianity to the non-Christians while reminding the Christians of the limits of Christianity/religion.
I am an opponent of Intellegent Design because I believe that only dead things can be designed. I believe that God created the universe as a cradle of life which he could nuture and raise up. I believe that as a creator of life God should be compared to a farmer, shepherd or parent rather than a watchmaker.
Oh and I have often upheld the some version of the eccumenical councils as I have remembered them which I suppose was mostly just that Jesus was fully man and fully God. So the reminder on the nicean creed has given me something to think about. Also I had to look up the controversial doctines, but none of them describe me except Open Theism. I have never believed in predestination.
I asked Jesus into my life to save me from myself when I was in high school. But I grew up in an extremely liberal family and so I did not have a clear idea what it is that I had done and I did not have guidance from a proper Christian community for a very long time.
Growing up in Utah, it should not be surprising that I studied with the Mormons as well as the Jehova Witnesses but neither really offered to me what attracted be to Jesus in the first place.
I studied a little philosophy and liked both existentialism and eastern mysticism. And then I met the moonies and was member of that group for about ten years. I was married in it and I am still married to it. It was during three years at their seminary (whose teachers are from many different faiths) that I began to take teachings of Paul in the Bible more seriously. But it was not until around eight years ago after being the father of two boys and working on my masters degree in physics that I finally had enough of the moonies and looked for a more traditional Christian church.
Thus I started going to Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake. I respected their very serious study of the Bible and their desire to leave behind some of the cultural baggage of traditional Christianity.
So here I am with a respect for both fundamentalism and the roots of liberal protestantism in the 17th century. However despite my respect for fundamentalism I can hardly call myself a fundamentalist because my commitment to science, love of all types of religion and philosophy, and because my opinions stray from the Bible too often.
I call myself a minimalist anti-gnostic born again Christian. Born again Christian means that I have asked Jesus into my life, asking him to take up the shreds of integrity and goodness, that were left of living my life my own way, and to save me and transform me. And so I placed my salvation in the hands of God. I am anti-gnostic because I do not believe that any knowledge or belief can save a person any more than works. Too many Christians think that they are saved by their belief in Jesus, under impression that they have what it takes to hold God to a promise they see in the Bible. I am minimalist because although I love, respect and study the Bible, I do not pretend that I really know what it means. Minimalist means that although I have many opinions, I hesitate to call them knowlege and I certainly put no faith in them for my salvation.
I feel called to heal the breach between science and christianity particularly on the topic of evolution. So I mostly post in science forums explaining science to the nonscientist while reminding the science-lovers (mainly atheists) of the limits of science, and explaining Christianity to the non-Christians while reminding the Christians of the limits of Christianity/religion.
I am an opponent of Intellegent Design because I believe that only dead things can be designed. I believe that God created the universe as a cradle of life which he could nuture and raise up. I believe that as a creator of life God should be compared to a farmer, shepherd or parent rather than a watchmaker.
Oh and I have often upheld the some version of the eccumenical councils as I have remembered them which I suppose was mostly just that Jesus was fully man and fully God. So the reminder on the nicean creed has given me something to think about. Also I had to look up the controversial doctines, but none of them describe me except Open Theism. I have never believed in predestination.
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