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I used to be an Atheist

By Franklyn Gallup of BibleFree.org

I was raised as a Lutheran. When I say, "I used to be an Atheist" I am referring to the day I was born. I came into this world with no beliefs in anything except possibly that I believed being born wasn't something I wanted to try again.

I think most people who are honest with themselves would agree that they too had no beliefs when they were born.

Everything that you currently believe or don't believe is the result of learning based on personal experience or circumstantial evidence.

For example, probably one of the first things you came to believe is that when you were hungry milk would satisfy that hunger. You came to believe that if you cried loud enough you would get milk or a diaper change. Getting the milk or diaper change reinforced that belief.

You came to believe that your mother was pretty awesome or not. These are examples of things you came to believe from personal experience.

You probably soon started to believe that if you tried to stand up you would fall down and you came to believe falling wasn't a good thing.

It wasn't long before you started to use circumstantial evidence to expand your beliefs. You saw everyone else walking around and came to believe you could walk too and not fall down. Using circumstantial evidence your beliefs started to grow quite quickly.

Some of the things you started to believe were wrong conclusions because you incorrectly understood the circumstantial evidence and personal experiences you used to form those beliefs.

You ended up changing some of those incorrect beliefs when other circumstantial evidence or personal experience disproved the belief. Other incorrect beliefs you actually reinforced by repetition so you got to a point where you forgot how you came to that belief.

It wasn't long before you started to expand into religious beliefs using this methodology. For example, many people believe that the Bible is God Inspired and without error.

The circumstantial evidence used to come to this conclusion is "everybody I know believes it is so it must be". This I call belief by consensus. By reinforcing this belief over and over again one tends to forget WHY one believes this or that. If you consider the fact that everyone prior to 1400 AD believed the world was flat you can see consensus evidence may not be as valid as it first appears. Obviously, this was a wrong conclusion based on faulty consensus reasoning.

Many people suffer from what I like to think of as the Emperor's clothes syndrome. Deep down they KNOW that they don't believe this part of religious doctrine or another part but they outwardly express that they do believe it just to fit in. In fact many people self indoctrinate themselves into believing something that was based on faulty evidence.

I am currently going through a program called Alpha.org I look for evidence anywhere I can find it to evaluate and reevaluate my current beliefs.

I have been going over some of my beliefs lately to check if the evidence I used to come to that belief was sound or faulty. These are some of the conclusions I have come to:

Everyone is personally accountable for what ever beliefs they have come to. Each person is accountable for his or her belief in their personal relationship they have with God or that they don't have with God.

By this I mean I don't believe that all the Methodists will go to heaven and all the Assembly of God people will not. I don't believe in corporate salvation. If you belong to this church or that church will not make the difference. I believe the personal relationship makes the difference regardless of what church you go to or if you don't go to church at all.

I have a problem with denominations anyway. I see it as de-stroy, de-nounce, de-name... de-nomination. Taking the name of Jesus out of my beliefs is counterproductive. Again that is my personal belief.

With that said please don't feel that I am saying you have to believe what I believe. I am saying you are accountable for what you believe or don't believe even if everyone else disagrees with you.

The important thing is that you come to understand what it is you personally believe or don't believe and Why.

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The osmotic-like process of acquiring knowledge is something that cannot be controlled - it just happens.

It is said that the human brain cannot forget anything that it ever experiences and there is much evidence to suggest that this is possibly true.

When it comes to religion one of the most fascinating aspects is that a religious belief, constantly reinforced, becomes less of a belief and more of a personality trait (faith).

I have a very basic belief but am able to interrogate it at all times. I have never had much doubt that some of what is written in the Bible is the equivalent of the tracts and pamphlets issued by many churches and religious organisations today.

If you compare 'writing' with 'the internet', writing, at the time the religious scrolls were made, was the new technology. It was the latest, greatest way to get your message across and give additional weight to your message. If you look at some of the messages you get on the internet, particularly this fantastical fairy story called 'The Promise' you can see how new technology can be used to warp ideas and create gormless adherents.

I believe that the fascination of the Bible is not what is contained within it but what has been omitted from it. We know that some books are missing because the Vatican (for one) does not deny that they have been put to one side in their own archives - only available to specially selected priests.

Very insightful comment. I hadn't considered gaining knowledge by osmosis in my Intel. That obviously happens as well often without our consciously thinking about it.

I agree with you on the omission question. I have been examining the introduction of Luke and found some very interesting clues.

Luke 1 (New International Version)

Luke 1
Introduction
1Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

I have the words I am examining in bold above.

1. Many? How many is many and where are they in the New Testament?

2. handed down to us. Hearsay?

3. carefully investigated everything If this is inspired
why did Luke have to investigate anything?

4.it seemed good also to me to write So it was Luke's idea to write this and not God's idea?

Everything has a designer and creator and when you look at this magnificent Universe, Planet Earth, the Human Brain and its living creatures it's quite evident that God is magnificent.

Since God created Humans, it would be logical that he would give us an instruction book, such as the Bible, to give us proper guidance due to our ignorance. Unfortunately we keep ignoring his instructions which has led to the existing poor management of our Earth.

I found your comment quite interesting. I started thinking about the Bible as an instruction manual.

Is it possible God saw the instruction manual wasn't working as well as planned and he decided to send out a "Company Rep" to explain it?

I agree pretty much with what you say. My experience and perceptions lead me to believe in God. The bible and churches don't. The influence of Man (not a gender in this case) distorts these things, they do afterall have their own desires, motivations, and so forth. The only annoying part is when such flawed devices are used to judge others, rather than leaving that to God himself.

The churches seem to skip over Matthew 7: 1-2. I don't judge anyone.

“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
Jack Handey

I have never seen a church big enough to apply this.

A wise friend once said, "Our mind justifies what our heart has chosen." That's always made me a bit nervous, because I like to think I'm a rational person who has arrived at his beliefs rationally. I was raised a Southern Baptist, and I belong to an SBC church. But I've studied other faiths and still think my denomination is correct about most things.

I have visited many Baptist churches and always come away with a thought or concept I hadn't considered yet.

I was amused at one sermon where the pastor was talking about how many different kinds of Baptist Churches there are.

It is God, not religion that matters. It's hard to interpret the Old Testament of the Bible. It does have history, but it was also written in a language that could be understood by people at that time. These people, like you said, believed the earth was flat. They didn't know what earthquakes were or where they came from. Same for volcanoes, lightning, where the sun went at night, why the moon changed shape, where the wind came from, or the tides, etc etc etc...

But now we do know where all of these things came from. Does it make Bible less relevant? I don't think so.

But one can't just look at the Bible and use it to try and understand God. God is God and we are not. In the end, it does boil down to faith -- faith in God and not what man says about God.

I have come to the conclusion that if we spent less time trying to figure out how we can make God fit our plans and focused instead on how we can change ourselves to fit His plans the world would be a much better place.

I have gone to church most of my life and I believe in most of the things that are said but what I have a problem with is the books of the bible were written in a different language (not English) and when words are translated from one language to another they don't always have the same meaning.

Some words we use today don't have the same meaning as they did 10 years ago so how do I believe that everything that is written is correct and how God meant it?

Sounds like an interesting read. I agree English is one of the worst languages for the Bible. Two people can read the same words and have different ideas about what those words mean. Hebrew and Greek are much more precise languages.

I agree and I listen and consider why people are on the path they are on and consider their reasons for why they are on that path to consider the validity of their reasoning for navigating my own path.

Well, you have certainly brought a little conversation to light here but am I the only one who is dismayed by the simple acceptance that the Bible represents the word of God?

The God of the Old Testaments I can understand. He is violent, vain and insists upon being worshipped and receiving sacrifices.

Did He, perhaps, feel that he was going the wrong way about bending us to His will? Did He decide that the whip hadn't worked so maybe the carrot was a viable proposition?

Or, did He think back to His mistake with the dinosaurs and decide that twice wrong really did not make a right and that He would be better off simply leaving man-kind to stew in its' own juice while He went off somewhere else and started again with a clean slate?

It would be really nice to fit ourselves into God's plans but, unfortunately, He left no details of what His plan is - only the ten commandments.

I'm afraid the lack of sophistication and the necessity to reduce everything to terms that could be understood by the average illiterate villager of Jesus' day impacted greatly upon what His message is or was.

theoldcoot Apr 16, 2010 14:46

excellent intel and I agree, you are accountable for what you believe and dont believe in. I say it does not matter what path you choose, where you come from or how you get there, but you develop your own personal relationship with God in a way that suits you.

You summed up what my Intel is actually about very nicely. Thank you! I love the discussion and am amused a little by the G - ads that are showing up on this Intel.

Thank you for sharing this comment generating intel, Franklyn. I believe that if we try to live a good life, we just might be able to rest in peace. There are no guarantees, but we can hope.
Best to you.
Frederick

No guarantee, no return policy, nothing down and you set the interest rate. I think that makes the human experience pretty unique.

Many of the "stories" in the Old Testament are allegorical and point us towards the New Testament. For example, the flood and the ark are illustrative of what we deserved because of our sin and the ark God would provide for us in the person of Jesus.

I think people err in thinking of God as some kind of monster who kills us for sport and sometimes cuts off limbs to teach us a lesson. If an earthly acted like some accuse God as our Heavenly Father of acting, they would be jailed.

I have come to believe a simple philosophy: God is good and Satan is bad. He gave us Jesus to show His true nature.

I have yet to find and Intel with a perfect 5 stars

Very insightful. More people today believe in evolution and when you die you die. I was raised on believing in god. But I have mixed feelings.

Thank you. I think having mixed feeling is a lot better than having no feelings.

Great, great intel and wonderful conversation from all!
I love the photo and being a Grandma, I would agree... my grandsons love Stuart Little as well! Look forward to reading more from you!

I took that picture while we took the grandkids to Chuckie Cheese's

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