Tag Archives: hell

Love and Compulsion

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Finding Truth

I’m currently reading a book where the author said that God remains hidden from us today so that we may freely choose to love him or not. You can’t generate love through compulsion, he argued. And he’s right about that. As an illustration, he gave Kierkegaard’s story about a king in disguise:

Once upon a time, there was a king who longed to marry. One day, as he was riding through his kingdom, he happened to see a very beautiful young lady in a poorer section of the kingdom. He was struck by her beauty, so he found reasons to travel through there more often, even getting the chance to speak to her on occasion. As time went by, he realized he wanted to pursue a relationship with the woman, but how should he go about it?

As king, he could have her brought to the palace so that he…

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Is There Any Lingering Theist In Me Five Years Later?

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It’s been almost five years since I very suddenly lost my faith and three years since I started identifying as an atheist. When I look back it amazes me that after twenty years of being an extremely sincere and genuine Christian that within a few years my brain would see all those things that I believed in so dearly as pure fable. And all the Christians can save their, ‘she wasn’t a true Christian’ nonsense. I absolutely was.

But I was pondering whether I ever have doubts about my atheism. Do I ever wonder if there is a god?  Does that question ever factor into my life at all anymore? I’m not completely closed to changing my mind about things. I value reality above all else. If some evidence convinced me that my current take on reality was wrong I’d be willing to shift my thinking. It’s reality after all! Not much point sticking my head in the sand about reality!

But even with that taken into consideration, no, the god question never factors into my thinking anymore. It would almost be like asking someone if they spend time wondering if Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is true and how that might impact their life. It just doesn’t factor in at all. And I’m not saying this to convince anyone of anything. I just find it interesting that once my brain realized that what is in front of me is reality, I just settled in to building my life around that and all the god stuff drifted away never to be seen or heard from again.

A big part of me can’t believe that just a short time ago I believed all that stuff. Was I a different person then? How could I have thought that was all true when now it seems so ridiculous and awful? The changes in my thinking have been so drastic, and looking at it impartially, that fascinates me! I guess once you choose a way of looking at the world and take on its methods of discerning truth, everything else follows. A Christian worldview told me a story and then told me that the Bible and prayer and visions were the way to discover truth (and threw in the threat of hell to make sure I didn’t doubt any of that). But once I pulled away from that and started demanding proof for the things people were telling me about the world, everything changed. Evidence is an amazing filter. Once I applied it my world changed – and for the better.

What Do Atheists Believe?

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I really enjoyed this speech by Todd Stiefel at the Reason Rally. It’s worth 11 minutes of your time and you may even get inspired!

via io9

Quote #36

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The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Infidel

via Atheist Quotes on Facebook

Newsflash: My Kids Like to Eat Candy on Halloween

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It never fails that on Halloween a few people throw religious tracts in with the candy they are handing out.  Don’t worry – I’m not offended at all.  Heck – you’re giving my kids free candy – who am I to complain?

Last year hubby and I tried to grab them before the kids did but this year I didn’t make such a big effort and missed a couple.  Funny thing.  Found them on the couch later – I’m quite sure they were left unread by my kids who were intent on attaining a sugar high experienced at a level that has never been reached by any human being before. Huh – guess kids like to eat candy Halloween night instead of reading.  Go figure.

But it got me to thinking what I would say to my little guys if they actually read every word in that tract.  Here’s how it would go:

All those things that they seem so sure about in that tract, how do they know any of it?

They say it says all this in the Bible.

How would the writers of the Bible know any of those things are true?

They say God talked to them.

Do they have any way of proving God spoke to them or are we just supposed to take their word for that?  They are making some pretty huge claims with major consequences so you should expect that they can back that up with reasonable proof.

No – they can’t back it up.  God’s invisible and they don’t have any proof that he talked to them.

Well – what if you asked a scientist to back up what they are saying.  Can they show you how they arrived at their answer?

Yes. They spend a lot of time showing how they arrived at their conclusion.

Well – make that the focus when anyone tells you they know something about the world (or the afterlife).  If you can trust the method they used to get their answer then you can at least tentatively trust what they say – unless evidence comes along later to show that their initial conclusion was mistaken.  And if they are after truth, then they will correct any mistakes that are made – whether it’s in the answers or the methodology itself. If they don’t have a reasonable method of discovering truth that involves a method you can trust then you don’t need to take any of their answers seriously. And in the case of religion many people believe it out of fear of punishment and you should never trust an argument that tries to use fear to convince you of something.  Fear won’t get you to the right answer, only a desire to understand the world as it is will.

Ok – mom.  Can I go eat more candy now?

Sure kid – I’ll see you on the other side of the sugar coma!

I’m sure there might be more to the conversation and I have had more in-depth conversations with my older daughter, but that’s where I would start.

But it also got me to thinking about one of my first doubts as a Christian (way before my deconversion).  I wondered why God used Christians to spread his message if everyone’s eternal destinies were on the line. Christians screw up all the time and have no trouble admitting that. We’re sinners after all.  And sharing the gospel was one thing we often messed up on.  Even the people who made a point to be really good at it would still fail to share the gospel with people.  And that doesn’t even take into account all the people that we just wouldn’t rub shoulders with in the first place. So if the most important decision of people’s lives is on the line – why would God use a method that is sure to fail in most instances?

Wait!  I know the answer! I was a fundy Christian for 20 years after all.  God knows who will be open to the gospel and will guide us to those people, so no worries.  God’s in control after all, not us.  Well – then you need to question your God’s wonderful plan for all those people who will burn eternally.  His omnipotence seems to have failed Him. I know, I know .. we have freewill.  Here’s a post I have up about freewill if you want to explore that topic more.

I thought of all this as I looked at the tract from my kids’ Halloween candy as it lay unopened and unread on my living room couch.  Such a pitiful way for an omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving God to spread his message.  Good thing it’s not true and it’s just a sad little piece of paper that got tossed aside as my kids gorged on candy. I feel bad for the person who put it in there.  They thought eternal souls were on the line as they placed that in there.  They thought they might be saving some little child from burning in an eternal torture chamber. I feel bad that they are trapped in a religion that sees the world this way.  The guilt, the fear, the tears over lost souls.  I wish I could free them from that prison. And again I’m reminded why my blog is here.  Not to win a philosophical battle but because I want to be here for people who can see life outside the prison of religion but need to know that others have broken free ahead of them and are enjoying the sunshine and fresh air outside the bars.