Post by indigolink on Jan 3, 2012 1:53:35 GMT -5
Hi all,
Just thought I'd give a proper introduction. I am an ex-fundamentalist-christian, who has recently liberated myself from that belief system.
I consider myself an intellectually honest person, one who simply wants the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth with respect to our origins, regardless of how appealing or unappealing that truth is - naturally then I decided that if I'm going to live my entire life according to a certain belief system, I want to make sure that that belief system is actually true. And I came to the conclusion that there is simply no way to reconcile all of the hundreds of internal contradictions, scientific errors, failed prophecies, and ethical issues in the Bible without being intellectually dishonest with oneself, or figuring out clever ways to rationalize them away like most apologetic sites do.
Contradictions such as:
2 Kings 8:26
Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.
2 Chronicles 22:2
Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.
are irreconcilable to an intellectually honest person. Then there are things like the prophecy in Ezekial predicting the permenant destruction of the city of Tyre, even though it is a flourishing city today which can be viewed on Google Maps. Then one has to beleive the notion that the earth is older than the sun and stars, that the "sun stood still" to prolong a day (even though days are due to the rotation of the earth), or that a mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world... you get the idea. When I first discovered that the Bible is not the "inerrant Word of God" as inerrantists claim, that led me to more inquiry.
For someone raised their whole life to believe that a certain religion is all literally true, it's a very hard pill to swallow. Those of you who were raised to use your reason and intellect to determine your beliefs, and who were taught to continuously seek truth through inquiry, are lucky, because I can tell you first hand that those who weren't raised that way, it is very, very hard to question their beliefs.
Of course, naturally I wanted to know what is true, if the Bible isn't. To me, Deism seems to be the most rational belief system; although I am by no means trying to proselytize that here, as I know most of you probably do not agree with it.
So... just wondering, is there anyone else here who is a former fundamentalist christian who has left that belief system after honest inquiry?
Just thought I'd give a proper introduction. I am an ex-fundamentalist-christian, who has recently liberated myself from that belief system.
I consider myself an intellectually honest person, one who simply wants the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth with respect to our origins, regardless of how appealing or unappealing that truth is - naturally then I decided that if I'm going to live my entire life according to a certain belief system, I want to make sure that that belief system is actually true. And I came to the conclusion that there is simply no way to reconcile all of the hundreds of internal contradictions, scientific errors, failed prophecies, and ethical issues in the Bible without being intellectually dishonest with oneself, or figuring out clever ways to rationalize them away like most apologetic sites do.
Contradictions such as:
2 Kings 8:26
Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.
2 Chronicles 22:2
Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign.
are irreconcilable to an intellectually honest person. Then there are things like the prophecy in Ezekial predicting the permenant destruction of the city of Tyre, even though it is a flourishing city today which can be viewed on Google Maps. Then one has to beleive the notion that the earth is older than the sun and stars, that the "sun stood still" to prolong a day (even though days are due to the rotation of the earth), or that a mustard seed is the smallest seed in the world... you get the idea. When I first discovered that the Bible is not the "inerrant Word of God" as inerrantists claim, that led me to more inquiry.
For someone raised their whole life to believe that a certain religion is all literally true, it's a very hard pill to swallow. Those of you who were raised to use your reason and intellect to determine your beliefs, and who were taught to continuously seek truth through inquiry, are lucky, because I can tell you first hand that those who weren't raised that way, it is very, very hard to question their beliefs.
Of course, naturally I wanted to know what is true, if the Bible isn't. To me, Deism seems to be the most rational belief system; although I am by no means trying to proselytize that here, as I know most of you probably do not agree with it.
So... just wondering, is there anyone else here who is a former fundamentalist christian who has left that belief system after honest inquiry?