QUESTION On my way from there to here.
I was born and raised xtian in the Lutheran Church and also as a Jew from my bio mom's family. The heavier influence was xtian.
My first steps out of the closet oddly began at a Men's retreat in 2007. I just couldn't stand it anymore. I left the group and went for a walk to be by myself. It was then I had an epiphany. All the stories, threats, admonishments, blessings and promises for eternal life, and the obsurdity of it all came crashing down on me.
That moment when you awake from the Matrix. When you stand outside the door of who you once were, the door shut behind you. You can't go back. It's freeing and terrifying. All your friends, your family, your status, your community, all them are still part of the great delusion. You know you have to say goodbye, but you can't bring yourself to leave. Not yet.
So you start trying to find a bridge. Is there a way to be both a critical thinking scientist AND a xtian? Was it all bullshit? All of it? Was there any shred of truth to thousands of years, and generations of believers in a Deity? Surely they couldn't all be wrong, could they?
All scientists are not atheists. Many attribute their understanding of science as reinforcement for faith in their Deity. And I had to find a way to reconcile my science with my xtianity or lose everything and everyone. My entire Community.
So I found a group of fellow scientists. I met Paul Nelson the biologist who debated Dawkins. I found physicists, geologists, chemists, doctors, and all sorts of higher learned individuals... and ... wait for it ... Hugh Ross, PhD. Hugh is an astonomer. And not the amateur kind.
In the end, I came to conclusion that they were all just like me - people who were trying so hard to reconcile the lies of their past with the truth of their science. That's why I'm sharing this link. Because I want to introduce you to the people still stuck in between. The most important thing thess people need to know is that they have someplace to go after they're past their point of no return.
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8 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Your post really touched me deeply - I havent ever had this experience as I was growing up in a godless family and not being exposed to the story. I feel lucky to have escaped although you have been exposed to a learning process I have missed . I find it hard to imagine having believed something and then be caught in the process of grieving the loss and not knowing I really hope that you all find that someplace to go
jacpod
Level 8
Apr 24, 2018
0
It took me twenty years of intense research and other disciplines to reach my decision. When I did a very very heavy suffocating weight lifted. I love the freedom it has given and the peace.
Khmm
Level 5
Feb 17, 2018
2
I used to make up all sorts of excuses to reconcile religion and science and most times I could bullshit my way through an argument but after learning how the king James Bible was written, that was the nail in the coffin for me. The last shred of spirituality/ religion left me
bluefairy
Level 6
Feb 9, 2018
2
Yup.
Waking up from the Matrix dream can be..traumatic in some cases.
birdingnut
Level 8
Feb 9, 2018
1
@ScienceBiker I agree with some of his observations, but not most of his conclusions.
"All scientists are not atheists", is a false statement. You may have meant, "Not all scientists are atheists", which is obviously true.
I wonder why people feel they need to do the mental gymnastics to rationalize faith with science. Yes, all of it is bullshit and they are deluding themselves. It is possible to hold contradictory positions at the same time. I understand that science is true and my faith is important to me as a link with my family, community, or whatever. Trying to combine them together is like mixing oil and water.
shockwaverider
Level 8
Feb 9, 2018
4
@ScienceBiker No 2x4 intended. Welcome over to the dark side.
@ScienceBiker Shockwaverider correctly noted your "All scientists are not atheists" error. For example, atheists are defined as those that do not believe in a god. If "All scientists" are "not" atheists you statement reads: "All scientists do not not (simplified into DO) believe in a god. (don't you just love double negative statements.) When you reach the status of royal academy of science according to a 2013 springeropen study, 92% reject the concept of a god. The real question is why, among the top scientist, you would have 8% that are not decided if there is a god or actually believe in a god.
Whenever this subject is broached, I find myself thinking of Jason Lisle. There we have a true mental contortionist who has taken his PhD to the Answers in Genesis crew and is selling cosmological snake oil for them. An example of this is his stating that the sun is uniquely designed to support life on Earth. He says that Sol is unusual in the galaxy because of its stability. There are manifold problems in just the two comments. First, Sol is a main sequence star and its mass will allow it to continue the fusion process for about 10 billion years. A star with 10 times that sun's mass will last perhaps 20 million years -- substantially shorter life. Red dwarf stars at about half the mass of Sol can hang around for upwards of 80 to 100 billion years. That's a mighty long time.
Roughly 90% of the stars in the Universe are on the main sequence. Main sequence stars are not all as stable as Sol, but a lot of them are, and that is common knowledge to any beginning student of astronomy. Did Lisle study the same material as everyone else? In more extreme mental gymnastics, Lisle proposes that c was different at the time of creation and that it slowed to its current speed over the intervening 6000 years. I'm still waiting for him to publish that little paper somewhere besides AIG house organs.
evidentialist
Level 8
Feb 9, 2018
4
@ScienceBiker -- Yeah. His thing is that it varies depending upon direction and states it's instant in and normal out to justify the biblical account. The guy is incredible to watch for the entertainment value. The physicist's standup comedian. Then when one realizes that a lot of people buy this crap in all its glory, it becomes extremely sad and deeply disturbing.
I honestly believe they cannot be helped. If they choose to help themselves, I'll be here, but you won't find me holding my breath. People believe what they choose to believe. And when they are determined to justify those beliefs, they will. It's in our nature.
Nottheonlyone
Level 7
Feb 9, 2018
2
I made it out, too, but it was my journey, not someone else's convincing that got me here.
I'm just hanging out over here, enjoying respiration!
Enjoy being online again!
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