Thursday, January 15, 2015

A Year without God = atheist ?

A former Seventh Day Adventist Pastor, Ryan Bell, decided to spend a year without God and found out at the end of it that he no longer believed in God.

Well, of course, coming from that tradition, once doubt creeps in, the ediface crumbles.  He writes,for example,
While science has yet to answer every question about our existence and our place in the universe, it has gone a remarkable way toward that end. I expect there will always be mysteries waiting to be investigated, but the scientific method has served us well. Coming as I have from a Christian tradition that flatly refuses to acknowledge the discoveries of science, my faith has limited my understanding of the world and my pursuit of truth. I cannot live in this way any longer. I feel much more confident leaving questions of our physical world and the cosmos to science. I understand that some Christians can reconcile their faith with the scientific account of our origins, but I see no reason for this approach at this time.
I've argued before that I think the rigidity of the Evangelical tradition is its weakness for just this reason.

Notice how he refers with some disdain to "some Christians"... meaning mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics, who do not deny science.


4 comments:

Brother David said...

Me thinks the pendulum may return to center one day.

Kevin K said...

I am not sure how someone who believes in something, say God, can decide to stop believing in that for a year. It seems like saying I am going to stop loving my wife for a year and then see how I feel about her. This suggests that there wan't much belief to discard.

JCF said...

I had thought he had already begun to doubt, seriously, and his "year without" was just his last-straw bet (ala, "smite me or else")?

Kevin K said...

Seems that way JCF.