I've found that in the mere two months that I've been an atheist, my worldview has been seriously altered (surprise!). Back when I was a Christian I used to think that atheists lived in this Alice in Wonderland-esque state of mind, seeing the world upside-down and backwards and generally ignoring all of the signs that blatantly pointed to god.
Well, now that I'm an atheist firmly grounded in reality, I've come to realize that Christians are the ones with skewed perception... especially when it comes to doubt.
I've struggled with doubt all my life. In my Christian days, I swore up and down that doubt was Satan's way of digging his claws into my otherwise pious and faithful mind. People say that the voice of god is a small, still voice... well, in my case, God was loud and raucous and a bit of an attention hog, and reason was the small, still voice.
"There's no way God is real." The voice would say quietly in the middle of worship or prayer, and I'd brush it off almost immediately. This went on for a year and half into my "serious Christian phase," until finally I could ignore the voice of reason no longer. I finally realized that my doubts weren't Satan, they were... natural human curiosity.
I wrestled with the church's ignorance of the "tough" questions. Does God exist? Did he create the universe? These are questions the church should be dying to address! What else is going to bring atheists to our side?
I realized soon enough that the church ignored these questions because the answers are remarkably in favor of atheism. Then I started doing the research that eventually led me to become an atheist.
Doubt is a great thing. Galileo doubted that the earth was the center of the universe. Darwin doubted the earth was "intelligently designed." These are just two of the most obvious examples, but they make my point: doubt leads to discovery. Question everything. Don't be satisfied by half-answers or avoidance of the question (which the church is notorious for).
"Let the human mind loose. It must be loose. It will be loose. Superstition and dogmatism cannot confine it." -- John Adams
That's a great post.
ReplyDeleteQuestion with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
Christian-Conservatives love to paint our founding fathers as Christian saints and conservative heroes, but they were deists who were skeptical of much in religion. They promote that of course because they never doubt anything they want to be true.
Doubt is what drives us to find answers. Without the willingness to admit our doubts about the way things seemed to be, we would never have discovered the way things actually are.
ReplyDeleteGood post ...