I have a response letter to a pastor of my wife's family that I would like to hear your thoughts on... atheism

Alright, here it is. I have not sent it yet. Please fact check me if necessary. The dates were tough to find...

I have some questions and comments in regards to our interactions this past week-- from our night at ____ and within the walls of your church.

The comments and questions that I have are not intended to offend you as a person. I think you are a good man doing the best he can for his family. I simply want to clarify certain things and understand better other claims you made.

It is easy in these topics to read with the intention to disprove what is being read and, ultimately, miss the argument. Any information you provide me I will honestly entertain, whether I accept them or not.

To clarify, I believe people are to be respected to most extents, but opinions, however, should not be immune to disrespect. As Astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, put it, "If it can be destroyed by the truth, it deserves to be destroyed by the truth." I do not respect astrology, scientology, mormonism, islam, and (although I once held great respect for it) christianity anymore than I respect people's beliefs in Big Foot or Unicorns; and I'll be happy to explain why in regards to the relevant questions/ comments I have. As far as my questions are concerned, I ask in earnest effort to find the TRUTH.

Certain claims you've made this past week have concerned me from the perspective of someone who cares deeply about truth, education, and critical thinking... especially in the presence of children. I'll number them and discuss why I am concerned and ask questions where I'm curious...

1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is "in the text books"


2. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a "Historical Fact"


3. There are extra-biblical accounts of Christ' resurrection
   


4. Muslims have no belief in an afterlife


5. Philosophy is crap


6. Non Believers are snagged by the devil; and are ultimately going to burn in hell if they continue in unbelief (Please clarify this point if I've wrongly worded it)

1, 2, and 3: These 3 points can be clustered into one big claim. This is where I have my biggest questions. How do you justify this as a fact? And what extra-biblical accounts? My impression is that most scholars agree that second-hand authors wrote the New Testament 50 - 300 years after Christ's death. Even if they were first-hand accounts written during Christ's lifetime, they would be equally as reliable as the many claims that Mohammed flew to heaven on a winged horse (this ties into points 4 and 5)... or the claims that several people have seen the loch ness monster THEREFORE the loch ness monster's existence is a fact. My guess is that you don't believe in the loch ness monster's existence and the historicity of Mohammed’s flight to heaven on a winged horse because you are not satisfied by the anecdotal claims-- written or unwritten. This is my perspective with Jesus' resurrection. Secondly, I have struggled to find ONE extra-biblical account of Jesus (written during or near his lifetime) in any major historical account that has not been doctored by the early Catholic Church. If you're able, I would love to hear / read about it.

4: This claim may seem trivial and not worth mentioning, but I think it exposes the surface of certain misunderstandings or mistruths. Please let me know if you'd like to clarify your comments. Islam ABSOLUTELY believes in an afterlife: heaven and hell (Quran 30:40 , Quran 2:161-162, Quran 4:52). In fact, the majority of religions have this afterlife perspective of heaven and hell. Most have claims of seeing their gods or demi-gods, claims of healing, claims of divine execution, claims of prophecy, claims of absolute moralities or values, etc. Christianity is NOT UNIQUE in its expression of broad beliefs. All religions, however, require faith-- belief without evidence (Hebrews 11 doesn't hide this definition). This brings me to...

...5 and 6: I want to briefly address my unbelief because it's important that people understand WHY. It's also important for me that people understand what philosophy and science ACTUALLY are because they are created to make the world a better place. For example, since the age of scientific enlightenment (roughly 300 years ago) we've harnessed electricity, created airplanes, cured and prevented diseases, and landed on the moon! Our eyes are even set on Mars by 2030! You can thank science and philosophy for the cell phone, tablet, or laptop from which you're reading this. Before philosophy and science, we spent thousands of years living in caves and fending off wolves.

My transformation from being Christian to atheist started as a subtle one. You mentioned in church, "If you seek it, you will find it." I can't agree more. The problem was that I never sought atheism or anything outside of christianity originally. It started with these questions: If God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipresent (outside of time and space), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omni-benevolent (all-good)... 1. ... Why did he knowingly create the devil and hell-- the same one that you claim is attacking his created children and deceiving them into hell he created? 2. ... Why would he command his children to slaughter men, women, children, and to take the virgins for themselves throughout Joshua, Numbers, Deuteronomy, etc.? And how is this any different from what ISIS is doing right now? (yeah, I know, it's the old testament, but there isn't a single context in which its okay to kill babies or rape young girls.) 3. ... Why isn't there unanimous agreement on what the "right" christianity is? There are 30,000 denominations within christianity; and there isn't a single topic of agreement (homosexuality, abortion, the trinity, divinity of Christ, death penalty, contraceptives, marijuana, sex, etc...), yet all of them claim to be 100% correct.

4. ... How can we appropriately fit science into the Bible? Specifically, Evolution? I won’t argue Evolution but will be happy to do so another time. As far as the scientific community stands, 99% are in agreement that it is fact—or “theory” by its scientific definition which is rather different from how “theory” is used outside of science. I had many more questions, but this is how it started. I started Internet forums with Christians, read CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity, read David Dark’s The Sacredness of Questioning everything, read Richard Rohr’s Breathing Underwater and Falling Upward, glanced over Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God, prayed and cried for hours at a time, and watched hours upon hours of Christian apologists on YouTube continually disappoint me. There isn’t a single answer that satisfies these questions. “Just have faith…” It wasn’t the devil that snagged me. It was the fact that mine and every other religion in the world asks for unquestioning faith (belief without evidence); and that drastically confused me. Religion is the ONLY area where faith is used as a method of cognitively understanding the world around us. I wouldn’t walk across a freeway with “faith” that I’ll survive because that wont make me any more or less likely to be hit by a car. Nor does having faith that a diamond the size of a refrigerator is buried in my backyard because that doesn’t make the existence of such a diamond any more or less true. Nor does faith in Zeus, Thor, Oden, Krishna, Mohammed, Allah, Jesus, etc. make any of these characters more or less likely to be god. This relates to another problem… how does belief save us? And where’s the logic that says we choose what to believe? If I had a gun to my head right now and the only way to save myself was to believe in leprechauns, I would die. I couldn’t choose to believe in leprechauns EVEN IF I WANTED THAT BELIEF—it’s too ridiculous. The same goes for my belief in Jesus… I couldn't force myself to believe in his divinity even if I wanted to do so. As you can see, the questions kept coming and I felt like the best thing to do was say “I don’t know” rather than pretending I do. It hit me that I would rather be miserable and seek the TRUTH than be happy keeping a delusion. The beauty with science and philosophy is that QUESTIONING EVERYTHING IS ENCOURAGED, not knowing is okay, and making claims without evidence is discouraged and ethically irresponsible. People change their minds EVERYDAY in science and philosophy as new evidence and arguments present themselves… but I never see this in religion or politics. This brings me to my concern… If a god wants to send me to hell despite my best efforts of seeking truth, loving others, and living happily, then he isn’t a god with which I want to be associated. Unbelief isn’t occurring because the devil is at work… I contend that unbelief is occurring because we live in the 21st century where more people can understand philosophy and science. Magic is not anymore a reliable answer for the big questions we all have.

Submitted December 30, 2014 at 07:46AM by cantswiminbullshit http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/2qruhg/i_have_a_response_letter_to_a_pastor_of_my_wifes/ atheism