I don't know how much response I will get over this one, but here goes:
Lets say you start questioning things like the age of the earth and evolution. First off, do Evangelicals question these things? And if you do and actually start buying into the reality of an ancient earth and evolution, do you start questioning people at your church, the head honcho Preacher for instance, or close friends you see at church regularly?
Are you content with their answers? If you changed your mind about Young Earth Creation, would you change churches, or not go, or go less? Do you find a pressure on you to believe the unbelievable?
I'd like honest answers here, even from ex-Christians if you feel like sharing.
Evangelicals are an amazing bunch of ignoramii. I know, I grew up with them.
ReplyDeleteI have left churches for lesser things than whether they can handle the idea of evolution co-existing with Christianity (like some Baptist preacher coming to my door teling me I needed to reconcile with the Lord because I had worn pants and not a dress to church... an inappropriate thing for a woman to do)
ReplyDeleteI have issues with the issue. Evolution isn't a religion, it's a science so I don't understand why Christians or anyone else would have a problem with that field of study. To me, it's like Christians trying to refute physics.
As for evangelicals, in my experience, they have trouble dealing with what is right in front of them. Take HIV/AIDS for example. The church I occasionally attend is in a community where HIV/AIDS is, once again an epidemic. So what did the church do about this? They sent missionaries to Africa but totally shunned the very people in the immediate community who were in desperate need of the support of the church. I hold firmly to the idea that Jesus said "Love one another as I have loved you". He didn't say that and add "....except for...." The church's heart was in the right place, but their actions were wrong. I wrote the senior pastor a note during the sermon and put my note in the collection plate. I asked him what he planned to do about the epidemic that was happening in the very town he was to be serving. I have yet to receive a response and I don't frequent that church. Mostly I like the view from the sanctuary because it overlooks the ocean.
There was a church that I attended for many years that was very open minded about evolution. They were open to the point where you could talk to anyone about it. The pastor who did most of the sermons was very big on giving us the original word from the original text. That's how I first heard that in Genisis, the term "day" isn't really that at all, rather the word in the original text means "span of time". This statement was further confirmed by my Physical Anthropology instructor around the same point in time. I loved that little church and it deeply saddened me to have to leave. The only reason I did so was because I was moving out of town.
I have encoutnered evangelicals who are completely convinced that if the Bible says God created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th, then that is exactly what happened. I stay with the sermon and sigh a lot. I leave feeling less than connected to the church and their definition of faith. I don't usually go back. I don't throw a fit, I just disappear from their folds. I don't feel I owe them an explaination and I doubt a church congregation like that would understand anyway.
One of the pastors at that little church that I loved used to say, "protect yourself from bad religion. Use your head, that's why God gave it to you. You have a brain so you can think. There is 'bad religion' out there. Don't fall for it". I figure if the congregation and the sermon make me feel less connected to God then they aren't doing their job right.
Bacon: A completely unrelated point - I love your blog, but it takes so #@$* long to download, a definite disadvantage at work. If there is anything that you can do, I'm sure your readers would appreciate it. Thank you - JF
ReplyDeleteAJ,
ReplyDeleteI agree with JF.
Also I have to add this link for you. I found it on another blog. It is so funny. These people we say anything to try and refute scientific evidence. They even try and state that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.
Houston, it is obvious that at least many are ignorant based on some of the videos I put on this site.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of that, maybe that is what is slowing down the loading of my site.
I apologize, and maybe I'll try to stop directly embedding videos on my site, or perhaps it might just be one site that is causing the delay, I'll see what I can do if anything.
Hatetaxes, I'm totally familiar with answersingenesis. Being a Yahoo board poster, I've run into many posters who use that site to try to refute evolution and an ancient earth. It is pathetic.
Heartlander, thanks for sharing. I would venture to guess that yours is a unique story amongst the "Fundamental" crowd. I'm leaning towards the idea that most Fundamentals have a sort of fear when it comes to challenging the literal bible, and especially accepting evolution as fact.
I know the answer to this one. Evangelicals do NOT question.
ReplyDeleteYou know, I would agree that there are many, many Evangelicals who do not question anything at all. I think that they tend to fear questioning the Bible because they don't understand the Bible any more than they do Evolution. They confuse challenging the Bible with challenging their faith. The Bible is a good guideline, but it can't be taken absolutely word-for-word, at least not the English version anyway. Too much of that Day=span of time stuff going on. I believe it is the word of God, devinely inspired. I also believe that there are translation issues. There are people in this world who are devoutly Christian and who are very faith-filled people who never go to church and hardly ever read their Bible. Faith is a different thing than religion. A lot of Evangeilicals don't want to admit that.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, my experience is different from most. It's my (Southern Baptist) mom's fault. She used to tell me to consider other people's points of view, do my research and come to my own conclusions, regardless of the subject matter.
heartlander,
ReplyDeleteEvangelicals of all faiths think they understand just about everything. They don't have doubts as you and I do, i.e. the sort of questions that lead to more questions and then to investigation into possible answers. Questions reflect a lack of faith or grace.
Every Rabbi tells the story of a student coming to him to ask him about doubts of faith and God. The rabbi's answer is always the same old crap such as "Everyone has doubts","We can't know what God is thinking", or "God works in ways we cannot imagine", or (my personal favorite) "If you just study harder and apply yourself, the answers will become self-evident."
1) It's amazing how much they will tell us about what God wants yet readily admit they have no idea how he operates or what he exactly he is.
2)I never had the chutzpah to ask the rabbi the obvious questions. "Do you have doubts, too? And if so, does that mean that you never applied yourself enough to remove those doubts? And if study didn't work for you, then how can you believe it will work for me? Or anyone else for that matter?"
Kol Tuv
I think the entire basis of faith requires that one lie to themselves in the face of contradictory information. If something you believe doesn't match with reality, you simply say you have "faith" that things REALLY the way you believe.
ReplyDeleteIt's basically the eqivalent of squeezing your eyes shut, shoving your thumbs in your ears, and yelling "I'M NOT HEARING YOU ANYMORE!!!" over and over again.
Beep Beep, I think Allie descriptions fits.
ReplyDeleteIt's basically the eqivalent of squeezing your eyes shut, shoving your thumbs in your ears, and yelling "I'M NOT HEARING YOU ANYMORE!!!" over and over again.
Heartlander, I like the way the Vatican is reacting to science these days.
SL, I've heard this one "Atheists have no answers, and believers have no questions"
This is how it works: faith is good; and the more faith you have, the more preposterous the things you can believe.
ReplyDeleteSo there is a macho one-upmanship going on. I can believe YEC because my faith is bigger than yours. Just like comparing penisses or cars.