Atheism

There has been a lively debate over at the Daily Dish, with many posts about atheism. It is interesting to read with people making some lively comments. As many people know, I am a Christian and my faith means a lot to me. Matter of fact, it means more to me than anything, including Jackee, becoming a dad, and the rest of my family.

The shortened story of how I became a Christian is this:

As a kid I was lost and I was invited to go to church, I went to church off and on through high school when I asked God into my heart, I didn't truly live my faith until I met Jackee, and now it is the center (at least I try to make it my center) of my life.

Ultimately I decided that this world could not have come to happen by happenstance. It would take more faith to believe that all this happened randomly, in my opinion. I do believe in evolution. I believe in natural selection. But, I don't believe that evolution accounts for all the variety of life we see on earth. After I came to a belief in something or somebody creating the earth, I started looking at all the particular religions, and I came to believe that Christianity was the only message that had a consistent message.

In addition to using rational thought, I also had too many moments in my life that it felt like somebody was guiding me. I went through a lot growing up and it was clear that God directed me to Him. I had multiple moments where everything should have blew up in my face, and it didn't. There was a hand on my life.

I do not have blind faith; I came to Christianity through research and personal experiences.

Now back to the discussion on Atheists. I take particular objection to people who think religion is equivalent to stupidity. I came to Christianity after much research. I looked into every objection I could to Christianity, and I took them one by one and weighed them against the Bible and reason. Some things I haven't fully flushed out, but the overall evidence was clear. God created this earth.

It drives me up a wall when Atheists assert they are on some higher intellectual ground; that they are somehow enlightened and the religious folks are imbeciles that can't think for themselves. I promise you, I am not brainwashed.

Now this seems like it is an indictment on Atheists, but in reality it is an indictment on Christians and other religious people.

Too often we do "religious" things without understanding their significance, myself included. Too often we do not give non-believers an opportunity to express their objections to our beliefs, myself included. Too often we think we know all the answers about everything, myself included. Basically, Christianity is complex, but there are very few things that are not explainable. There are differing explanations of why things are a certain way, and have a certain significance. This is confusing to nonbelievers and it makes for a barrier to entry. Many times we don't even understand why we do things and we make it hard for others to believe. To assume that we, as individuals who believe in Christianity, have all the answers to the world's riddles is absurd. There are things the bible doesn't fully describe and there are things that can be interpreted in separate ways. We need to be honest about how we are interpreting the Bible and how we came to those decisions.

Individuals that are Christians at times make Christianity seem like something it is not. We make non-believers think there must be something crazy going on with us people. Different denominations believe different things; people interpret the bible to match their own beliefs, pastors, priests, and ministers do horrible things; the crusades (enough said); and each believer is constantly falling short of what God intended.

With all of these different reasons how we mess up what God had intended, no wonder people don't believe in what we believe. But, I honestly believe if you open your mind to Christianity, you can find the purpose to life. I think if you really try to understand the science of our world and understand the Bible, a person will find a cure that is the emptiness and loneliness in our hearts. God is the only one that can fill that void, and I think everybody can relate to the void I am talking about. A relationship with Jesus is what Christianity is about, and it is the only relationship that promises to be everlasting.

Christians too often forget we are Christ's ambassadors, and this makes it easy for non-believers to stay away. With that being said, I promise you that most Christians have seriously weighed their beliefs, and few live with blind faith.

If you don't believe in God, I would love to have a conversation with you. Feel free to email me at shaneausterman@gmail.com or leave comments here.