From Hyles to Hitchens: My Journey Out of the IFB (Part 1)

I want to take you on a journey. A journey from my fundamentalist childhood to my free thinking adulthood.

I am going to write this in several parts. I want you to get an understanding of my background. I want you to know my mindset. I know there will be some who will think they know more about my story than I.  I want it to be on record for all to see.  You may disagree with my conclusions, but I assure you of my honesty in recounting the journey.  With that being said, let’s begin!

My mom has attended a Baptist church her entire life. She was the church pianist and rarely missed a service. My dad was a quiet man. When asked about God, heaven, or the afterlife, he would say that he didn’t think about it. He rarely attended church.  They were opposites in every regard.  It seems they learned to make it work despite their differences.

My mother took me to church three times a week. We attended her childhood church until I was about 5 years of age. Then we left that church. We spent a short time out of church.

My grandparents had moved in to a house directly across the street from a church.  It wasn’t the old brick building which drew your attention to it, but the large old school buses parked on the side!  It was not long before the church’s pastor had visited my mother and invited her to church.  She accepted the invitation.

The church was small (averaging about 50-75), but vibrant. There was a strong emphasis on youth. The church was notorious for running buses and bringing children to church. Everything seemed great.  After a short time, my mother joined the church and we started attending regularly.

This was a Jack Hyles and First Baptist Church of Hammond, IN copy-cat church. There was a strong emphasis on soul-winning.  It was a part of the Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) church movement.

This church would have a huge impact on my life.

**For a great look at Jack Hyles from another former IFB preacher check out Bruce Gerencser’s The Legacy of Jack Hyles

Problems with Prayer (Part 2)

Please check out Part 1 of this post.

As I have discussed in the first part, the concept of prayer does not play well with the concept of an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent god.  The next two points will deal with using “answered prayer” as evidence for a god’s existence.

II.  Consistency

I know that Calvinists will disagree with the premise of this point.  So, if you are a Calvinist reading this, skip on to the next point.  The god that Christians try to portray is a personal god who loves all people equally and wants all men to be saved.  If this is true, why the inequity among answered prayers?  Why isn’t god consistent in answering prayers?  It’s almost as if it is up to chance!

There are other examples, but I think the best question is… “Why won’t God heal amputees?”  I think this is a very fair question.  I hear people often praising God for healing their cancer or some other sickness, but why are amputees being ignored?  I think the following excerpt from gets it exactly:

No matter how many people pray. No matter how sincere those people are. No matter how much they believe. No matter how devout and deserving the recipient. Nothing will happen. The legs will not regenerate. Prayer does not restore the severed limbs of amputees. You can electronically search through all the medical journals ever written — there is no documented case of an amputated leg being restored spontaneously. And we know that God ignores the prayers of amputees through our own observations of the world around us. If God were answering the prayers of amputees to regenerate their lost limbs, we would be seeing amputated legs growing back every day.

Isn’t that odd? The situation becomes even more peculiar when you look at who God is. According to the Standard Model of God:

• God is all-powerful. Therefore, God can do anything, and regenerating a leg is trivial.
• God is perfect, and he created the Bible, which is his perfect book. In the Bible, Jesus makes very specific statements about the power of prayer. Since Jesus is God, and God and the Bible are perfect, those statements should be true and accurate.
• God is all-knowing and all-loving. He certainly knows about the plight of the amputee, and he loves this amputee very much.
• God is ready and willing to answer your prayers no matter how big or small. All that you have to do is believe. He says it in multiple places in the Bible. Surely, with millions of people in the prayer circle, at least one of them will believe and the prayer will be answered.
• God has no reason to discriminate against amputees. If he is answering millions of other prayers like Jeanna’s every day, God should be answering the prayers of amputees too.

Nonetheless, the amputated legs are not going to regenerate.

What are we seeing here? It is not that God sometimes answers the prayers of amputees, and sometimes does not. Instead, in this situation there is a very clear line. God never answers the prayers of amputees. It would appear, to an unbiased observer, that God is singling out amputees and purposefully ignoring them.

III.  Confirmation Bias

We all have weaknesses in our thinking.  We are all prone to biases.  One such bias is confirmation bias.  Confirmation bias is the tendency to favor information which “confirms” what we already believe while ignoring information which contradict that belief.

This bias is clearly evident in Christians who use their answered prayer as proof of their god’s existence.  If it is reasonable to believe that the Christian god exists because their prayers get answered, then it should also be reasonable that the Muslim god exists when a Muslim’s prayer is answered.  The same would be true of a Hindu of Buddhist.  Yet, these gods are mutually exclusive.  Not all of them can exist, but it is possible that none of them exist!  I think this is the more reasonable explanation.

Lastly, if answered prayer proves god exists, shouldn’t unanswered prayer prove god does not exist?

Sunday Shout Out (01/18/2015)

Today, I want to highlight my favorite podcast, The Scathing Atheist. 

This podcast is by atheists and for atheists.  There are plenty of podcasts that try to appeal to atheist and theist to start conversations between the two.  This is NOT one of those podcasts! 

**Warning: This show is not for the easily offended or children.  There is an abundance of profanity and crude humor.**

Episodes are an hour in length and are released each Thursday.  It is hosted by Noah Lugeons and Heath Enright. 

They cover news articles related to religion and do it in a hilarious way!  It will keep you laughing all the way through.  Other segments in the show include:

-The Diatribe
-This Week in Misogyny
-The Holy Babel

Sometimes they conduct interviews and movie reviews.  So, if you’re an atheist and want to hear an atheist perspective on different news topics and you want to laugh at religion, this is your podcast!   Below is a diatribe (one of the best parts of the show):

Sunday Shout Out (01/11/2015)

Today’s shout out goes to one of my favorite YouTuber’s, The Messianic Manic.  His videos usually range from 2 to 7 minutes in length.  The videos deal with counter-apologetics and philosophy.  He always presents great arguments and counters the arguments  of apologists with finesse.  Here is an excellent recent video.

Check out his channel (link below). 

The Messianic Manic

Problems with Prayer (Part 1)

Christians love to talk about prayer.  “There’s power in prayer.”  “Prayer changes things.”  “I am praying for you.”  These are all common expressions among Christians.  They can also quote Bible verses that talk about prayer.  Some examples…Luke 18:1, Philippians 4:6, James 5:16, and one of the favorites of Christians I know Jeremiah 33:3:

Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.

For many Christians their personal experience of “answered prayer” is a reason they believe in God.  It can be very encouraging to think that an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving being is watching out for you and giving you what you ask for.  It is like having your own genie in a bottle!

Yet, I find some problems with the concept of prayer.  Prayer is basically a person talking to their god (whether audibly or mentally).  They usually spend some time giving thanks and sending praise, but the biggest aspect of prayer is asking.  Christians ask god to keep them healthy, give them wisdom, or meet their needs.

I do not necessarily have a problem with the act of praying.  Rather, I want to point out the problems of using “answered prayer” as evidence of god.  And the problems it creates for some of the attributes of their god.

I.  Contradictions

It seems Christians got carried away when naming the different attributes of their god.  One such attribute is omniscience.  This means possessing all knowledge.  I have heard more than one Christian say things like, “God knows the end from the beginning.”  “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has occurred to God?”  I really doubt that omniscience is even possible. (Here is an excellent video talking about the impossibility of omniscience.)

So, if god does know the end from the beginning (foreknowledge), then he already knows all things that will happen.  Your prayers cannot change that.  You could respond that God looked ahead and saw that you prayed, then changed the outcome.  Yet this creates another problem.  If God gained knowledge from looking ahead at what you would do, then he did not possess all knowledge before that time.

Another attribute of the Christian god is omnibenevolence.  This means that god is all-loving.  God is also referred to as a father or parent.  Let me give an example and you tell me whether or not a loving a parent was portrayed:

I am a father of a young son.  I tell my son often how much I love him.  One day my son starts complaining of headaches.  I attempt to make them go away through over the counter medicine.  The headaches persist.  After the continued pain, I take my son to the doctor.  The doctor runs a battery of tests.  Then, he breaks the news to me…He has brain cancer!  Now I know what caused the head aches.  It is going to cause him severe suffering and death.  Now let’s suppose I have a cure for the cancer.  I have the antidote locked up and only I have the key.  It is 100% effective, works instantly, and is pain free.  Yet, I decide that I will not give my child the medicine unless enough people come to my house.  Then, they have to tell me how awesome I am and beg me to give him the medicine.  Well, I still decide that was not enough and just let him die.

The above story was purely hypothetical.  In the story, would you consider me a loving father?  Absolutely not!  I do have children and I would do anything within my power to prevent their suffering.  Nobody would have to ask!  I just do not understand Christians’ thinking when asking somebody to pray for a child who has a terminal illness.  According to their theology, he knows (or could create) a cure for all possible diseases.  He has the power to do it.  He is supposed to love this child beyond all human love.  Yet, God lets children die of terminal illnesses every day.  It is terrible when children die of diseases that have no known cure, but even worse are the thousands of children who die of preventable diseases!  So, God allowing such suffering without intervening or only intervening if enough people beg, creates real problems with the idea of god being all loving.

I want to continue this, but this post has run long enough already.  Look for part 2 in the near future!

To All The Horror Fans

I have been a fan of horror movies for as long as I can remember.  I began by watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? as a young child. As I grew a little older I became obsessed with Goosebumps books as a preteen. I would get the books and read them within a couple of days.

As a teenager, I started watching the classic slasher movies (Friday the 13th, Halloween, etc). There was an excitement about being scared. The adrenaline rush when a scene shocked or surprised you. All the other horror fans out there can relate to this feeling.

My tastes in horror movies have varied throughout the years. The went through a stage loving the gory movies. The bloodier the better! I enjoyed watching a lot of low budget movies. The acting and effects were not as good, but the gore was there.

Lucky for me I started dating a girl who loved horror movies as much as I did. One of our favorite pastimes was going to a video rental store and exploring the horror section. We had such good times watching these movies. We watched some really horrible movies along the way! However, occasionally you would come across a gem.

One night while in a Blockbuster, we came across a movie entitled Saw. Neither one of us had heard of the movie, but the description on the back of the box made it seem interesting. We rush back to my place and begin to watch the movie. From the first five minutes of the movie, I was hooked! It was a fairly low budget movie, but it was awesome!

The traps, the moral dilemmas, the voice of Jigsaw, the mystery throughout, and the big twist at the end made this a fantastic movie. Of course I must not have been the only one to think so since it became extremely popular and they produced several sequels.

Fast forward to today. I am a huge fan of The Walking Dead! Not just for the gore and zombies. (Although I still love that!) Now, I love that the show pushes the moral boundary. It makes us question…What would I do in that situation? I like for shows to make me think. The Walking Dead is great for this.

What started as an adrenaline rush is now deeper for me. I still love horror movies. Although, now I appreciate everything that goes in to making a good movie. The story line, the acting, the special effects, the underlying themes, and how they challenge the status quo.

So, to all the horror fans out there, feel free to comment with movie suggestions, horror blogs, or to get my thoughts on a movie.  I plan to write about the movies I watch and give my opinions on them (whatever that’s worth).

Sunday Shout Out (01/04/2015)

I plan to do a short “shout out” post each Sunday.  I want to highlight some of my favorite bloggers, YouTuber’s, and podcasters.

Today’s shout out goes to Bruce Gerencser. He writes a blog discussing his life, religion, politics, and skepticism.

He was a pastor for many years before becoming an atheist later in life. While I have never met Bruce, I consider him a friend. He came out of the Independent Fundamental Baptist segment of Christianity as did I. This is a very unique brand of Christianity that you have to be involved with to understand. Bruce’s insights into fundamental/ evangelical Christianity are always spot on and informative.

Here is an excerpt from his recent post entitled You are Wrong!!

The Bible has the unique ability to be whatever a person wants it to be. Most people have a bit of Thomas Jefferson in them, scissors in hand, cutting out the things they disagree with or the things that weaken their positions or beliefs. The short of it is this…if you need to prove something, go to the Bible. You will likely find the answer you are looking for.

It was through reading his blog which has helped me to become more open about my atheism.

So, what are you waiting for?? Go check out his blog!

http://brucegerencser.net

To the Doubters

I was a fundamentalist Christian for most of my life.  During most of that time I never questioned what I was taught.  You see, I am not a confrontational person by nature.  I did not want to be considered rebellious.  The pastor and Sunday school teacher were older than I was and they believed.  Surely they knew more than I.  I surrendered to preach.  I wanted to be like these spiritual people.  I wanted to share my faith.  I had the truth.  Everyone needed to hear the gospel message.

I attended church faithfully.  I read my Bible often.  I listened to preaching tapes everyday.  I prayed and had a walk with God.  I read Christian books and surrounded myself with people who helped support that belief.  I witnessed to the lost.  I was fully committed.

Yet, as I got older and met people who believed differently than I, questions arose in my mind. (I intend to write about my deconversion in detail later.)  Questions I thought I knew the answers to.  Soon people pointed out the flaws in my answers.  Maybe things were not as I suspected.  I tried to push the questions out of my mind.  They never went away.

I did not feel I could express these questions to the religious around me.  I already knew the answers they would give.  I wanted an outside opinion.  So, I did what all people do nowadays with questions…I turned to Google!  Before I knew it, I found I was not alone. There were others out there that had the same questions I did.

My journey went from belief to questions to doubt and ultimately to disbelief. This post is for those who find themselves at the questions/doubt stage. You are not alone! I have sat where you sit. I have asked the same questions you ask.

For the last year or so of my deconversion, I still attended church regularly wearing a suit and tie with a smile on my face and a Bible in my hand. I sang along with the congregational songs. I shouted “Amen.” during the sermon. Yet, I didn’t believe any of it. I was an impostor. I was not intentionally being deceitful. I was trying to “fake it until I make it.”

I will not tell you what to believe or how your journey should go. I do want to provide some resources to help you along the way.

Robert Ingersoll

Skeptics Annotated Bible

Bart Ehrman

A Letter to My Children

On our wall hangs a sign which reads, Live, Love, Laugh.  Three simple words.  Yet I want these words to characterize your life.  So read on to hear my advice on these subjects and I will throw in a fourth for free (Learn).
1.  Live

Live your life.  Enjoy your childhood.  Every day is different and unique make them all great.  Develop your own personality.  Visit as many different places as possible.  Meet people from other parts of the country and world.  Take risks.  Don’t judge people by their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.  Take vacations.  Embrace technology.  If you get a once in a lifetime opportunity, seize it!  Work hard.  Be honest.  Be mindful of others, but never let anyone control you.  Be respectful.  Don’t hold grudges.  Don’t be afraid to be different.  Just be yourself and live your life to the fullest.

2.  Love

Love yourself.  You are an awesome person.  Love your siblings.  Look out for each other.  Defend each other.  Learn what true love is.  Love is commitment.  Love is thinking of a loved one more than yourself.  Notice the good things loved ones do for you and express your appreciation.  Find a partner who will love you.  Someone who will make you a better person.  Then spend a life showing them your love.  If you have children, devote your life to them.  Show them unconditional love.  Just make sure you let the ones you love know how much you love them in every way every day.

3.  Laugh

Laugh loud and laugh often.  Laugh at yourself.  Don’t be easily offended.  There are lots of serious and sad things in life.  So, take every chance you get to laugh.  Find humor in the mundane.  Master the art of sarcasm!  Attempt to make others laugh.  Laugh until your side hurts.  Laugh until you cry.  You know you’re going to laugh at dad.

4.  Learn

Learn to read.  Learn to write.  Learn to do math.  Develop a passion for knowledge.  Ask questions, lots and lots of questions.  Think for yourself.  Learn the Scientific and Socratic methods of investigation.  Let doubt be your default.  Never stop learning.  Be humble enough to realize you could be wrong, but brave enough to change your mind.  Read books, lots and lots of books.  Write!  Write about what you love.  Expand your vocabulary.  Words are the vehicle which transport thoughts, emotions, and ideas.  Make yours a Rolls Royce!  Just remember…People deserve respect, but ideas do not.

In conclusion, life is short and often hard.  However, if you follow these principles your life should be great!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

This is my very first post on this brand new blog!  I hope to post many many more throughout the year.  Stick around to see what 2015 has in store in the mind of marlowe!