Well my acceptance of science had nothing to do with my leaving Christianity. I thought that evolution and cosmology were how God expressed his transcendent will. So the phrasing is somewhat off here.
There are two questions, why I am not a Christian anymore and why I am an atheist. These are different questions and the answers are different. For the first the answer is my study of history and of biblical literature.
My first attempt at college I majored in classics. I focused on the history of the Roman Enpire around 100BCE to 200 CE. In this time there were a lot of people who matched parts of the Jesus story. They were not exact but they were close enough that you could see the origin of the mythology growing around them. Lots of apocalyptic teachers were walking around at the time. But of this specific one, Jesus, there was no mention of a single individual that matched that description.
To make it worse I traced the literary origins of the Old Testament. This was devastating as well, for once you get to the beginning of where it begins it becomes indistinguishable from its current form and other stories floating around at the same time. How could I believe the book was divinely inspired if it was not appreciably different from any other? How could I believe Jesus was divine if he was no different from any other and indeed could not be located at all?
As to why I am currently an atheist, I think the concept of God is not well enough defined to make a judgement call one way or the other. Most people won't clarify what they mean and those that do often have gods which are impossible. I am open to being wrong but I need more than mindless generalities that add up to nothing. If provided with a solid definition and reasonable evidence I would likely change my mind.
There are two questions, why I am not a Christian anymore and why I am an atheist. These are different questions and the answers are different. For the first the answer is my study of history and of biblical literature.
My first attempt at college I majored in classics. I focused on the history of the Roman Enpire around 100BCE to 200 CE. In this time there were a lot of people who matched parts of the Jesus story. They were not exact but they were close enough that you could see the origin of the mythology growing around them. Lots of apocalyptic teachers were walking around at the time. But of this specific one, Jesus, there was no mention of a single individual that matched that description.
To make it worse I traced the literary origins of the Old Testament. This was devastating as well, for once you get to the beginning of where it begins it becomes indistinguishable from its current form and other stories floating around at the same time. How could I believe the book was divinely inspired if it was not appreciably different from any other? How could I believe Jesus was divine if he was no different from any other and indeed could not be located at all?
As to why I am currently an atheist, I think the concept of God is not well enough defined to make a judgement call one way or the other. Most people won't clarify what they mean and those that do often have gods which are impossible. I am open to being wrong but I need more than mindless generalities that add up to nothing. If provided with a solid definition and reasonable evidence I would likely change my mind.
