RE: I have converted to Christianity
May 14, 2012 at 8:55 am
(This post was last modified: May 14, 2012 at 9:01 am by Logic.)
I am aware of the definition of "atheism".
Let's be clear about this, I do not believe The Bible is the literal word of God. I believe it is a set of books developed by individuals trying to make sense of what they experienced with Jesus. Furthermore, I do not believe that hell exists. I consider myself more of a liberal Christian like John Shelby Spong; Spong is extremely realistic in his approach. I would recommend that you watch some of his videos on YouTube. Alister McGrath is also an individual whom I admire greatly.
I can fully empathise with people who believe that Christianity is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of why things are the way they are. I used to hold this position vehemently, but I have changed due to certain experiences that I have encountered recently.
It seems to me that the individuals who are in strong disagreement with me are heavily ignorant of philosophy and associated history. You must realise that science, reason and logic subscribe heavily to the philosophies of material reductionism and empiricism; these philosophies are hugely dominant in terms of how the general population presently perceives reality. The entire scientific method is dependent on the assumption that absolutely everything in the universe can be reduced to the sum of its parts by using pure logic, reason and mathematical models; science was once known as "natural philosophy". Unfortunately, I personally now believe this approach to be ultimately futile when attempting to understand the more complex problems in reality, such as the nature of human subjective consciousness (science is nowhere near explaining subjective consciousness, other than neural correlates in human brain).
I now see Christianity as more than a set of concepts, but more of something that can be experienced in a relational sense.
Let's be clear about this, I do not believe The Bible is the literal word of God. I believe it is a set of books developed by individuals trying to make sense of what they experienced with Jesus. Furthermore, I do not believe that hell exists. I consider myself more of a liberal Christian like John Shelby Spong; Spong is extremely realistic in his approach. I would recommend that you watch some of his videos on YouTube. Alister McGrath is also an individual whom I admire greatly.
I can fully empathise with people who believe that Christianity is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of why things are the way they are. I used to hold this position vehemently, but I have changed due to certain experiences that I have encountered recently.
It seems to me that the individuals who are in strong disagreement with me are heavily ignorant of philosophy and associated history. You must realise that science, reason and logic subscribe heavily to the philosophies of material reductionism and empiricism; these philosophies are hugely dominant in terms of how the general population presently perceives reality. The entire scientific method is dependent on the assumption that absolutely everything in the universe can be reduced to the sum of its parts by using pure logic, reason and mathematical models; science was once known as "natural philosophy". Unfortunately, I personally now believe this approach to be ultimately futile when attempting to understand the more complex problems in reality, such as the nature of human subjective consciousness (science is nowhere near explaining subjective consciousness, other than neural correlates in human brain).
I now see Christianity as more than a set of concepts, but more of something that can be experienced in a relational sense.
