IF you deconverted in midlife, can you help?

[SteveII]

I'm sure you are wrestling with all this and I hope you find a way through it. However, I do want to point out that Young Earth Creationism (YEC) is a rather recent trend. Most Christian thinkers do not take the first chapters of Genesis literally. If that is what brought down your "house of cards", you are not well versed in broader Christian doctrine. Just saying.

I've been thoroughly saturated in Christian doctrine, with Christian schools all the way through college. I disagree that YEC is a recent trend. A literal interpretation of the Bible has occurred since the Bible was written. My losing a literal interpretation of the Bible was merely the final straw. I can't believe Biblegod exists after reading the Bible. Everything falls apart if you lose the literal translation. You then have to pick and choose what God says and means, and that's all open to interpretation. Have you studied how the Bible was canonized? It was written over hundreds of years, and then religious leaders basically voted about what books to include in the Bible. If God wanted to give his Word that would be a Book to be followed, don't you think he could have done so in a way that is more reliable and authentic? 

You have been thoroughly saturated in fundamentalist Christian doctrine. Even that, I doubt. I know your story, I had a similar one. I was even a pastor's kid. While I did know the basic doctrines, I did not know the underlying systematic theology. Without that foundation, you get all kinds of inconsistencies because of careless thinking and careless teaching by well-intentioned people.   Where our paths diverge is that I went and found answers. You didn't. Don't think for a second that every one of your questions and problems have not been discussed in a 1000 books. There ARE NO NEW QUESTIONS about Christianity in hundreds of years. 

When you say "Everything falls apart if you lose the literal translation", you must mean Gen 1-3 (you said it was because of evolution). Which is what, 1/400 of the Bible. Written by who knows, and when. At most, you have a weak argument against the inerrantcy of Genesis. You do not need one word of Genesis to believe every word of the NT and certainly don't need the OT (or the NT for that matter) to be inerrant to be a Christian.  Your argument is based in ignorance and an inch-deep understanding of doctrine. Go ahead, tell me where I am wrong. 

Yes, I have studied how the NT became canonized. Your characterization of it show me that you probably do not. You might want to get your facts straight if you want to come back to this topic.