Dyson

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/30/151681...f-losing-faith



Interesting story about a Minister who turned to being an Atheist. I'm sure it happens more now a days than you think.

BetaRD2

sounds a lot like my story. i used to be a god fearing man. now i have seen the real light and i have never been happy. but i do sometimes wish god would appear to me... i would pimp slap the shiznit out of him, as j would say

majik

I merely skimmed it. My opinion - she was taking the Bible too literally and expecting 1 = 1 ("So many holes"). It's very figuratively written, some books poetic and some stories written for a purpose at a specific point in time. Some are letters written with an intended audience. Some are applicable in generalities and some are applicable to a specific event or situation in a specific region.



My guess is that the problem was Religion, not her faith.

Stocker

Sorry, but if you are claiming to be a preacher of the Bible and you are a woman, you have it wrong already. It doesn't have too many sex-specific job descriptions, but preachin' is called out as strictly for the best of men to do. This is not even a little bit of an open question, it's there in black and white for everyone to read. A preacher should a) read and b) think about the Bible, right? How do you do that, and then go from "men only" to "I am preacher, hear me roar"?



If a woman starts off so far in left field, color me not surprised that she "lost" her faith.

wheel_of_steel

Why do preachers have to be male?

majik

That's his interpretation of Biblical text, mostly from letters Paul wrote to churches in Ephesus and Corinth, I believe. I don't know of anywhere else it's really stated other then their letters. Jesus definitely didn't mention it, as he wasn't necessarily a fan of church as an institution. The Methodist denomination is one of the few that allows female pastors.



If you consider the authority that society gives to men vs. women, both 2000 years ago and in present day, words from men are still given more credence than women, right/wrong/indifferent, it happens. Hence, fewer women in positions of power (politics, executives, social class, etc.). My opinion is that this is from where those comments/ideas/directives were derived.

Stocker

Off the top of my head I was thinking of this, see v.2 and v.12. This is not an interpretation, this is right out of the text. Note: the Bible isn't Firefox, it doesn't get updated.



1 Timothy 3

majik

Stocker... come on man. There is most definitely interpretation, even in those texts. Understanding of historic context helps to apply understanding to the text.



Much of Paul's letters are written specifically with certain regions in mind. A big part of 1 Timothy is written to oppose false prophets and teachings. When I read those same verses, I read it not with the focus being a man, but the focus being that the leaders should not have multiple wives. To me, that seems so obvious. Of course he wouldn't write, "the husband of one wife or wife of one husband" - especially as it didn't exist in their culture in 60A.D. My guess is many of things included in the bullet list were problems that existed in that region (don't recall where).



I also don't believe in women not speaking out against their husbands in public. In the society of equality in which we live, I expect wives and husbands alike to speak out against each other.



I agree to disagree. I think much of it has to do with our backgrounds and possibly generational differences.

Visionz

Whatnot

I would wager a good bit of money the exact opposite happens just as if not more often, as well as 'Satanist' (i.e Alice Cooper) converting to Christianity.











"The questions haunted her: Is Jesus the only way to God? Would a loving God torment people for eternity? Is there any evidence of God at all? And one day, she crossed a line."



Just by her questions, you have to wonder if she ever knew God....or just read about Him and talked about Him. Jesus being the only way is the root of Christianity, Jesus said this very thing, and a Christian is a disciple of Jesus, so yes.



Loving God torment? What is she reading? Romans 6:23 "23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." The WAGES of sin is death. Us sinning is why we go to hell, but, God loved us so much, that He sent His one and only Son to take those sins on and die for us. God doensn't want anyone to be tormented for eternity, tha tis WHY He sent His Son to get tormented for us. Though God also gives us free will as her husband said, so it is a choice. And hell to mant non-believers is about fire and torment I guess? To me, hell is about seperation from God for forever, which IMO would be many times worse tht fire and torture ect. God isn't madating the tormenting, the evil people are the ones tormenting. Fire is used many times in teh Bible to signify purification, I think fire is just a necessity of hell, it isn't meant to torment, but is necessary, it is the punishment or wages for sin. But the weeping is the torture and gnashing of teeth is from mankinds interaction with no God in their presence, all the rapist and murderes and selfishness and pride can run a much with no concience, just pure evil. Which again, is why IMO eternal seperation from God is the real torture.



Also she is attempting to use her human mind to comprehend God's ways. When a child disobeys and gets punished/spanked, it hurts, it seems unfair to the feeble minded child, but the wise adult who did this, knows pain is a good reminder, and could save the childs life one day and is punishing to help, not torment. If you don't believe in God or the Bible, you can't use the Bible against itself, you don't believe it. That is like not believing the planets revolve around the sun, and then using logic that the planets do revolve around the sun to disprove something. One thing known as a fact is God is loving and wise and merciful, taking that into thought, then you can attempt to understand God's ways maybe and use my adult punishment logic above. I am not saying I am right, I could be way off, but I am at least using the Bibles logic to understand God as opposed to using out of few out of context passeges to disprove the 1000's of other ways shoving God's love and mercy. Anything God does is just and mercify, that is a fact if you are believe what the Bible says, so you can't use human logic to interpret some things. If you make clay persons, and decide to stomp on one of them, and spare the others, is that unjust? You created that world, it goes by your rules, anything you do is right. If you belive God created the world, then you would have to believe everything He does is just. But if you question His actions and logic, youmust not believe He created the world. Again, is earth centric believer, using sun centric to prove they are right, is logical absurdity....which is quite ironic coming from an Atheist, who's 'god' is logic. If you believe God is unfair, and mean, and belive in God, I would be scared knowing I am speaking agaist this unfiar unjust being in control of everything, much like you would be scared to speak against Saddam in his reign....but luckily he wasn't everwhere at the same time. So anyone who speaks against God, can't believe in Him, or doesn't know much about Him, or is quite unwise...but the chances are, they just don't believe in Him. and if you don't believe in Him, then how can this non-existant being be unfair, he doens't exixst to be unfair.





Is there any evidence of God? Romans 1:20 "20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:"



Though I would be interested to go to an Atheist convention to see what they actually talk about??? That seems like great faith and dedication for something that doesn't exsist? I like Bill Maher, he is kind of an Athiest, but not really, he will admit that is his guess, but he doesn't know for sure. There are so many Athiest who seem to think they know for a fact of certain things they have simple educated guesses over.



It seems to be in principlaism and pride, Atheist pretty much is based of the religion and faith of man and intellect/science. Athiest may not have faith in a god, but they definatly put their faith in something and it is definatly an organised religion with plenty of people trying to convert others to their side, with just as much insults and violence and high horse metality that many religions have when attempting to convert others.





And she ends it with "Do you miss God?" "No, no," she says. "I can't say that I do." John 10:26-27 "26 But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you.[b] 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." You can't not miss your master/shepard, which makes you wonder if you ever really knew the shepard in the first place. Is this a story of losing faith, or never having it in the first place? Having/knowing traditions and writings of God or actually knowing God Only God knows that one.