I don't drink!
(I no longer smoke weedo either)
I believe in irrational things. Initially, my beliefs provided comfort. It feels good to be exclusive, chosen, saved, or enlightened. (take your pick)
I later became unafraid to question God, even as I initiated the conversation with Him (through prayer), and believed 100% that I would somehow receive answers eventually in some way shape or form. I think that this expectation alone is what separates believers from the rest who have done as jar suggests and "thrown God away." When someone no longer believes, they essentially deny their initial "saved" or salvation/sanctification experience which made them a "believer" in the first place.
For Hangdawg, (Let's go, Brandon!) it happened through college, education, and rational thinking. I would surmise that this pattern is similar for many of you here at EvC. I would also wager that fewer conservatives become ex-believers than do liberals/Progressives. The political demographic at EvC supports this hypothesis. I'm not saddened by this de-conversion. An honest and thoughtful de-conversion is preferable to trying to maintain a house of cards in the light of evidence-based thinking. It sucks, though. I would rather gamble on future human survival through rescue than through mandatory responsibility.
And the evidence shows that humans of both persuasions are collectively failing. I would rather pray for a miracle than become forced to go all McGuyver and fix the impossible fix.
Edited by Phat, : No reason given.
"A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." ~Mark Twain "
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“…far from science having buried God, not only do the results of science point towards his existence, but the scientific enterprise itself is validated by his existence.”- Dr.John Lennox
“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a Kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.”
H. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America
“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of a doubt, what is laid before him.” — Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God is Within You
(1894).