I remember...do you?

To believe or not to believe . . .

I remember how I came to be a Christian, but I also distinctly remember before I became a Christian, I was an atheist, though, I don't know that I had ever heard that word before.

How do I know - before I believed in God - that I was an atheist? Well, besides that being what the word "atheist" means (no belief in a god), I was consciously aware that I didn't believe in God.

I was 15 years old, my family was not religious. I remember being at my steady girlfriends* home and we were sitting at the dining room table. At some point in our conversation she said something about God and I remember responding saying, "I don't believe in God".  Her reaction was to laugh right out loud, literally, like this was one of the oddest and most ridiculous things that she had ever heard, which it may very well have been. She then hollered over to her mom and said "Hey Mom, Bobby doesn't believe in God". 

But why would I have believed in God? I had little to no experience with church and no one had ever tried to convince me that there was a God. I had never even been in a discussion about God, with anyone, let alone with a Christian. The most religious discussion I had ever participated in was some years earlier, I asked my mother, "Mom, what religion are we?", to which she replied, "Protestant." I don't even think that I was curious enough to ask what "protestant" meant.  Heck, my Mom may not have even known what it meant (she was raised Methodist).

Well, jump ahead a few years - I was 17, had moved to a new state, had just a few friends in school, was rather introverted and a tad insecure and was not a very good student. 

I had started listening to Christian radio and began attending a Christian youth-group at a church. Long story short - as a result of the emotional pleas from the Christian ministers on the radio, the tearful prayers from my fellow teens at the youth-group I was attending, and the "Chick-tracts" that I had begun collecting from the local Christian book store, one night, alone in my bedroom, I became convinced that hell was not the place that I wanted to spend "eternity", so I asked Jesus to save me from my sins. Thus began my 25 year experience as a believer in the God of the bible.

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Christian, how did you become a Christian. Think back and ponder - what was it that caused your transformation from non-believer to believer? What did you read or hear? Think about it - think about how old you were, how mentally and emotionally mature you were (or weren't), how thoughtful you were (or weren't).  What was your emotional state during your conversion to Christianity?  Was your transformation preceded by a long, thoughtful examination of the evidences for the existence of the God of the bible?  Did your process include much serious and rational questioning of those who wanted you to become a Christian - or - was your conversion mostly driven by emotions, as mine was?  I have met Christians who say that they got "saved" as early as 4 years old.  At 17, I now know that I wasn't mature enough, thoughtful enough, to weigh the evidences for God, had I of been presented any, and I wasn't mature enough to weigh the ramifications of making such a momentous decision as to "follow" a long-dead Jesus. So how could a child half my age (or a 3rd my age) make such a decision?  

But honestly, I have never, in all my years as a Christian and now as an atheist, I have never encountered a Christian who's testimony included the description of serious and lengthy research into the history of Christianity, the church, and the particular denomination that they eventually became a part of.  

No serious investigation of the miracle claims found in the bible from Genesis 1 on.  

No investigation into the historical claims of the exploits of the Hebrews in the Old Testament.  

No examination into the reliability of the books of the new testament.  

No!  It seems that whether as a child or adult, the vast majority of believers became believers as a result of surrendering to the emotional appeals of their family, friends, and acquaintances - not as a result of exhaustive research into the claims of Christians and Christianity.  

If ever there was a sin - becoming a Christian without first exhaustively researching Christianity - that is a sin. 

* Side note - Coincidentally, it was just a few months after I reconnected with my former steady girlfriend (after no connection for almost 30 years), that I finally left Christianity - and my exodus was a direct result of my email correspondences with her concerning Christianity.  

Finally, after 25 years as a bible believer, I decided to look into what I believed and why I believed it. 

bob

r.u.reasonable@gmail.com