Since Richard Roberts has been in the news so much recently, I thought I'd tell my story of meeting him. I went to Oral Roberts University for two-and-a-half years. One time our wing of the dorm got together with our sister wing and invited Richard Roberts to speak with us. That was around the time he was getting divorced from Patti and marrying Lindsey, and I wasn't very impressed with him. Worse than his marital issues, though, was the fact that he went to his father's university and DROPPED OUT. He couldn't even finish school when everything was free. Instead he quit and went to work for his father. For this I had no respect for Richard. Oral dropped out of college but that was during the Depression. He then went and started up his ministry on his own, which I respect (ignoring for now the phony faith-healing, seed-faith, and the like). Oral unfortunately got soft with Richard, though, and let him drop out.
Anyhow, Richard came to speak with us. We were all together in the room and whoever was leading things told us to all tickle each other. There were lots of strange spiritual experiences like that at ORU. The nearest person to me was unfortunately Richard Roberts. I thought for a second and then decided that I'm going to tickle him, because he'll have to put up with it. I didn't do it for long because I wasn't otherwise interested in tickling a guy, but I'm glad I got to annoy him a little bit that night.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
What changed?
So what went wrong? Why was I a Christian for about 23 years but then changed my mind? The short answer is that in the end Christianity just didn't make any sense to me anymore. I had a strong biblical background. I studied the Bible daily for years, attended Oral Roberts University, and participated at church. I had my doubts from time to time but pushed them out of the way. As long as I kept up the daily Bible study I remained fairly strong as a Christian. What started the slide downhill, though, was when the devotional guide from R.C. Sproul's Ligonier Ministries that I was using arrived late one month. The month started and I had nothing to study. I never got back into the study after that. I know that this sounds real lame, and that I could have just studied the Bible directly but I think I was just barely holding on and that was the final push out of piety.
Sometime after that I quit going to church, and after that I found that the concepts of Christianity, and actually God in general, just didn't make any sense. Lots of people live good lives without God, and lots of people lead bad lives with him. The idea of needing God to explain creation doesn't explain how God came about, and saying that he didn't need a creator seems arbitrary. The story of Adam and Eve didn't seem to be true, and since that covers the fall of man a lot of things after that don't work. Even the part about Jesus was strange. The stories of the resurrection didn't line up, and most people live and die without hearing anything significant about him.
Do I regret my time as a Christian? A bit. I had a lot of happy times and good friends, but I have to deal with having spent 23 years in serious error when I should have known better.
Sometime after that I quit going to church, and after that I found that the concepts of Christianity, and actually God in general, just didn't make any sense. Lots of people live good lives without God, and lots of people lead bad lives with him. The idea of needing God to explain creation doesn't explain how God came about, and saying that he didn't need a creator seems arbitrary. The story of Adam and Eve didn't seem to be true, and since that covers the fall of man a lot of things after that don't work. Even the part about Jesus was strange. The stories of the resurrection didn't line up, and most people live and die without hearing anything significant about him.
Do I regret my time as a Christian? A bit. I had a lot of happy times and good friends, but I have to deal with having spent 23 years in serious error when I should have known better.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Why I'm writing this blog
I was an evangelical Christian for about 22 years, but now haven't been one since about 1999. In fact, I'm not even a believer in God in any form anymore. I don't technically consider myself to be an atheist, because I can't prove that God does not exist, but I don't see much evidence that there is a God. I suppose that make me an agnostic since I'm sort of saying that you can't know for sure if there is a god.
In any case, I've gone from being a serious Christian to being fairly godless. Back when I was a Christian I had ideas of how I'd act if I ever quit being a Christian. I haven't become the evil sinner I thought I would be. I do find, though, that I still tend to interpret reality through the sorts of questions that I asked when I was a Christian. I hope to use this blog to put some of my thoughts into writing and see where they go.
In any case, I've gone from being a serious Christian to being fairly godless. Back when I was a Christian I had ideas of how I'd act if I ever quit being a Christian. I haven't become the evil sinner I thought I would be. I do find, though, that I still tend to interpret reality through the sorts of questions that I asked when I was a Christian. I hope to use this blog to put some of my thoughts into writing and see where they go.
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