Doubts and Indecision

Recently, I've come across two great blog posts from two different bloggers on spiritual doubt. One blogger still considers herself a Christian, the other is well....I think he's not far from becoming an agnostic, though he hasn't declared quite yet what he believes.

Both of them in some  ways sound much like me several years ago. Making the decision to leave one's faith or even just doubt/question it is much harder than most people would think. Most religious people have wrapped their entire lives and their identity around their religion.


First there's blogger "Heretic Husband", writer of the blog Confessions of a Heretic Husband, a great blog that I have even wrote a guest post for, with his post Confessions of a Spiritual Wanderer.

He's a former fundamentalist, and he talks about trying many different branches of Christianity, with varying levels on the extremism scale, but it's not working. He blames himself to some degree.

I want you to know, I've tried. I've really tried. I've tried Catholicism. I've tried Evangelical. I've tried Episcopal. They don't work for me. It's not the people. The people are fine for the most part. There are some bad apples in every barrel, of course, but I'm beginning to think the problem is me. 

I'm like one of those people who is in failed relationship after failed relationship, desperate to find The One to spend the rest of their life with. One day, after another agonizing breakup, they realize that the only common denominator in every relationship is...them.

He talks about the guilt that often comes with questioning one's faith:

Celebrating The Blog's Great Success Recently

It constantly amazes me how the blog keeps growing, it's something I would have never excepted back in August when I started it as just a way to get my opinions out there, I didn't expect many people to read it (if any), and that I would still be blogging now, it was just an experiment for me.

Now, here I am in the last few weeks looking at how fast it's grown. In the last 3 weeks I have went from a 400 reader a week average, to now breaking the 1,000 mark this weekend.


My blog has gotten recognition from some popular people in the atheist/skeptic blogging world, starting about 3 weeks ago

First, the blog went from 400 to 700 readers a week after a guest post at the blog Confessions of a Heretic Husband, then the biggest spikes in readership come after some honors the blog received this week:

Jack Vance added me to the blogroll at his hugely popular blog Atheist Revolution, which has lead to a sustained increase of people stopping by.

Blogger Reason Being wrote a blog post where linked to a blog post of mine, saying he agreed with it and expanded his thoughts on the topic further.

Andrew Hall of Laughing in Purgatory invited me to take part in a campaign to boycott the Boy Scouts, a list of all the blogs that participated was posted on many of the over two dozen blogs that joined in, bringing readers and other great bloggers over to Ramblings of Sheldon. That wasn't all, he also gave me the opportunity to write a guest post for his blog.

I'm grateful for the honors that I have received from other bloggers, and if you are a new reader here, I welcome you, please stay around and keep reading. If you are a fellow atheist/skeptic blogger, let me know, and I'll check out your blog, I'll be open to the possibility of writing a guest post for your blog, or you writing for this blog.

Thanks to all who are reading this blog, and to those who have helped make it a success!

Read My Guest Post At Confessions Of A Hertic Husband!

I had sent an e-mail to the author of the blog Confessions of a Heretic Husband asking if I could write a guest post for his blog, he agreed, and said that he wanted a guest post of on the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. I have just gotten around to checking my blog and e-mail today, and I found an e-mail saying that he has in fact posted my guest post. Check it out, it's an overview of my past posts on them, introducing them to people who may not have ever heard of them before. Sorry I couldn't come up with a more original title, but it fits my Exposing the IFB series. 

My guest post:

Exposing the Independent Fundamental Baptist Denomination

It was a great honor to write for his blog, he's a great writer, and I have been reading his blog for the last several months now. If you are wondering who the picture at the top of the page is, like I was, it's late 1800's Major League Baseball player, turned evangelist, Billy Sunday.

I'm not sure why he posted that picture, perhaps he's saying that the IFB would like to go back to that time period. Maybe that is the case, I know from experience that the IFB and similar fundamentalists like to draw inspiration from famous ministers from that time period such as Billy Sunday and C.H Spurgeon. I remember how IFB members like to carry around an edition of the King James Bible known as the Scofield Bible, as though it was dropped down from Heaven by god himself.

They really do enjoy living in the past....



(Sheldon's note: For past guest posts, both that I have written for other blogs, and that have been written for my blog, plus a link to my submission guidelines, check out my Guest Posts  page.)