Can You Sincerely Believe In Something If You Have Never Doubted or Questioned It?

It’s a question I have been asking myself ever since a recent conversation over at the site of Christian blogger Kansas City Bob. KC Bob was talking about a book called Benefit of the Doubt: Breaking the Idol of Certainty. 

It encouraged Christians to not be afraid to question and doubt, and said that modern Christian culture has created an “Idol of Certainty”, and is more concerned with being certain/dogmatic about what they believe, than being willing to explore, question, and even doubt at time what they believe.

This was my response (in part) to the post:

My feeling is that no one can truly say that they sincerely believe what they believe, whether it be religious or political views, unless at some time in their life, they have seriously questioned or doubted it at some point.

Otherwise, it's just what they believe because that's the way they were raised, or that's they way they always have viewed the world. It can't truly be their beliefs, a powerful representation of who they are, unless they have explored it, questioned it, and come to their own conclusions.

Guest Post: What Are You Not Interpreting Correctly?

It has always fascinated me that more Christians do not realize how the bible can be used to justify anything. A favourite example that atheists like to bring up is that god allowed slavery, to which the Christians argue that this was long ago etc. Fortunately or unfortunately, I have some first hand experience of the lunacy of Biblical interpretations. I say fortunately as it is for me a clear example of why Christianity should never be trusted.

I was born in South Africa in 1977, in other words I was born into apartheid South Africa. Luckily I was born into a white family, which meant I had the best side of life in South Africa at that time, also luckily for me I came from a very liberal family. I used to have friends of different races, and where we grew up we luckily did not have many problems with the security (moral) police that would frown upon this kind of behavior. These police where capable of prosecuting you if you had for example a lover from a different race, so I luckily never got my parents sent to jail.

But here is the scary part. The Bible was used by the government through the Afrikaans churches to justify apartheid. But for full clarity, let me explain further as it was not just a justification. It was taught in churches that the black man was a lesser human, and could never be accepted in heaven. I hope this shocks you, because this is what was happening.  I have met people that have said to me “Christian, you have to understand black people are like animals.” The harsh reality is that some of these people still believe this, and this can be blamed on their racist upbringing and religious indoctrination.

Guest Post: Promoting Your Beliefs

Evangelism, by it’s base definition, refers to the preaching of the 4 gospels.

The actual definition of Evangelism is to preach to others about the 4 gospels of the New Testament.  No brainer right?  But symbolically, this word has meant a lot of things to all of us.  For those who are a part of evangelical Christian religions, it means “spreading the good word”. 

 For those who are not there, it means being annoyed by others trying to sell you on something.  And for those who have been there and are no longer, well, I’m not going to pretend to know exactly what that means, I’ve not been there.  But when I talk to many who have left, it seems like a really dark place, something that I can either guess is a pang of guilt for having done so in the past, mixed with a ton of anger that they feel that they were manipulated into such a life/lifestyle/belief.  I may be very wrong, but it’s simply what I see watching from the outside.

A Challenge For Christianity

I have been told many times when criticism of the barbarity of the Old Testament comes up (and I've used this line before), that it was "only for that time period". Those commands don't apply to us now.

First of all, the Bible is unclear on this point, look up Matthew 5:18 where Jesus says this in regards to the Old Testament law:

"I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the  Law until everything is accomplished."

He said this despite some of his other statements that went against the barbarity of the Old Testament law, such as the nearly pacifistic Sermon on the Mount.

Display from the Alabama court case

Second, if the Old Testament really is no longer valid, why are fundamentalists always quoting from it? Sure they reject portions of it like bans on eating shell fish, or the command that women should be forced to marry their rapists, but they love to quote prohibitions from those exact same books of the Bible supporting what they believe, such as prohibitions on homosexuality.

They are also quite fond of the Ten Commandments, too, even wanting old displays of them to remain in government buildings, such as in Alabama, which caused a court battle that went to the Supreme Court.

I Actually Don't Hate Religion. Surprised? Let Me Explain

Hi, you may have noticed that I use the term "fundamentalist" occasionally  OK, often, all right, I give up, I use the term in almost every post ;) I don't know if you have wondered why I use that term instead of "Christianity" or "religion".

There's two reasons for this, one there is a difference between religion and fundamentalism, and two, I don't necessarily have a problem with general, but I definitely have a problem with fundamentalism.

Yes, there is a difference between religion and fundamentalism. Both often go together, but they don't necessarily have to be one and the same. First, I'll define the two, in my own way. Religion typically involves a belief in a deity or deities and a holy text. Often there is a prophet who followers of the religion see as the messenger of the deity, or as a deity himself. Depending on what the religion teaches, that in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing, though more often that not, because of the religion's teachings, and/or the actions of it's followers, it becomes destructive.

Religion in and of itself, though I disagree with it, I often have no problems with it, but when belief in a religion becomes a form of fundamentalism, that's when I have a problem. Fundamentalism is the combination of ignorance and intolerance with religion. Fundamentalism in religion is the most common among those who believe that their faith and holy text are infallible (without error), and believe that their faith is the only way to achieve a positive outcome in the afterlife (all those who don't believe, regardless of how morally they lived their life).

Fundamentalism is deliberately isolating yourself from the outside world, because you feel it is too evil, and rejecting anyone as evil because they don't look, act, think, or worship the same deity as you (or refuse to believe in one at all), and forcing your children to do the same, and making it much harder for them to function when they become adults. Fundamentalism is feeling that you and your congregation are more morally superior to others, and putting on a veneer of holiness, when in reality you are no better than everyone else, or are using your act of self-righteous to cover up horrible evil done by yourself or your leaders. Check out my archive of posts on the IFB movement to see what can happen when a group isolates them themselves, and puts on an act of holiness like that.

Fundamentalism is also believing that  you have the right to use the force of law or social pressure to force others to live the same way that you do, and to persecute those who don't look, act or think you do, which happens on a daily basis in the US.

That is what I reject, and despise, not religion itself. I admire those people who still believe in a faith, but are open minded people, and reject fundamentalism. People who believe in loving others, no matter who they are. Some great examples are liberal Christians, I like reading bloggers like John Shore, or Lewis of the anti-fundamentalism blog, Commandments of Men. I enjoy seeing people like St. Louis minister Larry Rice, who has made it the sole mission of his church to help the desperately poor and homeless of the city of St. Louis, and has clashed repeatedly with city government over the treatment of the homeless by the police department of St. Louis.

I also admire Wiccans, all of the Wiccans I have ever encountered in person or online have been very open minded people, one of good friends is a Wiccan, and when I first met her (I met her when I was in the process of getting out of fundamentalism), I was surprised at how she lived out a live of loving and accepting others, more so than the Christians surrounding me who are supposed to be followers of Jesus, who told people to love others as yourself.

See, I don't hate religion, though my rants may lead you to think that sometimes, my real issue is fundamentalism...