'Sincere' seekers (for Ron)

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>> RON

>> I think God 

>> rewards the efforts of sincere seekers, even those of non-Christian 

>> religions. 

>

>BRYCE

>     Oh really?  And on what basis do you believe that God rewards

>sincere seekers?  If I claimed that I went through a very real, very

>heartbreaking search, before coming to my current beliefs, then on

>what basis would you deny the factuality of this statement?


HOBBS
That claim is certainly true for me. I used to be a fervent born-again
Christian, but I took too seriously the biblical instruction to love God
with all my mind as well as my heart, and to test everything and hold on to
that which is good. I sincerely and undoubtingly believed that all truth is
God's truth, and that I could therefore be unafraid to face any questions,
and as long as I examined them carefully and prayerfully, the answers would
lead me to God. But when I examined Christianity, and theism, thoroughly
and honestly, I found many problems with my previous beliefs. So many that
I found that I had to reject Christianity, and theism, in any form. I would
have had to sacrifice too much intellectual and moral integrity to remain a
Christian and a theist. If you are interested in more details, I can send
you a copy of my "extimony" which I have sent to the list before. 

Ron, when you insist that atheists can't really be atheists and that we
must really believe in God, it is just more evidence to us that you don't
know what you're talking about and that you won't allow yourself to face
these issues honestly. If your worldview cannot allow for the possibility
of people who really don't believe in a god, then your worldview is
inadequate to account for reality. I really don't believe that there is a
theistic god. 

Do you think that all the fervent anti-communists throughout this century
deep down really believed in Marx's dialectical materialism, and that they
spent all that time and effort to fight communists because they were afraid
of the truth of communism? Or do you think that they realized that
communism was a bankrupt system and philosophy, and that therefore
communists, those who believed in the bankrupt system, were potentially
quite dangerous to the rest of society? Don't you think that maybe those of
us who confront the absurdities of Christianity can really believe that
there is no god and therefore consider those who want to cram their god
dowm others' throats to be potentially dangerous and thus worth our while
to confront? 

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