Thanks

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Mr. Till,
	I have very recently joined the errancy discussion group, and I want 
to express my feelings and share a personal story with you. You have 
my permission to place this on the errancy list if you like, but I 
wanted to let you decide if it was appropriate...

	First, I respect you very much for being open and informative about 
your personal experiences with Christianity. It is only through 
honest debate and sharing personal experiences that we atheists can 
understand better the perspectives of believers (because, in my 
opinion, a believer cannot typically have an honest debate or 
honestly question his/her belief). So, I feel that you provide us 
(atheists) with a truly useful view into the thought processes and 
underlying premises that Christians either fail to express or cannot 
express.

	My personal experience is from my days in the US Air Force. I was 
feeling very lonely because I did not know how to talk about my 
atheism with anyone. I had begun to get my batchelor's degree, and 
decided to minor in philosophy/religion because of my strong 
interests. Because of al that I had been learning, my agnosticism had 
changed to Atheism. I am very thankful for higher education. Anyway, 
after coming to this conclusion (about being an atheist), I felt 
lonely because I did not know who I could discuss things with, nor 
how to approach "the right" person. I decided, as a last ditch effort 
to give God the opportunity to give me a sign, to go to the chapel on 
base and speak with a Chaplain. I explained my loss of faith, 
inability to believe, the years of asking for God with no reply, etc. 
The Chaplain, much to my surprise, told me that he did not believe on 
the accepted definition of God himself! Wow! (I though to myself), if 
a man of the cloth, immersed for years in study and experience with 
religious issues can come to that conclusion, I must not be on the 
wrong track. I am very grateful for his honesty.

	In summary, I thank you and all others like you who can seriously 
question and honestly answer the toughest questions in life.

	I'll "see" you on errancy....

Drew Walton


"Thank God I live in a country where I am allowed to be an Atheist"


TILL
Your experience was similar to mine.  When I reached the point that I knew I
couldn't conscientiously continue to "preach" what I couldn't personally
believe, I went to an older preacher to talk to him about it.  After I had
conveyed my feelings, he told me that if I had come to him for advice, I had
come to the wrong place, because he didn't believe the Bible was inspired of
God either.  He told me that when he had come to that realization, he was in
a situation that he didn't know how to get out of.  He had gone to college
and trained to be a preacher and had spent years preaching.  When the doubts
came, he didn't know any other profession he could work at, and so he
decided that he would compromise with himself and just teach and preach the
parts of the Bible that he could agree with. Along the way, I have learned
that this man wasn't alone.  There are others out there just like him,
"preaching" every week in their pulpits.

Anyway, a few weeks after that conversation, I walked away from it all, and
I haven't regretted it.

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