Leaving the Fold

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Morton

> 

> I now know where I ran into your name.  I read your story in Babinski's

> book, Leaving the Fold.  While we may have many disagreements about the

> Flood, the Bible etc, our life experiences have traveled at least partway

> down similar paths. And I am sure that we can agree that much of

christian

> scholarship is very very bad.  As a geoscientist I couldn't find a

scenario

> for the Flood that fit into the Scriptural account. And like you, I had

> come to believe that there was no answer to the problems of the Flood.

The

> discrepancies were not easily solved, and simply couldn't be solved in

the

> framework of YECism. And the normal theistic evolutionary position which

> highly allegorized Genesis made no sense to me.  Why believe that which

you

> know can't be true.  One can believe that which MIGHT be true but not

that

> which can't be true.  I came within an inch of becoming an atheist when I

> stumbled into the views I know hold.  

> 

> So, presently I can't answer all the problems or difficulties in the

Bible,

> but I was able to answer to my satisfaction, the problem that most bugged

> me--the flood.

> glenn

> 


April

So you're not an inerrantist, then?  Matt brought you here under false
pretenses - this is a bible errancy list.  We can now all turn to Matt and
say "See?  I told you so.  Biblical flood problems CANNOT be solved knowing
modern scientific principles."

On a more personal level, I, like you, tried very desperately to stay a
Christian as my education in science developed.  I made rationalization
after rationalization, trying to reconcile the known from the absurd.   I
changed denominations and even religions (exploring Judaism and Hinduism)
before coming to the very regretful (I thought at the time) decision that
no evidence for a personal god existed.  The interesting thing is, once I
renounced belief in a deity (which is a very difficult thing to do - no
doubt about it!) life became so much better.  Things that hadn't had
answers before, now did.  Why did the minister's family's van catch fire
and kill 5 of their 8 kids?  Because the engine exploded.  Why didn't god
save them?  No longer a problem.

I urge you to continue to test your beliefs with the facts of life that you
know are true.  You're on the right road - once you start saying "Well, the
bible says a global flood, but I know that never happened, so I'll just
consider it meant a local one..." it's not very hard to get to "people
don't rise from the dead, and, considering that there were lots of
"supposed" dead-risers among the religions of those people at the time, is
there any reason to believe one story when I don't believe the rest?"

Read books.  I'll recommend my favorite "The Final Superstition" by Joseph
Daleiden ($28 post-paid from the author - email me privately), but there
are a lot of others.  You're a scientist - apply your scientific talents
and the discipline of the field to religious claims just as you would to
other ones.  

Good luck!  

April

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