How have I gone from being a Christian minister to an honest doubter? That is the question of this collection of essays and it is not an easy answer. One thing you will notice is that I was a Christian apologist set for the express purpose of defending Christianity from intellectual attacks. I was not afraid of any idea, because I was convinced that Christianity was true and could withstand all attacks. Now I turn that same intellectual muscle into questioning the things I formerly defended.
There are three major experiences that happened in my life that changed my thinking. They all happened in the space of about five years, from 1991-1994.
They are:
1) A major crisis
2) Plus more information
3) Minus a sense of a loving, caring Christian community
For me it was an assault of major proportions that if I still believed in the devil, would say it was orchestrated by the legions of hell.
Afterward I began to doubt the very things I had previously argued for. You see, I knew most of the arguments against Christianity and as a philosophy instructor in a secular college I could debate both sides of most any argument. Anyway I had told people time and time again that I could teach philosophy until I was blue in the face so long as I knew I had a loving, caring and faithful Christian community to fall back on after my class was over. When that fell through the floor, the doubts crept into my life.
As the doubts crept in, my life changed and so did my thinking. This book shares both the experiences that changed my life and the resultant ideas that I now question. It is a look at traditional Christianity from an insider's perspective from start to finish.
There are three major experiences that happened in my life that changed my thinking. They all happened in the space of about five years, from 1991-1994.
They are:
1) A major crisis
2) Plus more information
3) Minus a sense of a loving, caring Christian community
For me it was an assault of major proportions that if I still believed in the devil, would say it was orchestrated by the legions of hell.
Afterward I began to doubt the very things I had previously argued for. You see, I knew most of the arguments against Christianity and as a philosophy instructor in a secular college I could debate both sides of most any argument. Anyway I had told people time and time again that I could teach philosophy until I was blue in the face so long as I knew I had a loving, caring and faithful Christian community to fall back on after my class was over. When that fell through the floor, the doubts crept into my life.
As the doubts crept in, my life changed and so did my thinking. This book shares both the experiences that changed my life and the resultant ideas that I now question. It is a look at traditional Christianity from an insider's perspective from start to finish.
