Atheist Turned Believer

Note: If you haven't already, you should read over all previous posts before proceeding.  These posts build upon previous information; they do not stand alone.  Starting at the end is like criticizing the selection of a hip v. gable roof without knowing anything about the walls and foundation. Another Note: Sorry this has taken so long.  There are three reasons why I'm so late in getting around to this post: (1) for the last couple of weeks, my spiritual journey has taken me in directions unrelated to the topic at hand, (2) at the moment, there doesn't seem to be much interest in this blog, and (3) I've long known that this was going to be the hardest topic to tackle, and I've spent the time doing a lot more research than I have on previous pages.  Still, I promised to get through this, and a promise is a promise. Our question today is "can the Biblical record be trusted as historically accurate?" The answer, of course, is "that depends."  ...

Note: If you haven't already, you should read over all previous posts before proceeding.  These posts build upon previous information; they do not stand alone.  Starting at the end is like criticizing the selection of a hip v. gable roof without knowing anything about the walls and foundation. This is the post in which we'll start getting into the legal stuff I promised back at the beginning .  It should be noted that I am not a lawyer; I haven't even played one on TV.  My current pastor used to be a practicing attorney, and I'm relying on her to jump into the comment section and correct any error.  😁 I left off with the conditional statement that if I could prove that Jesus of Nazareth was the human incarnation of God, then I could learn about the nature of God by studying the nature of Jesus.  I had then raised two questions: (1) what was acceptable proof, and (2) could I trust the historical accuracy of the New Testament accounts?  We shall ta...

Note: If you haven't already, you should read over all previous posts before proceeding.  These posts build upon previous information; they do not stand alone.  Starting at the end is like criticizing the selection of a hip v. gable roof without knowing anything about the walls and foundation.  Also, you should skip up to "Words, Words, Words" and then return before proceeding with this post. A few years after I had made the discoveries described in this blog, I noticed a paperback book at the drugstore entitled "More Than a Carpenter" by Josh McDowell.  Intrigued, I bought it and read it.  McDowell, a law student at the time of writing, made a very good legal argument for the case of Christ, using many of the same arguments I had already been toying with, but putting it much more succinctly than I could as a liberal arts major.  From this point on, I will be relying heavily on this book, but I feel compelled to throw in a caveat should any readers choo...

Note: At this point, it might be a good idea to start mentioning that, if you haven't already, you should read over all previous posts before proceeding.  These posts build upon previous information; they do not stand alone.  Starting at the end is like criticizing the selection of a hip v. gable roof without knowing anything about the walls and foundation. I was 20 years old and decided that, for better or worse, I was going to create a personal philosophy based on logic as I understood it.  No tambourines, no rolling in the aisles, no condemning others for having different views, no "I'm right, you're wrong."  No emotional involvement of any kind.  I believed I was in the perfect position to do this because, at this point, I had no emotional investment in religion or any other belief.  I'm sure this was all just the cockiness of youth, but that's how I saw it at the time. It was obvious here at the beginning that I would get nowhere until I settled the f...

 Good morning, everyone!  And apparently by "everyone", I mean all 7 of you!  Hey, that's seven more than I was expecting, so I appreciate your notice.  Today, I'm going to give you some personal background so you can know something of where this is all going to be coming from.  With my next post, I'll launch into the promised subject. Before I started typing, I made a quick count.  From birth through high school I lived in 14 different houses and attended eight different schools.  I'm not sure why; my father was not in the military or anything like that.  Over the years I jokingly concluded that my dad just really hated mowing the lawn, so every time the City threatened us with a fine, we just moved to another house where the lawn was already cut. The one constant through all of this was that my family was always very active in the local Southern Baptist Church.  Since I was both reasonably intelligent and perpetually the new kid on the bloc...

 Hi, everyone (or no one, as the case may be)! I've never written a blog before, and I rather doubt this one will go very well.  The reason I'm posting at all is because I had made a comment that "I could prove the existence of God in a court of law" on a friend's Facebook page, which intrigued a number of my atheist friends.  That's not a surprise; I spent many years considering myself atheist, and I would have viewed a statement like that as a challenge.  While I hoped to be as accommodating as possible to my atheist brothers and sisters, I didn't wish to take up my friend's Facebook space on what is undoubtedly a very lengthy explanation. Thus, this blog. And I should begin that explanation by mentioning that my statement is not intended as a challenge to anyone, regardless of belief (or lack thereof).  As my poor, unfortunate children have heard their entire lives, I really don't care what anyone's personal philosophy and beliefs might be....