It can be helpfully clarifying to just, think about stuff without having to make it somehow fit what the Bible says. I mean, I came to some of these conclusions while I was Christian/pre-atheist but being an atheist clarified them further.
It helped me realize things like –
- I’d rather be in heaven with humans from earth I knew and loved (all of them, Christians, atheists, whoever), than be there with Jesus and a bunch of strangers.
- I’d rather no god exist than a God who is sending or even allowing many people to be eternally tormented.
- Being a God who IS Love is incompatible with creating anyone who will be eternally tormented even if they do do things wrong in their non-eternal mortal lives.
- Love is not compatible with me asserting to others that what they are doing, in mutually consenting situations is ‘sinful’.
- There is a being other than God who is so powerful that it is necessary to interrupt a prayer to God in order to say [SATAN, I COMMAND YOU, IN THE NAME OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, TO LEAVE MY PRESENCE WITH ALL YOUR DEMONS, AND I BRING THE BLOOD OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST BETWEEN US.] (I believe I spoke to my pastor about this prayer and this issue once – and back then I was still Christian/pre-atheist – but I was probably somewhat ill so I’m not sure whether he took it seriously.)
- It’s impossible to believe that Christians uniquely have the Spirit of God and not other people if Christian behavior/heart-attitudes seem exactly the same as everyone else.
- [Ok this one is actually from the Bible] Jesus consistently indicated that any non-pleasant post-mortal-life-experiences would be based on how people behaved in this mortal life, not on what they believed about God. Also what he said about hell is very word-picturey. In Matthew 25, if we don’t literally believe we have two horns and go around saying ‘baa baaa’ then maybe we shouldn’t be so sure of what Jesus meant in verse 46. Anyway who knows what Jesus knew for sure when on earth about judgment. He couldn’t have had a fully human experience if he’d known everything ahead of time.
Anyway, as a result of recent events including recent events, maybe I believe some stuff again. It’s hard to say how everything will shake out this time: I was still a Christian/pre-atheist after 1 psychotic episode; I became an atheist after 2; what’s going to happen after 3? I think 3 is largely over but I’m still being medicated as if it were not, so….so…who knows.
“To trust in a God I cannot see, that’s what faith must be” – Michael Card
*sigh*