Help a skeptic...

rocknrollchuck · 2020-06-29T17:42:06+00:00

No one can convince you to have faith. And while it does take a certain amount of faith to believe, we don't have blind faith. There is plenty of evidence, both historical and archaeological, to support what is written in the Bible.

I would suggest 4 things:

Read the Bible. God's Word is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Start with the Gospel of John and go forward from there, and when you get to the end then start with the Old Testament in Genesis. This will give you the best basis for discovering your faith. And you will likely find that those "nonsense" parts actually make a bit more sense when read in context.
Pray and tell God how you feel. Tell Him you're not sure if He even exists, and ask Him to reveal Himself to you.
Read The Case for Christ, which is the best breakdown of the evidence, by interviewed experts, that I've ever read. The author started out as an atheist who set out to disprove Christianity once and for all. He ended up becoming a believer through what he discovered.
Understand the Gospel - this is where sinful man recognizes his need for God's forgiveness through what Jesus did on the cross. Most of us have heard the spiel many times before, but most have not heard it presented in this way. You may not believe it, but you will finally understand why God did it the way He did.

Feel free to ask questions if you like. My inbox is always open as well. May God bless you in your search to find Him and trust in Him!

Deep_Strength · 2020-06-29T18:13:55+00:00

Chuck's post is good. I'll give you my story.

Personally, for me I grew up in a Christian home but I wouldn't say I was a Christian. It was by association: I went to youth group and served but my heart wasn't in it. I was sort of agnostic for a while, but a few things bothered me.

Origins of life and abiogenesis. How can life come from non-life? That is one of the things make makes the least sense especially the more you study science. This is one of the better videos about how complex life is.
Consciousness. If material things (materialism) are all there is, how can one explain consciousness? It makes no sense that atoms combined in a certain manner can process thoughts and do actions.

There's some others, but those are the main ones.

Why Christianity? I started studying reasons to believe for Christians, and 1 Corinthians 15 in particular sticks out:

1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, (1)that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7 then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; 8 and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

12 Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. (2) 16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; 17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.

Christianity, unlike other religions, has a very falsifiable event which is Jesus' resurrection (2). It had single and group eyewitnesses (Peter, James, Paul) and groups (the twelve, 500 brethren, and the apostles). Some others like the road to Emmaus are written in the gospels, but the gospels were written much later than Paul's letters.

Most scholars (including atheist scholars) date the Creed (1) to within 6 months to 3 years after Jesus' death, which Paul likely received after his conversion and going up to Jerusalem (talks about it in Acts and Galatians). So there's not really room for any sort of legendary embellishment to happen, and similar hallucinations don't happen to large groups of people like 12, 500, and all of the apostles.

Also, perhaps the most convincing part to me is that Jesus appeared to his half brother James who was a skeptic during his lifetime, and Paul who was actively killing Christians. Both of these men apparently believed they saw the resurrected Jesus so much that James became the leader of the Jerusalem Church and was martyred for it and Paul was obviously one of the greatest apostles and missionaries and was martyred for it as well.

TED style talk on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcoxS8mJGG8

Here's a longer video about more evidence of the above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyxR8uE9GQ

Especially when many parts of it are clearly nonsense.

I'd be interested to see which part(s) you think are so.

2020-06-29T22:44:16+00:00

I hung around Christianity for a few months before I finally converted. Watching this video was the tipping point for me. Watch it and consider carefully all the historical evidence for Jesus' resurrection. Grab a Bible, look for the relevant passages as they are mentioned, take notes and be diligent. If something is worth being diligent with is your relationship with your Creator.

Coupled with that fact that one's religion seems to be greatly determined by where and when we are born.

This is an all too common objection that is easy to debunk, see this other video. I recommend the whole playlist that video belongs to since you have quite a few doubts.

I cannot recommend more that you read the Bible. Read the Gospel of Mark. That particular book, personally helped me believe that the Bible is true. It's like a raw documentary of the events surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection. It sounds so real and unedited that it must be real.

If you are able to believe that Jesus died for your sins and that he rose on the third day, there's no amount of nagging doubts that is going to snatch you from God's love. But you need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, i.e.: believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose on the third day. All other "clearly nonsense" can be reconciled in your mind through faith.

Note that an intellectual knowledge of the evidence for Jesus' resurrection doesn't mean that you are a believer. The video alone won't "convert you". You need the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit and ask God in prayer that he grant you the gift of faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

FrankTheCurious · 2020-06-30T01:19:59+00:00

There is a lot of evidence supporting the Bible, as well as philosophical arguments that support the christian view, in my opinion, if you are curious, read the book recommendations in the other comments, i also strongly recommend "A Case for Christ", and what you said about things in the OT making no sense, once you read them profoundly, they make much more sense.

I understand how you feel, for years I wasn't a christian and the way you view the world affects your mental state, its never late, but if you are curious, read more about it, I recommend "Mere Christianity by CS Lewis.

Willow-girl · 2020-06-30T05:06:20+00:00

The long and short of it is, while I would love to believe there is a heaven, and a benevolent God looking out for me, I am hard pressed to accept that a 2-3k year old book has all the answers.

I've written elsewhere that modern Christianity seems to have made the Bible into an idol.

IMO, the Bible is a time-honored collection of people's stories and speculations about the nature of the Divine. There is value in reading other people's thoughts and having their advice ... we don't have to reinvent the wheel. At the same time, it's important to remember the Bible was written by other humans who put on their pants the same way we do.

There is a Chinese proverb that sums it up nicely, I think. It goes, "When a person points at the moon, a fool looks at the finger." So, set your sights on God, not on man-made religion! I believe the Spirit will convict you of what you need to know to do what you're supposed to do.

veganmountaineer · 2020-06-30T01:18:13+00:00

As a fellow Catholic, I have a simple question:

Have you gone to a High TLM?

El0vution · 2020-06-29T18:03:52+00:00

From your post it seems you lack any grounding of your faith in history, science or psychology.

My guess is that your faith was kept tied up in a nice little package and hidden away from any rigorous examination.

And now your middle age is forcing you to confront your faith for any substance.

You have a lot of work to do in this regard. I have tons of advice and don’t know where to point you.

Do you understand how Christianity informed and was influenced by ancient Greek philosophy? How did Aristotle and Plato influence Christianity?

Do you understand how the Bible came to be? What languages were the texts written in? What and who were they originally written for? How many authors were there? Google biblical literary criticism.

Do you understand how Christianity paved the way for the renaissance and the scientific revolution? Are you able to integrate evolution into your faith?

I think a good starting point for you would be Jordan Peterson’s Biblical lectures which you can find on YouTube.

Good luck.

Title	Help a skeptic...
Author	thetotalpackage7
Upvotes	6
Comments	16
Date	June 29, 2020 4:49 PM UTC (6 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/RPChristians
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/RPChristians/comments/hi3gi7/help_a_skeptic/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/RPChristians/help-a-skeptic.701421 https://theredarchive.com/post/701421

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