Conversations with a Pastor
January 30, 2010 by Darwin's Chihuahua
Comments (2)
About a year ago I reconnected with my high school youth pastor at one of my friend's funerals. (Miss you, Brian!) He asked me if I was still going to church, and I honestly answered no. After that we started corresponding through e-mail and then we met weekly for about a month and talked through his religion and my lack of it.
I went back to the church of my youth (of which he was now the Senior Pastor) one Sunday and it was just so sad. That church used to be a vibrant thriving community, but in the intervening years it had withered and decayed until now nobody is left except the die-hards who have driven everyone else away.
The Pastor and I made little progress in our talks. I got him to admit that the only reason he was a christian instead of some other religion was because he was born in America and not Iran or something. I thought I was getting through to him, but then for our final meeting he brought in a ringer.
This ex-youth minister had all of his talking points laid out in a row, and he neatly worked through them, paying little to no attention to my objections to his faulty logic. After about ten minutes of this I gave up. I let the Ringer talk and preach, and then when he finally took a breath I thanked them both and excused myself. I have not seen either man since.
This experience served to show me that it is impossible to reason with the unreasonable. These people have their minds made up way before you get there, and they will not hear anything other than what fits with their preconceived worldview. From now on I will reserve my thoughts for those who actually want to hear them.
Everybody here seems to be pointing at experiences with PEOPLE to justify their beleif or non-belief in God. You can ALWAYS find flaws in people and in man-made religion. You can also find flaws in the science that tries to explain creation and life. What you need to ask yourself has nothing to do with sunday school lessons and the people who teach them. What you need to ask yourself is that do you belief that life could have occured purely by the accidental coincidence of the right elements coming together at the right time in the right conditions, or do you have a hunch that this may not be an accident at all. You need to look inside to find that answer and try not to deny based in limited science or man interpreted religious beliefs. Consider the odds. If you still think life was created by pure chance, then that's what you believe. But you need to really ponder this before you decide.
avon 4 hours ago
It seems as if no one wants to embrace what is thought of as radical which does not fit in the little box. People seem to forget that it has taken open mindedness and change in order to come to the level that we are at today. I have talks with my sister about her vs my beliefs. I am like a triple threat to her because My husband and I don't have the traditional marriage, I am a bi sexual and as athiest. She seems to jump tot he defense which makes it really hard to try to relate or converse on serious matters.
belowxro 169 days ago
Everybody here seems to be pointing at experiences with PEOPLE to justify their beleif or non-belief in God. You can ALWAYS find flaws in people and in man-made religion. You can also find flaws in the science that tries to explain creation and life. What you need to ask yourself has nothing to do with sunday school lessons and the people who teach them. What you need to ask yourself is that do you belief that life could have occured purely by the accidental coincidence of the right elements coming together at the right time in the right conditions, or do you have a hunch that this may not be an accident at all. You need to look inside to find that answer and try not to deny based in limited science or man interpreted religious beliefs. Consider the odds. If you still think life was created by pure chance, then that's what you believe. But you need to really ponder this before you decide.
avon 4 hours ago
belowxro
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It seems as if no one wants to embrace what is thought of as radical which does not fit in the little box. People seem to forget that it has taken open mindedness and change in order to come to the level that we are at today. I have talks with my sister about her vs my beliefs. I am like a triple threat to her because My husband and I don't have the traditional marriage, I am a bi sexual and as athiest. She seems to jump tot he defense which makes it really hard to try to relate or converse on serious matters.
belowxro 169 days ago