Open doors or closed?

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I just watched a David Attenborough documentary, and one thing led to another in my thinking.

Years ago when I was a strong Christian, I would have struggled to listen to Attenborough and closed my ears to a lot of what he said. Why? Because he often refers to evolution, and I was antagonistic towards such ideas.

Now at 56, and no longer calling myself a Christian, I can listen to Attenborough without my previous prejudice. I learn things each time I watch the man, and enjoy his docos. And the things he shows regarding evolution is presented in an interesting and logical way. You can almost see each step in the process as he describes it.

I though about how his and other such documentaries are a closed book to many, their opinions forbidding them from seeing such elegant and enlightening words. Since dropping the faith, I found my world opened up, but I have been determined not to be just one of those ex-Christians who become hostile to any people of faith. But having enjoyed Attenborough's doco just now, I looked back to the doors that religion closed to me, closes for many, and it made me angry.

Are you happier ?

You lost your imaginary friend that loved you, and offered salvation, just so you can know some scientific theories, and watch documentaries?

Interesting. Am a big fan of Attenborough's docos.

That is a phenomenon Ive heard about: religous folks with a fundie streak finding things that mention evolution torture to listen to. Even articles about mundane things like obesity (for example) can be torture for some folks because the article might mention evolution.

But some christians are happy with Darwin, and with the planet being older than a few thousand years, and view Genisis as a metaphor, not to be taken literally.

So even if you were to go back to your old faith you could ( I would think) take your love of NPR nature shows with you.

Maybe you could be a missionary for David Attenborough among Christians (there is a book Ive seen in bookstores called "how I made my peace with Darwin"(something like that) that might help you get folks to reconcile their faith with modern biology class.

At peace, is more how I'd characterize it. The things I believe are no longer in conflict with religion.

Why ascribe so much just from seeing my front door? Come, let me show you the mansion that goes with it.

I wish I was David Attenborough! He was really an old-school, cool guy.

If that or even just a handful of other things was all there was to it, who knows, I may still be a Christian.

But no, my change took many years and a lot of consideration of a lot of issues. My parents took me to church (Presbyterian) from very young. At 16, I was "born again." At 18 I studied theology. I didn't just change my view overnight. That took another 30+ years of examining multiple aspects of the theology vs lay doctrine, beliefs, conflicts and contradictions, my own perceptions of prayer, talents and other spiritual experiences, the nature of man and how every group believes it has the goods on truth, and a whole bunch of other issues.

My rejection of religion (about 4 years ago) came about slowly over decades.
My rejection of religion isn't an emotional one, nor is it something I came to lightly or from superficial single issues.

What an amazing life to have led, hey. Better than his brother's.. lol

I'm an agnostic/atheist, though I'm not against religion, per se.

It's possible, in many sects of Christianity, to believe in evolution alongside creationism. It mostly depends upon how old you believe the world is. God could have "created" the world 4.6 billion years ago, according to that view.

Sometimes I think I'd be happier if I actually believed in something, just so that I could have a justification for things I can't explain, and so that I wouldn't have to explain to people why I don't believe. Truthfully, I think a lot of people practice Christianity just so that they can pin the blame for things on their god. That kind of goes against the point of it, so why practice it if you don't have faith? I'm all for religious freedom so long as a person doesn't hurt or try to convert other people in the process, and with my lack of faith, I feel the best choice for me is to not practice a religion. Just because you have the freedom to do something, doesn't mean you have to do it.

Most Christian and Jewish people don't understand the nature of the Genesis creation story, let alone the rest of the Pentateuch. They don't even realize that there are two different creation stories side by side, each with a different order of events and a different raison d'etre. Once you understand the reasons behind them, you also understand that having the two different stories, side by side, is not a contradiction. Understanding that in itself, is not a reason to doubt either religion, but when you extend that to what is taught, to other aspects of theology, interpretation and other issues, it starts to mount up as a borrowed religion that has evolved into its own beast.

Hmmm.. I better get off this roll and go to bed.

Not to sound cliché but there's little point feeling angry over the past. Just look at all the wonders you're free to discover now that you don't have religion holding you back.

If you do want to transform your anger into something useful and keep it from turning into poison in your veins you could take what you've learned and pass it on.

(went through a similar experience without the religion part.)

I agree SP. Up til now, I've had a more 'live and let live' attitude to it all. I often remind myself that 'everyone has the right to their own journey.' I think the anger surprised me.

I've had that thought too, and written parts of my experience down. But then I get bogged down in the detail. lol

Cool.. Kudos