I went through what you went through. It was the worst time of my life. Come thy fount of many blessings is also one my favorite hymns. I came to realize that I was not saved but merely had head knowledge. Every one I spoke too told me the same thing. I finally stopped telling people because it didn’t seem to help. I was miserable. God did not give up on me. He continued to Love me in spite of my rejection of him. I was very pridefull and confused. You are the first person I have heard about this happening too. I accepted Christ tonight. You are the first person I have told. I do not know why I am even writing this. The only sin God does not forgive is unbelief. We can not even believe on our own. I will pray for you.

I stumbled across your blog and have just read a little bit because I have a son who denounced his faith just over a year ago, and I am still trying to understand it.

I hold onto the truth that even though you are no longer pursuing God, God is still pursuing you (as he is still pursuing my son).

Also, have you ever considered the fact that because you were once a believer, your name may already be written in “the book of life” – once written, never to be erased? Several people have told me this is so for my son.

Have you read 1 Corinthians 13:5-9 lately? – From the message Bible – Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need fristhand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.

To me it says, seek the truth, and it will be revealed to you. Did you give up too early in your search for the truth that God is real? That heaven and hell exist? Are you sure that what you NOW believe is really real?

May 2009 be the year that His truth becomes real to you!

Happy 2009!

I have been following your blog here for some time. Although I largely disagree with your conclusions, I love your honesty and passion, and also your writing skill.

I think I would also enjoy your thoughts on this article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

Cheers!

Ryan, I wanted to ask you about your provided justification of evil. You seem to be implying that god deliberately took action that would ultimately lead to the eternal suffering of *most* of his human creations, in order to create the situation where he can be truly loved and worshiped forever by a micro minority of those creations?. Is this an unfair reading of your argument?

Lol, it’s true, I am jaded. I read too much of Dawkins and Harris and need to remember there are others. I agree, Sagan has respect, didn’t mean to include him in that tirade.

As for taking you back to high school, I work with high school students, it was the best I could come up with, and again, I wasn’t directing that at you specifically, but rather at Dawkins and Harris .. which you answered. I would be interested in reading about these moral systems that do not come from a system of religion if there are others. In the meantime I will have to check out “Religion Explained”.

I’m out for the night, but many thanks Lily. Have a great night!

Ryan

I’m pretty sure there are examples of moral systems to counter this, but I can’t name them off the top of my head. (Although the book I mentioned before, “Religion Explained” by Pascal Boyer, might be a good source.) Anyone else want to chime in?