Dear Anj,

I found the thread your note commenced fascinating and I hope it is ok to reply with some observations. You will note from my profile I am a Christian (UK based), something I never intended to be. Some of my thought processes and beliefs echo yours, and that is what promoted me to reply. I only became a Christian in 2012 at the age of nearly 50 so it is a relatively recent decision on my part.

Firstly I wouldn’t pity your atheism, in some respects it is a very healthy and normal place to be. Faith is a gift and one of the main problems people come across with people of faith is the mistaken belief that they can give faith or force faith on a human being. Quite how you can do that with something it isn’t yours to do that with is beyond me but it is certainly something you see occurring, as are polemics from Atheists dismissing something they don’t believe in as well. I am firmly of the view that in being called to love our neighbour, my neighbours are equally atheists, agnostics, muslims, jews, buddhists etc and so expressing pity in relation to someone else belief system is simply offensive.

There was a big argument over sin and going to hell. When Rome became the preeminent power, after a miracle caused Constantine to convert the Roman empire to become the Christian church in 312AD it gradually assimilated and overshadowed beliefs that it felt were in opposition to its own. In 664AD this commenced with the council of Whitby in England where the calculation of Easter and how the monks cut their hair was agreed (its called a tonsure). Prior to this the U.K was pulled together by Celtic Christianity and the views of people such as Pelagius who argued against the idea of original sin. Augustine developed that idea and it is from this the idea of hell and damnation originates to some degree. The Celts felt (like the mythical depiction of Adam) that we were created good and evil then entered in, which if we all look at our journey from birth through to our teenage years is pretty close to most peoples actual experience. What that means is that the Celts were seeking to release the good in people, rather than condemn the bad per se, which is a completely different approach to what is perceived about the Christian faith today by outsiders. The main theme is that it is not for people to judge each other. The God I believe in demonstrates unfathomable Grace and it is for God to decide who is forgiven, not us.

There is much of the bible which has things to offer today. It is actually a collection of 66 books and some of them are easy to read and some are not. Trashing them all is a bit like trashing a library. There is no reason why an Atheist can’t get some benefit from reading one or two of them, after all I have read Dawkins books, he is a brilliant biologist! What is clear though is that you cannot find your answers to why we are here from science. You need to explore philosophy for the why of things, science gives us the how of things. There are some very eminent scientists who are Christians, including several astro physicists. I have many friends who are Christian who are doctors. Our decisions regarding what we do or don’t believe are personal ones and on the whole they are not reflected by how we earn our living. If you ever do read any books of the bible then my favourites are Ecclesiastes, Esther and Acts. In the 1950’s an American professor of political science rebadged the book of Ecclesiastes as his own work. He was arrested by the FBI for spreading communist sedition! It is a hugely interesting book, much of it written as poetry, and could easily be on an anarchists book shelf in its own right. Esther has a savage story worthy of Shakespeare and there is no God in it. She acts as she does due to her belief but God doesn’t pitch up. Finally Acts is a first hand account by the doctor Luke who accompanied Paul on many of his journeys. It is mostly verifiable historically and gives some fascinating insights into what occurred after Jesus was crucified. These include several hundred people seeing him in public, a Saddam Hussain figure essentially going from murdering the Kurds to setting up an organisation to protect them and so on and so forth.

With regard to the primitive people, there is a common fallacy, like many post truth fake news things doing the rounds, that all the old stories are similar. The bible is unique in many regards. If you ever do spend time studying you will note that the majority of Gods are humanised and most certainly do fit your description of a primitive people looking out and seeking to find ways to account for their why. The God of the bible is separate from humankind and different. It is this reason that if we take modern spirituality it cannot be aspirational because it is about self improvement. The highest philosophical answer it can offer is from within ourselves. Thus we end up with relational truth that becomes post truth because there is nothing to anchor the philosophy to. Faith points to a higher place and for that reason, in pointing to an absolute truth, it is both anchored and aspirational. Sadly, as the bible itself depicts, people mess it up time and time again.

I enjoyed your post, wish you the best for your life but please don’t write off all christians, although it is understandable, based on your experience. Much of what people think they know about faith is misguided or just wrong, including thinking it is about something that occurred and is over and past. Christians believe in a living God, one that is evident in their lives and which provides something for them which is difficult to obtain, namely contentment. You have your choice, we can still peaceable co-exist without a need to rubbish each others points of view, after all surely we all do aspire to the notion of living together in peace.

As a poet I wrote a poem about Atheism / Faith which might surprise you - I hope you enjoy it - it is called - Starting position and is via this link.

Kind regards

Andrew C

https://steemit.com/atheism/@andrewcarnegie/starting-position