Part 4: Appeal to Authority
I was homeschooled for pre-school and first grade and put into a strict private school for 2nd through 4th grades. We began class with the pledge of allegiance, the pledge to the christian flag and a hymn. We had bible class along with all the other typical classes you get in public schools.
In 5th through 8th grades, i was placed into a less strict private school, and we still got a healthy dose of bible class and christian teaching.
We were taught that there was an overwhelming evidence for the Bible and the Christian Faith. That anyone who did not believe was intentionally lying to themselves. Or they hated God and were lying to others. Or perhaps they loved their sinful lifestyle too much. and of course, Satan had deceived them, using the lure of sin. Since living sinfully is somehow much more fun than living in a way pleasing to God. But we get better rewards if we remain faithful, both before and after death.
Besides, no Rational Human could possibly not believe in the Christian God. The very stones cried out that God was God. and only through lying about things could scientists and historians disguise the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I was taught that we had scientific evidence for there being an extra day (from old testament) and for the total eclipse witnessed at Jesus’ death, and that the bible had direct witnesses either writing it, or telling the writer what happened. Luke was a historian, you know, he’d get his facts right. plus the archaeological evidence is overwhelming! there’s even Egyptian hieroglyphs about the Jews.
thing after thing I was told, and that the evidence was there for the plucking... Of course, no one ever encouraged us to go look. Why did we have to? We already believed.
They also taught us I Peter 3:15.
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (I Peter 3:15)
I guess, we were supposed to memorize what we were taught and continue the unproven “truths” ad nauseam.
I attended a charter school for the first year of high school. My biology teacher was a christian, so we thankfully skipped the fairy tales of evolution. the following years i switched to a public school but due to the peculiar situation surrounding the charter school and having taken all 10th grade classes there, I ended up being able to avoid any of the classes that had my family so worried about public education. You know the ones. Things like biology and sex ed.
My church and family continued the ideas listed above as to why anyone might not be a christian. And my list of friends was small, and I didn’t meet any self-proclaimed non-believers. Though, in my senior year, my closest “friend” in the Literary Magazine was a bisexual boy who was as much into fantasy as I was. I was really worried about him, because he was such a nice, fun, good kid.
I entered ASU with some trepidation. But God was on my side, and I was able to go through college without meeting the wave after wave of liberal intellectuals who wanted to brainwash us into their leftist/atheistic/immoral lifestyles. Most of the teachers were content to teach us the topics we were there to learn.
There was one snag in college. My Jewish history class. it was more of a Talmud historical class focused at grad students. Our professor wanted to have us exposed to both sides of thinking about the historicity of the text. from a religious and an non-religious point of view.
only one book bothered me. Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman stirred my thinking. It dared to suggest that there were multiple writers of books we knew to be written by Moses... and it had proof... and... what????
I spoke to my dad of my confusion, hoping he would shed light. and he did. It was put there by Satan to confuse the issue. There were people who studied the bible and knew the facts so well they could deal with it. But the layperson was an easy victim for this sort of stuff. But really, the real issue was did I believe in God. The rest of this.. irrelevant. oh. yeah, I can do that. I love God, I believe in him. So, I shelved the problem.
There was, simply put, a common thread running through my past. I would only learn after my faith hit the rocks that it was referred to as an Argument from Authority. “Believe me because I am your teacher/know more than you”. That, and they told me that the information is easy to find. That was a mistake.
It’s funny how people change their stories when push comes to shove.
After a few years of being my journey of self-awareness, I decided it was time to delve into the world of higher understanding. It was time to learn all the stuff I had been promised was out there. It was time I became a warrior for God, spreading light and truth to the world... well, the last part wouldn’t likely happen. But, hey, then I’d at least be able to read 1 Peter without feeling a twinge of guilt that I didn’t have a good answer.
So, i began diving into the world of... Apologetics!! Cue triumphant music here.
I began listening to a podcast which gave us “facts.” All the masses of errors (mistranslations) could be attributed to a few typos which were copied faithfully later with typos. Thus, the atheists were taking that “evidence” and blowing it out of proportion. In general, they did more of the same I had gotten all my life. I was pleased we had all this evidence and began making lists of books I needed to read. Some of them seemed odd for being able to prove the Bible and Christianity. Plato for example... Really? What did Plato have to do with proving the Bible?
But I started out simple: The Case for Christ. This came with such high reviews. Halfway through the book, I was boggled. His “evidence” was that biblical scholars said it was true.
what???
I was thinking they’d have lists and charts and scans of things with translations...
no... just religious biblical scholars.... so.. i'm too dumb to be told the real stuff? It takes a PhD to prove the bible?
no.. i’m here for the proof, folks! You said there was proof. why is it so hard to show me something?
Around that time, I met two future friends who shall remain nameless. We’ll call them John and Ben. Listening to John at my first convention, I was struck by how much i couldn’t call him on his false information. dang it, books, I need the proof.. so I just listened.
And a week later, listening to Ben and John discuss after a game left me with a higher urgency for my apologetics search. I knew I couldn’t change their minds... But with God, all things are possible.But at the least, here was a challenge, and maybe the reason God had led me to the delight some call gaming. (Yes, I know, I'm sorry. But, really, I was a good christian).
My parents and I discussed the situation. A couple of my new friends are not atheists, they’re anti-theists. There’s a difference. atheists aren’t trying to get rid of religion. But we all agreed, it was a good thing for me. Healthy people can take exposure to new ideas. It wasn't a good idea to just have church friends. Besides, i was a strong enough christian, I could take it. The Truth always wins out. Besides, I was studying Apologetics.
I remember shortly after discussing with my roommate my annoyance at the christian arguments on Apologetics.com website. Why were the atheist ones so convincing? What was wrong with me that they made sense? What’s worse, is that one of the posters was from the podcast. I couldn’t pin the problem at the time, but later I would realize what it was:
The christian argument was dancing around the questions, never giving the solid evidence that they claimed existed.
The atheist argument focused around trying to pin down the christian by asking hard questions.
My new friends treated me well, even after they discovered my religion. They occasionally asked me hard questions, but never demanded i respond. That and the Apologetics forums drew me back every day... like watching a train collision... I should just stop, shelf it.. don't ask questions.
But they promised.
And I fell further and further behind in my scrabble for evidence. I just couldn’t find any.
It would be six months of agony as I searched.
In 5th through 8th grades, i was placed into a less strict private school, and we still got a healthy dose of bible class and christian teaching.
We were taught that there was an overwhelming evidence for the Bible and the Christian Faith. That anyone who did not believe was intentionally lying to themselves. Or they hated God and were lying to others. Or perhaps they loved their sinful lifestyle too much. and of course, Satan had deceived them, using the lure of sin. Since living sinfully is somehow much more fun than living in a way pleasing to God. But we get better rewards if we remain faithful, both before and after death.
Besides, no Rational Human could possibly not believe in the Christian God. The very stones cried out that God was God. and only through lying about things could scientists and historians disguise the fact of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I was taught that we had scientific evidence for there being an extra day (from old testament) and for the total eclipse witnessed at Jesus’ death, and that the bible had direct witnesses either writing it, or telling the writer what happened. Luke was a historian, you know, he’d get his facts right. plus the archaeological evidence is overwhelming! there’s even Egyptian hieroglyphs about the Jews.
thing after thing I was told, and that the evidence was there for the plucking... Of course, no one ever encouraged us to go look. Why did we have to? We already believed.
They also taught us I Peter 3:15.
But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect (I Peter 3:15)
I guess, we were supposed to memorize what we were taught and continue the unproven “truths” ad nauseam.
I attended a charter school for the first year of high school. My biology teacher was a christian, so we thankfully skipped the fairy tales of evolution. the following years i switched to a public school but due to the peculiar situation surrounding the charter school and having taken all 10th grade classes there, I ended up being able to avoid any of the classes that had my family so worried about public education. You know the ones. Things like biology and sex ed.
My church and family continued the ideas listed above as to why anyone might not be a christian. And my list of friends was small, and I didn’t meet any self-proclaimed non-believers. Though, in my senior year, my closest “friend” in the Literary Magazine was a bisexual boy who was as much into fantasy as I was. I was really worried about him, because he was such a nice, fun, good kid.
I entered ASU with some trepidation. But God was on my side, and I was able to go through college without meeting the wave after wave of liberal intellectuals who wanted to brainwash us into their leftist/atheistic/immoral lifestyles. Most of the teachers were content to teach us the topics we were there to learn.
There was one snag in college. My Jewish history class. it was more of a Talmud historical class focused at grad students. Our professor wanted to have us exposed to both sides of thinking about the historicity of the text. from a religious and an non-religious point of view.
only one book bothered me. Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman stirred my thinking. It dared to suggest that there were multiple writers of books we knew to be written by Moses... and it had proof... and... what????
I spoke to my dad of my confusion, hoping he would shed light. and he did. It was put there by Satan to confuse the issue. There were people who studied the bible and knew the facts so well they could deal with it. But the layperson was an easy victim for this sort of stuff. But really, the real issue was did I believe in God. The rest of this.. irrelevant. oh. yeah, I can do that. I love God, I believe in him. So, I shelved the problem.
There was, simply put, a common thread running through my past. I would only learn after my faith hit the rocks that it was referred to as an Argument from Authority. “Believe me because I am your teacher/know more than you”. That, and they told me that the information is easy to find. That was a mistake.
It’s funny how people change their stories when push comes to shove.
After a few years of being my journey of self-awareness, I decided it was time to delve into the world of higher understanding. It was time to learn all the stuff I had been promised was out there. It was time I became a warrior for God, spreading light and truth to the world... well, the last part wouldn’t likely happen. But, hey, then I’d at least be able to read 1 Peter without feeling a twinge of guilt that I didn’t have a good answer.
So, i began diving into the world of... Apologetics!! Cue triumphant music here.
I began listening to a podcast which gave us “facts.” All the masses of errors (mistranslations) could be attributed to a few typos which were copied faithfully later with typos. Thus, the atheists were taking that “evidence” and blowing it out of proportion. In general, they did more of the same I had gotten all my life. I was pleased we had all this evidence and began making lists of books I needed to read. Some of them seemed odd for being able to prove the Bible and Christianity. Plato for example... Really? What did Plato have to do with proving the Bible?
But I started out simple: The Case for Christ. This came with such high reviews. Halfway through the book, I was boggled. His “evidence” was that biblical scholars said it was true.
what???
I was thinking they’d have lists and charts and scans of things with translations...
no... just religious biblical scholars.... so.. i'm too dumb to be told the real stuff? It takes a PhD to prove the bible?
no.. i’m here for the proof, folks! You said there was proof. why is it so hard to show me something?
Around that time, I met two future friends who shall remain nameless. We’ll call them John and Ben. Listening to John at my first convention, I was struck by how much i couldn’t call him on his false information. dang it, books, I need the proof.. so I just listened.
And a week later, listening to Ben and John discuss after a game left me with a higher urgency for my apologetics search. I knew I couldn’t change their minds... But with God, all things are possible.But at the least, here was a challenge, and maybe the reason God had led me to the delight some call gaming. (Yes, I know, I'm sorry. But, really, I was a good christian).
My parents and I discussed the situation. A couple of my new friends are not atheists, they’re anti-theists. There’s a difference. atheists aren’t trying to get rid of religion. But we all agreed, it was a good thing for me. Healthy people can take exposure to new ideas. It wasn't a good idea to just have church friends. Besides, i was a strong enough christian, I could take it. The Truth always wins out. Besides, I was studying Apologetics.
I remember shortly after discussing with my roommate my annoyance at the christian arguments on Apologetics.com website. Why were the atheist ones so convincing? What was wrong with me that they made sense? What’s worse, is that one of the posters was from the podcast. I couldn’t pin the problem at the time, but later I would realize what it was:
The christian argument was dancing around the questions, never giving the solid evidence that they claimed existed.
The atheist argument focused around trying to pin down the christian by asking hard questions.
My new friends treated me well, even after they discovered my religion. They occasionally asked me hard questions, but never demanded i respond. That and the Apologetics forums drew me back every day... like watching a train collision... I should just stop, shelf it.. don't ask questions.
But they promised.
And I fell further and further behind in my scrabble for evidence. I just couldn’t find any.
It would be six months of agony as I searched.