I did not ask theists these question because a theist would admit that the world cannot be understood completely by human beings.
As would anyone who has given the matter any thought, atheists and theists alike. I mean, is there
anyone who actually believes that the world can be completely understood by humans?
It would seem that you are proceeding from a decidedly false premise.
{NOTE: Formal logic analyzes which types of true premises lead to true conclusions. Which means that false premises produce bogus conclusions. Since you proceed from a false premise, the conclusions you draw from that false premise are bogus. }
Was there an underlying reason for you chosing to abandon the Christian faith (assuming you were once a Christian)?
Yes. I found that I couldn't believe it, so I left.
More specifically, at around the age of 11 I decided that I should learn what I was supposed to believe, so, proceeding from the premise that I was supposed to believe what was in the Bible, I started reading it, admittedly in a navely literalist manner (I can't even tell you whether our church required such an interpretation, nor even what denomination it was except "Protestant"). I quickly found that I couldn't believe any of what I was reading. And since I couldn't believe what I was supposed to, it was time to leave.
Turned out to be the right decision, even if it was for the wrong reasons.
How long did you ponder before chosing atheism?
Not long. Only as long as it took me to realize that I couldn't believe any of that stuff. But then, unlike many others, I hadn't been as heavily indoctrinated.
If you're really interested in that question, why don't you go where a lot of ex-Christians are, such as at
No webpage found at provided URL: http://ex-christian.net? You can gather a lot just by reading through the testimonials.
..., have you ever considered a different religion than Christianity?
Why? Yes, I've studied about many religions, but what reason would I have to join one?
Actually, after 30 years, I discovered that, like so many others, I'd been a Unitarian-Universalist all along.
I just want to let you know that I am not and have never been a Christian.
Well, since you clearly indicate that you consider atheists to be "others", that would mean that you are some stripe of theist. As Carol Burnett asked the prism in her song, "What kind of -ISM is you?"
{When you search for God, y}ou can't go to the people who believe already. They've made up their minds and want to convince you of their own personal heresy.("The Jehovah Contract", AKA "Der Jehova-Vertrag", by Viktor Koman, 1984)
Humans wrote the Bible; God wrote the world. (from filk song "Word of God" by Dr. Catherine Faber,
No webpage found at provided URL: http://www.echoschildren.org/CDlyrics/WORDGOD.HTML)
Of course, if Dr. Mortimer's surmise should be correct and we are dealing with forces outside the ordinary laws of Nature, there is an end of our investigation. But we are bound to exhaust all other hypotheses before falling back upon this one.(Sherlock Holmes in
The Hound of the Baskervilles)
Gentry's case depends upon his halos remaining a mystery. Once a naturalistic explanation is discovered, his claim of a supernatural origin is washed up. So he will not give aid or support to suggestions that might resolve the mystery. Science works toward an increase in knowledge; creationism depends upon a lack of it. Science promotes the open-ended search; creationism supports giving up and looking no further. It is clear which method Gentry advocates.("Gentry's Tiny Mystery -- Unsupported by Geology" by J. Richard Wakefield,
Creation/Evolution Issue XXII, Winter 1987-1988, pp 31-32)
It is a well-known fact that reality has a definite liberal bias.Robert Colbert on NPR
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