At the age of 26, my doctor told me that I might have cancer. I started to organize my affairs so that my wife would be looked after if I met an early demise. As the son of an evangelical minister and a lifelong Christian, I began to think about death with a heightened sense of urgency. I decided to investigate my faith to be 100% sure that I was going to heaven.
At the end of this investigation and before the results of the cancer tests were made known to me, I rejected Christianity. I found an abundance of evidence/persuasive-arguments to disprove Christianity beyond a reasonable doubt, in my mind. I’ve listed the major findings of my investigation on this website; to spread awareness. For those that are interested, my 'coming out' letter is below.
Dear Family,
I am a non-believer (an atheist). I made this decision last year but have not told you to date as I didn’t want to upset you. I’ve realized that there will never be a good time to tell you this so I am alerting you now so that I don’t have to live a lie for the next 50 years.
I have recently been studying: Christianity, Jesus, the historical Jesus, Paul, the apostles, early church history, mythology, the Gnostic texts, textual criticism, history, history of apocalyptic thought, cosmology, evolution, science, psychology and philosophy.
I made my decision after I was told I might have cancer but before I got my cancer results back so that I would be prepared for death. My decision was made 100% on the evidence free of any emotional distractions. I used to believe that religion couldn’t be disproved (i.e. that atheism was a faith position); I no longer believe that. I set out on my quest for knowledge wanting to simply re-enforce Christianity because I really liked the idea of being immortal. The more I learnt, the less I believed. My decision is based purely on an objective intellectual assessment of the pertinent facts. I hold no negative emotions to religion, yourselves, or what you would call God, I am not rebelling against any moral standard and have in fact become a more responsible productive citizen. I don’t believe in Christianity or any other 'revealed' religion, I am an agnostic on a deist God (officially the term is atheist agnostic).
From my research, I concluded that:
- The Big Bang occurred 13.73 ± 0.14 billion years ago.
- I don’t know what was present before the Big Bang and may never know.
- The earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old.
- Evolution is true.
- There is no supernatural; the laws of nature are not broken.
- All man-made religions are false.
- ‘Speaking in tongues’ is called glossolalia which Christianity doesn’t have a monopoly on.
- Jesus of Nazareth was an apocalyptic Jewish teacher in a long line of apocalyptic thinkers.
- Hell is in my mind is the most wicked motivational technique that mankind has ever devised (include Pascal’s wager).
- The Bible is a fallible collection of old books with many contradictions & interpolations.
- Religious experience is a chemical reaction in the brain that feels very real to the beholder.
- Religion is wishful thinking to alleviate the sub-conscious fear of death.
- Everything we experience is the product of our material brain; there is no soul.
- Death is the end; the loss of consciousness.
I love you all and regret any mental anguish that this may cause you. I assure you that I am a sane, rational person and that my decision is based on the facts. All the ‘backslider’ reasons that you attribute to non-believers don’t apply to me, I am not angry at God, I’m not angry at my parents, I am not ‘possessed’, I am not out drinking/ cheating on my wife, my heart is not ‘hardened’. I truly wish it were all true; sadly I irreconcilably believe it to be false.
Simon
February 1st, 2009