So Sorry, So Sad Redux

In my article So Sorry, So Sad, I addressed the issue of a particularly Christian disease, albeit one that infects religious folks of many stripes. Last time it was a sadly aggressive Anglican Priest (go figure.)

Now somebody cut from the cloth of science, apparently, has fallen victim. This was from a friend of my former Pastor, Chuck. Chuck had asked “Bob” to peruse my site, seeking his assistance in understanding some Quantum Physics concepts central to our discussion of R.C. Sproul’s book, Not a Chance.

He did chat a little about that, which I addressed here, but then he leaped across the line and said this:

Do We Have a Right to Question God?

I want to take a little digression from the list, if I may.  I’d like to ask a question.

Do we have a right to question an All-Powerful Capital G-O-D God?

It’s interesting, I started this draft a couple days ago.  I was involved in some good-natured debating with Christian friends on Facebook and the thought about the struggle it is for Christians who are bothered by doubts about the bible, God, Jesus, etc., to be open about those doubts, especially when they’re involved in ministry.

This post was supposed to simply be a mental exercise, a conversation without much context other than general observation.

The Devil Made Me Do it – or – Who is Responsible for the Evil Men Do?

Continuing on from my previous post, I want to delve into the issue of responsibility.

In that post I stated the following:

“Let’s say you are an architect and you build a beautiful theater for the purpose of housing the world’s most beautiful works of musical, dance, and theatrical arts.  It is gorgeous and perfect for its purpose – the best sight lines, the best acoustics, the best of everything.  But you design into it one simple flaw – the doors open inward instead of outward.  When a fire starts, and 2,000 people are trapped inside to burn alive, who is responsible?  Did they die because they chose to go to the theater?  Or did they die because the designer created that theater with a fatal flaw?”

Obviously a conversation of this sort tends to bleed over into other topics, such as hell, eternal punishment, free will, and the like.  We’ll get to those.  I want to keep it narrow in the interest of keeping the blog posts down to a reasonable length.

The Line Between Hot and Cold

When did I first begin to doubt?

I’ll start off by admitting I don’t rightly know.  Trying to define the point at which I turned from believer into doubter is a little like trying to pinpoint when the water in a tea kettle turns from cold to hot.  On either end you know its cold and that its hot, but there is a lot of lukewarm in between.

My earliest recollection of a disturbance of doubt is from my first couple years as a Christian, probably 23-24 years ago.  I was a fervent young believer then, still convinced that full-time Christian ministry lay in my future.  My study of the bible was ever-deepening, and in that effort I was buying a number of extra-biblical study aids.  Several of these I bought not out of any perceived need, but because they were recommended as part of a core library for any serious Christian student of the bible.