The Holy Apostate

If you wish to strive for peace of soul and pleasure, then believe; if you wish to be a devotee of truth, then inquire…
—Nietzsche

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.-The Apostle Paul 

Hello, my name is Ryan and I have a personal bias against religion.

See? That wasn’t so hard. I bet you can do it too. The thing is—and this is something we simply must acknowledge before we can go any further towards a meaningful discussion about God—is that faith is not a rational thing. It is very much a supra-rational phenomenon. One does not simply decide to believe (or not believe) in God. There are other factors involved. Emotional factors; personal reasons. 

The questions concerning the existence, character and proper ways to worship God are, ultimately, questions without answers (at least while here on Earth). But unlike other such unanswerable questions (such as do aliens exist? Who would win in a fist fight between Dumbledore and Gandalf? Where do babies come from?), this particular question shapes so much of our identity, morality and worldview that we must live as if we do have an answer. And though sure, Christians and Atheists alike will tell you that there is more than enough rational evidence to justify what they believe concerning God, when it really comes down to it there is no absolute proof one way or the other. What’s more, Christians and Atheists are often times looking at the very same evidence, arriving at wildly different conclusions, and then citing said evidence as proof of their side. Why? Because we as a humans have a tendency to arrive at a belief and then begin to seek out evidence to help logically support that belief. Not the other way around. In other words, we believe what we believe is true because that is what we want to believe is true.

I say all of this because this is a blog about the evidence. We will do our best to lay out everything we know about God on the table. We will poke it, examine it, and (respectfully) discuss what we find. The goal being to get us as close to the actual Truth as possible. And though it is a goal that I am fully aware is almost as unattainable as my quest to be the next Justin Beiber, it does become slightly more attainable once we decide to at least own up to the personal biases that sway us in one direction or the other.

So here goes: My name is Ryan. I have a bias against religion. I am going to do my damnedest though to put that aside so we can really seek out the Truth. Now, who are you? What do you believe?