tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post735983799650612592..comments2023-05-27T18:14:02.324-07:00Comments on The Bear of Little Brain: Why I Miss Being a Born-Again Christiannohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105024597059970491noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post-56217935618865766522014-05-23T18:44:36.439-07:002014-05-23T18:44:36.439-07:00I think people should be taught from the start tha...I think people should be taught from the start that there are nonliteral and difficult parts in the Bible. This would save kids a lot of worry and spiritual crises later on. One doesn't have to believe the Bible is entirely literal or perfectly inerrant to maintain that it's true, divinely-inspired, and authoritative on issues of faith and salvation. <br /><br />As I see it, people don't typically leave the faith because of a "scariness of ambiguity." I think it's disillusionment. But not a disillusionment with God or spirituality or even the Bible. The disillusionment is with this all-or-nothing approach to scripture. <br /><br />I wrote a post on my blog to elaborate, if you're interested. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post-34599708863517287742014-05-23T06:59:44.776-07:002014-05-23T06:59:44.776-07:00Nice question. I hope Griffin answers too, but my ...Nice question. I hope Griffin answers too, but my thought is it's disillusionment. Once people feel their whole foundation has been proven to be not as solid as they thought, they forget to check to see if some of it is solid. Like when you get the wrong answer in a math problem and then throw away your entire framework, but it turns out the framework was fine; you just slipped up on some arithmetic. I think teaching an element of literature (and how things can be true in ways that aren't literal) would really help youth groups.nohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05105024597059970491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post-91810137625102976532014-05-23T06:55:20.511-07:002014-05-23T06:55:20.511-07:00Well said. My church growing up was close to that ...Well said. My church growing up was close to that idea, and I think Calvin and the way people think saved me from some kind of crisis. Especially the literary side of things.nohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05105024597059970491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post-34138417114511712802014-05-22T12:52:36.736-07:002014-05-22T12:52:36.736-07:00Nice post Elaine.
Griffin, do you think that that...Nice post Elaine.<br /><br />Griffin, do you think that that damage would be mitigated if folks were taught from the beginning that the Bible contains some ambiguities and non-literal sections? In other words, do you think people are leaving because of disillusionment, or because of the inherent scariness of the ambiguity?<br /><br />It occurs to me that the idea of childlike faith as uncritically accepting rather fails to recognize what children are actually like. Trust, certainly is characteristic of a child, but so is curiosity and an incessant need to ask "Why?" "Why? "Why?" "Why?"Ethanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05775692524505547594noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5593504887733294557.post-27341436833523036942014-05-22T09:55:09.369-07:002014-05-22T09:55:09.369-07:00Thanks for this, Elaine. I really liked the Buzzfe...Thanks for this, Elaine. I really liked the Buzzfeed article and this post. <br /><br />To me, there's something childish required about each possibility - faith, agnosticism, and atheism. So the "childishness" doesn't bother me much. The thing that gets me is the potential damage of teaching a super-literal interpretation of the Bible, because when kids find out, "Hey, this might not all be literal," then their recourse is often to leave the faith instead of just seeking out a better understanding of the Bible. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com