True Story

Can anyone be certain that what they believe is empirically true? Is a belief simply a narrative, a fabrication, to contextualize innumerable experiences? Kristin pursues these questions. She hopes that this article be received in the spirit it is shared: as supportive of those pursuing religious faith, but not inviting a heated debate. This is the second essay in our series on doubt. Look for the previous essay [here] and for the following essay [here]. -Editor

I don’t feel much pressure to stifle all doubt when it comes to my belief in God. In fact, my community has been very supportive of doubt as a useful step in the process, leading (hopefully) to a fuller and more personal faith. The area I more often feel pressure in is the burden of intellectual honesty. It’s been suggested to me that some people might come to their belief in God because of a kind of intellectual negligence, or because they are choosing a belief system that seems comfortable and safe, rather than true. Believers may be unwilling to be as rigorous with themselves as they could be, because there is a conflict of interest. Why engage with a painful, messy, violent re-evaluation of your beliefs when you are blessed with the sense that everything happens for a reason, you are being well taken care of, and that everything in the end is going to be okay?

Click to read more ...

Why I Believe

Jennica gives an honest account of her crisis of faith. She walks the reader through her experience of doubt, an experience that ultimately strengthened her beliefs. This article leads off our series on doubt, you can find the next one here. -Editor.

A couple of years ago a number of my family members announced that they were atheists. This came as quite a surprise to me because up until this point they had been active church members and seemingly firm believers in God.

At first I went through a state of denial, telling myself that this was just a healthy exercise in testing their faith, or coming to understand what the New Church truths mean in a context that is separated from what they were taught. As time went by I heard more and more declarations that they indeed identified themselves as atheists, and found that they had indeed diverged significantly from the beliefs I had previously thought we shared.

Click to read more ...

The Atheist Perspective

Owen contemplates atheistic beliefs in light of arguments presented by the New Church about the ultimate fate of those who carry such beliefs. He posits that belief and its consequences are at the center of our life on earth and that to suggest otherwise is to ignore or obfuscate the truth as he sees it. -Editor

You might wonder what atheists have to do with the New Church. Also, you might not wonder that. I don’t know that I really even believed in atheists until one of my old school friends and then brother became one.

If you’re like I was back in the old days, you might just write atheists off as misled and/or confused and/or wronged in some way by the church and so turned against it. I think, honestly, that all that atheists are, are people who have chosen to not believe in God. Of course there are psychological reasons behind their choice, but there are psychological reasons behind every choice every person makes.

The truth is some people just choose to not believe the same things we believe and it’s very possible those choices will lead them down a terrible road.

Click to read more ...