"The Clergy Project is a pretty name that evokes the notion of strengthening pastors or recruiting them. But it is in fact a fellowship supported by many atheist groups for pastors who have lost their faith and are finally “coming out.” The new member stands and says in public, “Hello, I’m_____, and I’m an atheist,” which is followed by thunderous applause." WorldCommunity
"DeWitt’s transition from true believer to total skeptic took 25 years. It began, he said, with the idea of hell. How could it be, as he had been taught and preached, that a loving God would damn most people to eternal fire? “This thing called hell, it began to rock my world,” he said.
From there he read about universalism -- the idea, scorned by most fundamentalist Christians, that salvation is universal, and all people will be restored in their relationship with God without any action on their own part. After universalism, he discovered the idea, supported by some neuroscientists, that God is actually our inner dialogue." 1) There is NO ETERNALLY BURNING HELL-think how many people have been turned against God by that one FALSE Doctrine 2) As for people being lost-we have FREE WILL-freedom in other words 3) As for an "inner dialogue", therein lies part of the problem-toying with the new ageism of the world.
From TheClergyProject
"During most of my years as a liberal Protestant minister, I never saw a contradiction between my Christian faith and the fact of evolution. Like many progressive Christians, I did not understand evolution as a challenge to the doctrine of divine creation ex nihilo; evolution was merely the mechanism that God used for creating life on our planet. Aside from a cursory discussion in an undergraduate biology course, evolution never played much of a role in my world view. Evolution was interesting but peripheral. My indifference towards evolution changed dramatically when I ran across Richard Dawkins’ analogy of natural selection as “climbing Mount Improbable.”Which core doctrines of Christianity does evolution challenge? Well, basically all of them. The doctrine of original sin is a prime example. If my rudimentary grasp of the science is accurate, then Darwin’s theory tells us that because new species only emerge extremely gradually, there really is no “first” prototype or model of any species at all—no “first” dog or “first” giraffe and certainly no “first” homo sapiens created instantaneously. The transition from predecessor hominid species was almost imperceptible. So, if there was no “first” human, there was clearly no original couple through whom the contagion of “sin” could be transmitted to the entire human race. The history of our species does not contain a “fall” into sin from a mythical, pristine sinless paradise that never existed. Doctrines of sin and redemption are not the only areas of Christian thought impacted by the theory of evolution. Christianity and many other religions claim that human beings have a soul, comprised of neither matter nor energy, which survives the body’s death. This belief is vividly expressed in the popular Roman Catholic prayer to Our Lady of Fatima: “Save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven.” Religionists will often say that the possession of a soul is what distinguishes humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Never mind, for a moment, the fact that nobody has ever actually identified the location of the soul; just looking at the concept through Darwinian lenses raises numerous problematic questions for the doctrine. If all humans have souls, does that include all members of the genus homo? What about homo erectus, homo habilis and other hominid species that are no longer with us? Did they have souls that needed saving as well. In 1996 Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical affirming the reality of evolution. But he also insisted that evolution does not explain everything about humanity and at some point in the process of human development God had infused humans with a soul. The Pope, however, did not share when, exactly, the soul insertion event happened." 1) One can see what happens when one dabbles with the pseudo-science of evolution-whiich is easiy challengable- in todays world we have no excuse to believe in evolution-just look to genetics for starters 2) The soul is simply your living consciounce-when the body dies-so too does the "soul". Study the scriptures...why are some so easily shaken or weak minded?
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art
thou become like unto us?
Isaiah 14:10
From RNS"DeWitt’s transition from true believer to total skeptic took 25 years. It began, he said, with the idea of hell. How could it be, as he had been taught and preached, that a loving God would damn most people to eternal fire? “This thing called hell, it began to rock my world,” he said.
From there he read about universalism -- the idea, scorned by most fundamentalist Christians, that salvation is universal, and all people will be restored in their relationship with God without any action on their own part. After universalism, he discovered the idea, supported by some neuroscientists, that God is actually our inner dialogue." 1) There is NO ETERNALLY BURNING HELL-think how many people have been turned against God by that one FALSE Doctrine 2) As for people being lost-we have FREE WILL-freedom in other words 3) As for an "inner dialogue", therein lies part of the problem-toying with the new ageism of the world.
From TheClergyProject
"During most of my years as a liberal Protestant minister, I never saw a contradiction between my Christian faith and the fact of evolution. Like many progressive Christians, I did not understand evolution as a challenge to the doctrine of divine creation ex nihilo; evolution was merely the mechanism that God used for creating life on our planet. Aside from a cursory discussion in an undergraduate biology course, evolution never played much of a role in my world view. Evolution was interesting but peripheral. My indifference towards evolution changed dramatically when I ran across Richard Dawkins’ analogy of natural selection as “climbing Mount Improbable.”Which core doctrines of Christianity does evolution challenge? Well, basically all of them. The doctrine of original sin is a prime example. If my rudimentary grasp of the science is accurate, then Darwin’s theory tells us that because new species only emerge extremely gradually, there really is no “first” prototype or model of any species at all—no “first” dog or “first” giraffe and certainly no “first” homo sapiens created instantaneously. The transition from predecessor hominid species was almost imperceptible. So, if there was no “first” human, there was clearly no original couple through whom the contagion of “sin” could be transmitted to the entire human race. The history of our species does not contain a “fall” into sin from a mythical, pristine sinless paradise that never existed. Doctrines of sin and redemption are not the only areas of Christian thought impacted by the theory of evolution. Christianity and many other religions claim that human beings have a soul, comprised of neither matter nor energy, which survives the body’s death. This belief is vividly expressed in the popular Roman Catholic prayer to Our Lady of Fatima: “Save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven.” Religionists will often say that the possession of a soul is what distinguishes humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Never mind, for a moment, the fact that nobody has ever actually identified the location of the soul; just looking at the concept through Darwinian lenses raises numerous problematic questions for the doctrine. If all humans have souls, does that include all members of the genus homo? What about homo erectus, homo habilis and other hominid species that are no longer with us? Did they have souls that needed saving as well. In 1996 Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical affirming the reality of evolution. But he also insisted that evolution does not explain everything about humanity and at some point in the process of human development God had infused humans with a soul. The Pope, however, did not share when, exactly, the soul insertion event happened." 1) One can see what happens when one dabbles with the pseudo-science of evolution-whiich is easiy challengable- in todays world we have no excuse to believe in evolution-just look to genetics for starters 2) The soul is simply your living consciounce-when the body dies-so too does the "soul". Study the scriptures...why are some so easily shaken or weak minded?
