"A former Seventh-day Adventist pastor who chose to give up religion for a year has announced that he no longer believes in God.
"I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God and...I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case in my view," Ryan Bell revealed in an interview with NPR.
"I don't think that God exists. I think that makes the most sense of the evidence that I have and my experience. But I don't think that's necessarily the most interesting thing about me," he added.
Raised in a Christian family, Bell studied at Pacific Union College where he was known for his deeply-held conservative views. He went on to become pastor of several churches in Philadelphia, before moving to Hollywood to lead a Seventh-day Adventist church there. However, he was asked to resign in March 2013 after raising theological issues he had with the church's teaching, and began to struggle with his faith.
Then, in December of last year, Bell wrote a blog post that quickly went viral. He announced that he would be undertaking a "year without God".
"I'm making it official and embarking on a new journey. I will 'try on' atheism for a year. For the next 12 months I will live as if there is no God," Bell wrote.
"I will not pray, read the Bible for inspiration, refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else's circumstances. (I trust that if there really is a God that God will not be too flummoxed by my foolish experiment and allow others to suffer as a result)."
Bell also pledged to read "atheist 'sacred texts'" written by key authors such as Hobbes, Nietzsche, Hitchens and Dawkins.
Bell now works for PATH, an organisation which works with homeless people, and has begun dating - his girlfriend is a committed Christian." CT
He went down that slippery slope of progressivism within the church (documented eleswhwere on here over time) and now look where it got him.....your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 1 Peter 5:8
"I've looked at the majority of the arguments that I've been able to find for the existence of God and...I have to say I don't find there to be a convincing case in my view," Ryan Bell revealed in an interview with NPR.
Raised in a Christian family, Bell studied at Pacific Union College where he was known for his deeply-held conservative views. He went on to become pastor of several churches in Philadelphia, before moving to Hollywood to lead a Seventh-day Adventist church there. However, he was asked to resign in March 2013 after raising theological issues he had with the church's teaching, and began to struggle with his faith.
Then, in December of last year, Bell wrote a blog post that quickly went viral. He announced that he would be undertaking a "year without God".
"I'm making it official and embarking on a new journey. I will 'try on' atheism for a year. For the next 12 months I will live as if there is no God," Bell wrote.
"I will not pray, read the Bible for inspiration, refer to God as the cause of things or hope that God might intervene and change my own or someone else's circumstances. (I trust that if there really is a God that God will not be too flummoxed by my foolish experiment and allow others to suffer as a result)."
Bell also pledged to read "atheist 'sacred texts'" written by key authors such as Hobbes, Nietzsche, Hitchens and Dawkins.
Bell now works for PATH, an organisation which works with homeless people, and has begun dating - his girlfriend is a committed Christian." CT
He went down that slippery slope of progressivism within the church (documented eleswhwere on here over time) and now look where it got him.....your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 1 Peter 5:8