abelcainsbrother wrote:PaulSacramento wrote:Bart Ehrman is a good example.
A devote evangelical that lost his faith because he believed that the bible was without error and upon studying and realizing that it did have what can be viewed as errors, he lost his faith.
He lost faith in a thing that he viewed as being the center of his faith. He made the bible and not Christ, what he had faith in, or perhaps more correctly, he put his faith on what HE THOUGHT the bible was and when he found it it wasn't what he THOUGHT, he lost faith.
I thought Ehrman lost his faith because of suffering in this world,but I guess it could be both or a combination of things.
Really, I think the reasons people put forward about why they changed one way or the other -- is more a trying to explain after the fact.
It's kind of like a growing child. For example, I see my kids grow up day after day, and while I know they are physically growing and changing I don't really notice.
Then someone who hasn't seen the for even just a couple of months says "my how you've grown" or how they've changed in this or that way.
When we are adults we normally just receive a "have you put on weight" (if they're brave enough) or "have you lost weight"
And so this is like someone who changes from Atheism to Chrsitianity or vice-versa. In other words, the changes are progressive.
So what people say should be taken as just a snapshot of perhaps defining points and thoughts they remember.
Such that "suddenly" I'm now a Christian, or actually an "Atheist".
I don't believe Ehrman turned away from Christ just because he saw difficulties in the Bible, nor was it just some moral complaint.
These things may have been contributing factors -- stumbling blocks for him.
Instead it ultimately it boils down to a willful choice to turn against God (which is hard to accept in our Western societies which loves putting an external or physical reason for why we are this way or that way).
Everything else that can be thought up to justify why we believe this way or not that, is just really mud to sling to try and justify and put reason to why we lost or gained faith.
How is it otherwise, that Ehrman and William Lane Craig, who studied together and had the same roots reach diametrically opposite positions?
I don't believe one is more honest then the other. Rather we ultimately have two different dispositions.
There are stumbling blocks, but I think whether they are overcome or seen as a dead end, comes down to the person and where their heart is.
Atheists who become Christian often have a stumbling block for a long period of time in their life which gets overcome for various reasons such that their heart wins out.
Christians who have become Atheist often have stumbling blocks it seems which they repeated have to cross over and over and over because they perhaps ultimately don't really care to deal with it.
At the end of the day I doubt it was any one thing, but a number of contributing factors -- first and foremost our own self.
Scripture is clear that our very inner part, our hearts, are involved in our (that is, all of us) rebellion against God, and then so also in our decision to accept Christ (which God is also active in).
