My Guest Post in The Friendly Atheist

Hemant Mehta of The Friendly Atheist contacted me and asked me to make a guest post on his blog.  Someone pointed him to my Eight Points and he thought his readers might be interested.  Some may stop at the title alone and make judgments.  I trust that some will choose to struggle with these questions along with me.

“How can you call yourself a Christian, let alone a minister?!” 

I get asked that question frequently and the questioner is hostile more often than not. Still, I like to answer it if I believe the questioner is sincere. 

Though I self-identify as a Christian and I am an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), I raised eyebrows a few years ago when I posted an article on my website about how my personal beliefs don’t align with those of most Presbyterians.
For example, I believe that: 

• religion is a human construct 

• the symbols of faith are products of human cultural evolution 

• Jesus may have been an historical figure, but most of what we know about him is in the form of legend 

• God is a symbol of myth-making and not credible as a supernatural being or force 

• The Bible is a human product as opposed to special revelation from a divine being 

• Human consciousness is the result of natural selection, so there’s no afterlife

In short, I regard the symbols of Christianity from a non-supernatural point of view….

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