Board index ‹ Assorted Bible Questions

[Big House]

I already know that this will come off very condescendingly. But that is probably unavoidable.

My question is how do you retain your faith into adulthood? I understand that children are indoctrinated into religion. But after experiencing the world, meeting other people, seeing that there are other religions, understanding more and more about science and the natural world, accepting that the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, Greek gods, and other religious gods that you don't believe in aren't real, how do you manage to believe in a Christian God? How can you sectionalize your thinking to accept a Christian god based on faith but accept that those other things are just fairy tales?

[jimwalton]

I found as I progressed into adulthood that the deepest answers of humanity were not being answered by the scientists and philosophers, but demanded a wider-ranging search. My study of the Bible impressed me as deep truths that were not being touched by the other disciplines. While some people study the Bible and become more disillusioned by its alleged fictions and fantasies, the deeper I studied the Bible the more I became convicted that it was telling the story of a far greater truth. God became more real with the reading of every page, and the sensibleness of the Bible when placed beside the realities of life was striking. The Bible is not just religious philosophy ("Those who love are like the sun on a summer day"), but rooted in history, realistic in life, soul-changing truth that speaks of a real God who reveals himself in time and space to people in great need of help and meaning in life. My faith is based in evidence, not in a pipe dream of wishful thinking, or of a blind leap in the dark. There is no legitimate comparison of Christianity with Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, Greek gods, or the gods of other religions. My thinking isn't sectionalized in the least. Santa and tooth fairy are parental inventions to bring fun and joy to children. The God who is there has nothing in common with that stuff. The gods of mythology were meant to be spiritual explanations of life, but there were never meant to have any connection with history, in contrast to the Bible and the true God (YHWH/Jesus/Spirit). The distinctions are vast and deep.