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{"id":6598,"date":"2012-03-03T11:42:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T16:42:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=6598"},"modified":"2012-03-03T11:42:28","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T16:42:28","slug":"does-reading-the-bible-lead-to-atheism-does-losing-faith-save-one-from-fundamentalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/03\/does-reading-the-bible-lead-to-atheism-does-losing-faith-save-one-from-fundamentalism.html","title":{"rendered":"Does Reading the Bible Lead to Atheism? Does Losing Faith Save one from Fundamentalism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Hemant Mehta shared this cartoon<\/a> about the year after the<\/a> \u201cYear of the Bible\u201d in Pennsylvania<\/a>:<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Reading the Bible can indeed lead to people losing their faith, if their faith was placed in the Bible, which they believed to be inerrant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But that is only a natural (or perhaps nearly inevitable) outcome if one has accepted the aforementioned view of the Bible, and placed one\u2019s faith in the Bible, allowing it to become the foundation for one\u2019s faith, despite the Bible\u2019s own insistence that one\u2019s foundation should be elsewhere<\/a>.\u00a0If one has been foolish enough to adopt a view of the Bible that one has to defend against evidence from within the Bible itself, then perhaps it is only fair that one\u2019s entire misguided worldview come crashing down at some point. But what remains or is rebuilt from the rubble is often not a significant improvement on what was there before.<\/p>\n

It is not merely the combination of wrong beliefs about the Bible, subsequently confronted with evidence from the Bible itself that those beliefs are wrong, that lead to a loss of faith. It is also having one\u2019s faith almost entirely focused on and dependent on the Bible. If there is nothing beyond the Bible that constitutes your \u201cfaith,\u201d then when that is taken away as an infallible authority, then obviously nothing remains of one\u2019s faith.<\/p>\n

But unfortunately, very often what does<\/em> remain is the same desire for absolute certainty, the same penchant for dogmatism, the same black-and-white outlook. If those underlying issues are not addressed, then one may merely trade in a toxic and misguided religion for a toxic and misguided atheism.<\/p>\n

If, on the other hand, there is more to someone\u2019s faith than inerrant authorities \u2013 whether texts, creeds, dogmas, people, or a particular philosophy \u2013 then that can often constitute a faith<\/em> that can survive and thrive as one\u2019s beliefs<\/em> change. You may or may not still think that what is the ultimate reality is helpfully depicted in personal terms. But you may be able to hang on to faith<\/em> in the meaningfulness of life, the value of persons, the dangers of reductionism, and much else that, call it what you will, is part of the essence of faith<\/em> for many whose worldview, whether theistic, pantheistic, polytheistic, panentheistic, atheistic or agnostic, is more than just the sum of their beliefs <\/em>about religion.<\/p>\n

What do readers think? Did your discovery that the Bible is not inerrant lead to a loss of faith for you? Or did your beliefs change, while your \u201cfaith\u201d (or whatever you may prefer to call it) grew, evolved, developed and changed in ways that you consider ultimately positive? Please share your own thoughts and experiences!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"