Hawthorne Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 My name is Kenneth Hawthorne. I grew up in the Church of Christ, having been indoctrinated into that exclusive brand of Christianity from birth. But about 12 years ago, thanks to ex-Church of Christ preacher the late Farrell Till and his scholarly writings, I came to realize that the Bible is no more the word of God than Gone With The Wind. I have a blog, Is It God's Word?, that can give you a good idea of what I now believe and many of the excellent articles and comments of Farrell Till. I would be glad to answer any questions. Thanks, Kenneth Hawthorne 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOHO Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Welcome to Ex-C, Ken. I hope you stick around and read/write and contribute here. - MOHO (Mind Of His Own) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsathoggua9 Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Hey, welcome aboard! I am an "ex-church-o'-christer", myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorne Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 Are you familiar with Farrell Till? He had a publication that he published from 1990-2002, called The Skeptical Review. You can find it online at this link, TSR Online. What caused you to leave? Kenneth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
disillusioned Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Hi Kenneth. Welcome to ExC! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 8 hours ago, Hawthorne said: My name is Kenneth Hawthorne. I grew up in the Church of Christ, having been indoctrinated into that exclusive brand of Christianity from birth. But about 12 years ago, thanks to ex-Church of Christ preacher the late Farrell Till and his scholarly writings, I came to realize that the Bible is no more the word of God than Gone With The Wind. I have a blog, Is It God's Word?, that can give you a good idea of what I now believe and many of the excellent articles and comments of Farrell Till. I would be glad to answer any questions. Thanks, Kenneth Hawthorne Welcome from another former member of the Church of Christ and former Bible School Teacher, Deacon, and Elder. My wife and I were Baptist that came into the c of C through a Bible study with Gary Collie in 1978. I resigned as an Elder and left the c of C in 2005. By then I had become aware the Bible was certainly not the inerrant word of God. I had reached the point by then that I could no longer pretend that the Bible was either literally or historically true. Obviously we were shunned and our closest friends have not spoken to us since then. My wife is a Methodist now but acknowledges the Bible is not literally true. I'm an atheist. In hindsight I classify the Church of Christ as a nasty religious cult. I think you will find this site helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
◊ DestinyTurtle ◊ Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 Welcome to X-Xian! Glad you're here! Hope this place helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorne Posted October 3, 2018 Author Share Posted October 3, 2018 42 minutes ago, Geezer said: Welcome from another former member of the Church of Christ and former Bible School Teacher, Deacon, and Elder. My wife and I were Baptist that came into the c of C through a Bible study with Gary Collie in 1978. I resigned as an Elder and left the c of C in 2005. By then I had become aware the Bible was certainly not the inerrant word of God. I had reached the point by then that I could no longer pretend that the Bible was either literally or historically true. Obviously we were shunned and our closest friends have not spoken to us since then. My wife is a Methodist now but acknowledges the Bible is not literally true. I'm an atheist. In hindsight I classify the Church of Christ as a nasty religious cult. I think you will find this site helpful. 12 years ago when I left the CofC several told me that they weren't going to let me destroy THEIR faith! I thought to myself, what in the hell are they afraid of? The preacher actually said "the message of the Bible is such that any rational person would look for reasons to believe it rather than reasons to disbelieve it." I wondered where the search for truth fits in in all this irrational thought. One of the basic characteristics of the search for truth is to not allow personal feelings to influence the search! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geezer Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 Christians are deeply indoctrinated people, especially fundamentalist. What they call faith is actually the result of years of intensive brainwashing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lerk Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 Another ex-CoC member here! (The "NI" bunch.) I'm not familiar with Farrell Till, only Farrell Jenkins . I'll have to follow your link to Till's writings and to your blog, as well. I've sometimes said that in the CoC we tried so hard to be logical and didn't really believe in the magic stuff, so we should be pretty easy to deconvert. Welcome aboard! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator LogicalFallacy Posted October 4, 2018 Moderator Share Posted October 4, 2018 Welcome Kenneth Hope you stick around and contribute to our many discussions. Cheers LF Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorne Posted October 4, 2018 Author Share Posted October 4, 2018 2 hours ago, Lerk said: Another ex-CoC member here! (The "NI" bunch.) I'm not familiar with Farrell Till, only Farrell Jenkins . I'll have to follow your link to Till's writings and to your blog, as well. I've sometimes said that in the CoC we tried so hard to be logical and didn't really believe in the magic stuff, so we should be pretty easy to deconvert. Welcome aboard! The CofC is a very tragically interesting group. They believe the Bible is inerrant, but they don't realize the ridiculous, how-it-could-have-been hypotheses that they dream up in their desperation, could be used to prove that ANY book is inerrant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorne Posted October 4, 2018 Author Share Posted October 4, 2018 2 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said: Welcome Kenneth Hope you stick around and contribute to our many discussions. Cheers LF Thank you! Here is one of my favorite quotes: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent.Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God --Epicurus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawthorne Posted October 4, 2018 Author Share Posted October 4, 2018 2 minutes ago, Hawthorne said: Thank you! Here is one of my favorite quotes: Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent.Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? --Epicurus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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