I think it’s time for a rant. There’s something that pastors and other Christians tend to say that bugs me. It’s the idea that “this world is hurting and lost.” During my years as a Christian, I must have heard this countless times. If I had a nickel for every time I heard it, I’d be a millionaire, I’m sure. But why does this get repeated so often? When was the last time these people looked outside?

Don’t get me wrong. I understand that there are a lot of hurting people out there. Bad things happen, and they cause pain. There are definitely a lot of sad and hurting people out there; I’m not trying to deny this. But on the whole, this is not my experience of things. Most of the people I meet seem to be happy, at the very least. Maybe they’re all faking it, but that seems a little unlikely. On the whole, people seem to take life in stride, and be fairly optimistic about things. And this is the case no matter whether someone is Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, non-religious, or atheist. I’m part of an atheist, agnostic, and freethinkers club on campus, and the people I meet there certainly seem to be happy with life. We joke around, we have deep discussions, and we all have a great time about it. If life without God leads to pain, hurt, and sadness, then something’s not right here. Moreover, I’ve been in both camps. I’ve seen…Continue Reading

Well, today’s my birthday. Hooray! That’s right; 22 years ago today, I burst forth into the world – probably with a lot of crying and screaming. But here I am, 22 years later, and I’m still alive and well. It’s strange to think about that. But anyway, I decided I’d stay up until midnight hit – not because I’m particularly excited about my birthday, but just because I was already up fairly late, so I figured I might as well go a bit longer. And since I was up, I figured I’d take a moment to reflect and write down a few thoughts.

Thinking back over the past year, a lot of it was actually quite unmemorable. If I could use one word to describe my year of being 21, it would probably be, “settling.” A month and a half earlier, I had decided I was no longer a Christian. (I know, I know, I’ve written way too much about this – you’re probably sick of reading about it, and I know I’m sick of writing about it. But just bear with me.) That, of course, had the incredible effect of shaking the world right out from underneath me. I had a lot of things to discover, rediscover, and recover. So, while I did try to come back out of my shell a little bit, for the most part I stayed in there – first off, because I was comfortable, but also simply because suddenly the world was a dark…Continue Reading