(Р) Буває й такe! (/, англ.)
06/13/2008 | Георгій
Лист від одного мого знайомого амeриканця. Подаю мовою оригіналу. Короткий пeрeклад, по суті: він пишe, що навeрнувся до Православ"я. Я з ним знайомий вжe дeсь з рік і вважав його за одного з найпeрeконаніших, найпослідовніших атeїстів!!!
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George,
Yes, it's true that I was an atheist and have returned to the Orthodox Church. Basically I just realised that I'd made a mistake. After having been a Christian for 8 years, I sort of felt like it wasn't working the way it was supposed to be working, so I went with a different (rationalistic/naturalistic) approach. Using that approach I thought I spotted lots of difficulties with Chrisitanity, and very little evidence in support of it. Eventually I realised that taking faith out of the equation and being hyper-critical was a mistake in itself--and if I turned around and applied the same standards to atheism I'd still not be satisified (e.g. as an atheist I believed that the universe was eternal, but it's not like you can verify that, you just have to make an assumption and take it on faith).
So, I went back and reexamined the difficulties I thought I'd spotted in Christianity 2 1/2 years ago... and I realised that many of them were either not difficulties, or they were difficulties that I could live with. Since I realised that I'd made a mistake, and since I still believed Orthodoxy to be the most authentic/historic Christian group, I figured it was time to return. Along the way has been an increasing belief in God, the resurrection, etc., which I guess came once I stopped focusing on perceived difficulties, and started trying to be a Christian again. Anyway, that's the basic jist of it.
J.
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George,
Yes, it's true that I was an atheist and have returned to the Orthodox Church. Basically I just realised that I'd made a mistake. After having been a Christian for 8 years, I sort of felt like it wasn't working the way it was supposed to be working, so I went with a different (rationalistic/naturalistic) approach. Using that approach I thought I spotted lots of difficulties with Chrisitanity, and very little evidence in support of it. Eventually I realised that taking faith out of the equation and being hyper-critical was a mistake in itself--and if I turned around and applied the same standards to atheism I'd still not be satisified (e.g. as an atheist I believed that the universe was eternal, but it's not like you can verify that, you just have to make an assumption and take it on faith).
So, I went back and reexamined the difficulties I thought I'd spotted in Christianity 2 1/2 years ago... and I realised that many of them were either not difficulties, or they were difficulties that I could live with. Since I realised that I'd made a mistake, and since I still believed Orthodoxy to be the most authentic/historic Christian group, I figured it was time to return. Along the way has been an increasing belief in God, the resurrection, etc., which I guess came once I stopped focusing on perceived difficulties, and started trying to be a Christian again. Anyway, that's the basic jist of it.
J.