Wednesday, March 10, 2010

What happens in seminary?

Dan Dennett at AAI

I had loads of feelings while watching this video about clergy who were closeted atheist since I am a former minister who struggled with doubt. As a lay person I could easily believe many things that weren't true about my religion, but once the study began I had to deal with cognitive dissonance (See yesterday's post for background on this). I was a fundamentalist and believed the Bible was literally and entirely inspired by God. I went to the Christian college for my church and my major was theology.

Studying the Christian Church history in addition to Bible studies had quite a profound affect on me. One would think studying Christian history would be inspiring. As we progress through the course I will never forget what one of my peers said "This is so sad".

One of the great points in this video is ministers learn how to talk to parishioners so as to relieve their "skepticism without raising curiosity and it has to sound profound"





Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived - Isaac Asimov

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