Christianity and Me, II

I turned toward atheism soon after I became a member of a Lutheran church in Pennsylvania. This turn was caused partly by my love for mathematics in high school. After interviewed by a radio, the fans of opposing basketball teams began to call me ‘the mathematician. Yet, mathematics and the mysteries of religions became opposing forces in my mind. To me, forming a basketball mind was like solving a math problem and both of these were like playing in Nature as a little boy. Nature expresses truths to me and my mind was comforted by the certain truths I found in Nature. On the other hand, I could never form a religious mind because I could not be happy living with uncertainties and problems that cannot be solved. Furthermore, religious uncertainties do not change because religious scriptures are cast into concrete and do not change. A life of uncertainties was thus unnatural to me.

However, if a religious person studies the works of Moses, Plato, Jesus Christ, Nicholas of Cusa, Gottfried Leibniz, and Georg Cantor in my book, the mysteries in the field of religion will be reduced steadily. Those who say that religion has nothing to do with science and mathematics are wrong. God created every human being with a mind. It is up to each person to develop mind.

So, if you are a believer, you should think about socializing with scientists and mathematicians. But, beware. Many scientists and mathematicians are atheists, are flexing the muscles of their brain, and are going through a ‘doubting age.’ The doubting age will pass after a person begins to ‘ask the big questions’ about life. Passing through the doubting age is a natural event. But, religious people have eliminated this age by accepting ‘faith’ over ‘reasoning.’ To eliminate the doubting age, one develops a mind that develops faith. But, faith alone in a mind cannot reason properly. So, faith alone or faith-based initiatives can deny a person of truths about Jesus Christ. Further, faith alone can lead to violence. For instance, in Nigeria in 2002, the Miss World Pagent led to the butchering of many women to keep the place free of women in bikinis. Since God gives us freedom, it is inconsistent for God to micromanage us.

As a child, you initially sought the name of the objects in your home. Then, around age four, you began to ask ‘why questions.’ These two developmental steps are needed to fill the mind of a child with many new and rational symbols. If a child does not go through these two steps, a criminal mind could be developing. In the USA, I believe that criminals originate in the US government, which has the responsibility to secure our society. In the US government, it is the US educational system that is not preventing the creation of criminal minds.

The symbols we develop as children are needed to find truths and develop knowledge about all unknowns. All children must thus pass through these two steps so they can ‘distinguish and relate’ the things that exist among them. Since distinguishing and relating is ‘science,’ all children are really trained as scientists. The doubting age emerges or does not emerge after these two steps and when a person distinguishes faith and reason. First, if a person selects faith alone, Science and Religion are separated by that person. These people reject science and technology. Second, if a person selects reason alone, that person will become an atheist. Third, if a person selects both faith and reason, that person enters the ‘doubting age’ and must do what I did, that is, conduct lots of studies on God and universe before age 55. I do not believe that the ‘doubting age’ is unnatural. The teaching on self-knowledge by Jesus Christ indicates that the doubting age is natural and should be an organized part of any religion.

The pic is the major symbol of Christianity and the unnatural death of Jesus Christ.