Essays, Rants, and Reviews

Mr. Miles’ Bible Class Lesson 2

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One of those awkward yearbook photos.

I used to teach Bible classes to middle & high school students in the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) school system. Now, I’m a secular humanist and an atheist. In this series, I review the major ideas I used to teach, in contrast with how I would teach them now.

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Jesus Changes Not

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“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever”

“For I am the LORD, I change not”

There is a logical contradiction in the beliefs of Christians, especially those who accept the whole Bible as their authority, not just the New Testament. But even those who lean heavily on the New Testament Jesus must cope with the connections Jesus himself made between himself and the Old Testament God.

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Spiritual Boundaries

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NOTE: This was written January 11, 2013, in the style of a personal journal entry. As such, it is not a counter-apologetic statement. It is a personal statement reflecting my journey and state of mind at that time. I reserve the right to continue my journey, and change my state of mind!

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We Must Just Trust

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There’s a certain frustration I have with apologists. They retreat to the following defense at times.

  • When the critic of Scripture says, “If this is accurate, such and such part of the Bible says something unacceptable;” the apologist cries, “Vague! Ancient! this all occurred so long ago, and was written so long ago, that we just can’t know everything about it! We must just trust!” 
  • And when the critic of Scripture says, “the Bible was written so long ago, and its events so long ago, we cannot trust its claims about anything and everything, especially not for modern people,” the apologist switches to the opposite side, and cries, “Inspired! Infallible! God knows all and guided his word to be the perfect view-port into God’s will for humanity! We must just trust!“
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FB#4: The Great Divide?

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This is the fourth of four points I made in a Facebook discussion in June and July of 2013. The people whose names are occasionally mentioned were the other participants in the discussion. It appears here for future reference since I deleted my Facebook account in April of 2018.

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FB#3: All Scripture Is Inspired By God; Therefore I Reject God

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This is the third of four points I made in a Facebook discussion in June and July of 2013. The people whose names are occasionally mentioned were the other participants in the discussion. It appears here for future reference since I deleted my Facebook account in April of 2018.

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FB#2: Rape Allowed By God Because Might Makes Right

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This is the second of four points I made in a Facebook discussion in June and July of 2013. The people whose names are occasionally mentioned were the other participants in the discussion. It appears here for future reference since I deleted my Facebook account in April of 2018.

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FB#1: God Arbitrarily Exercises His Power To Protect

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This is the first of four points I made in a Facebook discussion in June and July of 2013. The people whose names are occasionally mentioned were the other participants in the discussion. It appears here for future reference since I deleted my Facebook account in April of 2018.

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Post-Christian

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I was asked, “Why do you call yourself Post-Christian?” I’m sure that I didn’t create this term, but I don’t know if it has different meanings from my own. So, I’m glad you asked, so I can be clear.

What I mean by calling myself “post-Christian” includes:

I am not an active member of any church.

I am not a follower of or a believer in any non-denominational group or individual.

I have not become an atheist or agnostic.

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Apologies for Jesus

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The following is a contribution I made to a discussion in the comments section of spectrummagazine.org

Apologists for Jesus abound today. It’s fashionable now to re-imagine the Jesus of the Bible into a more familiar kind of progressive, humanistic, socially responsible guy. Not that he wasn’t already a kinder, gentler deity than the disciplinarian OT Almighty, but now he needs to be somehow more like us. And by us, I mean us LIBERALS.

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