Clinical Psychologist who specializes in trauma believes in God

[stigskog]

After sharing  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVI4kzoZmy0, I received this interesting reply from someone who has just become a Christian at 30. She was raised peacefully and in an atheist household.

 

 

Hey

– thanks for sharing. Okay, I listen to about 10 minutes and then I get a little bored of his voice and his attempt to use psychology. 

So many things I could say; but the things that stick out for me are: 

1. “Religion is a trauma inflicted on children through abuse of parental power” - perhaps in what you would called other religions this is true, I have spent enough time with people of other faiths to see how they learn about what they believe but, that can’t be true for me … which leads to my next point ....

2. “Religion is not something you can be reasoned into, no intellectual person can look at the evidence/read the bible and say that is true – people that believe it is true are ignorant/dumb/insane” … again, I WAS reasoned into it. I came to know Christ, purely intellectually, by reading the historic facts/weighing up the evidence, both what is written biblically and in scientific writings. This guy then wants to throw ‘psychology’ into the mix, advocating that people who do believe

in God know nothing about the human mind/behvaiour/trauma, etc., but, again, not only do I have a doctorate in clinical psychology, I also specialise in trauma

3. He relies on the age old approach of looking at the Old Test to say that how could we accept a God that doesn’t care for his people (i.e., sends the flood etc etc) – well why not? He is God, He can do what He wants with his creation, so thank God that He sent Jesus, when the God and Law of the Old Test was blotted out and we now get to live under grace – AMAZING. 

4. Leading on from this – and I know he didn’t mention this, but I think he allures to it when he talks about God being unmoral/angry (i.e., look at the state of the world) … I have never been more convinced of God and WHO HE IS and His existence when I am sitting in refugee camps with humans that have lost EVERYTHING, or when I’m giving therapy to men who have been tortured, or when I’m sitting in a mud hut with a women who has been violently raped and watched her whole village get mascaraed. God always always shows up in the darkest places to redeem the (free will) action of man. 

Remember ages ago, when you said you would come to church if I ever preached (ok, you said if I was ordained) … I’m preaching next year hint hint

[kahvi]

I'm always dumbfounded when I hear of atheists converting to Christianity, because other than being indoctrinated into believing it, I can't see how any rational person on the outside could agree that science agrees with the bible or that the whole "good news" story makes any sense. I'd be curious about this woman's story and the steps she took in order to be finally convinced.

[MMX2010]

I'm always dumbfounded when I hear of atheists converting to Christianity, because other than being indoctrinated into believing it, I can't see how any rational person on the outside could agree that science agrees with the bible or that the whole "good news" story makes any sense. I'd be curious about this woman's story and the steps she took in order to be finally convinced.

 

If, (and it's a very unlikely if), I knew that America would be engaging in a large scale war against an Islamic nation, I'd convert to Christianity.  The only respectable thing that religions does, (more so than atheism), is galvanize people around a common cause. 

 

I know that religion doesn't always galvanize people around the right (or moral) common cause.  But I don't see how atheism can glue people together sufficiently to defeat a religiously-glued opponent. 

[hannahbanana]

I'm always dumbfounded when I hear of atheists converting to Christianity, because other than being indoctrinated into believing it, I can't see how any rational person on the outside could agree that science agrees with the bible or that the whole "good news" story makes any sense. I'd be curious about this woman's story and the steps she took in order to be finally convinced.

I think this a lot of the time too, especially because I came to atheism for rational reasons. I think the main thing is that some people are not atheists for such reasons...to them, it may be out of spite for other religions, or some other reason that isn't backed by rationality, making it easier to move back into religious thinking. I can't really understand it all that well either.

[Matt D]

 

^ This would be a good video for the poster to watch.

 

I didn't realize there were so many Christian FDR listeners. Stef has recently mentioned more than once the commonalities of what he's trying to achieve and what Jesus was trying to achieve. I definitely understand the argument that leftists are more of an immediate threat to us because they advocate the use of force against us. "A statist can send me to prison, but a Christian can't send me to hell." 

 

I'm not actually surprised when I hear of someone converting from atheism to Christianity. For a lot of people who don't focus on philosophy like we do here, Christians appear to be happy people -- they have a community and a moral framework which can be very appealing (In my opinion FDR offers both of these things AND real intimacy).

 

I would MUCH rather there be more Christians who have converted to Christianity than who who were raised as Christians. To me that means fewer children who will be indoctrinated into a belief system (which I absolutely agree is a form of child abuse). I don't have proof for this but I suspect that if you're a Christian who was raised as an atheist, you would be more likely to let your children decide what they want to believe.

[DCLugi]

She does admit that her god doesn't care for his creation and can do what he wants with them. Not what you'd want to hear from a parent.