Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed

I only recently accepted God into my life after a lifetime of occasionally passive and often active atheism. I was raised on the bible in a fundamentalist religion, and read the bible even as an atheist from a history, poetry, and philosophy standpoint, so I am well acquainted with it, but I never was a believer as an adult until recently. My experience with stereotyping was, and remains, my stereotyping of Christians!

As an atheist I wanted nothing to do with Christians, assuming that they would be less intelligent than average; 'how could they be intelligent if they accepted fairy tales as reality?' I thought. I assumed that they would be judgmental, condemning me to the pits of hell, using the phrase 'love the sinner, hate the sin' to mask what I believe(d) to be veiled hatred, and a cowards way of saying so. I assumed they would be unwilling to even discuss with any level of intelligence or skill most issues of science. All of these assumptions were not made in a vacuum, but based on personal observation.

Now, having accepted God in my life, I still stereotype Christians. I still find that most of them cannot even discuss their own religion or beliefs beyond simple platitudes. I still find that most are incredibly judgmental, rapidly condemning me for being gay or for refusing to buy into their own 'bumper sticker' theology. I still find that most are unwilling or unable to discuss the science that they dismiss so readily.

I had a conversation recently with a woman with whom I was striking up a tentative friendship at a church I have visited. I talked about my acceptance of God while still accepting the science of evolution (hey! it came up in conversation!). I asked her if she believed in the literal creation and she yes, but sometimes she was confused about fossils and dinosaurs. In our conversation she showed virtually no knowledge of the bible other than the 'devotional platitudes' that she had learned from sermons and bible study. Please don't misunderstand me; she is a sweet person, but my stereotype holds that she is unable to engage in a meaningful conversation about her own religion. I completely understand that this possibly puts her in the realm of "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Regardless, the two of us cannot have an in depth conversation about religion and science.

My experience with stereotyping others (that is relevant here) is my stereotyping others who profess to follow the message of Jesus of Nazareth (the carpenter, Son of Man, Son of God, etc.) I long for conversation with someone who accepts the message of Jesus, does not condemn me out of hand for being gay (or different), can discuss the bible from an informed perspective, and can discuss the science that is relevant to the bible (physics, genetics, etc.) with enough authority to actually understand the relevance of these issues to biblical issues.

I believe that my faith, albeit tenuous and new (I pray every day that He help me remember what He has done for me and to 'help me with my unbelief'), is stronger by far than it would be if I had no knowledge of science and accepted the mythology of the bible literally. My 'leap of faith' is across a far greater chasm that it would be were I ignorant of physics, archaeology, genetics, etc. 

Albert Einstein let his belief blind him to science. He later called it his 'greatest blunder' when he modified one of his formulas to [maintain an immutable universe]. He later was quoted as saying that "God does not play dice with the universe" because he simply could not believe the discoveries made (based on his own research!) in quantum physics!

I have accepted that God cannot be defined by us, despite the best efforts of Stephen Hawking and Francis Crick. If He could be defined within the parameters of genetics or astrophysics, then He wouldn't be God would He?

I wish I could find other Christians that can discuss this without becoming angry ("But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.") or judgmental ("For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.") and can do so from an informed perspective ("But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear...").

"One man’s theology is another man’s belly laugh." - Robert Heinlein