Quote Originally Posted by God-free View Post
Memory 4:
Another twenty-plus years p***ed and then 9/11 happened. I’m sure I need not elaborate on the events of that day.

Upon learning the reasons given for the attack (holy war) and finding out that three years before the attacks
"Al-Qaeda released a Fatwa, stating "We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim who believes in God and wishes to be rewarded to comply with God's order to kill the Americans…", I couldn't help wondering how they could possibly believe the things they do.

After giving this some thought, I realized that, in order to be able to carry out such a terrible attack, the perpetrators must have had strong and unwavering faith that they were really carrying out the will of their God. But, were they really? Did they really believe God wanted this to happen, or did they blindly take the word of the men who told them that God wanted it done? Shouldn’t I ask the same kinds of questions about the God I believe in?

Even 9/11 didn’t put an end to my belief in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. It did, however, give me good reason to seriously consider why I believed it.

So, why did I believe it? Quite simply, it’s what I was raised to believe and, it became apparent that what I believed had a lot to do with geography and tradition as well.

During the last 13 years, I’ve taken advantage of the wealth of information available on the world wide web and I highly recommend that others do the same. I’ve read nearly all of the Bible and I’ve conversed with lots and lots of believers and non-believers. The result, for me, has been that it no longer makes sense to believe anything on faith (i.e. with no valid evidence to support it). As I said earlier, I can’t pinpoint exactly when I stopped believing, but I did.

Phew! That took longer than I expected but I got it done in 3 posts instead of 4. I hope it makes sense.

Barbara,

Thanks so much for sharing your journey. I could sense what you were feeling along the way. It helps me understand more where you are coming from. There are more stories like your but you do not seem bitter as I have seen with others. You have the balance to even acknowledge even the enjoyable music.

Family's calling. Gotta go but will be back.