The three questions
By Gene X. Christian
Image Credit: Midjourney
In July 2024, I declared myself as an atheist. But for close to four decades before that, I called myself a Christian.
I was saved at an early age, was raised in the church, and applied the teachings of the bible to my life. I attended church three and even four times a week. I read my bible regularly (yep, even all the way through it). I prayed. I memorized scripture. I made decisions every day based on my understanding of biblical teachings.
In the future, I’ll post the full story of how I left my faith. For now, let’s talk about the thinking that led to my journey of deconstruction.
It is not unusual for any believer of any faith to have questions. It’s normal, and should be expected. I think it’s a good thing, because asking questions is the only way to get answers. How else can we learn anything?
The bible*, is mixed on the subject. There are scriptures that appear to indicate questioning is wrong …
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths." - Proverbs 3:5-6
"And He (Jesus) said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?" - Luke 24:38
… and there are others that say questioning is OK.
"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." - James 1:5
Learning the scriptures and working out your beliefs about faith start with supposition.
Supposition
The Cambridge dictionary defines supposition as this: “The fact of believing something is true without any proof, or something that you believe to be true without any proof.”
How this works out in the Judeo-Christian faith can be summed up like this: by default you presuppose that God exists, and also that the text of the bible is truth. Anything that conflicts with the presupposed truth of God and scripture must be reconciled through other reasoning (dogma).
Simply put: If you’re doubting what you read in the bible, seek answers in the bible.
As I struggled with some big questions about my long-held beliefs, I stumbled into the process of deconstruction even though I didn’t know that process had a name.
Deconstruction allowed me to take a step back and take another look at my faith. The process led me ask myself what I call The Three Questions (The 3Qs). Asking The 3Qs requires that one do two things:
- Discard the supposition that the bible is absolutely true without question
- Be very intellectually honest with myself
The 3Qs are as follows:
- What do I believe?: What is the essential core of my beliefs?
- Why do I believe it?: How did I come to believe that my core beliefs are true?
- What if I am wrong?: If I am wrong about my supposition and the core beliefs that exist because of what I suppose is true, what are the consequences if what I believe to be true, isn’t?
Over the course of the next three posts, I will go deeper into each of these questions.
* In Judaism, the Hebrew Bible is called the Tanakh. In Christianity that text is referred to as the Old Testament. Unless otherwise noted, all scriptures are from the New King James Version (NKJV).
Published on 2024-12-15