Christians so much want to believe, they conjure up all sorts of crazy things as evidence of God

The story I am about to recount, is the last time I ever attended church as a committed Christian.

One Sunday (2006), some people at church testified about a “Crusade’” they had been on where they travelled around the Waikato region, praying at various different places for the region.

One of them told how they stood near a field and saw a solitary thistle in the field.

‘God revealed to me that the ground was cursed and I felt God leading me to walk out there to the thistle and uproot it, which I did and we praised God out there as he lifted the curse from the land!’

As soon as he said that the congregation started to cheer, applaud and praise God.

Not me though.

I heard an argument once from a Christian about how if you wanted proof of God’s existence you needed to keep searching for it, never giving up, because if you keep on looking sooner or later you will find it. He likened it to hunting for buried treasure. He said keep on digging because sooner or later you will find some of that treasure.

My first response was that I had been digging for that treasure for more than 30 years. I said that at first, I thought I had really found some treasure, but then years later I realized that I had simply polished up some scrap metal that I found and that I had discovered nothing of any real value at all.

What this guy was suggesting is exactly what Christians do. They hunt for that hidden treasure and when they find something that looks like it could be treasure, they quickly polish it up and put it on display.

They say, ‘Hey look, I found this treasure!’

Sometimes it really does look like treasure, but if you look at it a little more closely, you see that it is indeed simply scrap metal. 

One of the things about Christians, and I have seen this many times throughout my life, through the many denominations I have been part of and the people I have met, is that they are so desperate to find some of this treasure they will accept anything they find. They want to believe its treasure and won’t admit that it’s scrap metal. They polish it and polish to make it look good, but in reality, it’s still worthless. 

This talk, by the Christians at this church I attended, was a classic example of polishing. Here they were talking about the treasure they had uncovered. They were so excited about this treasure, but no matter how hard I looked at it, or tried to imagine otherwise, all I could do was stare incredulously, seeing only scrap metal. 

It occurred to me right then and there that I was once one of these people. I too had been part of this fantasy world of theirs searching for treasure that wasn’t there. It was then that I realised. I just didn’t believe this shit anymore. I had been in denial. I so much wanted to continue to believe it that I’d tried to force myself to accept it, but now I knew that I couldn’t. I knew that there was no way I could twist my own arm behind my back and believe anymore. 

Reason 39: Seeing that many Ex-Christians had similar experiences to me

Reason 41: I started to understand evolution

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