Anthony,

Since you grew up as an SDA with the message of the threat of lukewarmness coming (Revelation 3:16), are you free to share what caused your lukewarmness and then movement to become an atheist?

I commend you for acknowledging the cure for the lukewarmness is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Thank you for drawing to my attention that the use of the word, "harping," is pejorative and does not support efforts at good evangelism.

Thanks OzSpen for the invite. I grew up playing piano - platying was my entire experience of church. My musical tastes started to diverge from those of the congregation (a kind way of saying I wanted a little more life in the music), so I got to sit in the audience and listen for the first time. What I heard from the pulpit didn't make any sense to me. I saw a theology that claimed the Bible was absolutely true, yet there are thousands of contradictions. I backed that up with a science degree where perfectly acceptable descriptions of where we came from and why we are like we are convinced me I didn't need religion as the explanation.

Fond memories, the smell of fresh fruit, flowers at harvest thanksgiving. Sunday school picnics, Christmas parties, Girl Guides and a good start in life. The basics still with me although I don't attend church now, and someone, somewhere has been good to me. Just watch a snowdrop appearing through snow.

Ps
I marked myself Christian in census.

Anthony,

<<I backed that up with a science degree where perfectly acceptable descriptions of where we came from and why we are like we are convinced me I didn't need religion as the explanation>>

So you lost confidence in the authority of Scripture. Did anyone provide you with evidence that can be found in books such as:

+ Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason L. Archer (Regency Reference Library, Zondervan).

+ Hard Sayings of the Bible, Walter C. Kaiser Jr., Peter H. Davids, F. F. Bruce, and Manfred T. Brauch (InterVarsity Press).

+ There are other such books by Norman Geisler.

I also have a science background with an MA in counselling psychology.

I've found the biblical explanation of human beings 'made in the image of God' (Genesis 1:27) to fit the nature of human beings as opposed to animals. 'Some understand image of God to mean those qualities that make us human, for example: possessing a soul, higher-order reasoning, self-consciousness, consciousness of God and the ability to have a relationship with him. This seems like a good definition, since only humans are in God’s image and these are qualities that make us human.'

<<I saw a theology that claimed the Bible was absolutely true, yet there are thousands of contradictions.>> I find this comment to be a figure of speech - a hyperbole - when you gave not even one or a few examples.

There are millions of Muslims who don't have the faith but they do & have to consider themselves Muslim because they share a common vision & goal unlike stupid, greedy Christians !