The Outsider’s Test for Faith

Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains

From the book Why I Rejected Christianity: A Former Apologist Explains by John Loftus


I’ve investigated my faith from the inside as an insider with the presumption it was true…Now from the outside it makes no sense at all…From the inside it seems all so true. From the outside it seems all so untrue.

But consider this: Christians are on the outside of all other religious viewpoints. And from the outside these other religions don’t make sense to them either…

Then the proper method to evaluate your religious beliefs is with a healthy measure of skepticism. Test your beliefs as if you were an outsider to the faith you are evaluating…An outsider would begin his or her journey as a mild agnostic or skeptic. An outsider is a mere seeker who has no prior presuppositions about any faith, or no faith at all…

The Outsider Test is merely acknowledging an overwhelming truth, that we have an extremely strong tendency to believe what we were raised to believe. Then it merely asks us to respond in the appropriate manner - to approach want we believe with a healthy measure of outsider skepticism.

Something I hadn’t really thought of before reading this book is how much your parents and heritage play in your religion. The religion we tend to adopt is an accident of birth, an accident of geography. If you were born in Saudi Arabia you would be a Sunni Muslim right now, if you were born in Iran you’d be a Shi’a Muslim, if in India - a Hindu, if in first century Israel - a Jew and if 13th century Europe - a Catholic, in ancient Greece - a polytheistic worshiper of many gods.

So it stands to reason that most of us “natural Americans” are varying degrees of Christians (from the nominal to the fundamentalist and let us not leave out the “cults”).

I remember teaching the high school students in our Sunday School class all about the cults that called themselves Christians - mostly Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. The curriculum was designed to help the students be able to witness to them better and defend Christianity better by pointing out all of their misguided beliefs. And now I look at Christianity the same way. What is more fantastical? An angel talking to a man and giving him golden tablets and magical stones to read the new scripture? Or angel coming down to a virgin and proclaiming she will give birth after being impregnated by God?

When you think about it, all religions are pretty weird looking from the outside in. If only more people would take the time to do it.

All of this reminds me of a video I watched this last weekend:

How Do We Know Christians Are Delusional. Watch it if you dare.


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4 Responses to “The Outsider’s Test for Faith”

  1. Dusty Bogard Says:
    October 27th, 2006 at 4:38 pm

    The problem with looking at Christianity from the outside is the same problem that Christians face when looking at it from the inside. It seems everybody is only interested in either defending or attacking some “fantastical” or misguided belief.

    It took me awhile to realize that my faith is not defined by these beliefs. I am not defined by how the Earth was created or what happened in the Garden of Eden. The terrible slaughters described in so much detail in the Old Testament does not define my faith in God.

    What defines my faith is summed up in the Sermon on the Mount. I am defined by how well I turn the other cheek, or go the second mile, or love my enemies, etc. As far as I know, there has never been an attack from either inside or outside on these teachings. Can you guess why?

  2. John Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 5:40 am

    Frederic B. Burnham, a well-known historian of science said.

    “The scientific community is prepared to consider the idea that God created the universe a more respectable hypothesis today than at any time in the last 100 years.”

  3. Theresa Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 9:50 am

    Surveys, however, do not confirm the contention that “a growing number of scientists” are finding support for spirituality in their scientific studies. A recent poll of U.S. National Academy of Science members indicated only 7% believe in a personal creator, down from 15% in 1933 and 29% in 1914. If anything, most scientists seem to be moving away from spirituality rather than toward it.

    Apparently, what we are hearing is not the voice of a growing majority of scientists, but the well-funded, growing voice of a decreasing minority. The Berkeley meeting was a kind of “Premise-Keepers” rally for academics seeking to keep alive their premise that God exists, while science continues to operate successfully with no need for that premise.

    Victor Stenger: Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Hawaii.

  4. Theresa Says:
    October 28th, 2006 at 9:52 am

    Dusty I like your viewpoint. I have some Christian friends who would agree with you, too.

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