Way back in 1859, Charles Darwin startled the world by publishing his famous (many would say infamous) book On the Origin of Species, which laid out his theory of evolution. You may know that at the end of his life, Charles Darwin was an atheist. However, that was not always the case. Darwin was raised in the Anglican Church and even considered becoming a clergyman. So, what caused him to renounce Christianity? Many people believe Darwin lost his faith because of his belief in evolution. But that's incorrect. To the end of his life, Darwin insisted that evolution was completely compatible with Christian faith. Neither science nor evolution caused Darwin to reject Christianity. Instead, bad religion caused Darwin to become an atheist. For example, when his beloved daughter died at the age of ten, Darwin blamed God. Eventually he quit believing in God altogether. He simply could not believe in a God that killed off ten-year-old children. I don't blame him. I don't believe in that kind of God either. If space permitted, I could give you other examples of how bad theology undermined Darwin's faith, including the doctrine that all Jews were destined for a devil's hell. In the end it wasn't science but bad religion that caused Darwin's atheism.
Unfortunately, there's still a lot of bad religion out there, and it still causes people to lose their faith. For example, think of all those young Muslim men and women who blow themselves up, along with dozens of innocent people--all in the name of God. But bad religion is not limited to Islam. Think about all those Roman Catholic priests who molested children and all the bishops who covered it up. There's plenty of bad religion in Protestant churches as well. I recently heard about a Baptist preacher from California who prays daily, in the name of Jesus, for God to kill President Obama. Sadly, I could go on and on. Bad religion abounds, including closed-minded religion, arrogant religion, partisan religion, intolerant religion, and judgmental religion. You can add to that list religion that tells women they are inferior to men and religion that says science is the enemy of faith. When I think of all the bad religion out there, especially in the Christian faith, I can relate to Bono's statement, "Christians are hard to tolerate; I don't know how Jesus does it."
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