Shouldn't god speak to you though and tell you something isn't right with this person? I know when I was in Intervarsity they'd pray over who should be on the leadership team and only pick the ones god himself appointed. Strangely it was always the popular ones.

Why is that one correct and the Presbyterians not? And what happened to all the people before you discovered the Truth and broke away?

There is also evidence that a Saint Nicholas existed and gave presents to kids. Doesn't make Santa real.

Why should faith have any place anywhere? Have you seen what happened to all those people that invested crypto recently? What is to say religion isn't a similar scam?

yeah, you have to remember the people in the old testament weren't good people and he was just doing what they deserved to happen to them. Unlike today where everyone is highly educated and knows right from wrong.

Shorting stocks does not take money away from shareholders. In fact it tends to increase stock prices. This is why when governments step in to stop shorting it usually collapses the market. Check Gamestop as a prime example. Gamestop had more shares shorted than actually existed and this resulted in their stock price increasing nearly 100 fold. The CEO became insanely rich as a result.

Nobody believes the Earth was created on April 22. That day was picked because it maximized attendance from college students. Earth was created on March 25. Citation

I have read that there are a lot of clergy who lost their faith after studying biblical criticism but who remain in the clergy because that is their source of income and community. What do you make of that?

Merry Christmas, Pastor! Thanks for taking the time to do this. What’s an advice you feel like sharing with someone who used to be Christian but currently just searching for some meaning to life?

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This AMA is a breath of fresh air. Your stance on many issues and the way you approach the subject is awesome. Coming from the opposite side of the belief spectrum I’d just like to acknowledge that. Merriest of Christmas’s to you and yours!

So what’s on the Christmas table Pastor?

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Well spoken, logical statement.

Fair enough on The Muppets. But is "Scrooged" fun, or just too mean-spirited right up until the end?

Adding on, Ethical Culture Congregations are even more Atheist. I've never been to one but they seem like nice folks committed to doing good in the world.

https://ethicalsociety.org/about-us/about-wes/about-ethical-culture/

If you asked "Why is it that there is not one single piece of real tangible evidence that art exists?" what are people supposed to say? If I say "What about Michelangelo's 'David'?" you can just say "Michelangelo was a hack. That's not real art." and repeat the process with each new example. Because art and science aren't the same as one another and don't work the same way. Trying to come up with an example of art/theology that pleases you personally doesn't seem like a good use of anybody's time.

Besides, there are plenty of not-tangible, not-visible things we know to exist. I am not nearly as smart as this guy. But I know that even if you couldn't touch or see the plague before van Leeuwenhoek, you still died if you caught it.

Would you mind citing the scripture?

> 1. I do not believe the Tanakh (Old Testament) correlates with Christmas. The Tanakh stands and exists on its own merits, even if Christianity had never existed.

Are you always so evasive with handling Scripture? I guess I just need to lay it out there directly:

Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jer.10.1,Jer.10.2,Jer.10.3,Jer.10.4,Jer.10.5&version=KJV

Blatantly, very much points and correlates with the practices of Christmas. So, explain.

>2. As I noted elsewhere here, there is no solid Biblical evidence to support any individual date of the birth of Jesus.

That’s not what I asked. And to the contrary, there are many evidences to a specific time of year. Do you know what time of year that is?

>3. ⁠I believe the Resurrection is why we have all heard of Jesus, otherwise He would have been in history simply another inconvenient Israelite executed by the empire. But to make it to the Resurrection, we need the Incarnation. Without it, there is no Resurrection--just as there is no Resurrection without Crucifixion. They are all important.

It’s the Death & Resurrection of Jesus Christ, Full Stop. Jesus is literally the Word of God, he existed from the beginning, see John 1. The Birth of Jesus may be an honorable mention, but it does not compare to what he’s done for us. God’s performed Many miracles, in fact his Creation of All things is by far his greatest work, but we wouldn’t put that miracle ahead of His work to Save us, just we shouldn’t place the birth on par with his sacrifice for Us.

What is the Gospel about? What is the real Good News? His Birth? Or His resurrection? By what act are we saved by? It’s clearly the resurrection.

Thanks for the honest reply.

My favorite Christmas treat is pretty much any kind of dessert…cookies, gingerbread, peppermint, you name it.

Favorite Christmas memory…probably when my parents gave me a Nintendo 64 for Christmas and my dad was up all Christmas night playing Mario Kart on it like a little kid. Also the first Christmas when I finally got to retire from playing Joseph in the church Christmas pageant after doing it more times than Chris Hemsworth has played Thor.

I do have a kid, and like me, she cares more about the cookies than about Santa right now, which suits me just fine.

I don’t know what would be closest for me. I definitely needed a few months away from the church after I burned out on congregational ministry, but I never felt like giving up my faith. Maybe when my wife had a very much wanted pregnancy end in a miscarriage that required surgery? I remember sitting in the hospital chapel and having some extremely unkind things to say to God. But even then, I never deeply felt like walking away. So I don’t know.

I think God created the universe for the same reason artists create art, writers create stories, etc.: when it is who you are, you are at your sacred best when you create. Maybe God could’ve still been God without creating the heavens and the earth, but then God would not have been God the Creator.

Merry Christmas Pastor! Favorite Christmas treat? Favorite Christmas memory? If you have children, do they believe in Santa? Hope your holidays are filled with love!!

In what moment were you closest to giving up the faith?

And another one: why would a being capable of creating a universe do so?

1. I do not believe the Tanakh (Old Testament) correlates with Christmas. The Tanakh stands and exists on its own merits, even if Christianity had never existed.
2. As I noted elsewhere here, there is no solid Biblical evidence to support any individual date of the birth of Jesus.
3. I believe the Resurrection is why we have all heard of Jesus, otherwise He would have been in history simply another inconvenient Israelite executed by the empire. But to make it to the Resurrection, we need the Incarnation. Without it, there is no Resurrection--just as there is no Resurrection without Crucifixion. They are all important.

This one’s been bothering me, and your reply gave me a new perspective. Thank you.