The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser

Evangelical “Logic”

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Bruce Gerencser

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Evangelicals are allegedly “people of the book,” even though most of them have not read the Bible from cover to cover one time. Supposedly, the Bible is THE book above all books, one written and compiled by God himself — another belief for which there is no evidence apart from words written in the Bible. Yet, at the same time, Evangelicals claim that their faith is a “logical” faith. Sure, little buddy, sure.

Evangelicals claim univocality for the Bible, an absurd claim, to say the least. The Bible is often contradictory, littered with scientific, historical, and theological errors. Anyone who says the Bible is inerrant and infallible ain’t paying attention. Before the Internet, Evangelical ignorance about the nature and history of the Bible was understandable, but not today. Anyone with a modicum of curiosity can be quickly disabused of their supernatural beliefs about the Bible itself and its teachings.

Besides, it’s a hoot to hear Evangelicals talk about “logic” while holding absurd, irrational beliefs. The same can be said for Mormonism and Islam too.

Most Evangelicals believe in a 6,029 year old universe, talking snakes and animals, a virgin birth, and curing blindness with dirt and spit, to name a few fantastical beliefs; beliefs for which there is no evidence apart from words written in an ancient religious text. These beliefs fail rational inquiry, and Evangelicals are forced to appeal to supernaturalism and faith to “prove” their beliefs. An epic fail, to be sure.

And let me be clear, I’m not using the word “logic” in a philosophical sense. I have no interest in philosophical arguments; none of which ever leads to the Evangelical God of the Bible. As a theologically educated atheist, all I’m interested in is what the Biblical text actually says. Surely, that should be desire of every follower of Jesus, yes?

Did you think you had a “logical” faith as a Christian? How did you reconcile the errant, fallible nature of the Bible, if at all? I, for one, ran to the house of faith anytime I couldn’t make the pieces fit. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

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Comments

8 responses to “Evangelical “Logic””

  1. Merle

    At first my faith was simply a matter of “God said it, and I believe it.” Later, after much doubt, I fell for the work of Apologists and Creationists who argued that all of this was logical. And yet, that was a critical step. For I went from faith in faith to faith in the reasons that supported faith. And that quickly advances to faith in reason.

    Richard Carrier writes that Evangelical Christianity is largely anti-intellectual. See https://www.richardcarrier.info/archives/20432. For instance, I Cor 1:19-27 basically says that logical reasoning is worthless.

    Reply
  2. Avatar
    ObstacleChick

    My Christian journey spanned from childhood to my late 30s and underwent some transformations along the way. I waa raised in white, southern evangelicalism (specifically Southern Baptist church) and was sent to fundamentalist Christian school grades 5-12 (the school was billed as non-denominational but was founded by and staffed by mostly IFB trained people). Both church and school tried to embrace truth/fact while simultaneously teaching us to distrust certain segments of higher education and scholarship. It was all well and good to quote scholars, but they had to be “the right kind”. As a teen, I started feeling uncomfortable with that. I was working part-time as a lab assistant in a university biochemistry lab, and I saw the work that actual scientists were doing and couldn’t just accept “trust THESE scientists but not THOSE scientists.

    Then in college I took a course in the religion department that shook me up about the history of Christian Thought – how much political concerns shaped Christianity. Other classes in history, sociology, and psychology filled in gaps that were denied to me in fundamentalist upbringing.

    So I got out of evangelicalism and searched for a church/denimination I thought would be more fact friendly. It took awhile, but I found the UCC (United Church of Christ also known as Congregationalists). It was open and affirming, community-oriented, focused on being a better person and serving others and not on sin and hell. I don’t think I ever heard hell mentioned, but there was mention of virgin birth, divinity of Jesus, the resurrection, but mostly just in context of the Christian holidays. The miracle stories weren’t really the focus and were presented, if at all, more as parables of helping others (feeding people, healing, etc).

    Yet I still couldn’t just stay once it dawned on me that the stories weren’t founded in reality and that Christianity was just another religion based on ancient blood sacrifice customs to appease an angry deity. It hurt so much to realize that, but once seen it couldn’t be ignored. My kids were young when we left Christianity, and as young adults now they think religions are fairy tales. They are bothered that some religious people use their fairy tales to actively harm and exclude people. They don’t get why/how their grandparents, some relatives, some coworkers are grown ass adults who believe in fairy tales that are obviously not rooted in reality.

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  3. Avatar
    MJ Lisbeth

    For many people (including Evangelicals and other religious fundamentalists), “logic” is whatever allows them to rationalize their beliefs.

    Like OC, after leaving Catholicism and Evangelical Christianity, I tried to find a “rational” approach to belief. The last church I attended included many educated and intelligent people. But I soon realized—and one fellow-congregant admitted to me—that faith can’t be defended with logic and he and others believed because, well, they believed. Perhaps they were simply not comfortable not having answers to what they couldn’t explain.

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  4. Avatar
    JT

    Bruce,

    You asked “Did you think you had a “logical” faith as a Christian?”

    This may be your point, but I don’t think there is such a thing as logical faith. A quick Google AI search about the definition of logic returned:

    “Being logical means making decisions and drawing conclusions based on objective evidence, provable facts, and sound reasoning rather than emotion or intuition”

    Being that the main definition of faith is “belief that is not based on proof”, there can be no such thing as logical faith, correct?

    Maybe it’s my level of education and career path that lead me to be different than most Christians, but here’s my stance on things Christians argue in vain:

    God – I believe that he exists, but concede it is not scientifically provable in any way. My only argument is that God’s existence cannot be disproven either
    Creation – I can’t prove that God created everything or the timeline involved, and will never try. My only argument is that creation makes more sense to me than everything just appearing out of a “big bang”. I look around and creation makes more sense to me.
    Evolution – I believe that it happens, but not to the level that man/ape have a common ancestor.
    The Bible – Everything in the Bible (as we currently have it) cannot be true. There are obvious contradictions that cannot be explained away. I actually think apologists do more damage than good with some of the ridiculous explanations they come up with.
    Judgement – Simply not my job. I don’t care who people are or what they believe. I work with people from all walks of life and cultures, all I care about is if they do their job and treat others with respect. To cover both sides of the fence… If there is a God it’s his job to sort it out and judge… If not, then it doesn’t matter anyways. Most Christians spend way too much time worried about others when they would find plenty of problems looking in the mirror.

    In a nutshell, either you have faith or you don’t. Once you have a logical conclusion based on evidence and facts, faith doesn’t exist.

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  5. Avatar
    Barbara Jackson

    My mother took us kids to church, but we were not pressured to believe only in the Bible. My father taught German and English as a second language at a high school and thru my childhood and teen years visited Europe. It helps to know my background to understand why I have the views I do.

    I gave up religion when I took algebra class and figured out the human population could not keep growing without there being consequences. The kids I knew at that time who lived in very religious households said God would save everybody and everything. To me this was ridicolous.

    Reply
  6. przxqgl

    i always remember what thomas paine said: “to argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”

    Reply
  7. Avatar
    matilddaa

    As a dyed-in-the-wool fundy, my doubts about the inconsistencies, contradictions, the genocides remained things I couldn’t confront….until of course I finally did and broke free. Looking back, I think I automatically deferred to my church leaders who understood theology in a way my small brain couldn’t. Family had degrees from bible colleges, were pastors steeped in the bible, they were intelligent folk, I looked at their shelves full of theology books and I think I subconsciously believed god really spoke to them, imparted his wisdom through them. It was a kind of inferiority complex, I wasn’t worthy, unlike them, to receive divine wisdom.
    Recently I’ve discovered the 2 books written by 2 former Wycliffe Bible Translators’ missionaries, Ken Mitchell and Daniel Everitt who, immersed in translation projects for certain ethic groups, realised that, if god did exist, he’d made a terrible hash of creating them with no knowledge of a deity, and then waiting 2000 years to send a translator to them to make them see they needed to learn to read, and read that one book of 66 fables and come-to-jesus to get to heaven. (We spent all our missionary giving, our time, our effort supporting WBT for decades….so it’s been a relief to see I wasn’t the only one whose doubts led to deconversion by facing the fact that their beloved bible was a collection of myths and couldn’t possibly have been written by an omniscient, omnipotent loving father-god who was so keen for everyone to be ‘saved’.)

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  8. Avatar
    Bruce Gerencser

    Renowned scientist, theologian, historian, archeologist, and fundamentalist proctologist, Dr. David Tee offered up this bit of bovine excrement:

    “I disagree that it is irrational, illogical, or even weird to believe these things took place. They are all acts with a God with power beyond our imagination behind them. Believing that God can do all these things or allow them to happen is far more logical and rational than believing in invisible processes, whether astronomical, geological or biological, with no powers whatsoever, that developed everything we see in the universe and on Earth simply by chance and no forethought.

    It is weird to believe that so-called natural processes with no characteristics or an intelligent brain could guide everything and develop them into complex lifeforms and solar systems. The illogical and irrational people are the ones who believe in evolution, scientists, and invisible processes with no real origin.”

    Sure little buddy, sure. 🤣🤣

    Reply

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