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Category: Atheism

Why I Left Christianity After Twenty-Five Years of Preaching the Gospel

2 Comments
good question

Recently, a young Evangelical pastor emailed me and asked me two questions:

  • What made you leave the faith?
  • Why [would] you would leave a faith that you defended for a long time?

I am frequently asked these or similar questions. Usually, I refer people to the WHY? page for answers to their questions, but there’s something about this pastor — maybe it is his age or proximity to where I live — that interests me, so I thought I would attempt to answer his questions.

I was raised in an Evangelical Christian home. From the time I was a child until I was fifty years old, I attended church every time the doors were open. Saved at the age of fifteen and called to preach two weeks later, I was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Imperfect, to be sure, the bent of my life was towards holiness (without which no man shall see God).

At the age of nineteen, I moved to Pontiac, Michigan to enroll in classes at Midwestern Baptist College — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) institution. While at Midwestern, I met Polly, and two years later we married. Polly and I spent the next thirty years faithfully serving Jesus. Whether between churches or pastoring them, our lives revolved around the ministry (for good or ill). If I counted my entrance into the ministry from the first time I preached to when I deconverted, all told I preached for thirty-three years. (Unlike most of my fellow college students, I regularly preached all through school at a drug rehabilitation center in Detroit.)

After leaving Midwestern, I began a ministerial journey that took me to churches in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. While I entered the ministry as an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist, my path later led to ministry opportunities at Southern Baptist, Christian Union, Sovereign Grace Baptist, and Non-denominational churches. Along the way, we were blessed with six children, including a daughter with Down syndrome.

Fast forward to 2004. I decided that I was done with the ministry. The reasons were many, but not the focus of this post. Suffice it to say, these reasons played an insignificant part in my loss of faith. Polly and I decided that we were at a place in life where we wanted to help a congregation without being its pastor. We spent the next four years visiting churches in Ohio, Arizona, California, Michigan, and Indiana. We cast a wide theological net, but after visiting over one hundred churches, — attending some of them for months — we concluded that the only difference between the churches was the name over their doors. After buying in home here in Ney in 2007, we primarily attended mainline churches — a sign of our increasingly liberal politics.

As my politics and theology evolved, I asked myself what it was I truly believed? What were the non-negotiables of my life? This led to me carefully and comprehensively reexamining my political and theological beliefs — a process that continues to this day. Polly and I spent countless hours talking about our beliefs. I read aloud to Polly passages from books written by men such as Dr. Bart Ehrman. We talked about what it was we really believed about the Bible. These discussions, and my continued investigation of core Christian doctrines, led me to conclude that the central claims of Christianity were false. Teachings that were once dear to me, no longer made sense. (Please see The Michael Mock Rule: It Just Doesn’t Make Sense.) On the last Sunday in November, 2008, Polly and I attended church for the last time.

These days, I self-identify as an agnostic atheist. Polly is an agnostic, indifferent, and, at times hostile, to organized religion. Our life experiences were very different — even in the ministry — so it should come as no surprise that what motivated our deconversions might be different. Same zip code, to be sure, but different journeys. I am the intellectual of the family. I spent most of my life reading, studying, and preaching the Bible. My experiences are necessarily different from Polly’s, and that’s why our reasons for leaving Christianity vary.

Let me conclude with answering this pastor’s second question: Why [would] you would leave a faith that you defended for a long time?

I am sure this young preacher struggles to understand why I would leave something I dedicated my life to for so many years. Makes sense, right? Most men or women who leave the ministry do so when they are young or youngish. They enter the ministry and find out it is not what it is cracked up to be (and boy, it’s not!) or they had some sort of crisis of faith, and after a few years they decided the pastorate was not for them.

It is rare for men or women to leave the ministry in their 50s. It happens, but not very often. Why are older people hesitant to leave the ministry? Two things come to mind:

  • Commitment bias, also known as the escalation of commitment, is the tendency to remain loyal to a previous decision, behavior, or course of action, even when it leads to negative outcomes. This often occurs as a result of a desire for consistency with one’s past words and actions, especially when that commitment was made publicly. 
  • Sunk Cost Fallacy, the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial.

I struggled with these things too. I had spent my entire life in the church. I had spent most of my adult life pastoring churches. Polly, a Baptist preacher’s daughter, and I had committed ourselves to the work of the ministry, regardless of financial renumeration. Both of us, at one time or another, worked outside of the church to provide for our family. Not one time did we doubt that this was God’s will for us — until we did. How could we throw everything away? For what? Atheism?

Only those who have walked in our shoes can understand and appreciate our emotional struggles with leaving the ministry and our later deconversion. Many a tear was shed before we walked away. We asked ourselves, Are we sure? What if we are wrong? Do we really want to throw in the towel and walk away? Does this mean we wasted our lives in the ministry? Wouldn’t it be better for us to fake it — it’s not hard — for the sake of family and social connections? What would we do if we weren’t in the ministry?

While the struggles in the dark of night were painful and real, I eventually concluded that I had to be honest: I no longer believed the Bible was the Word of God. I no longer believed the central claims of Christianity. This meant I wasn’t a Christian in any meaningful sense of the word. (Some Baptists think I am just backslidden, and I am still a Christian. This is absurd.) Truth mattered more to me than the ministry and our Evangelical way of life. This was true when I was a Christian, and it is true today. I am open to having my beliefs challenged, albeit I haven’t heard a new or persuasive argument for Christianity (or any other religion) in years. Ecclesiastes says that there is nothing new under the sun, and that is especially true when it comes to Christianity. I am confident that no new evidence will be forthcoming; so much so, that I am, when it comes to the Christian deity, an atheist. To paraphrase the book of Daniel, I have weighed Christianity in the balance and found it wanting.

Do I miss the ministry? You bet. I miss preaching, teaching, and ministering to others, but whatever yearning I may have, it cannot overcome my desire to know and live the truth. While there was certainly an emotional component — how could there not be? — to my deconversion, the primary reasons for my loss of faith were intellectual in nature. I desperately looked for a place to stop on the proverbial slippery slope, but I slid all the way to the bottom, and, in the end, I concluded I was no longer a Christian. And seventeen years later, I remain an unbeliever. Labeled an apostate, reprobate, or follower of Satan, I am routinely pilloried by God’s chosen ones, ever present reminders of Evangelicalism’s ugly underbelly. If I had any doubts about the veracity of Christianity, I no longer do, having experienced seventeen years of character assassination, threats of violence, and attacks on my family.

Please leave any questions you might have or email them to me. I will do my best to answer them.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

My Religion is True, Yours is Not

6 Comments
want truth read bible

All of us should be skeptical of not only the beliefs of others, but our own. Sadly, many of us are only skeptical of beliefs different from ours. Put a Mormon and Evangelical in the same room for a discussion, and both of them will claim that their beliefs are true. Evangelicals quickly point out the “errors” in the Mormon worldview, but when the same skepticism is applied to Evangelical Christianity, they deny that there are any errors or contradictions in the Evangelical worldview. Evangelicals will point out all the crazy things Mormons believe, but when it comes to young earth creationism, Noah’s flood, the tower of Babel, a talking snake and donkey, or a virgin birth — to name a few — Evangelical beliefs make perfect sense, or so they say, anyway. Evangelicals cannot or will not rationally examine their beliefs in light of other religious worldviews. They claim, without evidence, that the Bible is the very words of God, and whatever it says is inerrant and infallible. These claims cannot be rationally sustained.

Just because Mormon beliefs are irrational doesn’t mean Evangelical beliefs are not. Every religion must be judged on its own merits and claims. While I have not investigated every religion known to man, I have carefully examined the Abrahamic religions, and I find them to be intellectually lacking. I haven’t heard a new or original argument for the existence of God or the exclusivity of Christianity in years. In fact, I have concluded that no new arguments will be forthcoming. Either you believe or you don’t. I don’t, and until persuasive evidence is presented to me, I will remain an unbeliever. If that means Hell after I die, so be it. However, I am confident that there is no afterlife, so I have no fear of spending eternity in the Lake of Fire.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Is Atheism a Religion?

40 Comments

Please see my previous post on this subject.

Evangelical apologists often say that atheism is a religion; that all of us worship something. Both claims are categorically false, but since when did that ever stop Evangelicals (especially Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis) from lying to advance their agenda?

When you think of a religion, what comes to mind? Denominations, church buildings, holy texts, beliefs, rituals, and clerics, to name a few. None of these things applies to atheism. Atheism is a simple statement about the lack of belief in the existence of deities. Atheists don’t have denominations, texts, rituals, or clerics. There’s no temple we can go to worship the god of atheism. Unlike most religions, atheism has no belief requirements other than a lack of belief in the existence of god.

Google AI answers the question this way:

No, atheism is not a religion; it is the lack of belief in any deities and does not inherently involve a set of tenets, rituals, or a system of worship. While some individuals or groups may label themselves as atheists within a specific philosophical framework or even create non-theistic communities that have some religious-like structures, atheism itself is the absence of a belief that would define a religion.

If atheism is a religion, then abstinence is a sex position. 🙂 Need I say more? If you are an Evangelical who still thinks atheism is a religion, please justify your claim. Preaching and moralizing are not welcome. If you can prove that atheism is a religion, I will change my mind. That said, I am confident, thanks to dealing with countless Evangelicals over the years, that your defense of “atheism is a religion” will not prevail.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

The Bible is a Book of Claims, Not Evidence

3 Comments
bible literalism

Evangelicals often confuse evidence with claims. When pressed on this or that belief, Evangelicals often respond by saying “the Bible says.” However, the Bible is a book of claims, not evidence. When skeptics ask for evidence for a particular assertion, Evangelicals often quote Bible verses, thinking that, in doing so, they have provided evidence for their claims. They have done no such thing.

Here is some of the claims Evangelicals make;

  • The Bible is the very words of God
  • The Bible is without error
  • The Bible is infallible
  • God is a triune being
  • Jesus is the eternal Son of God
  • Jesus was born of a virgin
  • Jesus worked miracles, including raising the dead and turning water into wine.
  • Jesus resurrected from the dead
  • Jesus ascended to Heaven
  • Christianity is true, and all other religions are false

All of these statements are claims, not evidence. Just because Evangelicals can “prove” their assertions with prooftexts, this is not the same as supporting a claim with evidence. Certainly, the Bible can be used as a historical source when warranted, but what the Bible says alone is not sufficient to justify Evangelical claims. Just because the Bible says Jesus was born of a virgin doesn’t mean he was. The same goes for every claim made with prooftexts. For skeptics, words from a book are not sufficient evidence for supernatural claims. If I said Harry Potter is a real person and he can fly, people would rightly ask me for evidence for my claim. If I said, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban proves Harry is a real person and he can fly, would you believe me? Of course not. So it is with supernatural claims. Unfortunately, many Evangelicals confuse claims with evidence. If Evangelical apologists can’t provide sufficient evidence for their claims, there’s no reason to listen to them.

I am sure some Evangelical commenters will appeal to faith as justification for their claims. That’s fine, but faith will not fly with me and many of the readers of this blog. Faith is the last refuge for believers. It is a safe place where reason, rationality, and evidence are optional. It is the last refuge for believers hiding from the evil philosophies of the world. With faith, anything is possible.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

How Does One Become a Christian?

8 Comments
good question

Jack, who blogs at Atheist Revolution, recently wrote:

Suppose I woke up tomorrow morning and decided that I wanted to be a Christian. I realize that seems unlikely, but that’s not the point here. And because it isn’t the case that I want to be a Christian, we can set aside the “why” questions. What I’d like us to consider is the far more intriguing “how” questions. How would I become a Christian? Is there a series of steps I could go through that would get me there? If I got there, how would I know I was there? And if I thought I was there, would most Christians accept me as one of them?

What might be a good first step if I wanted to be a Christian?

Jack asks an excellent question, one I hope Christian readers will answer.

There are thousands of Christian sects, each with their own beliefs and plans of salvation. How can an unbeliever possibly know with certainty how to become a Christian? As a pastor, my understanding of Christian salvation changed over the years. As my theology evolved, so did my soteriological beliefs.

If you profess to be a Christian, how does one become a follower of Jesus? If you are a former Christian, what did you believe about salvation? Did your soteriological beliefs change over the years? Please share your experiences in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Good News! Outspoken Atheist Bruce Gerencser is Still a Christian

17 Comments
please get saved

Fifty-three years ago in September, I made a public profession of faith at Trinity Baptist Church in Findlay, Ohio. This simple, brief, heartfelt decision became the foundation of my life for the next thirty-five years. According to my pastors, and later my professors, once an unsaved sinner gets saved, they can never, ever lose their salvation. I remember R.B. Thieme saying that once a person is saved, they can blaspheme God and deny that Jesus saved him without affecting his salvation. In other words, once you sincerely pray the sinner’s prayer, you are f-o-r-e-v-e-r saved. Nothing you do afterward can separate you from the love of God and his grace. And I mean nothing. Sure, Christians can backslide and find themselves out of the will of God, but this does not affect the state of their salvation. Once saved, always saved. If what we do affects our eternal destiny, that means we are saved by works, and not faith. Or so many Evangelical preachers say, anyway.

While the Bible certainly can be used to justify these beliefs, the Bible can also be used to show that Christians can and do lose their salvation and end up in Hell. Further, the Bible also teaches that once a person loses their salvation, they can never, ever be saved again. For Christians who believe you can lose your salvation, works are essential to saving faith.

Which soteriological position is right? They all are. Every Christian sect, preacher, and church member uses the Bible to justify and prove their beliefs. How can we possibly know which view is right? I think the best way to determine who is right is to put representatives of each position in an octagon ring and let them fight it out. The last soteriology standing is right, or, at the very least, less wrong than the other ones. You would think God would be clearer on such an important subject, but alas, God cares more about his golf score or finding Grandma’s keys for her, that he doesn’t have time to settle the terms of salvation.

Yesterday, I stumbled across an article titled, Will a Christian-Turned-Atheist Go to Hell? Lucas Kitchen wrote (all grammar and punctuation in the original):

Let me set up this discussion with a hypothetical scenario. 

Have you ever heard preachers say, “If a person doesn’t obey the Bible, they may not be saved, even if they claim to have faith.”

But then at a funeral, the same preacher may say, “The deceased person was saved because they claimed to have faith, even though they didn’t obey the Bible.”I noticed this inconsistency when I was in high school when one of my close friends passed away.

So which is it? Do we have to obey the Bible until we die to be saved, or is it enough to have faith?

Well, I’m confident that the Bible teaches that once someone is made alive in Christ, born again, and becomes a believer, they have eternal life that can never be lost or returned.

That means a Christian who becomes an atheist will still have eternal life. They are still saved even if they fall into unbelief and disobedience.

Now, I know many of you that might be a new idea. However, it’s not an idea I invented, but instead a concept that the Bible teaches quite consistently. So I thought I would take a minute to answer a few obvious questions that the video raises.

Some opponents of this idea will say that a “true” believer will never stop believing.

But the Bible doesn’t distinguish between “true” belief and belief. 

Secondly, the Bible speaks of saved people who stopped believing for a time. 

….

If eternal life is given when one first believes, then obedience is not required for salvation.  If receiving eternal life required a life of obedience then Jesus could only give eternal life at the end of someone’s life when they proved that they could be obedient. But that’s not what the Bible tells us.

It sounds good on the surface, but there are a few of problems with this claim. It is true that Someone’s belief in Christ can blossom into good works. In fact, that’s what we hope happens with all Christians. We hope that they add good works to their faith. We hope that they not only believe but obey Christ. So if someone is doing good works in obeying Christ it’s likely they are doing that because they have believed in him. We have to be careful here though, we can’t use good works as proof that someone has believed since it’s possible for a believer to disobey Christ. We find that in second Timothy two, first Corinthian‘s three, and a number of other places.

There is another problem with this concept still. We can’t use obedience to Christ as proof of faith since Current actions are most likely based on current beliefs. Therefore, current inaction can only be based on current disbelief but is not necessarily based previous disbelief.

You can’t prove that someone never believed in the past by how they act in the present. There was a time when I believed it was ok to drink only coca-cola all the time. I acted on that belief while I still believed it. However, I no longer drink Coke all the time. Can you infer from my current actions what I used to believe? Obviously not. The only thing that you might be able to make a guess on is what I currently believe that I shouldn’t drink Coca-Cola. Even then, I could be acting against what I believe. The point is, trying to use obedience to Christ as proof of faith is a flawed method.

Eternal life is not given after a life of belief, but at the first moment, one believes.

Therefore, present disobedience cannot demonstrate a lack of belief in the past.

….

The bottom line is if you believe in Jesus for eternal life you have it. No matter what happens after that point you still have it.

An atheist’s current unbelief doesn’t negate salvation received earlier in life.

A believer’s future unbelief or misbehavior can’t dissolve, destroy, or derail their deliverance from Hell. 

Even if the Christian strays that can’t sabotage, subdue, or stop salvation.

So there ya have it, outspoken atheist and denier of the central claims of Christianity Bruce Gerencser is still a Christian! According to Kitchen, because I made a profession of faith fifty-three years ago, there’s literally NOTHING I can do to lose my salvation. And I mean nothing! According to Kitchens, I can’t sabotage, subdue, or stop my salvation! Take the men who frequent the pages of the Black Collar Crime Series, Vile, corrupt men the lot of them, but have you noticed that many of them end up back in the ministry after being punished for their crimes? How is this possible? Simple, 1 John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9 NRSV)

This means that forgiveness is but a prayer of forgiveness away, and since the Bible says in Romans 11:29: For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable, not only is a pervert’s salvation irrevocable, so is his calling. And it is for these reasons that David Hyles — an IFB preacher with a long track record of immorality and crimes — is still a preacher, and people continue supporting him.

Romans 8:31:35, 38-39 says:

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son but gave him up for all of us, how will he not with him also give us everything else?  Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ who died, or rather, who was raised, who is also at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.  Who will separate us from the love of Christ? 

….

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Apostle Paul was clear: NOTHING can separate us [Christians] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I wasn’t in the ministry long before I realized how bankrupt this kind of thinking really was. Guaranteed salvation gives men like Dr. David Tee (whose real name is Derrick Thomas Thiessen), Revival Fires, John, and countless other Christians the freedom to live as they wish without fear of losing their salvation. Nothing they say or do can separate them from the love of Jesus. In those rare moments when they genuinely feel sorry for what they do, all they have to do is to sincerely repent, and God will wipe their slate clean. Awesome, right?

As a pastor, I concluded that, as James did, “faith without works is dead; that we show our faith by our works.” Think of all the Evangelical miscreants, including those mentioned above, who comment on this site, send me emails, and write blog posts about me and the readers of this site. What do their words say about their Christianity? Everything. Don’t tell me what you believe, show me. By the late 1980s, my preaching had a Calvinistic bent. No longer did I preach the truncated, bastardized gospel of my IFB upbringing and training. Sure, IFB preachers could prove their beliefs from the Bible, but so could I. I determined that a faith+works salvation best reflected the teachings of Jesus. This, of course, led to me being accused of preaching “works salvation.” Better than no-works salvation, I thought at the time.

To this day, I think there should be a connection between beliefs and how a person lives. As an agnostic atheist and humanist, I try every day to live according to the ideals reflected in the various humanist manifestos. And when I fail, what do I do? I do my best to make things right, and, if necessary, make restitution. Unlike the Evangelical Christian, who prays to God when atoning for sin, I make things right with those I’ve offended. No God needed.

Am I still a Christian? According to Kitchens, I am. And nothing I do can change this eternal fact. Once saved, always saved. After I post this, I think I will get drunk, snort some drugs, and go pick up two prostitutes for a wild roll in the hay. I am sure I will feel guilty afterward, so all I have to do is ask the God who doesn’t exist to wipe my slate clean. I can do this day after day, and God will still forgive me. What’s not to like about his form of Christianity, right?

To the thousands of heathens who read this blog, I encourage you to stop what you are doing and pray the sinner’s prayer, asking Jesus to cleanse you from your sin. No need to cross your fingers. No matter what you do, and that includes murder, rape, incest, and rooting for the Cubs, the triune God of the Bible will forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That’s why Paul had to field the question, “Should I sin more, so the grace of God may abound?” While Paul said, “God forbid,” the Bible says differently. Sin away, Christians, God’s forgiveness is but a mumbled prayer away.

I am sure this belief sounds absurd to many of you, and I agree. I am no more a Christian than Satan himself. There’s nothing in my life that remotely suggests I am a Christian (other than I live a better life than many Christians I know). Scores of people who read this blog are former Evangelical Christians. This means they are still s-a-v-e-d! Maybe we should start an online church, First Church of Saved Atheists or First Church of Hitchens. As long as we had a momentary born-again experience, we will go to Heaven when we die. Though, when I think about it, do I really want to spend eternity praising the name of a narcissistic God? Hell is starting to sound more appealing to me. But I can’t go to Hell even if I wanted to. Once saved, always saved. I am powerless to divorce Jesus. We are forever married, regardless of what I say or do.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

After Death, Will We Finally Know the Truth?

13 Comments
calvin afterlife

Evangelicals believe there is life after death. Every person who has ever lived will end up in either Heaven or Hell. Where you end up is determined by faith. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior go to Heaven when they die. Everyone else goes to Hell and will be tortured forever for their rejection of Jesus.

Setting aside the fact that people do not go to Heaven or Hell after they die (no one does until the general resurrection at the end of time), most Evangelicals have extra-Biblical beliefs about the afterlife. For example, how many sermons have you heard where a preacher told you Nana or Grandpa is in Heaven, free from pain, suffering, and heartache? You are told your dead loved ones are having a wonderful time in Heaven, running, singing, and worshipping God. Life is marvelous, better than anything experienced in life before the grave. Most people will never experience this, but, bless God, Evangelicals will. Why? They are members of the right religion. They worship the right God. Their guidebook for life is the Bible, even if they rarely read it. By faith, they believe every word in the Bible is straight from the mind of God. This supernatural book says there’s an afterlife. The men who preach from this supernatural book say there’s an afterlife. Countless authors have written books about Heaven and what awaits the followers of Jesus after they die.

What Evangelicals NEVER provide is evidence for the existence of an afterlife, Heaven, or Hell. Not one shred of evidence is presented for these claims. Either you believe in life after death or you don’t. Either you believe Heaven and Hell are real places or you don’t. Either you believe that your landing spot in the afterlife is determined by believing the right things, or you don’t. All of these claims ultimately appeal to faith for justification. Any Evangelicals who tell you they died, went to Heaven or Hell, and came back to life on Earth are lying. Unless they provide a feature-length video of their time in the afterlife, their claims are not to be believed. Just because someone says something happened to them doesn’t mean their story is true. The same goes for the Bible. The Bible is a book of claims. Just because it says something doesn’t mean it’s true.

People wrongly think I am an anti-theist. I am not. I do, however, expect and demand sufficient evidence for religious claims. If you want me to believe your claims, you will have to do more than quote Bible verses or tell me to just faith-it.

I know that I will someday die, likely sooner than later. I am a sixty-eight-year-old man in poor health. My body tells me that my time on Earth is short. How I die remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: I will die. Rare is the person, especially in the sunset years of life, who doesn’t think about death from time to time. In the quiet of late nights, I will hear our clock ticking, reminding me of my frail mortality. Eventually, I fitfully fall asleep, hoping I will awake the next day. And I do, but one day the last noise I hear in this life could be the click-click- cl of our clock. And that will be it. Then what?

Since there is no evidence for an afterlife, I have no reason to believe that I will live on after death outside of whatever nutrients my ashes return to the dirt. When I die, that means the end of the only Bruce Gerencser on Earth. Yes, I am that special. 🙂 Do I fear death? No, not as far as it being the end of life. I know death awaits all of us, and since I am not immune to what afflicts us one and all, I’m confident that the way of all men will one day come calling for me. I do, however, at times, fear what may happen to me before I die; the pain, suffering, and loss that may come my way before my demise.

Most Evangelicals believe that after they get to Heaven, they will be given a resurrected body, one perfect in every way, including the brain/mind. Having a new brain/mind, Evangelicals think that they will know countless things they didn’t know on Earth, and they will NOT know many of the things/people they knew before death. You might think, as an atheist, “Who cares?” And I agree, except for this one point: Evangelicals are willing to offload knowing things to the afterlife. Who hasn’t engaged an Evangelical about this or that belief, only to have the believer dismiss your claims out of hand, saying, “One day, I will know everything in Heaven. Praise Jesus!” Sadly, Evangelicals won’t know everything. Knowledge and understanding are gained only in this life. Once dead, all learning stops. Better to have lived life seeking knowledge and passing that knowledge on to others than to make oneself deliberately ignorant, hoping that an invisible deity will one day fill you in on what you missed in this life.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen 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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