May

20

How I became a Christian… through Philosophy

May 20, 2008 |

Posted by ben hind · Filed Under Christian Philosophy, Personal 

I can’t remember exactly when I began my love-affair with philosophy. I had just come out of a long and hard struggle with depression in my mid-teens and was ready to get my life back on track. After leaving secondary school (high school) with only one qualification in music, my only passion, I was struggling to find something to take an interest in. I had been in many different bands, recorded albums, played at various live shows, and my interest in music had begun to fall due to many bad experiences and little to no career prospects. So after looking at the various subjects I could study at college, philosophy seemed to be the only other subject that seemed to be vaguely interesting.

Being a very perfectionistic and focussed individual, I dove straight in before the course at college even begun. I bought philosophy books, and rented many from the library. I would read wikipedia articles until early in the morning on the various subjects. It was a very broad subject that had something to say about nearly everything in life. It seemed to me that to master a subject like this was to master everything life had to offer, a challenge I personally took upon myself.

Making sense of life after my depression was a real turning point for me. During my depression I had given up hope of ever finding meaning or significance to life, everything seemed meaningless. But for the first time I began to have hope again, seeing that by using my reason, and studying other brilliant minds, it might be possible to find meaning and significance in life. However, my search was eventually going to take me to far reaching conclusions that would change my life.

As my college year finally began I was first formally introduced to the philosophy of religion, one of our main topics for the year. We looked at the arguments for Gods existence, and weighed them up against what other philosophers have said. It sparked a passion within me to solve once and for all the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, ‘does God exist?’. Which I saw as a personal challenge.

Having been raised by evangelical Christian parents, yet not believing myself, I thought it would be best to begin with what I already knew. I began to look at the bible again, reading articles on the internet for and against it being true. This lead me to look at biblical prophecy, which began to make me feel uneasy as I discovered them being fulfilled in history. I found out about biblical archeology that supported the bible being true, when I thought that it was just myths and stories. I took an interest in the creation/evolution debate and found scientific reasons for being skeptical of the theory of evolution, if not disregard it all together. What is more, I found rational reasons to believe in the Christian world-view, and found the arguments for Gods existence very compelling.

In the end my personal challenge to answer one of life’s greatest questions, ‘does God exist?’, lead me to a conclusion I never thought I would reach. The evidence demanded my believing in God. I found it to be conclusive. Not only that, as I began to read Christian websites and listen to Christian podcasts (like The Theology Program) I found that God had revealed Himself to humanity in the person of Jesus. That He died for my sins and rose again, proving Himself to be the Son of God. I made a commitment to following Him, and it changed my life completely. You wouldn’t believe how different I was, everyone commented on how I just seemed to suddenly become a completely different person.

I have read many articles on the internet from well-meaning Christians on how destructive philosophy is. On how thousands and thousands of teenagers are leaving Christianity and the church because they’ve gone to university and had their faith challenged. But I believe that doesn’t have to be the case. If the person is committed to an unbiased (or as unbiased as possible) search for God, looking at the evidence for and against, I believe that person can find God. Isn’t it true when God said, ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.’?


Comments

6 Comments so far

  1. steve moore on May 20, 2008 2:42 pm

    Ben,

    Neat story to the Glory of God! Thanks for sharing your journey.

    -steve

  2. ben hind on May 21, 2008 5:31 am

    Steve,

    I know it’s not ‘I was addicted to drugs, almost died and killed loads of people before Jesus miraculously appeared to me and told me to stop it’, but I’ve always thought it ironic that I became a Christian through philosophy. Something that a lot of people in my church and a lot of the conservative Christian community seem to be very negative about.

    - Ben

  3. steve moore on May 21, 2008 6:32 am

    Ben,

    Not me… thats one of the reasons I like RMM so much - engage the mind, put it in gear rather than leave it in neutral.

    So long as it doesnt lead us away from Biblical truth, I think its an excellent way to take every thought captive and renew the mind.

    I do know of the anti-intellectual attitude that you speak of however.

    cheers,

    -steve

  4. ben hind on May 21, 2008 9:52 am

    Steve,

    I still think we have to walk the fine line of thinking for ourselves, yet submitting to the truth. I just don’t see any reason why faith and reason can work together and compliment eachother. I think the bible should keep our reason in check, and we should use our reason to think through theological issues. People like Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig do a good job at explaining how this works, I think.

    - Ben

  5. JoanieD on May 21, 2008 7:35 pm

    Your posts are always very interesting, Ben. Thanks for writing and I am glad the study of philosophy led you to the point you are at now.

    Joanie D.

  6. ben hind on May 22, 2008 4:06 am

    Joanie,

    Thanks for the compliment. :)

    - Ben

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind

FireStats icon Powered by FireStats