Leading Australian Christadelphian Rob Hyndman deconverts

 
See Rob's website blog at:
http://robjhyndman.com/musings/unbeliever/#more-2410

An end of faith

This week I resigned from the Christadelphian faith after nearly 30 years as a member, and having attended Christadelphian activities almost every week of my life.



I resigned because I no longer believe. I don’t believe the Bible is inspired by God. I am not even sure there is a God. Perhaps there is, but he is not who I once thought he was. I was an active and enthusiastic believer from the time of my baptism at age 16, right up until a few months ago when my world of faith fell apart.

I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t. I had embarked on what I thought was a quest to re-examine my beliefs, and encourage reform within the Christadelphian community. About two and a half years ago, I started this blog in which I publicly discussed some areas of Christadelphian beliefs (my beliefs) that I thought needed a re-think. I looked at our stance on voting in governmental elections and found it weak. I looked at our position on creation and evolution, and was persuaded by the arguments for evolution. I then tried to re-interpret Genesis (and some New Testament passages) in the light of this knowledge. I explored inspiration, and what it means, and how it might have worked. In particular, I wondered about the obvious errors in the Bible, the contradictions, the mythology borrowed from contemporary accounts, and I tried to construct an approach to inspiration that took all this into account while retaining divinely guided scriptures. I felt like I was part of a group forging a new and more enlightened way for Christadelphians.

But then, quite suddenly, I could not think of a good reason to believe any more. Far from inspired, the Bible now appeared as a collection of ancient human documents, full of propaganda, legend, and bigotry. Yes, there was some wisdom there, and some beautiful poetry, some uplifting words. But the attitudes to women and foreigners that it describes, sometimes commands, were not worthy of the God I once believed in. The alleged miracles seemed more like the superstitions of a primitive people than evidence for enlightened belief. Even the prophecies that I once found so convincing, appeared to be either contrived, out-of-context, or written after the alleged fulfilment. What I once thought were answers to prayer now appeared to be coincidence or imagined. My faith was always based on what I thought was evidence, and once the evidence was removed, the faith quickly followed.

The last few years have been difficult for me and my family, especially the last few months. It makes me sad to think that my actions have hurt the people I love the most. I feel like I’m letting a lot of people down, but I cannot pretend to believe when I don’t. I have always tried to be completely authentic in everything I do, and this is no different.

I will miss the extraordinary community that I’ve benefited so much from. There is something wonderful about traveling to foreign countries and finding strangers ready to invite you into their homes, share their food and belongings, even lend you their car. I will miss the camps too; those weeks apart from everything else in life, having fun, enjoying music, exploring ideas, with delightful people who hold a shared perspective on the purpose of life. A perspective I no longer hold.

Almost all of my family and friends are Christadelphians. Almost all of my social activities have been with Christadelphians. I have spent a couple of weeks every year attending, and often speaking at, Christadelphian camps and Bible schools. While I would like to think that my friends will remain my friends, the reality is that Christadelphians spend an enormous amount of time together, making it difficult to retain friendships with “outsiders”.

Nevertheless, I would like to somehow continue the friendships forged over many years of shared experiences.

I expect some people to say things about me that are not true. That is a natural reaction, as my loss of faith will create doubts in others, and demonization of me will help people feel more sure. However, please do not impute motives that I don’t have.

So what should I call myself now I am not a Christadelphian, or even a Christian? I don’t like the term athiest, because it carries a sense of militancy and certainty that I don’t feel. I don’t like agnostic, because it implies (in Australia at least) a lack of interest in the questions of religion. I think I prefer “unbeliever”.

Eventually I would like to write a little about my new perspective on things I once believed. I would like to explain to people who have read my books why I now think I was wrong. But that can wait until later. I will keep this blog here, as I can see no good reason to hide what I’ve written — this is a record of what I thought at that time in my life.

I’d particularly like to thank the Ringwood Christadelphian ecclesia for doing all they could to make us feel at home for the last 12 months. I am grateful for the love and warmth and friendship I have been shown.

13 comments:

  1. John, given the occasional criticism of Rob for not following up further after resigning and making his position fully clear, I hope you've noticed his latest book.

    http://robjhyndman.com/musings/unbelievable/

    I haven't read it, so I don't know what it contains.

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  2. Rob, I admire the moderate and charitable tone of your Statement. You show no Bitterness, and you sound like a Sincere person. I TOTALLY DISAGREE with your summary of the Bible. I believe it dies contain INSPIRED Prophecies, which could not possibly have been written after the Events, such as Daniel's Four Empires, the world-wide scattering and persecution of the Jews, and their eventual Return to the Land; Isaiah's incredible forecast of Christ's Death, in Chapter 53. Regarding 'contradictions'-you did not list any in your Statement. I believe the Theory of Evolution is littered, not with genuine science, but with Fraud, such as Heckel the German, Dubois the Dutchman, and the Lecky Family. I even believe that Evolution contradicts Common Sense...not to mention lofty SCIENCE. Some parts of the Bible are UGLY in the extreme-but then so is the World, and the Bible describes the world. It is the only Book in existence which points Man to a future Life.

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  3. Many of the things in this blog post Rob had explored in more detail on his "musings" blog in the years leading up to it.
    If you want more details about his thoughts http://www.ex-christadelphians.com/2015/09/unbelievable-new-book-by-ex.html might give it.
    However, no effort will be required if you just want to assume that he is unaware of the evidence you present (in spite of preaching and teaching similar things for nearly 30 years).

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  4. Great Rob! It couldn't be explained better!
    I have similar opinions about Islam.

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  5. Congratulations for getting out. You were 'brain washed' as a child and now, as a free thinking adult you can walk proud and true. There is no god and that's okay.

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    1. A standing ovation for this. You are NOT an "unbeliever." You believe in logic and reason and science. May millions more join you. There is no invisible, omnipotent and vengeful "friend" in the sky. There are no sky fairies. Live in the light of the day. Life and the world are still magnificent and worth experiencing.

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  6. I was a Christadelphian some decades ago. I left as a young mother who had been badly treated by former husband. Subsequently Elders put pressure on me to, be more submissive. I reacted by tearing up parts of my bible, and throwing it against the wall!
    It's a long story. I had learnt about God and his son, but had not applied this to my life personally. It was knowledge. This departure from Christadelphia was the start of my journey in finding God. I realise it makes no difference to other ex christadelphians , but I'm increasingly made aware of the huge numbers who become unbelievers/atheists.
    One does not need to believe in God to see, whether by microscope or telescope that, there is order... Design, geometry in laws governing movement. I am- as you may realise- not highly educated, know little of science or more sophisticated aspects of theory of evolution. But God made Himself known to me out of the blue from a young age, growing up with atheist parents. God has woven a thread of His existence and inexplicable contact within my heart half a World away in Scandinavia, from age 12.
    I have forgotten Him, left Him, sadly, cursed Him, but He has gently brought me back. Maybe you do not want this: but I would like to pray for you. May you experience Jesus. And his love. That would be evidence etched in your flesh. And though we all can still deny Him, reject Him .... There comes a moment when you realise, I have heard about Him, but now I KNOW!

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    1. Firstly, you are welcome to believe whatever you want to believe, but I don't know why you make a virtue of doing something to others that they don't want. If your prayer is truly effective, surely it will work just as well if we don't know it's happening?

      I personally as a faithful believer begged God to reveal himself to me, and he didn't. Subsequent investigation showed significant problems with the Bible and with the Christian God (and nothing you said supports that God over any other god). In the unlikely event that I "experience Jesus", surely the first question is "Why weren't you present when I was looking for you?"

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    2. There is "design" and "pattern" in an ant heap also. It does not mean that God is present in the ant heap.

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  7. Nina,
    Firstly, anecdotes about being "treated badly" don't sit well with me. In a marriage breakdown there are always two side to a story, sometimes both get heard, sometimes they don't, which is why such stories have little value here or elsewhere.
    It is interesting to note that although you admit to being of low education, (that is not something to be ashamed of either) you somehow "know" things that well, or highly educated people seem to have missed?
    If I ask you how did God/Jesus make himself known to you, then you will come back, if at all, with the usual no evidence type stuff that your religion is based on. Visions in dreams and rubbish like that.
    Like Jon, I was a faithful believer too. But Jesus let me down when I needed him most. I still have a hand painted copy of "Jesus, light of the world" on my living room wall. So, If you are there Jesus, no need to knock, let yourself in with magic, or just use the keybox hidden outside-you know everything so you sure do know the combination. Let yourself in, help yourself to a snack and a beer from the fridge ( or just make some wine on the spot) and then come and find me. If you do, I will drop everything and follow you.

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  8. When people say they "know", as Nina posted (actually she wrote KNOW), what they mean is that they "feel", which is not evidence at all. Like, we don`t have any evidence that the books of the bible are God-inspired, though believers say that they "know" that they are. HOW do they "know"?

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  9. I remember after I lost the love of my life, two Russian neighbors came to console me. They were scientists, but still deeply religious, and even went on to build their own church in New Mexico. They reassured me that my loved one was in Heaven, and I would see her again. I asked them how they knew this. Their response was: "We just know. And we have no doubts."

    BALONEY.

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  10. Robby, Robby, Robby. A standing ovation for you. You ain't missing nothing, except a massive waste of our limited hours on this planet.

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