What I Believe Now

            Now that I have established that I am no longer a Mormon or a Christian, you might be wondering what I do believe.  Many people who doubt the Bible seem to jump straight to Atheism.  However, I see a few problems with their position.  Without supernatural help, we couldn’t know anything about God.  His existence and character would remain a mystery.  Therefore, if there is a God, then he could reveal himself to us and we could know him.  But, if there is no God, then we would never know for sure if he isn’t there or if he just isn’t answering.  Atheists, on the other hand, are somehow very certain that there is no God, and I don’t find that very logical.

            On the other hand, there are also a few reasons to believe in a personal God.  Most cosmologists could agree that the universe had a beginning, and that before the beginning, there was nothing.  If you could rewind the universe and go back in time, you would not go forever.  There would have to have been a beginning.  But, nothing couldn't become something without supernatural help.  Whatever it was that created space, time and matter from nothing would have to reside outside of these three parameters, since nothing can create itself.  This argument can get confusing, but the point is that many of these kinds of questions are hard to explain without the supernatural.

            In conclusion, I have not found a reliable source of revelation that can explain these questions, and I’m not sure I ever will.  None of the sources I’ve looked at are consistent in their teachings, have their time-specific prophecies fulfilled, or describe a god worth worshiping.  You may think I’m being too picky, but I feel like these are reasonable expectations.  I feel like God should be able handle not contradicting himself all the time, not making false predictions, and not being an evil monster.  So, if you need a label, you can call me Agnostic.  At this point, I don’t practice any religion or worship any god.  But if there is a good, truthful god, and he wants to reveal himself to me, then send him my way.  I’d love to get to know him.  In the mean time, I’m comfortable with the fact that this mysterious god is just that—a mystery.

(Update: August 12, 2019)
I should add that there is one minor thing that I have slightly changed my position on since I wrote this essay, and that's that I don't mind mind calling myself an atheist. At the time, I was still under the impression that an atheist is someone who is 100% sure that there is no god, but that's not true. It's just someone who doesn't believe in god. In fact, atheists don't usually claim 100% certainty on anything. Absolute certainty is a characteristic of religion.