"Is There an Anti-theist Doctor in the House?"

Hello! New here. I was a firm atheist until a few days ago. I had a very serious personal issue, my friend prayed over me, and that's the first time that I can remember that I have felt anything that's made me feel a spiritual connection or presence of any kind. I've been slowly exploring this. Does anybody have any resources for former atheists that want to get their toes wet? I've been enjoying some worship music and prayer. Thanks in advance for any input!❤

Mark Rego Monteiro I´m a Unitarian Universalist, and recommend their Principles and Sources as advanced modern activist Christianity, and they have a great hymnal, but they´re more humanistic than I prefer. I left my atheist upbringing as I drew on scholar Huston Smith´s book World´s Religions, Chinese Taoism, and Kung Fu/Tai Chi, and then Buddhism (a lot of temples in NYC), spiritual stories in Jack Kornfield´s book Stories of the Spirit, and Yoga, Shamanic workshops, and the 12 step group codependency Recovery Movement that enriched my spiritual life and intelligence. At some point after that I got curious about Christian Science´s healing focus and Quaker-Friendism, while enjoying Episcopalian and Catholic lunchtime services. The United Church of Christ has some good activism. Keep circulating, because modern society has outstripped many doctrines and denominations, so that interdenominational and interfaith understanding is how individuals can push and stretch conservative doctrines. Jesus´ legacy is in Universities through inspired monks like Thomas of Aquinas, mystics like Hildegarde of Bingen, and now the Freedom of Religion in a materialistic society that needs interfaith wisdom to free Jesus himself.

Danie Bake Prayer is a powerful placebo. It taps into the same neurotransmitter's as meditation providing a peaceful feeling. Helping hands are better than praying hands. I was a devout Christian for over 50yrs. After working in Pediatric Oncology I started to question my faith. What kind of all knowing super entity would aklow a sweet child to suffer like this. What kind of all knowing super entity requires worship or it has murderous temper tantrums. There have been thousands of Gods worshipped throughout history. I deny one less God than you.

Eileen Borghi Frey I agree. Mark Rego Monteiro Congratulations on leaving doctrinal Christianity. I got my bachelor´s in Bio Anthro after leaving atheism with a combo of UU principles and a non-objectifying form of theism based on scholar Huston Smith´s definition of the Chinese Tao. As an oncologist, you´ll appreciate that my dad died of his weakened system after radiation treatment for his cancer, along with a heart attack. My dad was interested in Psychology, but had let himself get addicted to work at least, and neglected his other physical and psychological, and spiritual, needs. I started my work life in Social Services, but diversified while maintaining my Bio Anthro and psychosocial foundations. As such, I might just point out that prayer is more than a placebo, as is meditation. The classic 1950s case of Mr. Wright and Dr. West provides a powerful kind of baseline. However, there are different approaches to prayer, with the Catholic appeals to saints and self-flagellating arguably being least associated with healing. Christian Science, however, was founded by a woman who founded a church that has a huge body of testimony literature that is illuminating. It also spawned offshoots from which emerged such lights as Louise Hay who healed her cancer through bodywork psychotherapy and holistics oriented to divine guidance and "the Infinity of Life where I am." Then, there are other testimonies and their contexts that include visions and details, and even the angles of hospital reports, that reveal contexts more extensive than reductionism. In fact, the phenomena of "emergent properties" contributes a significant angle. As for "helping hands," they aren´t mutually exclusive with "praying hands," just an angle of your apparent experience with "praying hands." As for a super entity allowing sick children to suffer, what kind of medical system has allowed the insights of Psychosomatics and Spiritual healing to be excluded and even derided? OC Simonton MD, for one, set up a cancer clinic, wrote about some miracle cases and other moderate improvements, and the psychodynamic challenges, and then a second book including spiritual components and a similar spectrum. Still, given people´s flaws, why blame God for a divided medical system of imperfect people?

I´m an environmentalist, and know that human bio-psychosocial tendencies to choose greed as profiteering is a complex phenomenon, and children are no less victimized by the evil people cling to, that Buddhism and Addiction Psychology illuminate. As for "gods," Jesus taught "Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven (where? within and among you)" and "Clean the cup within where there is wickedness" that Anthony of the Desert revealed in 270 like the Buddha and Freud/Jung, for ex. Whyh blame God for your church´s doctrine? Jefferson gave us Freedom of Religion as a Deist Christian. Taoism led me to Buddhism, psychology, shamanism, hypnotherapy, yoga, Kung Fu/Tai Chi, and so on. Why blame God because you didn´t you look around? There is no God but Allah, said Mohammed, but Science and UN Human Rights come from Jesus´ high integrity followers, so that God is the Creator and Source, but how do you relate to that God and diverse forces and entities in the Creation that follows laws? I am grateful to the one through Jesus that made the Freedom of Religion, FDR´s UN, and Gandhi, and post-Christian for many UUism possible. It´s one more than you, and is the reference in Levels of Explanation for the thousands of others. Enjoy, but remember that your doubts are your doubts, not God´s. ·

Danie Bake Mark Rego Monteiro , Regarding God, There is no reason to assume existence without evidence. You do not get to imagine possibilities into existence. Many theoretical physicists believe that the world was created billions of years ago by a process called MTheory. https://youtu.be/Q51OTSPQgKg Stanford University did a research project on the effectiveness of intercessory prayer. Conclusion: Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/longawaited-medical-study-questions-the-power-of-prayer.html What kind of all knowing super entity requires worship or it has murderous temper tantrums

Mark Rego Monteiro You assert, "...can´t assume (God´s) existence without evidence" and " can´t imagine possibilities into existence," as if you treat psychological denialism as a form of denying the evidence. As your links show, you merely treat a lab study of prayer as "evidence," and then cite the famous late theoretical physicist whose last book displayed openly the worst fallacies of scientific determinism, i.e. Scientism. Hawking et al´s classic statement from The Grand Design, "Philosophy is dead" and oh yeah, "The reality of the world is merely as it is perceived in an individual´s models," meaning he confused classical unempirical Philosophy with all forms of Philosophy, including Science, and immediately began to philosophize. Similarly, lab results have to be adequately interpreted, showing how "science" is a popularized term for Scientific Philosophy. Similarly, the failure to fully simulate abiogenesis and solar nuclear fusion in labs doesn´t mean they don´t occur, you can´t recreate historical Rome of 0 AD, and saying, "We put an automechanic in a room with blueberry pie ingredients, and he didn´t make a pie! Conclusion: humans can´t make pies!" Oh? And put two strangers together in a lab, a man and woman, to test for the existence of love, romantic or otherwise. Results? What? No love? Love doesn´t exist! Human psychosocial and cultural contexts are extremely complex, so that lab failures of prayer performance is strictly limited to its very specific artificial and piecemeal reconstruction, and deceptive or deluded if not accompanied by a large asterix asserting, "Reminder and Warning: This experiment is attempting to simulate a complex human behavior, and is strictly limited in context and implications." (continued)

Mark Rego Monteiro Danie Bake And that is why testimonies being confirmed in their before/after conditions by medical authorities offer a more realistic form for scientific philosophical study, like ex-cerebral palsy (a form of infantile brain damage) victim Marlene Klepees´ testimony confirmed in its before/after conditions by the Mayo Clinic... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU8q0GoMF1Y , Rich Owen´s prayerful recovery from liver failure by an Orlando Hospital, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phoB7YABGMk&t=2s , and Wendy Moore´s healing of Lou Gehrig´s/ALS by U Mich Ann Arbor Hospital https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejU38sJ4loY&t=207s . Your lack of caution in interpreting the results of a study, along with the larger implications for understanding the philosophical issues that make up science, is reflected in this evaluation of a form of medical bias and neglect by this Harvard team with two MDs and a PhD from Harvard Public Health et al.... https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/rshm/vanderweele-koh-balboni-health-and-spirituality (continued)

Mark Rego Monteiro DanieBake Thus, as Koh MD et al point out, spirituality and health have a "substantial history in most cultures" of being interconnected. The scientific format I am supplying appropriately also reflects a reluctance by MD´s to write journal articles on "spontaneous remissions," and their contexts, as L Dossey MD points out. However, researchers like Harvard´s JD Rediger MD, Lyssa Rankin MD, and K Turner PhD have been doing extensive work on "spontaneous remissions," and illuminating their psychosocial and spiritual angles. As such, different forms of "evidence" reveal the biases of "physical paradigms in science" and scientist extremist´s inadequate and fallacious philosophical knowledge and awareness. The confirmation of spiritual and religious phenomena is consistent with historical reports of phenomena and the philosophical evaluation of knowledge and phenomena domains. As for physicists and theories of Creation, "M" theory is all about Whitten and diverse string theories combined, all in a mechanistic vein. Goedel´s Incompleteness Theorem You show a willingness to deny and neglect appropriate and relevant evaluations. The development of modern Universities from Christian monastic schools and the revival of spiritual healing in George Fox, St. Bernadette´s Lourdes, Mary B Eddy´s Christian Science, JG Lake´s ministries, W Seymour´s Azusa St. Revival, and so on, along with Therapeutic and Transpersonal Psychology from Freud, Jung to Rogers, et al, is also not reducible to fraud, neurochemistry, and odd imprudently reasoned negative lab studies. Again, why blame and project on God for human doctrinal demands, human "temper tantrums, and your own lack of disciplined exploration of Comparative Christianity and Religious Studies? I know I don´t have an MD, but you sure as hell have been coddled into mistaking your MD degree as anything like my systematic spiritual search combining my Bio Anthro, Taoism to Shamanism, and Christian Science to Episcopalianim, my professional work in Soc Svc´s AND Wall St., and my masters in Intl Relations, plus. You are overblown, underexperienced, and in denial. And that´s ok, as long as you don´t know any better. Logical fallacies are philosophical and psychological projection is psychological, and learning has a curve. ·

Daniel Baker Mark Rego Monteiro , Please provide me with Any objective evidence for a God. If there is an all knowing super entity running this universe, he should have been fired a long time ago. Not a very good resume so far. AND, if he is as powerful as you believe he is, he should know exactly what it would take to convince me he is real. Even then, I wouldn't worship him. Any God who has the Power to heal suffering and chooses not to is a murderer in my book.

Mark Rego Monteiro Danie Bake The objective evidence has various forms, and is amply contained in the series of testimonies and assessments that I laid out generously for you, and that you impulsively neglected to scan. Your response indicates that you are not responding literately and logically, but based on your psychological condition. You then try to condition God to your judgments using human organizational criteria undisciplined by appropriate criteria. The Universe has been studied by physicists because ancient Greek Philosophy was not allowed to perish. Why didn´t Philosophy perish? Because Christian monks and their monastic schools became modern Christian Universities. By DesCartes, scholars carelessly failed in their mechanicism to persist in acknowledging their debt to Jesus and his theism explicitly. Even Thomas Jefferson as a rationalist Deist Christian Freethinker in the public eye didn´t make that mistake. The "resume" you refer to fails to assign responsibility appropriately. As the Neo-Assyrians in 800 BC/E were ruthless, God as perceived through shamans and non-Jewish priests had taken a polytheist character. God´s message through Abraham, Moses´ 10 Commandments, and the 50 plus Hebrew prophets operated in a historical context, as the Buddha emerged in NE India, Lao Tzu in China, Pantanjali´s Yoga in India, and Socrates in Greece, all around 500 BC/E. Ezra was a major Jewish prophet at that time as the Jewish people returned from Cyrus´ Persian Babylon to Yehud. Jesus represents a historical landmark with reference to God, although his spiritual teachings about God´s love became filtered and worked into doctrines by political concerns and demands, perhaps not illegitimately. That´s a key phenomena and knowledge domain that requires study and reflection. "God should know exactly what it would take to convince me he is real." Well, God´s love through Jesus has convinced me, a Harvard grad in Bio Anthro and Soc Svc guy on assignments, who has sought the Truth. As far as I can speak for the God´s honest Truth, you are acting like a victim, thus projecting layers built up as a privileged doctor on top of your basic family of origin personality.

God´s love through Jesus has been expressed through University scholarship and Psychology, from Freud and Jung to Rogers, Harlow and more. As Christianity´s University spawn child Science shows, God has created a complex reality that we can understand. Instead, you clung, and cling, to some disempowering church doctrine and your frozen lab rat view of science. You can´t even respond rationally and attentively to my assertions. So, you steer your own boat in the river and eddies of material and cultural existence. I was raised by an well-rounded ex-Catholic doctorate atheist dad, and discovered UUism´s "spiritual path support" and Huston Smith´s Taoism to ignite my slow fuse with a non-objectified Yin-Yang/Tai Chi view, and then the adventure of college and beyond, now to Greenpeace, organic food, food co-ops, and interfaith and interdenominational Christianity. It´s all real time, but spiritual experience. Now, I watched my videos and read my links. You can´t even do that. Ever hear the one about the guy on a rooftop in a flood? He prays to God for help, and refuses a boat and helicopter because he says, "No, thanks. I prayed to God." So, he drowns. After the pearly gates, he is interviewed by God, and asks, "God, I prayed for your help! Where were you when I needed you?" God answers, "Let´s see," thumbingthrough his file cards, "Dan Baker? I sent you a boat, a helicopter, and Mark RM´s amply enriching discussion, but hey, it all worked out, you had your chance to choose and learn, but time ran out. Now, that way to the pearly gates. Hey, ever read A Christmas Carol?"

*** Mark Rego Monteiro Danie Bake That´s a question to be explored, and that´s what scholars and sincere seekers do. I´ve already had a profound head start, and looked at adequate material to establish some strong views. Science has made an important contribution, as a subset form of Philosophy to its parental forms in Epistemology and Empiricism, all forms of Greek-derived eclectic Christian Theo-Philosophy. Scholars like T Woods and P Duhem have pointed out how the view of God through Jesus as omnipotent and lawful overcame a number of foundational limiting assumptions of the Greeks and Muslims. My undergrad Harvard degree in Bio Anthro gave me an original depth of insight that has stuck as I worked in Social Services and beyond. Globalization of diverse secularized Christian "Western" cultural components, especially the University and the UN Human Rights-oriented community, has established the Christian-based worldview´s breadth and comprehensiveness as Jesus´ high integrity legacy, although contaminated by profiteering and other hypocritical elements. While Eliot Chapple´s behavioral Bio Anthro, widely unknown, has established some key bio-psychsocial foundations of religious behaviors, more conventional views like Van Gennep, M Eliade, and R Otto themselves make extensive inroads. I´ll take alook at HDS´s project, but you should read up on the Anthropology of Religion and foundational scholars like M Eliade and R Otto. The internet truly delivers sometimes.... https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.275529/page/n1/mode/2up

Mark Rego Monteiro Danie Bake Dan, that HDS project looks marvelous and solid, as might be expected since even the 1800s and Unitarianism´s good points with Harvard´s "sons" Thoreau and Emerson pioneering engagement with Hinduism....Their view, "we acknowledge that there are multiple authentic expressions of religious devotion in the world," gets itself embedded in the Christian University-based religious views informed by Science. Science is a form of secularized eclectic Christian Empirical Philosophy, as I mentioned, that is based on a view of God through Jesus as omnipotent (and more) that has in fact mastered much of the physical Universe and Social Sciences, and Humanities, and thus encompasses other cultural forms, as HDS starts to lay out. It supersedes now and that way some outdated aspects of the OT. Within Christian denominations and in Christian society we can usually speak about "integrity" and hypocrisy" in relation to Jesus, while inter-culturally, we can only speak of resonant alignment and supplementation or frictional dissonance of component elements. Buddhism resonates with Jesus´ teachings to "Clean the cup within," but not, in the final analysis, a total "non-self." Islam´s devotion to God is resonant, but Sharia has a number of frictional elements, for ex. ***

Mark Rego Monteiro Danie Bake There is then also the question of historical development, from Shamanism to various Neolithic groups like Mesopotamia, and from that to Abraham, then the length,people, and events of the OT. All that requires historicity, the appropriate attention to time-period understandings and avoiding anachronistic projections of modern and personal expected norms. Anthropology and Psychology, even Sociology, are powerful scholarly subject domains to use, such as Bowlby´s cross-cultural mother attachment studies and Piaget´s work and diversified legacy through say, Elizabeth Bates on affective development and Kohlberg on moral processes. Philosophically, then, in the Phil of Religion, "Who created the Creator / Source?" That´s where General Systems Theory and emergent properties in epistemology can help. The first form of cellular life emerged from a pre-biotic chemical precursor in a like vesicle. We might ask philosophically what mitosis gave rise to that first form of cellular life, and the question is not adequate for the pre-biotic precursor. It is a different order of phenomena. Similarly, the question of where do the Newtonian laws come from has been clarified as "lawful behavioral physico-energetic regularities" traced down (micro) and up (macro), but down to the Quantum mechanical world it shifts to light´s velocity, non-local phenomena, Higg´s fields, M-string theory and the quantum vacuum. S Carroll has a Core Theory equation. All Physics, however, is a form of Philosophy, and our human forms of Philosophy wouldn´t have been possible without Christian monastic schools in the historical, psychological, and sociological developments of Christian complex society. Before we could seek the Higg´s field, we needed Jesus´ legacy and parental relation to God at root, following many generations after Abraham´s precursors, Abraham, Moses and God´s "I am that I am," and the rest unforgotten. The question, "Who created the Creator?" thus, before the Big Bang, underlying and immanent to the Higg´s field and any hypothesized "strings" draws a response in emergent properties and General Systems Theory epistemology: a higher order reality and entity/being. "Infinite regress" as a concept fails as an empirical concept, refuted by logical absurdities and contradictory results. "Ultimate reality" is a philosophically open term sometimes used, neuroanthropologist C McLaughlin and psychiatrist E D´Aquili, who cited some of Chapple´s work, used "Absolute Unitary Being." D´Aquili´s student A Newberg has contributed to "spiritual intelligence" conceived in terms of the brain´s cerebral "synchronous processing." Thus, there are supplements to the classic answer building on Aristotle, that God´s higher order nature is a First Cause/Unmoved Mover, Aquinas´ Uncaused Cause, and as WL Craig lays out in the Kalam Cosmological Argument, timeless, spaceless, immaterial, and eternal, and personal. God has also been called "self-caused." I recommend reading up on the philosophical work, because that at least is disciplined and scholarly.