The Bible: Making it the Functional Authority
I'd finished college and entered seminary where I promptly lost my faith. It wasn't the seminary's fault nor my undergraduate education. Sigmund Freud did it. Only later in life did I learn that the father of modern psychiatry and psychology was far more a philosopher than a social scientist. But I assumed his scientific credentials were valid, and he influenced me to reject an idea that couldn't be proved scientifically. By "scientific" he meant limiting one's investigation of reality to the natural realm. Following that path, the first casualty was the Bible. How could I test and prove the miracles of Scripture and all the teachings that contradicted contemporary scientific theory? Doubting the trustworthiness of Scripture, soon there was another casualty: God. I was smart enough not to become atheistic. That seemed a bit arrogant - how could I assert a denial, unprovable by definition? But I was definitely agnostic. I thought nothing was certain that could not be demonstrated scientifically.