Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Agnosticity Volume 1: An Agnostic View of Bothersome Christian Doctrine
    Agnosticity Volume 1: An Agnostic View of Bothersome Christian Doctrine
    Agnosticity Volume 1: An Agnostic View of Bothersome Christian Doctrine
    Ebook113 pages1 hour

    Agnosticity Volume 1: An Agnostic View of Bothersome Christian Doctrine

    By Raymond A. Hult

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Agnosticity is a new word created by the author with the hope that it will cause the reader to take a fresh look at how Agnostics think. Volume 1 reflects agnostic concerns surrounding Christian doctrine and is the first of a series intended to analyze the belief systems of major organized religions around the world. Christianity was chosen first because it accounts for the religious preference of about three of ever four American adults.

    Using his twenty-seven years as a Special Agent for the FBI as a springboard, the author draws on his experience in deductive reasoning to justify the agnostic point of view. This book is written so that the average person can easily understand the doubts that agnostics struggle with in trying to decide the existence of God. Instead of requiring a PhD. in religious studies, the author appeals to the common sense and rational thought that is inborn in most everyone.

    A primary goal of the author is to portray the Agnostic in a more favorable light and that there is nothing evil with admitting that a sure knowledge of God may not be so sure after all. Almost every page will result in readers re-evaluating their belief in God and the tenants of Christianity. Whether agreeing or disagreeing, the reader will never regard Christian dogma exactly the same way again.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTrafford Publishing
    Release dateFeb 16, 2007
    ISBN9781425197131
    Agnosticity Volume 1: An Agnostic View of Bothersome Christian Doctrine
    Author

    Raymond A. Hult

    The author is 78, having been married for 57 years with five daughters, 13 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. Having been for most of his life a comiited Christian, he eventually determined he was actually an Agnostice. Having served 27 years as an FBI Special Agent, he finally replaced his blind faith, invloving multiple layers of hearsay, with the importance of relying on evidence and common snense. He's now retired in Bountful, Utah engaging mostly in writing and golf. He's authored seven published books, six of which deal with his Agnoxtic views and the seventh a novel dealing with his experience in the FBI. All have been published by Trafford and can be purchased at both Barns and Nobel and Amazon.

    Read more from Raymond A. Hult

    Related to Agnosticity Volume 1

    Related ebooks

    Philosophy For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      My Friend, Tim Keller

      May 21, 2023

      My Friend, Tim Keller
      8 min read

    • Article

      Keeping The Faith

      Oct 28, 2022

      Keeping The Faith
      3 min read

    • Article

      Man On Fire

      Nov 19, 2020

      Man On Fire
      4 min read

    • Article

      How Should We Respond To Celebrities Coming To Christ?

      Dec 30, 2019

      If you’ve been following the news lately, you will have noticed a significant wave of celebrities who are turning to Christ. In what is referred to as a massive spiritual movement, the sinful city of Hollywood is turning more and more stars away from

      5 min read

    • Article

      Red Alert

      May 20, 2019

      Why does the Church today appear to be so powerless? Why are so many churches emptying? Why have young people fled the church? Why do some Christians consider ‘gathering together as the church’ to be irrelevant? What is happening in our generation?

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Jul 30, 2021

      Dear readers, we love to hear your thoughts on the stories that we publish, what is going on around the world, and what the Lord has placed on your heart! Email your letter through to editor@joymag.co.za for a chance to be featured – please try to ke

      7 min read

    • Article

      Do You Practice Buddhism Together With Another Faith?

      Mar 19, 2019

      Buddhism dovetails beautifully with my Catholic upbringing, as the practice of meditation is akin to prayer. It’s a daily habit to find stillness in my heart and the peaceful place where I believe God and my basic goodness inhabit. The mala beads I h

      2 min read

    • Article

      THE WAR FOR OUR YOUTH Why creation still matters

      Dec 30, 2019

      We’re being told by public education systems, universities, media, some parents, and unfortunately many church leaders, that parts of the Bible are not relevant anymore and that we need to reinvent God’s word. So, with this situation, in order to und

      3 min read

    • Article

      Jen Hatmaker

      Aug 19, 2017

      Jen Hatmaker
      3 min read

    • Article

      Extreme Beliefs

      Feb 8, 2024

      Extreme Beliefs
      4 min read

    • Article

      Convert Nation

      Aug 12, 2017

      Convert Nation
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lukewarm Faith in the Church Today

      Nov 25, 2022

      Last month I led a biblical pilgrimage tour to Turkey with JOY! Travel. We visited the sites of the 7 Churches of Revelation. At each site we received relevant teachings from the group pastor about the letters written to the churches in the book of R

      1 min read

    • Article

      Keeping the Faith

      Jul 23, 2019

      Keeping the Faith
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Aug 19, 2019

      Thank you for your wonderfully illustrated Biblical series of articles that you regularly publish. I find that I can’t concentrate like I used to, and love the short, precise, and factual articles. I have learnt so much from reading them. I was fasci

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Agnosticity Volume 1

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Agnosticity Volume 1 - Raymond A. Hult

      AGNOSTICITY

      VOLUME 1

      An Agnostic View

      of

      Bothersome

      Christian

      Doctrine

      Raymond A. Hult

      1939.png

      ©

      Copyright 2007 Raymond A. Hult

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

      Note for Librarians: A cataloguing record for this book is available from Library and Archives Canada at www.collectionscanada.ca/amicus/index-e.html

      ISBN 1-4120-9030-X

      ISBN 978-1-4251-9713-1 (ebook)

      2264.png2282.png

      Offices in Canada, USA, Ireland and UK

      Book sales for North America and international:

      Trafford Publishing, 6E—2333 Government St.,

      Victoria, BC V8T 4P4 CANADA

      phone 250 383 6864 (toll-free 1 888 232 4444)

      fax 250 383 6804

      Book sales in Europe:

      Trafford Publishing

      (UK)

      Limited, 9 Park End Street, 2nd Floor Oxford,

      UK OX1 1HH UNITED KINGDOM

      phone +44 (0)1865 722 113 (local rate 0845 230 9601)

      facsimile +44 (0)1865 722 868; info.uk@trafford.com

      trafford.com/06-0786

      10 9 8 7 6 5

      Contents

      Preface:

      1    FAITH VERSUS OBJECTIVITY

      2    THE CREATION

      3    SATAN

      4    THE HOLY TRINITY

      5    EARLY HUMAN HISTORY

      6    WORSHIPING GOD

      7    THANKING GOD

      8    PRAYING FOR HELP

      9    ANGELS

      10  REVELATION

      11  PROPHESY

      12  MIRACLES

      13  THE VIRGIN BIRTH

      14  THE ATONEMENT

      15  THE RESURRECTION

      16  THE FINAL JUDGMENT

      17  FINAL JUDGMENT (LENGTH OF TEST)

      18  FINAL JUDGMENT (THE RULES)

      19  FINAL JUDGMENT (TESTING PROCEDURE)

      20  FINAL JUDGMENT (FREE AGENCY)

      21  FINAL JUDGMENT (PHYSICAL AND MENTAL IMPAIRMENT)

      22  FINAL JUDGMENT (CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE)

      23  FINAL JUDGMENT (REPENTANCE)

      24  FINAL JUDGMENT (FAITH VERSUS WORKS)

      25  FINAL JUDGMENT (THE DIVIDING LINE)

      26  CHURCH AND STATE

      27  CHRISTIAN SMUGNESS

      28  MY CURRENT VIEW

      Preface:

      Like the majority of Americans, my ancestral roots are firmly grounded in the Christian tradition. My father was attending a Presbyterian church when he married Mom who was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). Dad’s ancestors came from a long line of Lutherans in Sweden. Mom’s roots included some of the original Mormon pioneers to enter the Salt Lake Valley in the fall of 1847.

      We moved to Salt Lake City in 1951 not long after Dad converted to the Mormon faith. Guided by Mormon doctrine, I was fortunate to be raised in a loving atmosphere that placed a special emphasis on family unity. We supported the Church fully and grew closer together as a result. I have many fond memories of living among Mormons and benefiting greatly from that warm and positive relationship.

      My first doubts about Mormon doctrine started when I enrolled at the University of Utah. Up until that time, I had remained pretty well insulated from influences outside the Mormon faith. Ironically, a Philosophy of Religion class stimulated me to seriously question some of the doctrines for the first time. Most nineteen year old Mormon boys volunteer to go on a two-year mission to proselyte for the Church. I decided against it and became inactive for the next few years.

      When we married in 1965 my wife and I were both inactive Mormons. We repented about the time of our first anniversary and agreed to attend a seminar to get our religious lives back in shape to regain full fellowship. Then we re-married for all time and eternity in the Salt Lake City Temple. We became fully immersed in the faith and several years later began the process of raising our five daughters as good Mormons.

      I was too busy in the Church to revisit my earlier doubts about its doctrine. I advanced in the priesthood and was eventually called at one point to be a bishop with responsibility for the spiritual well being of several hundred members. There was no doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that the Mormon faith represented the only true church on the face of the earth. This period of unswerving devotion lasted for the better part of thirty-five years.

      It was about the time of the birth of our first daughter in 1971 that I was hired as a Special Agent with the FBI. I was case agent on a variety of investigations in California, Texas, and Utah. I retired out of the St. George, Utah Resident Agency in 1998 capping a career just short of twenty-seven years. It was approximately five years prior to my retirement that I once again started to seriously question some of the doctrines of Mormonism.

      I suspect that it was a culmination of so many years of investigatory experience and fact-finding that ultimately forced me to take a serious look at the religious doctrines that I had for so long embraced primarily on faith alone. I started to look closer at Mormon practices that had slowing pricked away at my conscience such as polygamy, refusing the priesthood to black males, and certain disturbing parts of the Mormon temple ceremony. Although most of these questionable practices had since been corrected, it began to bother me considerably that they had ever been initiated in the first place.

      This period of disturbing introspection soon mushroomed into a full-fledged private but FBI type investigation of other Mormon doctrines. Much like the result of a successful cataract operation, the partial blindness of my trust in the credibility of Joseph Smith began to correct itself. It slowly became crystal clear to me after several years of digging out the facts that a significant portion of my misplaced faith had been grounded on fraud and deceit.

      I still considered myself a devout Christian, but continued over time to become a less active Mormon. I thought about attending other churches, but couldn’t come up with any particular denomination that made me feel comfortable. I was still most comfortable being a Mormon, but I finally arrived at the realization I could no longer comfortably participate without feeling like a hypocrite.

      Most non-Mormon investigators fail to give Joseph Smith enough credit for his cleverness. He used the Bible to his advantage to convert other Christians. He claimed numerous revelations from God that made it appear that mainstream Christianity had apostatized from God’s will as set forth in the Bible. His biggest asset was the Bible as he ingeniously used it to prove that God had personally called on him to restore the truth.

      It took years, but it finally came to me in bits and pieces that the Bible might not be everything it claimed to be. This startling realization first emerged about the time a Mormon friend of mine was trying to justify the practice of polygamy. He noted that Joseph Smith had only followed the lead of numerous apparently righteous biblical leaders in the Old Testament. I couldn’t see anything god-like about polygamy and I started to suspect that God may have had nothing to do with promoting such a dubious concept.

      Since the Bible and it’s representations are so old and, unlike Mormonism, it’s difficult to prove credibility one way or the other, I undertook an extensive personal analysis of the doctrines of Christianity on the basis of common sense and whether or not I could picture a perfect and loving God approving of such dogma. This book is the result of that search.

      Seeing I could no longer fully trust the Bible, I had to finally admit that I couldn’t be positive about the existence of God. It kind of shocks me to acknowledge my present leaning toward Agnosticism, but I refuse to accept the Christian point of view unless someone or something can prove to me that my doubts are groundless. Simply warning me that I lack sufficient faith no longer impresses me.

      There is much about Christianity that I admire. The purpose of this book is to focus on Christian doctrines that bother me. Any attempt to make

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1