The Hardened Faith

You Have a Mind. Use it.

Geniune belief must be earned. It is not inherited or bestowed or purchased. We must arrive at our beliefs through honest inquiry, diligent research, and strenuous mental exertion. Each of us, to the extent we are capable, must sort out the beliefs upon which we will build our lives.

The Hardened Faith exists to provide you with food for thought. I have no desire to lead you to Christianity if that is not what your mind tells you. That is where I ended up, and where I think you will too. But After all, we do not—and cannot—choose what we believe, but only arrive at the beliefs that our minds reveal.

Those who believe without thought are lazy. Those who believe in spite of rational doubts are hypocrites.

Message to Non-Christians

I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of evidence is against it.

—C.S.Lewis

Message to Christians

Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. [bold added]

Matthew 22:37-38

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.

Proverbs 4:7

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."

Luke 11:9-10

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with senses, reason and intellect has intended us to forego their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them.

—Galileo Galilei