Part IV: Who would die for a fraud?

In part III I talked about becoming an Agnostic and in part IV I’ll write about the main idea that convinced me to consider Christianity. This idea surrounds Jesus’ claims about himself and the reaction of the people who followed him.

Part III: Origins of the universe

I left part I stuck in the despair of Atheism, but I began to encounter scientific ideas that would make me question my beliefs. These ideas had to do with the origins of the universe. First of all, there is the question of how the universe went from nothing to a place filled with stars, planets and, in at least one small part of the universe life. Science shows that the universe began with a great expansion called the Big Bang, but what sparked this expansion is still a mystery. You could argue that it was God who set everything in motion, but I don’t want to talk about that argument; I want to talk about the constants that helped form the universe.

Part II: Doubt and the paradox of solipsism

There is only one thing that you can know for certain and that is that since you are thinking you exist. Once you get outside of your own mind uncertainty creeps in. Are these people and things surrounding you actually real or are they illusions? Is the world around you a fantasy piped into your brain by Descartes’ evil genius?

Part I: Despair

“We can regard our life as a uselessly disturbing episode in the blissful repose of nothingness.”
--Arthur Schopenhauer

Despair and hopelessness enveloped me like a dark cloud blocking all sunlight—the only thing that was clear to me was that I, like all of humanity, was Sisyphus pushing my rock up the hill. I couldn’t understand how all of humanity, bustling around me, couldn’t see that they were vainly pushing a rock up a hill that would ultimately defeat them. The rock took many forms like money, family, fame and prestige. Some would get the rock very near to the crest of the hill, triumph looked certain, but I knew that eventually the rock would come tumble down.