I must follow, if I can

Annihilationism and Your Pet Cat
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 26, 2024

I was a Calvinist before I became an atheist. I was very Calvinist, in fact. It got to the point where I had eventually achieved such a robust Reformation theology that I accepted the idea that God could actually choose to send me to hell for eternity. I figured if... [Read More]
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When I was an Agnostic
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 23, 2024

I am an agnostic Jesus-follower. That is, science and reason tell me that Yahweh, even if he existed, was a murderous tyrant, and so if Christians teach that Jesus was the son of Yahweh, or that Jesus believed he was doing the will of Yahweh, or that Yahweh raised Jesus... [Read More]
Tags:
- deconstruction
- exvangelical
Theodicy, Slavery, and CSA
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 20, 2024

Since I began deconstructing my faith 10-12 years ago, I have been keeping notes in Evernote with various tags (later Notion, as I had to abandon Evernote due to its constantly-increasing fees and restrictions). I even made a Mind Map of all the points I had developed. [Read More]
Tags:
- atheism
- deconstruction
- theodicy
- abuse
Thoughts on Dystheism and the Sacrifice of Isaac
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 16, 2024

They say: When God does good, it's not because he's conforming himself to some external morality; God's actions are good because it is God doing them. Goodness is whatever God does and commands. This is the absolutist's reply to Euthyphro's dilemma. But maybe the absolutist is wrong. [Read More]
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The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory – Book Review
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 12, 2024

Tim Alberta's The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory is a great book. The author's intended purpose is to investigate the errors that have allowed MAGA extremism to permeate the evangelical church. The book's overall sentiment can be summarized by this quote from a passage where the author was interviewing... [Read More]
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Dystheism vs. Theodicy
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 6, 2024

The problem of evil, or, "Why does God allow bad things to happen?" [Read More]
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New blog home
By Aaron Lord
Posted on March 4, 2024

I've migrated my blog from mustfollow.wordpress.com to mustfollow.blog, and then off of Automattic's Wordpress.com entirely to self-hosted, now at blog.lorddev.com. I've changed the theme as my previous one was quite outdated. But the Tolkien quote doesn't really fit anymore, so I need to think of a new blog title. [Read More]
Defending Democracy from Christian Nationalists
By Aaron Lord
Posted on December 31, 2023

The Baptists had insisted that the way Jesus made disciples was by teaching and persuasion, not by coercion. They held that the government has no competence in religion, and when it seeks to enforce faith it creates wars of religion and hypocrites who claim a faith they do not actually... [Read More]
Tags:
- baptist
- baptists
- polity
Music for fun vs. music for religion
By Aaron Lord
Posted on November 3, 2023

In my youth I exhibited an acumen for music and was told by my parents that I was to do it all "to the glory of God" (1 Cor. 10:31). Though I studied classical music I was sort of sending energy to the Most High while I played it. My... [Read More]
Tags:
- camp fire
- celtic
- music
- secularism
The Odyssey of Theodicy
By Aaron Lord
Posted on October 29, 2023

Theodicy is the attempt to vindicate God when we see so much evil in the world. During the first phase of my deconstruction, my own theodocious issues weren't quite the same as others. For me, the problem of evil was addressed with by Calvinism and the doctrine of Original Sin.... [Read More]
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