God or Delusion?

Religion Was Invented by Humans

Practical Identity: A Response to June 12th

This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Come with Me”, promises that disciples can learn to “abide in Jesus” in any condition, receiving a spiritual “new name” that completely erases pride and self-sufficiency, with Jesus making his permanent dwelling with those who let him “be everything.”

Here’s a different approach:

When Marcus started attending the men’s Bible study at his church, the leader taught from this passage about spending time with Jesus and receiving a “new name” that would erase pride and transform character. “Let Jesus be everything,” Pastor Williams urged. “Abide in him constantly, and he’ll give you a new identity that replaces your old self-sufficient nature.”

Marcus embraced this teaching enthusiastically. He spent daily time in prayer and Bible study, believing Jesus was writing a new spiritual identity over his natural tendencies toward anger and impatience. For weeks, he felt transformed—more patient with his wife, calmer with his teenage son, less reactive to stress at work.

But when his company announced layoffs and Marcus’s department was eliminated, his spiritual “new name” seemed to vanish. He erupted at his boss, snapped at his family, and spent evenings drinking beer and watching TV instead of reading scripture. The promised permanent transformation felt like a cruel joke.

Meanwhile, his neighbor Carlos was dealing with his own job loss through a different approach. Instead of seeking spiritual identity change, Carlos worked with a therapist to develop better emotional regulation skills. He learned practical techniques for managing stress and anger—breathing exercises, cognitive reframing, regular exercise, and honest communication about his fears.

Carlos didn’t claim to have a new name or transformed nature. He simply acknowledged that job loss triggered his anxiety and worked to develop healthier responses. He joined a job seekers’ support group where people shared practical strategies and emotional support. He updated his resume, practiced interview skills, and networked systematically.

When Marcus watched Carlos handle unemployment with consistent calm and purpose, he felt ashamed of his own spiritual failure. His pastor suggested that Marcus needed to “abide more fully” and “make fewer excuses,” implying that his struggles revealed insufficient surrender to Jesus.

Eventually, Marcus realized that his attempts to maintain a spiritual identity had prevented him from learning practical emotional skills. Carlos hadn’t erased his natural personality but had developed tools to manage it effectively. His steadiness came not from divine transformation but from acquired wisdom about how to navigate difficult circumstances.

Marcus began attending the same support group as Carlos. Instead of trying to abide in Jesus constantly, he learned to abide with his actual emotions while developing healthier ways to express them. His “new name” wasn’t spiritually granted but practically earned through learning better life skills.

Reflection Question: When has learning practical emotional skills been more helpful than seeking spiritual transformation of character?

This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.

A Personal Relationship with Jesus

Proven Methods: A Response to June 11th

This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Getting There”, promises that simply “coming to Jesus” through complete surrender automatically brings life into accordance with one’s deepest desires, stops sinning, and provides divine rest that transforms spiritual exhaustion into “majestic vitality” through instant personal contact with Christ.

Here’s a different approach:

When Elena hit rock bottom with her gambling addiction—$30,000 in debt, lying to her family, stealing from her employer—her sister Rosa urged her to “come to Jesus.” “Just surrender everything to him,” Rosa pleaded. “He promises to give you rest and change everything. Personal contact with Jesus will transform you instantly.”

Elena desperately wanted that kind of supernatural solution. She attended revival meetings, went forward during altar calls, prayed for Jesus to take away her compulsion to gamble. She surrendered her life repeatedly, waiting for the promised transformation that would align her actions with her deepest desire to stop destroying her life.

But the instant change never came. Elena would leave church feeling spiritually renewed, only to find herself at the casino the next evening, feeding money she didn’t have into slot machines. The cycle of spiritual surrender followed by compulsive behavior created additional shame on top of her existing addiction.

Meanwhile, her coworker James took a different approach to his own gambling problem. Instead of seeking spiritual transformation, he sought evidence-based treatment. He joined Gamblers Anonymous and began working the twelve steps with a sponsor who understood addiction from lived experience. He attended cognitive-behavioral therapy sessions that helped him identify triggers and develop healthier coping strategies.

James’s recovery wasn’t instant or supernatural. It required daily choices, practical tools, and ongoing support. He learned to recognize the brain chemistry behind his gambling urges and developed specific techniques to interrupt the cycle. He set up financial barriers—automatic bill payments, restricted access to cash, accountability with his bank.

The “rest” that Elena eventually found didn’t come from surrendering to Jesus but from surrendering to a recovery process that worked. She joined GA after her third failed attempt at spiritual transformation. The group didn’t promise instant change but offered something more valuable: a proven method for managing addiction one day at a time.

Elena’s life did come into alignment with her deepest desires—but through human community, professional guidance, and evidence-based treatment, not divine intervention. The vitality she gained came from rebuilding relationships damaged by gambling, finding new activities that brought genuine joy, and developing self-respect through sustained recovery.

The voice that truly called her to change wasn’t Jesus whispering supernatural invitation but other recovering gamblers sharing their stories and showing her a practical path forward.

Reflection Question: When has finding a proven method for change been more effective than seeking spiritual transformation?

Why Do People Still Believe?

Practical Seeking: A Response to June 10th

This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Seek If You Have Not Found”, promises that genuine seeking with “your whole heart” and concentrated focus on God guarantees finding divine response through progressive purification and humble knocking at God’s door that will certainly be opened.

Here’s a different approach:

When David’s marriage began falling apart after fifteen years, his pastor urged him to “seek God with your whole heart” about reconciliation. “Narrow your interests until they are centered on God,” the pastor advised. “Concentrate, seek, and you will find God’s will for your marriage.”

David threw himself into spiritual seeking. He spent hours in prayer, fasted regularly, confessed every sin he could remember. He sought divine guidance about whether to fight for the marriage or accept the divorce his wife Sarah wanted. He knocked persistently at God’s door, waiting for supernatural direction.

Months passed without clear divine answers. David grew frustrated with God’s silence and began to question his own spiritual sincerity. Maybe he wasn’t seeking hard enough, wasn’t pure enough, wasn’t humble enough.

Meanwhile, Sarah took a different approach to their marital crisis. Instead of seeking divine intervention, she sought professional help. She researched marriage counselors who specialized in communication issues and found Dr. Martinez, whose evidence-based approach focused on practical relationship skills rather than spiritual solutions.

Sarah asked David to join her in counseling, but he insisted they should seek God’s will first. “We need to humble ourselves before God and let him show us the way,” he argued. Sarah went to counseling alone.

In therapy, Sarah discovered patterns she’d never recognized—how David’s conflict avoidance and her indirect communication style had created years of unresolved resentment. Dr. Martinez taught her to express needs clearly and set healthy boundaries. She learned that their problems weren’t spiritual failures requiring divine intervention but common relationship dynamics that could be addressed with better tools.

When Sarah filed for divorce, David was devastated. His months of spiritual seeking had yielded no divine guidance, no miraculous restoration, no opened doors. But Sarah had found what she was looking for—clarity about her needs, skills for healthier relationships, and peace with her decision.

David eventually realized that his spiritual seeking had been a way of avoiding the practical work their marriage needed. While he was waiting for God to provide answers, Sarah had been seeking real solutions from qualified professionals who could actually help.

The door that opened for Sarah wasn’t divine—it was the counselor’s office, where human wisdom and research-based interventions provided the tools she needed to make informed decisions about her life.

Reflection Question: When has seeking professional help or practical solutions been more effective than seeking divine guidance through spiritual disciplines?

Why Evolution Terrifies Religious Fundamentalists

Practical Asking: A Response to June 9th

This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Ask If You Have Not Received”, promises that “everyone who asks receives” from God, claiming that spiritual begging from a position of “abject poverty” guarantees direct divine response and supernatural provision for those who truly ask.

Here’s a different approach:

When single mother Tanya lost her job as a restaurant server during the pandemic, her pastor told her she needed to ask God for help—not just pray casually, but truly “beg” from a position of spiritual poverty. “Everyone who asks receives,” he assured her. “God promises to provide for those who come to him in desperation.”

Tanya spent weeks in intense prayer, asking God for financial provision, for her unemployment benefits to come through faster, for a miracle job opportunity. She felt spiritually poor enough—three months behind on rent, choosing between groceries and her daughter’s asthma medication, facing eviction. If anyone qualified for God’s promised provision, surely it was her.

But the promised answers didn’t come. Her unemployment claim remained delayed in bureaucratic processing. No job opportunities materialized despite her prayers. The eviction notice arrived regardless of her spiritual begging.

Meanwhile, her neighbor Patricia took a different approach to Tanya’s crisis. Instead of encouraging more prayer, she provided practical help. Patricia researched local assistance programs and helped Tanya apply for emergency rent relief. She connected Tanya with a food bank and childcare cooperative. She shared job leads from her own network and helped Tanya update her resume for office work.

The “receiving” that transformed Tanya’s situation came not from divine response to asking but from human response to need. The rent assistance program provided immediate relief. The job training program prepared her for better-paying work. The food bank ensured her daughter’s nutrition while finances were tight.

When Tanya found stable employment as a medical office assistant, it wasn’t because God had answered her desperate prayers. It was because Patricia had helped her navigate practical resources and human networks. The “direct relationship” that sustained her wasn’t with a divine provider but with a community of people who showed up with concrete assistance.

Tanya realized that her months of spiritual begging had actually delayed her from seeking the human help that was readily available. The poverty that had qualified her for God’s supposed provision was the same poverty that qualified her for effective social services and community support.

The wisdom she gained wasn’t supernaturally granted but practically learned: that asking for help from real people with actual resources was more reliable than asking an invisible God for miraculous provision.

Reflection Question: When have you found that asking for practical help from people was more effective than asking for divine intervention?

Why Organized Religion Makes No Sense

Earned Understanding: A Response to June 8th

This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “Determine to Know More”, promises that believers who abandon safety and “launch all on God” will have their eyes spiritually opened and receive divine knowledge automatically when they act on what they know, with God granting supernatural insight and personal transformation.

Here’s a different approach:

When Dr. Rebecca Chen felt stuck in her comfortable university research position, her spiritual director urged her to “launch all on God” and leave for missionary work in Southeast Asia. “God wants you to be something you’ve never been,” he insisted. “You’re playing it safe in the harbor when you should be out in the great deeps of his purpose.”

Rebecca had always been drawn to international development work, but the spiritual framing troubled her. The idea that God would supernaturally grant her knowledge and discernment if she just took a leap of faith seemed reckless, especially when considering work that would affect vulnerable communities.

Instead of making a dramatic spiritual leap, Rebecca chose careful preparation. She spent a year learning Khmer and studying Cambodia’s history, politics, and development challenges. She connected with organizations already working there and listened to Cambodian voices about what kinds of help were actually needed versus what well-meaning foreigners typically offered.

She volunteered with refugee resettlement programs locally to understand cross-cultural dynamics and her own biases. She took courses in sustainable development practices and studied the history of failed aid projects that had caused more harm than good.

When Rebecca finally moved to Cambodia, it wasn’t because God had broken her moorings with a storm, but because she’d methodically prepared herself to contribute meaningfully. Her “spiritual discernment” came not from divine revelation but from months of research, language study, and listening to people who knew the context far better than she did.

The knowledge she gained wasn’t granted supernaturally—it was earned through patient study and humble recognition of what she didn’t know. Her eyes were opened not by divine intervention but by Cambodian colleagues who taught her about local customs, effective approaches, and the unintended consequences of foreign aid.

Rebecca discovered that her spiritual destiny wasn’t mystically predetermined but practically constructed through education, relationships, and choosing to serve in ways that genuinely helped rather than simply satisfying her own need for purpose. The transformation she experienced came not from launching recklessly into God’s purpose but from carefully preparing to serve effectively in partnership with people who welcomed her contribution.

Reflection Question: When has careful preparation and listening to others led to better outcomes than taking dramatic leaps of faith?