Reading Pharyngula earlier today, I was pleased to find a Christian commenter who…well…thinks. When I (finally) update my links list, Rob will be an addition. I’m already bookmarking him for my regular reads.

I’m in that new-reader fun phase of figuring out what a blogger is all about, and so far, I’m enjoying what I’m finding. In this post, Rob succinctly expresses one of my biggest frustrations with “Christianity” (yes, the quotation marks are on purpose) today:

An often cited “cultural problem” is how students who believe “Chrstianity” go to college and, thanks to the “indoctrination” of their professors, lose their faith. How horrible and secular colleges must be, the conclusion goes. Indeed, I have known a student or two who showed up believing that the Earth was only 6000 years old and was created in its present form from the void, but who, after a few years of education, stopped believing in God altogether. I thought that was sad, but the problem was not that the student had obtained a great education, learning how to think critically and learning a lot about what humanity knows aout the Universe. No, in fact, the problem was that the student had been brought up to understand that to be “Christian” was to believe a bunch of stuff which is, quite frankly, wrong.

If you want your children to remain Christians if they go out into the world and learn more about the world, don’t insist that being a Christian means believing a lot of stuff which is completely inconsistent with what has arisen from the progress of human knowledge. Students grow and change in college, and may still lose their faith. But if they start with an understanding of faith that fits with the modern world, it will be a lot easier to hold on to it.

As one who went to college, learned critical thinking, then spent a good 10+ years afterward walking away from Christianity, I wholeheartedly agree. Nicely said, Rob.