Healthy skepticism : laying it all out

My earliest descendant was the town grave digger in the colonial town of Roxbury. That's the only thing I know about this man who died in 1688.

He would have been alive to hear his pastor, John Elliot, discuss his translation of the bible into the Algonquin language. 

It sounds ridiculous, but as an Evangelical Christian, why wasn't Algonquin a lot like Hebrew? Why weren't the tales vaguely familiar? Many early puritans believed that these must be Israel's "lost tribes!" 

Quick questions like this are easy fodder for tech savvy Creationists and you can search it quick online and get plenty of hits. 

It's embarrassing to even admit it... I wondered aloud how the animals and the people got from the ark to America. 

I was a 32 year old Christian in my 2nd year of college studying American History. And I was willfully ignorant. 

I was also fighting depression and scared to death of how sin-sick I was. 

I desperately wanted to know how the world really worked and connect my journey to the simple lives of past sojourners. Slowly, carefully, meticulously, I used skepticism to challenge my every belief and assumption. 

History, critical thinking and mental health led me away from the Evangelical church! I had felt like a patient curled up in a hospital bed with a terminal illness. The world was in greyscale and I was despondent.

Then I rose up, breathing fresh air. Colors burst around me and I was a cured man! 

This is my blog to discuss my skepticism and also how history was paramount to my rebirth with a secular humanist mindset. 

If you are a Christian, I hope you can identify with the struggle and please challenge me! If you are an agnostic or atheist, a former evangelical, let's share and celebrate inquiry and free thought!