#92 – The belief vortex: falling in, crawling out

An amazing story of a journey into an utterly bizarre worldview, and what it took to come back to reality.

Do you ever look back on the things that you once believed with conviction, and now shake your head, asking yourself: “How could I have believed that? It’s so obviously not true.  I just don’t think that way anymore.”  And every year, when holidays bring friends and family back together again, you cringe at the conversations and expectations that you know are going to come up, because they still think that way. 

Or you watch loved ones slowly fall into a quicksand of strange beliefs, and ask yourself: “How did they fall into that hole?  How can I help them crawl out?”

Our guest today can tell you … because he’s been there.  His story is going to leave you speechless. If you think what you once believed is a bit out there, wait till you hear his story. If you think you’ve let go of a lot of baggage, wait till you hear his story.

Kerry Noble started off as a young kid with a very ordinary Baptist belief, but in just a few short years, his faith transformed into something so completely different, shocking, and surreal. If I simply told you where he ended up … if I merely showed you the before and after pictures without explaining the steps that got him there … you just wouldn’t believe me. It’s such a dramatic change. And that’s the secret to how it all happened: in the same way that you the listener need time to comprehend each twist in circumstances, logic and common sense, the person going through that mind warping experience needs time to acclimatize with every step into that vortex. 

It’s a slow process of being very gradually introduced to slightly stranger ideas and waiting till you’ve embraced that before moving to another idea that’s even stranger yet. Theology by accretion.

One small step at a time.

Like putting a frog in a pot of cool water and slowly turning up the temperature till it eventually boils to death.

Kerry also tells us how he himself was able to give his head a shake and crawl his way out.  It took a few years of thinking his way out of the tangled mess of beliefs he’d acquired.  Deconstruction, and then reconstruction. 

I learned a lot from listening to him. 

I think you will too.

As always, tell us what you think…

Find more about Kerry Noble at https://www.facebook.com/KerryNobleCSA

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