I am no longer a *blank* because *blank*

[an anarchist]

This thread is open to everyone. From a religious perspective, what are you not anymore, and why?

I'll start.

I am no longer a Christian because I was not taught to critically think on the matter and decide for myself. Instead, I was told from birth that Jesus is God and the Bible is the literal truth. For that reason, I stepped back from my Christianity. This allows myself time to critically think on the matter, and truly decide for myself. Until then, I am rather unaffiliated, with Eastern leanings.

You can answer the flip side of this question.

I am now a *blank* because *blank*.

However, this is a response that I cannot give myself.

 

[mikkel_the_dane]

This thread is open to everyone. From a religious perspective, what are you not anymore, and why?

I'll start.

I am no longer a Christian because I was not taught to critically think on the matter and decide for myself. Instead, I was told from birth that Jesus is God and the Bible is the literal truth. For that reason, I stepped back from my Christianity. This allows myself time to critically think on the matter, and truly decide for myself. Until then, I am rather unaffiliated, with Eastern leanings.

You can answer the flip side of this question.

I am now a *blank* because *blank*.

However, this is a response that I cannot give myself.

I am now religious because I can't do the world without a base axiom of blind faith.

 

[an anarchist]

I am now religious because I can't do the world without a base axiom of blind faith.

I've seen a couple of people (not necessarily here) that accuse the religious as using their religion as a crutch. I know I most certainly do, and see nothing wrong with that.

 

[ChristineM]

I am no longer Christian because of Christians

 

[an anarchist]

I am no longer Christian because of Christians

Is it fair for one to judge a religion based on it's adherents?
For Christianity, I think so. I seem to remember being taught in church that "Christian" meant "Christ like". Christians are called to be ambassadors of God, right?

 

[Wildswanderer]

This thread is open to everyone. From a religious perspective, what are you not anymore, and why?

I'll start.

I am no longer a Christian because I was not taught to critically think on the matter and decide for myself. Instead, I was told from birth that Jesus is God and the Bible is the literal truth. For that reason, I stepped back from my Christianity. This allows myself time to critically think on the matter, and truly decide for myself. Until then, I am rather unaffiliated, with Eastern leanings.

You can answer the flip side of this question.

I am now a *blank* because *blank*.

However, this is a response that I cannot give myself.

I'm no longer a child because I got old.

 

[an anarchist]

I'm no longer a child because I got old.

Happy birthday!
As I asked this question to be answered from a religious perspective, are you saying that before your Christianity you were spiritually a child, and with it, you got old? What are you trying to say?

 

[osgart]

I'm no longer a creationist who believes in God. I am convinced that intelligence is from intelligent agency and is naturally occurring by way of intelligence. The universe is partly chaotic, and is also programmed. God is a loaded term that is defined by supreme morals, and supreme power and authority. Whomever the source is, there is no proof nor evidence that the agent is supreme in any way. All evidence is to the contrary.

Christianity does not make any sense. Islam is false because it relies on forced control and forced adherence among countless other reasons. I don't know much about karma, and Brahman. I don't subscribe to any world religions because they couldn't know all they claim to know.

My religion is based on things I can know by way of logical proof, and that is very little. The rest of existence is a profound mystery.

I tried naturalism, but it makes no logical sense to me that we should come about by mindless processes. I accept teleology as fact. Evolution is most likely an intelligent process, but the intelligence of it is primitive, and savage.

 

[ChristineM]

Is it fair for one to judge a religion based on it's adherents?
For Christianity, I think so. I seem to remember being taught in church that "Christian" meant "Christ like". Christians are called to be ambassadors of God, right?

The congregation that causee me to leave Christianity were the biggest bunch of hypocrits ever. It took me many years to accept that not all Christians were like that

 

[Nakosis]

This thread is open to everyone. From a religious perspective, what are you not anymore, and why?

I'll start.

I am no longer a Christian because I was not taught to critically think on the matter and decide for myself. Instead, I was told from birth that Jesus is God and the Bible is the literal truth. For that reason, I stepped back from my Christianity. This allows myself time to critically think on the matter, and truly decide for myself. Until then, I am rather unaffiliated, with Eastern leanings.

You can answer the flip side of this question.

I am now a *blank* because *blank*.

However, this is a response that I cannot give myself.

I am no longer religious because I met too many Gods.

 

[sun rise]

I'm no longer an atheist because God come into my life and I found a path which has answers to my questions.

 

[syo]

I'm an omnist. There is nothing to reject.

 

[Orbit]

I am no longer a Christian because the religion encourages homophobia and hypocrisy. Its proselytizing has a hand in destroying other cultures also and I found that distasteful.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Happy birthday!
As I asked this question to be answered from a religious perspective, are you saying that before your Christianity you were spiritually a child, and with it, you got old? What are you trying to say?

No I was just being a wise guy.
I think it's the other way around.
Being a Christian keeps me from losing my inner child.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

This thread is open to everyone. From a religious perspective, what are you not anymore, and why?

I'll start.

I am no longer a Christian because I was not taught to critically think on the matter and decide for myself. Instead, I was told from birth that Jesus is God and the Bible is the literal truth. For that reason, I stepped back from my Christianity. This allows myself time to critically think on the matter, and truly decide for myself. Until then, I am rather unaffiliated, with Eastern leanings.

You can answer the flip side of this question.

I am now a *blank* because *blank*.

However, this is a response that I cannot give myself.

I'm no longer a Christian because;
1) There seemed to be a mismatch between what people claimed as belief, and how they acted.
2) I had no personal experience of God.
3) the world made more sense by removing God from my worldview.
4) There seemed no clear rationale for rejecting some God concepts over others. People all reject some though.


These were my initial reasons. My learning didn't stop at that point, and my rationale has developed, but I think you're after the point of transition, so I'll leave it there.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I'm no longer a Christian because of many of the Christians I've encountered throughout my life and because I read the Bible critically, without rose-colored glasses, and found that it is full of inconsistencies and that many of its stories (especially those of Jesus) were probably plagiarized from ancient pagan religions that existed before both the Bible and Christianity. The primary reason I am no longer a Christian is because of the years of abuse, neglect, and bullying I endured as a child and the PTSD I've suffered as an adult.

Despite my genuine belief in God and my desperate prayers to him when I was a child, I still suffered abuse at home for 13 and a half years and 12 years of bullying and harassment at school. I was a very devout Christian for thirty years, but I was always miserable and severely depressed despite my prayers to God and my genuine devotion to him. To be honest, being a Christian was an absolutely horrible experience for me, but forsaking my belief in God and disavowing my faith was the best decision that I've ever made for my mental health and emotional well-being. Once I began to let go of my faith and belief in God, the depression and misery I suffered for years began to lift, and I finally felt peace in my heart and joy at being alive. My only regret is that I didn't do this years ago, because I could have spared myself years of depression. I'm happy as a Wiccan, polytheist, and spiritualist. It has been a positive experience.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I add religions, I don't subtract them.

I am a close friend towards the Baha'is and the Unitarian Universalists, even if the UUs have rejected me. And I will always theologically be involved in syntheism and the syntheistic religions. If anything I might have rejected the Baha'i Faith because my friend compared it closely to Christianity, but I still very much appreciate that religion and what they mean for humanity, even if they aren't helping us unify the way we should.

Edit: I am a syntheist now because of my epiphany. I am part of Earthseed because I realize that Earthseed is the most applicable religion for syntheist theology. I had my epiphany because I needed an answer and that answer has satisfied me for the last 19 years of my life. I highly doubt I'll ever change my religion again, but if I find another mainstream religion that is compatible or is itself syntheistic I could adapt it. Whether the Baha'i Faith is compatible with is up for debate.

Many Unitarian Universalists are pre-syntheist, meaning, they understand parts of it, but haven't made the full leap into it. Because of my background and my politics, the UUs have mostly rejected me. Even though he probably doesn't know what it means I could consider UU-Dallas minister Aaron White to be a syntheist, his sermons are full of syntheism.

 

[JustGeorge]

I guess I didn't stop being this/that, and become this/that. I simply changed as time went on, and assume that's natural.

I have a positive view of my past religion. Though I struck out on my own, I acknowledge the past roots the religious paths I formerly walked along gave me.

I add religions, I don't subtract them.

I am a close friend towards the Baha'is and the Unitarian Universalists, even if the UUs have rejected me. And I will always theologically be involved in syntheism and the syntheistic religions. If anything I might have rejected the Baha'i Faith because my friend compared it closely to Christianity, but I still very much appreciate that religion and what they mean for humanity, even if they aren't helping us unify the way we should.

I didn't think UUs formally rejected people. What happened?

 

[an anarchist]

No I was just being a wise guy.
I think it's the other way around.
Being a Christian keeps me from losing my inner child.

I was being a wise guy too you'll have to forgive me

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I didn't think UUs formally rejected people. What happened?

I moved out of the city and into a suburb, and nobody from the Chalice Circle group was willing to drive me to the church when there was over a foot of snow outside and getting to it by bus takes over an hour. As well, nobody from that group wanted to ever talk about spirituality, it just seemed like a bunch of awkward strangers talking about their awkward lives together. I wrote an email saying some bitter things about the religion and was informed that I was no longer welcomed to the church for a year. As well, I used to be part of the UU Discord server, but I said some politically conservative things there and made people feel uncomfortable to be in my presence. So they banned me from that server for six months.

I've been to three Unitarian churches, all around Milwaukee, and never quite often connection with the people who follow it. Unitarians are notorious for not wanting to actually talk about theology or spirituality. Once I joined a YANKS group, and while it wasn't as awkward as the Chalice Circle it felt in many ways a social gathering with no formal connection to an actual religion. Nobody wanted to talk about God or spirituality. On the Discord server I made a lot of people feel uncomfortable by saying that I am a Republican and vote for conservatives, and a lot of backbiting happened around that.

Even though the time has lapsed and I could rejoin the UU Discord server or go back to the UU church, if I take the bus again, I choose not to because in many ways I feel like the Unitarians don't represent who I am. I am as for the freedom from doctoral creeds as they are, but there's a lot more to being a UU than their creedless system and it's almost a given that if you are a UU that you are politically left and I prefer to keep religion out of politics. So, even though they've allowed me to come back, I've ultimately rejected them. Every group they had was in some way a left-wing cause and I couldn't really connect with most of them in deep and meaningful ways, given the fact that nobody in the Unitarian church actually wants to talk about the big questions or what that means to them.

I embraced them at one point, they rejected me, and so now I reject them. In a few generations there will be no more UUs because most Unitarians themselves don't really like the idea of religion.