Reasons to not believe?

[Truth_Faith13]

How many denominations are there of Christianity?


Now ask yourself why.
Why are there so many different denominations?

Way too many, I see you point and in some ways it's one of the reasons I say "why bother" sometimes because assuming a/some religion is true it would be impossible to know which one.

That said however, I don't believe that's a reason to reject God entirely. I won't go into the details here as this is the atheism DIR and your views are more important here.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Hi all

At the moment, I'm Christian but confused as to where I am but I'm interested into why those who identify as atheist don't believe in any of the religions?

What would you say was the main reasons?

I'm particularly interested in those who were once believers and have found faults in the Bible/Christian teachings?

Thanks in advance

Primary reasons deal with unaffected and at times tumultuous lives of clergy and lay in comparisons with claims made concerning the effectiveness of God's power and ability to transform, the redundancy and commonality concerning church service which wasnt serious but still notable, the vast differences concerning denominations including bickering and interpretation, an indicator of confusion, and notable lack of communication with any deity, and Christianity's sourcing, from which the entirety of the Christian faith comes soley from human beings alone, and found or heard absolutely nowhere else in the known universe of which remains wholly silent and indifferent as expected. I realised reality was battering away the final remnants of my faith as a Christian to a point where one could say I awoke.

That was more than enough to shatter all the pretty stained windows and remove the rose colored glasses I was wearing.

I made a decision henceforth to to simply abide by direct natural truth, of which remains wordles, pristine, and free from embellishment and fabrication.

 

[Sees]

Sure...my quick reply probably had a rude appearance looking at it again. :sorry1:

"Hard polytheists" are definitely a rare, low-percentage of Hindus. I am an old school polytheist myself. You would be surprised how close it is to most people's monotheistic traditions and ideology. There are few people today who can really get into polytheistic theology and framework.

Sidetracked a bit, but good luck with your findings. I often relate best with atheists and agnostics when it comes to many parts of philosophy and morality. It's good to challenge everything regularly.

My fault, I didn't type it very well. Christians believe in a monotheistic religion.....I am currently Christian, however if I wasn't religious but wanted to believe, I believe if a religion is to be true..it should be monotheistic. Hinduism is polytheistic. So in a sense my rejection of Hinduism is because I'm a Christian?

Does that make more sense?

I'm not entirely sure why the rest of the post doesn't make sense? It's simply finding inaccuracies, inconsistencies and illogical deductions in those religions? At the moment, I haven't found a strong enough argument to reject Christianity, which is partly why I'm here and asked the question. I'm not an expert on theology or history...and someone here might have better knowledge than myself

 

[9Westy9]

Hi all

At the moment, I'm Christian but confused as to where I am but I'm interested into why those who identify as atheist don't believe in any of the religions?

What would you say was the main reasons?

I'm particularly interested in those who were once believers and have found faults in the Bible/Christian teachings?

Thanks in advance

The lack of any good reason to believe in god(s). Even if I could bring myself to believe in a god(s) I see no reason to worship it based on the world we live in.

 

[LuisDantas]

Way too many, I see you point and in some ways it's one of the reasons I say "why bother" sometimes because assuming a/some religion is true it would be impossible to know which one.

That said however, I don't believe that's a reason to reject God entirely. I won't go into the details here as this is the atheism DIR and your views are more important here.

The good will is appreciated, but this is an interesting subject to discuss. Maybe you will want to create or participate on a thread in some other area? I must admit I am curious about your reasons.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

Would you mind expanding on the inconsistencies?

For me, the biggest inconsistency in the Bible isn't in the book itself.

Imagine you wanted to communicate a message to all of humanity. You have the ability to use any imaginable method to communicate this message. What method would you choose?

Option A: tell each person directly in their own language. Tailor what you say to each person so that it's accepted and understood.

Option B: tell a small group of people in one language. Ask them to tell everyone else, which they do (slowly and imperfectly) in a game of broken telephone over several thousand years involving varying interpretations and agendas, and imperfect translations to new languages.

No reasonably intelligent person, let alone a wise an all-knowing God, would pick Option B. This is especially true for miracle claims. I think it was Thomas Paine who pointed out that a miracle is only a miracle for the person who witnesses it directly; for everyone else, it's just hearsay.

No matter how I look at the Bible, I can't see it as consistent in any way with the idea that it's the product of a wise and powerful God who is interested in communicating a message to humanity. OTOH, I think it's entirely consistent with the idea that it's a human creation.

 

[Revoltingest]

The main reason I am not a Christian?
Christians.
The main reason I am not a Muslim?
Muslims.
The main reason I am not a theist?
Theists.

Even if they were all better & happier people than I, tis just as Iti Oj said....there's no reason to believe.
Thus, I'm an unbeliever.

 

[Truth_Faith13]

The good will is appreciated, but this is an interesting subject to discuss. Maybe you will want to create or participate on a thread in some other area? I must admit I am curious about your reasons.

I've started a new thread in the debates section

 

[columbus]

Actually, Hinduism runs the gamut in theisms between atheism and polytheism. They have monotheism, polytheism, a form of trinitarianism, atheism, pantheism, panentheism, deism, henotheism, atheism, and probably everything else in between.

This is something I noticed hanging around Hindus. Hinduism is rather like Judaism, in that it is both a religion and a culture. It is so old nobody claims to own the One True Hinduism.
I like that in a worldview.

Tom

 

[Alceste]

I don't follow a religion because, as you seem to have realized of every religion but the one you were raised with, they're nonsense. Full of massive logical inconsistencies, obvious fictions, arbitrary, archaic moral rules that conflict with what we know (thanks to science) is actually conducive to human health and happiness (i.e. Sex), wishful thinking, and deities who are no better than any ordinary person - often far worse.

I went to church growing up, but it never occurred to me that anyone believed any of those stories were literally true until long after I stopped going. I mean really - two of every animal on earth on a boat? Virgin birth? Resurrection? It obviously never happened. They're stories, like Santa Claus. I knew that even as a child.

 

[Truth_Faith13]

I don't follow a religion because, as you seem to have realized of every religion but the one you were raised with, they're nonsense. Full of massive logical inconsistencies, obvious fictions, arbitrary, archaic moral rules that conflict with what we know (thanks to science) is actually conducive to human health and happiness (i.e. Sex), wishful thinking, and deities who are no better than any ordinary person - often far worse.

I went to church growing up, but it never occurred to me that anyone believed any of those stories were literally true until long after I stopped going. I mean really - two of every animal on earth on a boat? Virgin birth? Resurrection? It obviously never happened. They're stories, like Santa Claus. I knew that even as a child.

Where did I say I was raised in a religion? I wasn't?

 

[Alceste]

Where did I say I was raised in a religion? I wasn't?

I'm assuming you were raised in a community where Christianity is the dominant religion. It's an educated guess, based on the fact your threshold for skepticism toward Christianity is far lower than it is toward other revealed religions. I see the same double standard from people raised in a mainly Islamic community, except they tend to be able to spot problems with Christianity while giving Islam a free pass.

Personally, I think it's not as easy to find fault with something that's very popular in our own culture as it is to find fault with the culture of people who are different. We're pretty xenophobic apes at the core.

 

[Orias]

Hi all

At the moment, I'm Christian but confused as to where I am but I'm interested into why those who identify as atheist don't believe in any of the religions?

What would you say was the main reasons?

I'm particularly interested in those who were once believers and have found faults in the Bible/Christian teachings?

Thanks in advance

Lack of interest.

 

[Triumphant_Loser]

Hi all

At the moment, I'm Christian but confused as to where I am but I'm interested into why those who identify as atheist don't believe in any of the religions?

What would you say was the main reasons?

I'm particularly interested in those who were once believers and have found faults in the Bible/Christian teachings?

Thanks in advance

I do not believe because I found it impossible to reconcile the idea of a "loving" god, with the idea of a god that is more than willing to throw good people in a firey molten pit and torture them for all eternity.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

The main reason I am not a Christian?
Christians.

The main reason I am not a Muslim?
Muslims.

The main reason I am not a theist?
Theists.

Pretty much my sentiments also.

I am uncertain whether or not to keep believing in something with no faith vs reward ratio.

There are more reasons not to believe, than there are to believe.

Then, there are those who make you wonder if it's all worth your time and when you'd just be 'better off' without a belief system at all.

After all the effort to 'rope you in' only leaving you sitting there, like the proverbial shag on a rock once you do, without any 'follow up' in the support dept.

Some people who believe in a 'cosmic deity' are only deluding themselves, and I feel as if I am one of them.

 

[Triumphant_Loser]

Pretty much my sentiments also.

I am uncertain whether or not to keep believing in something with no faith vs reward ratio.

There are more reasons not to believe, than there are to believe.

Then, there are those who make you wonder if it's all worth your time and when you'd just be 'better off' without a belief system at all.

After all the effort to 'rope you in' only leaving you sitting there, like the proverbial shag on a rock once you do, without any 'follow up' in the support dept.

Some people who believe in a 'cosmic deity' are only deluding themselves, and I feel as if I am one of them.

Yep. Besides... we're all going to hell according to someone's religion... so why even bother? :beach:

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

Yep. Besides... we're all going to hell according to someone's religion... so why even bother? :beach:

Others are already there and 'God' ain't gonna get them out of it any time soon, so why bother?

I think I have reached an 'understanding' and better late than never.

 

[Michael Colton]

I do not have the time to write an essay on all of the inconsistencies and issues with Christianity. But beyond all of that, there is a much more simple reason why I do not believe that someone else also mentioned.

There is no reason to.