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The religion you rejected - why did you reject it?

Left Coast

Left Coast

This Is Water
Staff member
Premium Member
9-10ths_Penguin said:
Inspired by this thread: The religion you believe in - Why did you choose to believe that religion?

I'm not talking about religions where a passing familiarity was enough for you decide they weren't for you. I'm talking about religions that you were once immersed in: the ones you seriously considered a participated in, or where you were a full member.

If you are no longer a part of a religion you were once in - or were at least on a path toward - why did you reject the religion?
Click to expand...

I rejected Evangelical Christianity, in brief, because it's intellectually shallow and ahistorical. I rejected Catholicism because I eventually found that the whole Christian house of cards came tumbling down when I began learning more about the very human origins and contents of the Bible and realized the Church had poor rationale for a number of its teachings.
 
Orbit

Orbit

I'm a planet
9-10ths_Penguin said:
Inspired by this thread: The religion you believe in - Why did you choose to believe that religion?

I'm not talking about religions where a passing familiarity was enough for you decide they weren't for you. I'm talking about religions that you were once immersed in: the ones you seriously considered a participated in, or where you were a full member.

If you are no longer a part of a religion you were once in - or were at least on a path toward - why did you reject the religion?
Click to expand...

I was immersed in Christianity until I was in my late 40s. My journey away from it began with wanting to know the truth about God and the Bible. I already didn't like the way the Bible was used to justify homophobia, misogyny, and child abuse. I also was puzzled by dozens of contradictions in the Bible. So I decided to start again, at the beginning, with Genesis. It was obvious to me that the creation story wasn't meant to be taken literally. Nor were the other stories. The historical bits were from a point of view that assumed the Jews were God's chosen people, which leads to a biased and warped view of history.

As for God, he simply wasn't there. I researched history, Biblical studies, and near Eastern mythology, archaeology and religion in general and concluded that religion is culture, not salvation. It and its books are human, not divine.
 
ChristineM

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
9-10ths_Penguin said:
why did you reject the religion?
Click to expand...

I'm dyslexic and I got sick of the mockery and verbal abuse.that the congregation of the church gave me so walked out of the church.

Soon after i was diagnosed. My problem is red bleeds and blurs the surrounding area. Green glasses filter out the red and voilà, i can see letters.

I learned to read, the second book i read was the bible, cover to cover. Wow what an eye-opener. I learned where the hatred of difference and disability comes from, i learned how violent and illogical the bible is. It killed my faith that was already in tatters.

One of the best thing that's happened to me.
 
Clear

Clear

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
KenS said:
I was totally immersed in my religion of secularism. I guess, after seeing what life was with no God, I began wondering where are all the miracles that I had heard of in the Bible.

Finally came to a point were I realized that my life was going from bad to worse and said, "The Bible is either true or false. I will start by believing it is true and test the sucker. I'll find out soon enough if it is false".

Of course, It still is holding true for me.
Click to expand...

I think @KenS point that the things we believe in and place our faith in and objects and principles to which one renders obeisance constitutes a system of belief is a profound point.

Those who leave a belief system where they place their faith and hopes in secularism and athiesm for a belief system where God is the center of their faith and hopes are also engaged in the same type of change in the centers of faith and hopes as one who changes from one God-centered faith to another God-centered faith.

Kudos to you @KenS for recognizing this shift in what one centers their faith in.

Clear
 
leroy

leroy

Well-Known Member
9-10ths_Penguin said:
Inspired by this thread: The religion you believe in - Why did you choose to believe that religion?

I'm not talking about religions where a passing familiarity was enough for you decide they weren't for you. I'm talking about religions that you were once immersed in: the ones you seriously considered a participated in, or where you were a full member.

If you are no longer a part of a religion you were once in - or were at least on a path toward - why did you reject the religion?
Click to expand...
YOUNG Earth Creationism

Why did I reject it

Because I realiced that YEC and Atheists (Jesus mythisis particulary) where using the same type of arguments…………So I had to choose from ether accept both or reject both

Specifically

1 Jesus mythithists claim that there are parallels between Jesus and other Gods

2 YEC claimed that there where parallels between the biblical flood and other floods (which was to me the strongest argument for the global flood)

And of course both make their case with a “conspiracy theory tone”




Then I realized that the alleged parallels are too vague, and could have been just a coincidence. …

(this is the story of my first step out of YEC)
 
Orbit

Orbit

I'm a planet
Clear said:
I think @KenS point that the things we believe in and place our faith in and objects and principles to which one renders obeisance constitutes a system of belief is a profound point.

Those who leave a belief system where they place their faith and hopes in secularism and athiesm for a belief system where God is the center of their faith and hopes are also engaged in the same type of change in the centers of faith and hopes as one who changes from one God-centered faith to another God-centered faith.

Kudos to you @KenS for recognizing this shift in what one centers their faith in.

Clear
Click to expand...

There is a very basic misunderstanding here. Atheism isn't a religion. It doesn't promise salvation. Secularism is not a religion. It doesn't promise salvation.
 
beenherebeforeagain

beenherebeforeagain

Rogue Animist
Premium Member
I grew up in a family that attended a Presbyterian congregation. I did Sunday School and a summer camp thingy, 'sang' in the choir, and the like. By age 10 I was reading through the Bible; at age 12, as a result of a born-again experience, I read the Bible cover to cover...twice...

I had further experiences that highlighted the harm that following the 'traditional' born-again path can cause for people, so I disengaged from the church and the Jesus-people-like crowd I was running with...

I have never rejected Jesus, but my attitude toward church and 'Christianity' as a whole changed during my teen years, as experiences and reading many other religious and philosophical texts undermined my faith in the Book and the Church, and developed and reinforced my animism and non-theistic spirituality. In the last year or two--ummm...50 years later--I've come to reconsider my relationship to Christianity and have come to realize that I'm a Jesusian...an animist Jesusian...what that might mean is for another thread sometime...

I stopped being a Christian because I found that I could not assent to believe in all the things required: I don't believe in the cosmology or the cosmogony nor the metaphysics of heaven and hell, and all the rest of it. And if you can't assent to all the provisions of the Apostle's Creed, how and why should you continue to call one's self a Christian?
 
Clear

Clear

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
“Clear said : I think @KenS point that the things we believe in and place our faith in and objects and principles to which one renders obeisance constitutes a system of belief is a profound point.

Those who leave a belief system where they place their faith and hopes in secularism and athiesm for a belief system where God is the center of their faith and hopes are also engaged in the same type of change in the centers of faith and hopes as one who changes from one God-centered faith to another God-centered faith.”

Orbit replied : “There is a very basic misunderstanding here. Atheism isn't a religion. It doesn't promise salvation. Secularism is not a religion. It doesn't promise salvation.”


Hi @Orbit and @KenS

Orbit, your faith that a set of beliefs must promise “salvation” in order to be “religion” seems strange to me.
I do not believe the a “promise of salvation” is the defining principle of a religion.
Can you explain why you think the “promise of salvation” must be promised before a belief regarding whether God exists is “religion”.


Thus while the actions of those whose religion is atheism are based on faith just as the actions of those who believe in God are based on a differing faith.
Religious beliefs such as theism, atheism, secularism, etc. have faith in and live according to a different set of beliefs.

Clear
τωδρτζω
 
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Sand Dancer

Sand Dancer

Crazy Cat Lady
9-10ths_Penguin said:
Inspired by this thread: The religion you believe in - Why did you choose to believe that religion?

I'm not talking about religions where a passing familiarity was enough for you decide they weren't for you. I'm talking about religions that you were once immersed in: the ones you seriously considered a participated in, or where you were a full member.

If you are no longer a part of a religion you were once in - or were at least on a path toward - why did you reject the religion?
Click to expand...

1) I couldn't continue pretending the Bible is inerrant and literal. 2) The problem of suffering is a big one. 3) The religion doesn't make people any more moral and sometimes less moral.
 
Orbit

Orbit

I'm a planet
Clear said:
“Clear said : I think @KenS point that the things we believe in and place our faith in and objects and principles to which one renders obeisance constitutes a system of belief is a profound point.

Those who leave a belief system where they place their faith and hopes in secularism and athiesm for a belief system where God is the center of their faith and hopes are also engaged in the same type of change in the centers of faith and hopes as one who changes from one God-centered faith to another God-centered faith.”

Orbit replied : “There is a very basic misunderstanding here. Atheism isn't a religion. It doesn't promise salvation. Secularism is not a religion. It doesn't promise salvation.”


Hi @Orbit and @KenS

Orbit, your faith that a set of beliefs must promise “salvation” in order to be “religion” seems strange to me.
I do not believe the a “promise of salvation” is the defining principle of a religion.
Can you explain why you think the “promise of salvation” must be promised before a belief regarding whether God exists is “religion”.


Thus while the actions of those whose religion is atheism are based on faith just as the actions of those who believe in God are based on a differing faith.
Religious beliefs such as theism, atheism, secularism, etc. have faith in and live according to a different set of beliefs.

Clear
τωδρτζω
Click to expand...

Can you name a major religion that does not promise salvation, either from hell, or reincarnation?
 
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