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Why did you leave Christianity?

Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
SearchingForGod said:
For all the ex-Christians on here, I'm curious as to why you left your religion. This is, by no means, meant to attack Christians for their beliefs. I'm just curious, that's all.
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Reality. Actuality.

There's nothing about the religion that's unique or special that sets it apart from any other religion.

Christians are generally confused about their own faith and are in denial about that confusion, have a clear lack of universal communication with a dieity, and don't reflect any type of transformative quality as it applies to what is taught and expressed.

Allusions to the past are consistently reinforced with no active (modern) counterpart to demonstrate that God's power exists in a manner that harmonizes wirh the narratives. In other words, nothing is really going on in any modern context, so there is a clear reliance in the written stories of the past in order to bring things to "life".

The Bible itself has no established authorship, and no one knows who in particular, even wrote the books in the first place. It could have been written by anybody. It's clear it's a redacted literary work with huge chunks of it's narratives missing, reworded, or is purposely excluded like those books of the Septuagint or Apocrypha.

Proselytizing indicates there is a need to prove or establish something by which it's a constant ongoing endeavor. It's a strong indicator that there is really nothing of substance that can stand on its own terms, so it requires reinforcement. Same goes for the recurrent themes regurgitated every worship service through repetitive reminders of things like God's power, faith healing, spiritual "recharging" ect. I figured "God's power* acts more like a battery, as opposed to something eternally lasting and effective for its adherents.

All this helped establish a truth that there is a reality to Christianity that underlays it's superficial teachings through literary and visual aids that are passed off as substantial.

It was easy then to leave and move on without those fantastical fears like divine punishments and hell lingering on like some mental tether and chain that prevents so many people from leaving the stained glass building and taking off the rose colored glasses and waking up to actuality as it really is.
 
ADigitalArtist

ADigitalArtist

Veteran Member
Staff member
Premium Member
Mostly it's because I came to the realization that I didn't believe in gods, and continuing to pray, attend services, and call myself a Christian began to feel more and more disingenuous, less honest. So I stopped. It was hard at first, I was in a pretty isolationist church (JW) that stops association with anyone who leaves the church. So you feel cut off and have to build your friendships from the ground up again. But I also realized that I didn't need to be Christian to do good things for my community. I still go to churches (albeit not services) to do food banking and community gardening and donating blood. The churches I go to (if anyone bothered to ask) don't seem to mind that an irreligious atheist is among them.
 
Shiranui117

Shiranui117

Pronounced Shee-ra-noo-ee
Premium Member
Honestly? I left because Christianity's central message is that all of humanity, each and every one of us, is fundamentally broken. We're defective models in need of saving. And because of the faults we're born with, we deserve Hell and we're supposed to grovel and beg before our creator for forgiveness. It's one big guilt trip, and it is NOT a mentally or emotionally healthy message for people who are depressed, or maladaptive perfectionists (me on both counts). According to Christianity, we cannot improve ourselves without God's help. No matter how much your particular denomination places an emphasis on doing good works, or on the saving grace of God who still loves you despite your sins and tells you not to worry so much, you cannot get away from the idea that we are all broken and sullied.

Christianity advocates that people be doormats. You should let people walk all over you, because you'll get rewarded in the afterlife for your humble suffering in this life. Turn the other cheek. If someone forces you to carry their gear for one mile, go with them for two. If someone sues you for your cloak, give them your shirt too. Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you, and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Rejoice, and be glad, for great is your reward in Heaven.

And then there's the unreliability of the historical narrative within the first five books of the Bible. The two biggest examples being that there's virtually no evidence to support the Exodus, and the creation story and flood myth are straight-up adapted from other cultures' mythologies. Those two combined eliminate around half of the first five books of the Bible. And then you take into account the history of Yahweh's development within Canaanite/Israelite mythology, and the rest of it just kind of falls apart.

For reference (also watch Part B of this):
 
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Deeje

Deeje

Avid Bible Student
Premium Member
DavidFirth said:
I see flaws in the logic in that video. The conclusions do make sense if you believe all the premises to be true. I do not believe all of her premises are true.
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I see huge flaws in her argument as well. There is one glaring one that assumes evil can't exit because God is "OOO" (Omniscient...Omnipotent...Omnibenevolent) and it is assumed that he cannot be all three at once.

There is no contradiction...there is just a bunch of false assumptions and faulty reasoning. Her definitions are very flawed to begin with.

Premise # 1) If God is Omniscient, therefore he has to know everything there is to know.

That is false because God can know all there is to know, but it doesn't mean that he chooses to know everything. It just means that he has that capacity. It was illustrated to me that if I was a locksmith and could unlock every lock in the world....would I have to unlock every lock, just because I could?

Giving humans free will meant that God could leave certain choices to them, allowing them to determine by that choice what his response would be. Nothing is predetermined because that would negate free will. It would also have made the penalty for disobedience meaningless if they had no choice to avoid sin and death.

Premise # 2) If God is Omnipotent then he has the power over everything and would be compelled to eradicate evil. The reason why he chooses not to, is misinterpreted to mean he either doesn't want to, or that he is not "good" or "powerful" at all.

God is Omnipotent but he has complete control over how and when he exercises his power.
The reason why God has not repaired the damage done by the disobedience of the first humans as yet, is because there is a bigger picture in the whole scenario. Humans were not the first to rebel against the Creator. A rebel spirit was the one who initiated the whole thing. Since this being is not human and there were a host of other free willed beings who were observing God's response, he made this about satan, the other angels, and the hostages he took in order to have them serve him as a god. Claiming that humans should be like the Creator and able to make their own decisions about what was good and bad, God allowed this would-be 'god' to take his best shot without much interferance. Humans would serve the god they chose and time would tell them that it was the biggest mistake ever made in human history.

This rebel spirit creature did not exist in the earthly realm, but in a realm where earth time does not matter. Therefore, humans might think that perceived inactivity on God's part is him not caring, or that he has no desire to help us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The first humans chose a course that would end in death, not just for themselves, but for all of their offspring. Access to the only means of keeping them alive (the tree of life) was denied as part of that penalty. (Genesis 3:22-24) Imperfection had entered the human race and only one thing would eradicate it. The balancing of the scales of justice.

In God's law, there was an equivalency demanded for the breaking of any command. God stated ...."an eye for an eye....a tooth for a tooth....a life for a life." Adam and his wife paid for their own sin with their own lives, just as God had said. But there was no one to pay for the lives of Adam's children, who inherited their defect through no fault on their part. (Romans 5:12) This is where God stepped in and straight away initiated the remedy. (Genesis 3:15) In due time, (not according to earth years but according to universal time) God sent a savior to pay the debt left by Adam, to free his children. It took two thousand earth years for him to arrive, as the perfect equivalent of Adam and to give his life, (as well as leaving teachings to guide his disciples) pay the debt, and then to return to heaven to await further instructions. Here we are, another two thousand years into the future and we are awaiting his promised return to fix everything that was brought on the human race by rebellion all those millenniums ago. As the apostle John said, Jesus came...to "break up the works of the devil". (1 John 3:8)

Understanding the time frame is important. The time taken is within the bounds God set at the beginning.

Premise # 3) An Omnibenevolent being must always do good.

Everything God has done is because of this quality. It is the same as any laws governing a country. If you break those laws and there is a death penalty, you cannot assume that the government doesn't care about its citizens because it executes its intractable criminals.....the death penalty is carried out because they do care. Those criminals will never re-offend like they do in nations that release violent criminals back into the community to commit crimes again. In order to protect the innocent, God must dispatch the guilty.

God has never left his people without help or hope. He has sustained them all through time, (despite being targeted by the devil for persecution and hardship).....this means that there are people still on earth today who look to God for comfort and support, not seeing trials as being from God, but from his adversary. (Think of Job)
It is an opportunity to give an answer back to 'the one taunting him'. (Proverbs 27:11)

Unfortunately, the faithful are in the minority, because Jesus already said that "few" would be on the road to life when the judgment comes. (Matthew 7:13-14; 21-23)

I left Christendom decades ago, because I did not learn any of this from the church I was raised in.....but I did not ever leave Christ. I stuck to my faith and went looking for those who actually practice what they preach.

Those who think Christendom teaches what Jesus taught should re-examine everything they believe IMO. It is not a futile exercise. I never realized how far they had drifted. :(
 
K

Kapalika

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
I remember about 5 or 6 years when I was talking to a relative about my recent spiritual journey and he said something that stuck with me to this day, whenever I'm asked about it.

He said that, he 'used to be into that, thinking it was good, thinking for yourself and it sounds very appealing'. The way he said it, of course was saying that I was being mislead and should just believe in Jebus. You see, they long ago used to be the stereotypical jerk atheist. Then at some point went the other way and became some kind of twisted jerk of a Christian. Thankfully the rest of my family wasn't like that, they are really an exception.

Anyways, for me a lot of it did come down to thinking for myself. Namely I grew up and started to in depth try to understand things, only to find the answers to be... rather repulsive. To me I realized I was lied to for a long time and I felt a moral imperative to reject Christianity on theological grounds. Part of this was catalyzed by some traumatic events, but of course ultimately it came down to this feeling of moral repulsion. It also didn't help that I was a closest pantheist.

I got better though. I eventually came upon what I practice now, but wanted to be sure so took a hiatus to explore some other stuff but finally returned to Kashmir Shaivism.
 
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