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Goodbye Jesus

The Faith Game


megasamurai

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Let's play a game. There's an invisible being that has unlimited power. Thousands of years ago, he gave science the middle finger and performed many miracles. Humans wrote deeds of these exploits. Their reports of these events contain many historical errors, but the being they describe, Jesus is definitely real. You can't perceive him with your five senses but he is "like the wind". You can hear his voice in your head (although it's impossible to distinguish from your imagination pretending to be God's voice) and you can sense his presence (although you don't know if the sensations you're feeling really come from a supernatural source). God totally can reveal himself to your five senses, but he refuses because he wants you to believe in him out of faith. You may never experience him except for voices in your head, but a friend of a friend of a friend saw a missionary see Jesus healing the blind, resurrecting the dead, and the like in third-world countries. You ask him to break a law of science, but he says "no, I do that crap in Africa and only when the video cameras are off".

 

This was the "game" I played throughout my time as a Christian. I just pondered "Why must I be tortured forever for not being sure Jesus is divine? If I'm only 50% sure of his existence, how am I 'rejecting' him? How sure do I need to be of Jesus existence to go to heaven? 70%? 80%? Why does Jesus expect people to believe without evidence?

 

The fear from this game is still traumatizing to this day. I know the Bible is pretty unhistorical and unscientific, but the "miracle" stories in faraway lands still terrify me and make me fear the fire. According to the rules of the game, if God is real losers get BBQd and winners get eternal happiness. How can I be fear from the fear caused by the faith game? 

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Are you fearful of Muhammad's punishment as well?  Of Odin's?  Of Zeus'?  If you are going to worry about some anthropomorphic creator why limit your fears to the xtian one?  What is the logic in that? 

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I know the Bible is pretty unhistorical and unscientific,

Actually, the historical and archaeological evidence would suggest that the bible is almost completely unhistorical and completely unscientific.  The bible is chock full of myth and legend, designed to instill fear-driven obedience.

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I've undergone all the same mental torment and still do.  Here's the way I look at it now.  Let's say it's all real.  The Bible and it's God and the promise of hell for "unbelievers."  Even if we had clear and absolute evidence that this stuff is true, we still could not even rely upon it.  The Bible god is confused and changes his mind all the damn time.  For just one example, he creates the dinosaurs then wipes them out when he gets bored of playing the dino game.  Then he creates people and animals and wipes them out in the Noah flood.  And on, and on, it goes.  He creates the Old Testament system of things only to switch it over into the New.  I believe if he is the actual god he seems to have grown tired of playing the human game just like he grew tired of the dino game.  He'll just wipe everybody out, end of story. 

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I've undergone all the same mental torment and still do.  Here's the way I look at it now.  Let's say it's all real.  The Bible and it's God and the promise of hell for "unbelievers."  Even if we had clear and absolute evidence that this stuff is true, we still could not even rely upon it.  The Bible god is confused and changes his mind all the damn time.  For just one example, he creates the dinosaurs then wipes them out when he gets bored of playing the dino game.  Then he creates people and animals and wipes them out in the Noah flood.  And on, and on, it goes.  He creates the Old Testament system of things only to switch it over into the New.  I believe if he is the actual god he seems to have grown tired of playing the human game just like he grew tired of the dino game.  He'll just wipe everybody out, end of story. 

 

The Bible god is sure a lot like a child who enjoys pulling wings off of flies and drowning ants by pouring water into their anthills, just for fun, until he gets bored and decides to go break/kill/torment something else.

 

I hope you can finally get past the mental torment that the religious nonsense of the Cult has caused you and be totally free soon.

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Let's play a game. There's an invisible being that has unlimited power. Thousands of years ago, he gave science the middle finger and performed many miracles. Humans wrote deeds of these exploits. Their reports of these events contain many historical errors, but the being they describe, Jesus is definitely real. You can't perceive him with your five senses but he is "like the wind". You can hear his voice in your head (although it's impossible to distinguish from your imagination pretending to be God's voice) and you can sense his presence (although you don't know if the sensations you're feeling really come from a supernatural source). God totally can reveal himself to your five senses, but he refuses because he wants you to believe in him out of faith. You may never experience him except for voices in your head, but a friend of a friend of a friend saw a missionary see Jesus healing the blind, resurrecting the dead, and the like in third-world countries. You ask him to break a law of science, but he says "no, I do that crap in Africa and only when the video cameras are off".

 

This was the "game" I played throughout my time as a Christian. I just pondered "Why must I be tortured forever for not being sure Jesus is divine? If I'm only 50% sure of his existence, how am I 'rejecting' him? How sure do I need to be of Jesus existence to go to heaven? 70%? 80%? Why does Jesus expect people to believe without evidence?

 

The fear from this game is still traumatizing to this day. I know the Bible is pretty unhistorical and unscientific, but the "miracle" stories in faraway lands still terrify me and make me fear the fire. According to the rules of the game, if God is real losers get BBQd and winners get eternal happiness. How can I be fear from the fear caused by the faith game? 

I agree with your sentiments. The fear of hell is hard to overcome.........However as best as I can fathom it, virtually everyone loses in Christianity.

 

Many are called, few are chosen, almost everyone goes to hell because God sets standards which are nigh in impossible to comply with. Christianity convicts people of thought crimes. It claims all sins are equal in that if you break a command, you break them all. So a guy who steals a bottle of wine from Walmart is no better than Hitler in the eyes of the Lord.

My understanding is this, to be a real Christian you should:

 

Only love God and trust Him in all things

Hate yourself and your loved ones

Die to yourself

Give away all that you own

Abandon your family

Obey all 631 commandments given in the Bible

Be perfect

 

I guess that no one meets these criteria and therefore God doesn't want anyone in Heaven.If true its a rigged game that cannot be won. And of course there is the problem of Islam. A Muslim is born into a Islamic family, devotes his entire life to Allah, keeps and obeys all the rules in the Koran. Loves and worships Allah with a humble and sincere heart. He dies and Jesus fries him...through not fault of his own........Charles Bradlaugh in the 19th century said that a believer "believes" down to (mostly) geography and culture. It was true than and true now and Christians cannot deny it. 

As for miracles stories, they never seem to make the news. Equally stories of NDE are vapid. No one ever brings back news which would verify Heaven.

 

If you haven't read it, try "Farewell to God" by Charles Templeton, a man who for years was as famous for his preaching as Billy Graham and who rejected the Bible after nearly 2 decades in the pulpit, calling it superstition, puerile nonsense

 

To add:

 

The Bible tells a tale of the rich man in Hell, asking for a drop of water to cool his tongue.......how likely is that! Talking to heaven from hell and while on fire to boot.

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You're right, miracle stories are pretty absurd, but it's impossible to disprove every case. It's just what if that .00001% chance some dude in India really was resurrected? .0001% is a pretty safe bet I'm safe, I think. I ponder if missionaries are deliberately bullshitting about miracle stories, why don't they feel guilt for breaking one of their ten commandments?

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You're right, miracle stories are pretty absurd, but it's impossible to disprove every case. It's just what if that .00001% chance some dude in India really was resurrected? .0001% is a pretty safe bet I'm safe, I think. I ponder if missionaries are deliberately bullshitting about miracle stories, why don't they feel guilt for breaking one of their ten commandments?

You may consider making your life easier by adopting an intelligent and simple concept - those making a positive claim have the burden of proof and the burden of persuasion with respect to that claim.  Also, don't sweat the small stuff.  There are more important things in life to devote your time, energy, emotions and rationality towards.

 

Miracles stories are positive claims for which (not surprisingly) relevant supporting evidence is never provided.  You do not have the burden or proof or the burden of persuasion with respect to those claims.  As Christopher Hitchens so aptly put it, "That which is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence."  Put a third way, adhering to this concept results in good emotional, psychological and mental health.  Avoiding use of this concept, and getting sucked into fear and doubt, is a symptom of emotional, psychological and/or mental health dysfunction.

 

Practice the following statements (or others of your invention) in front of a mirror:

 

"Please provide evidence for your assertion."

"Your mere belief does not reality make."

"Just not in anyway you can demonstrate."

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They definitely need proof to be convincing. That philosophy sounds like a good idea.

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They definitely need proof to be convincing. That philosophy sounds like a good idea.

I don't see it as a philosophy as much as I see it as a simple process, procedure or method.

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