Leaving the Faith

[Guest SerenityNow]

#1, #9 and # 10 are the reasons for me leaving the faith

[Dark Helmet]

Me it was pretty much the fact that the so called word of god couldn't even get scientific facts right, such as the age of the earth (I hope god would remember when he created it), evolution, etc... It all shows this is nothing more than bronze age mythology and can't be taken as a litteral history.

[No Heaven for Kevin]

I need an "All of the above" option

[Skankboy]

I lost my faith partially from glaring inconsistencies in Christian theology and partly from my studies of world history and religion. I don't recall ever being hurt in any way shape or form by any christians in my life. Though now that I'm not one, I'm much better at spotting the false sentiment christians often exchange...

[saxyroze]

I said "Other" because for me it was a combnation of things. But the biggest thing it I hate is the close-minded belief that "God" is the only "God" and the rest of the world is wrong. The sheer audacity of that belief makes me mad for some reason. I can't really rationalize it yet but one of these days I will.

[scitsofreaky]

For me, it was irreconcilable contradictions and just a crappy doctrine (eg hell for some, heaven for others). But also just because it is based on a damn book that cannot be verified.

[Vigile]

Other: The concept of god is logically inconsistent. The bible is full of contraditions. The concept of salvation is logically retarted. The hell doctrine is hateful.

 

 

To name a few.

[Taphophilia]

For me it was learning the true history of the church and the about the culture in which Christianity originated; There is no historical evidence for Jesus and when the Bible was written and by whom. One little fact or even a few facts could not have shaken my faith. It was the compilation of many upon many facts that Christianity is simply not true. I had no choice but to no longer believe in it.

I was like a jury making a verdict. I wanted Christianity to be true, but all the evidence gave no reasonable doubt.

 

Taph

[Dianka]

I could not love and or worship the evil god of the bible

 

and I also never felt God or the Holy Spirit. I am pretty sure the people here know that feeling, the one that causes people the wriggle around on the floor and rejoice. Yea, never got it. I did cry, but that was mostly just dumb hope.

[Mythra]

Bible contradictions got the ball rolling. Life contradictions tipped it over the edge. When the Bible tells you something over and over again that is not borne out in your life situation, you begin to question the whole thing.

 

Of course, now I have many many valid reasons to never go back. Homework does wonders.

[Gnosis of Disbelief]

For me, it was a whole mix of things - the increasing irrelevance of prayer,

"life contradictions," the problem of evil in the world (why would a good god

allow evil to exist and even prosper?), and the character of god as depicted

in the bible - for all the bible's talk of love, its god seemed to be the most

mean-spirited, spiteful, psychotic sonofabitch in the whole book.

[☆ TexasFreethinker ☆]

The errors in the bible really kicked the process into high gear for me. Once I realized that the bible wasn't the inerrant word of god I took a more critical / rational look at it and at christianity. That critical evaluation led me to the opinion that neither the bible nor christianity was based on truth.

[scitsofreaky]

Of course, now I have many many valid reasons to never go back. Homework does wonders.

Too true. Any more I have trouble separating why I left and what I have learned since leaving.

[Curtdude]

I voted "Other."

 

These are my reasons:

 

The multiplicity of religions. What makes mine special and everyone else's wrong? They seem to advocate generally the same thing: ethical behavior, an explanation of suffering, what happens after we die. As I grew up (I was 21 when I deconverted), I met more and more people from other religions who were not the depraved, satanic, deluded "lost souls" that christianity had taught me they were - they turned out to be just fine. Jesus' redemption seemed not to matter a hoot to them, and it made absolutely no difference in their lives. In fact, they appeared happier not being saddled with the fanatical religion that I was burdened with.

 

People use religion more as a tribal identifying marker. I studied history at college and found that religion is a very strong "glue" to hold people to one group, particularly when war came around. Religion made the killing of others EASIER, since they were lost anyways.

 

Specific problems with christianity:

 

The entire lack of agreement within christianity when such agreement MUST happen if the bible is true. The bible claims that god is not the author of confusion. This is simply not the way christianity has ever been. Lots of groups, no agreement. Usually it's a contest of "I'm right and your denomination/sect/whatever is going straight to hell."

 

The schizophrenic nature of the deity of the bible. Lots of talk about love and peace and joy and the fruits of the spirit blah blah blah. But then you have a god that'll order the Jews to annihilate entire cities during the conquest of palestine (see Joshua and Judges), what's all that about? It's not a metaphor. It's genocide. Yuk. Turned me off. And I couldn't just keep on saying, "God's ways are not my ways, he'll help me understand later."

 

Christianity's rejection of homosexuality. I'm gay and god never changed my desires when I asked him to. I found this truly alienating...love was not for me. Only for others. Sorry, but I'm as sexual as any red blooded man and this rejection of me at a most basic level was intolerable. I tired of the "it's your fault you're a homo" line, that I had done something intrinsically wrong as a child to make me that way. I hadn't. And when I tried to escape, do all the right things, pray, devotions, mission trips, scripture memorization, nothing changed. (See my rather angry thread "Pray for me and cure me of my homoness" for the full frontal rant in the Lions Den.)

 

The teaching on eternal damnation. Sort of ties in with other points made. This all knowing, all loving god created billions of souls just to torture. When I actually considered this, I again stopped the "God's ways are not my ways" rationalization and bagged it. This was the last straw for me, but it was all of these elements that made me to simply lose faith.

 

Hope this helps someone out there in godland trying to make sense of it. And to all you gay guys and lesbians out in bibleland who are going crazy with what christianity is doing to you, don't give up! There is a way out, and it's better on the other side. I survived - you will too.

[ToHellWithMe]

Voted 'other'.

Other: The concept of god is logically inconsistent. The bible is full of contraditions. The concept of salvation is logically retarted. The hell doctrine is hateful.

Seconded.

[Lycorth]

Couldn't love or worship that devil the Bible calls a god, couldn't accept the Eternal Hell doctrine (which ties in with the previous point), and just couldn't make myself swallow the pages upon pages of nonsense the Bible basically is. It's a slam-dunk after admitting all that.

[All Gods Fail]

Pretty much all of the above, but not all at once. What started me down the path of apostasy was massive confusion over the whole 'faith v. works' thing. What do we need to be saved? No one could give me a satisfactory answer one way or the other, and intense bible study only made things worse.

 

Then a lot of negative, nasty shit happened, I went thru a major depression, and when it was all over I just couldn't take the fundy church I was in anymore.

 

Over time, I began re-studying the bible and it gradually dawned on me that I'd been had. I stayed an agnostic for quite awhile, but eventually (through studying and education) I finally realized what a crock the entire concept of gods is. They just aren't real.

 

Hence my name.

[Thurisaz]

Other: Always considered religion to be a purely social thingie, without any genuine supernatural components... so I was fine with (nominally) being a christian.

 

Until I got my claws on the Poetic Edda.

[Lycorth]

Well, I should add that I was hurt by a Christian - my ex. Of course, this happened when I was with her. Her cracked up beliefs would flare up and she'd rant and rave about how we were "living in sin" and "going against God" and on and on. As if the very real relationship we had was somehow less real or important than a god she knows she had never seen nor heard the alleged "will" of. But when she flipped out on me, she used her religion as yet another reason why she "just didn't love anymore" the man she had accepted the proposal of.

 

After I left the bitch I ended up, naturally, going through a major depression. I was newly grappling with Deism then, and was still just learning to question the big things about Xianity, so when I had finally left her, I felt like I was "evil" and "damned". I enjoyed sex, women, and had no use for church or Xian ritual anymore, but still had work to do in shrugging off the Xian guilt trips and stigmas that my ex helped to saddle me with. If she just used her head for something other than a hat rack and thought twice about thumping her Bible (though she actually never read it, which probably explains why she was so fervent a Xian), that may not have happened.

 

But thankfully, it did. I am now with a wonderful woman, who is an angel if there are angels at all, and the fact I forgot to mention this shows how well over it I must be. Praise be for progress But my ex's irrational behavior displayed just how Xianity simply doesn't work in real life. It only hinders you from enjoying your life properly and making the most of your short time here.

[Joyous1]

Bible contradictions got the ball rolling. Life contradictions tipped it over the edge. When the Bible tells you something over and over again that is not borne out in your life situation, you begin to question the whole thing.

 

Of course, now I have many many valid reasons to never go back. Homework does wonders.

 

Well said Mythra, this sums up my experience nicely too.

[charley]

Other :

To me, after all is said and done by the faithfull to inspire anyone, there is allways the nagging fact that none of that HAS to be true, and is only felt to be so by the sometimes elusive gift of faith, that one seems to mysteriously acquire after pondering the threat of hellfire or even contemplating the despair of a life they are unable to find meaning in without a christian characterization....the later shows the failure of our public schools to present religious alternatives as things that could be possibly felt as another viable way of looking at things...but of course if they did, then the whole batch of superstitious phobias that go along with any practice of bending the knee in the face of the unknown would be brought into question....the children would be in danger of acquiring an education that would empower them to be something more than a tax paying consumer. This shows a tremendous value in our society in just being able to use your head with clarity on these isssues......I won't get any more off topic....

[SweetSouthernHeretic]

Yep, I need an "all of the above" option, too! In my case, the hypocritical and manipulative behavior of so many of the Christians surrounding me is what made me start questioning everything else about Christianity.

[MQTA]

Basically #1 and #2, but it wasn't Church and the brainwashing never worked.

[godlessgrrl]

Heh, I need an "almost all of the above" button...

 

For me it was a bunch of things. And like All Gods Fail, they didn't come all at once. They sort of snowballed tho'.

 

So it was Biblical contradictions. And being hurt by Xians, both in and out of my family. And church hypocrisy. And the hell doctrine. And the cruelty of Biblegod. And then a bunch of other things too. Like how amazingly arrogant Xianity is, especially with its doctrine of spiritual exclusivity. WTF is that??

 

I think what annoys me most about trying to tell stuff like this to Xians is they have a blind spot about it. The reality is, it wasn't just one single thing that drove me away, and it isn't one single thing that keeps me away. It's many, many things.

 

I find it very insulting to communicate with Xians who just fixate on one particular reason on my list and ignore the others. That's bullshit. Plus it isn't reality anyway.

 

Although I'll say I do find it very, very telling that a lot of Xians seem to need to avoid the reality of my experience. I suppose they're scared of it. I mean if it was only one reason it'd be easy to argue a single reason, and they might stand a chance of reconverting me. But it isn't just one reason. It's an avalanche of reasons. And I think a lot of Xians just don't want to hear that. They don't want to know what's wrong with their religion. Maybe if they did they'd get scared away too.

 

Anyway. Yeah. That's mah ramble.

[♦ nivek ♦]

Pretty damn simple for daFatman..

 

Doctrinal shit.

 

Biblical errors and descepancies.

 

Personal bulllllllllllllllshit.

 

Wasn't a virgin when I got saved, had the worst case of blue balls of my fuckin' life.

 

kL