roadrunner

welcome to reality. I dont know if there are any on the board here but there are lots of people online who say they started as atheists and became christian the most popular probably being kirk cameron. Its my opinion that christians often conflate religious apathy and atheism so I would bet money that the number of true atheists turned christian is lower than whats reported.

Welcome out. Even if you never take that last step and drop the god concept altogether, you already have figured out what millions of people for years died believing. That took courage. You get to see the world as it really is now and that's pretty cool.

welcome and thanks for sharing your story. be glad that you have your life ahead of you. It is funny how when you stop feeding the bs to yourself, most of it goes away on its own. Im glad you made it out.

shame is a natural human emotion. religion just exploits it. I secretly felt shame about my sinning and telling someone they were wrong about being gay or secular. I was taught that many will be ashamed at the great white throne judgement and I feared the shame I would feel on that day. The church took advantage of that and the shame that I felt when I sinned. Now i have shame for the times I did speak up and I am not wrong for that. I have shame for the things I said and thought about people i did not understand. I hate that the church uses shame to perpetuate itself.

The longer I spend pondering the logic of christianity, the more I find it just plain stupid. I figured i write these out every once in a while. I though about the logic of burning an upstanding family man in hell while jeffery dahmer converts in prison and gets to go to heaven. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlZv7V-Gixg Let's say I accept since god is in control and thats the way it works whether i like it or not, that doesn't dismiss the fact that murdered children never got a chance to accept jesus. And undoubtedly, the bible implies that unsaved children go to hell since no one is righteous and original sin makes Jesus necessary. This is why i think concepts like purgatory were created. They deal with the cognitive dissonance of people who know that the black and white logic of christianity makes no sense. Also, what about muslim kids, hindu kids, or the indigenous. I used to spout the book of Romans for this and talk about how the law was on everyone heart. Well if that applies to these people, why does it not apply to the moral skeptic. Because they had knowledge and rejected Jesus? What about the misinformed who are doing their best to remain faithful to what they were told is true. Should they burn too? They were presented with Jesus and rejected him too. I've heard my pastor emotionally preach that darwin converted on his death bed. Of course this is false but lets pretend its true. How many millions of people were left deceived by his work and remained skeptical of the genesis creation story because of it. So they burn in hell forever and Darwin and Jesus (arm in arm) watch from the front row of heaven. Same with Dahmer and EVERY other person that prematurely denied anyone the option the accept jesus. Funny thing is the opposite. The people that with a few hours left of life convert to the wrong religion http://www.islamdaily.org/en/islam/5107.litvinenko-converted-to-islam-at-deathbed.htm Since the holy spirit moves people to be saved (ignore how this contradicts free will) its almost as if there are some people who are chosen and others who in their own strength try to prepare for the next life and repent pick the wrong god on their death bed. Just look at the peple who were duped.... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_converts_to_Islam_from_Christianity and everything they did for god doesn't matter because at what could eventually be the last minute they made a wrong move. Sad.

welcome! thank you for sharing your story. I'm glad you are winning at life.

I'm similar but in a flipped order. I realized that emotions were a big part of it all so I stripped away all the emotion and attempted to stand of facts and logic of apologetics and hermeneutics and by that point the claims seemed absurd. Suddenly those mean atheists in the debate videos actually made sense and I found myself siding with them.

Thats terrible. Shame on that pastor. I was waiting for silver lining in that your parents got to see that happen but they sold you out. Welcome to the club here. No one here will sell you out like that.