1989

Because most other old books don't claim to be perfect. The Bible not only claims perfection, but claims that, through intermediaries, God Himself wrote it. If God is perfect and the Bible has flaws, then God isn't perfect and the book can't be trusted.

I thought John 3:16 covered all of this already. Believe and be saved. Why is there the need to clarify?

If God never knew me, then He had no recollection about my birth, had no plan, and doesn't know the (thinning) number of hairs on my head. If He doesn't know all that, then He's not omniscient, which means he's not omnipotent. You could argue that God chooses not to remember, but then He has a lack of knowledge in that area of His existence, which indicates a lack of omniscience, as I've already mentioned.

As a fat person, I appreciate both your sentiments. 😁 On the other hand Vartan, the Bible does say that gluttons will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, along with liars, gamblers, drunkards, homosexual offenders, and others. If it weren't so terrible, why would God send all of them to Hell and the Lake of Fire? I agree with Thumbelina that according to the Bible all sin leads to death. Whether God actually loves people is a debate for another topic.

I came so close, stopping at the last two books of the Old Testament (read the New Testament first). After reading how God was going to punish the Jews over three books I gave it all up as torture-porn.

Of course there aren't any Ex-Christians. We're figments of each other's imaginations.

Reaffirming myself with literature and sites like this one has helped me when I had my doubts. A lifetime of brainwashing and practice generally just go away automatically. If it helps, Hell was a New Testament creation; the Jews believed in Sheol, or the grave where everyone went when they died. Only later did the concepts of a Heaven develop and punishment for the guilty assigned. In the Old Testament, the rewards for Godly behavior were manifest and physical: money, children, respect, etc. The punishments for unrighteous behavior were similarly addressed. The rewards of the afterlife came later, when Christianity courted beggars and the poor, who most likely wouldn't see the benefits of faith in their lifetimes. I'm not as scholarly as some of the other posters here, and they can probably help you better, but just like most other things, affirmation and reaffirmation will help in the now. Also, while your vulnerable, try to stay away from apologetics and such. Remember, walk before you run. Besides, if CHristianity were as easy as it was supposedly meant to be, why have apologetics at all? Who needs to justify God? If they have to work as hard as they do to keep you in the herd, shouldn't that be suspicious? Couple that with the number of denominations available who condemn everyone who doesn't think like them and you realize it's just a power trip and a social club. Anyway, I wish you the best and I'll close with this. We may not really know what happens when we die, but taking the word of a book whose only reference is itself is certainly incorrect. Besides, what about all the other religions? They're all just as valid. I firmly believe that religion is mostly a matter of geography. If we were in the Middle East, we'd all probably be Ex-Muslims instead of Ex-Christians. Ex-Hindus? Ex-Buddhists? Ex-Animists? It's all the same.

So the Pope has finally figured out what's wrong with the Catholic Church. Satan. He's the cause of the political division and the sexual abuse and everything. Nice deflection. It couldn't have been the Church's fault, of course, because the Church has always been a beacon of goodness and light. Or something. Anyway, Satan. Yup. Francis even has a special prayer for the Catholics to pray to get rid of all the Satan. The whole thing is... cute? I mean, I'm pretty sure that the Archangel would, if real and Godly, strike down the Church and everything in it, just to cleanse it of all the Satan. Isn't that what God did to clean the inequity of the world back in Genesis? Why should things change now? https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-devil/pope-blames-devil-for-church-divisions-scandals-seeks-angels-help-idUSKCN1MI10M?utm_source=34553&utm_medium=partner

I would say it isn't okay behavior morally, but it's apparently okay legally, at least in Massachusetts. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/05/massachusetts-upskirt-court-legal I read a story years ago about a guy using one of those mirror-canes to look up the skirts of minors in a store of some sort, like a Target or something. He got away with it too, because people outside don't have an expectation of privacy. This is definitely an area where the law needs to catch up to the times. I've heard many a policeman say that they don't catch the smart ones. I guess it applies in the reverse as well.

I've also had this problem. The old Church had its answers, of course, and they were fairly benign, but completely unbiblical. Someone had to explain where dead babies go, and since they never got to accept Jesus, straight to the Lake of Fire they go, which was obviously an unpopular answer. As a Christian, I also believed unborn babies went to Hell. This included stillbirths and abortions. King David himself said he sinned from the moment of conception (Psalm 51:5), so there's precedent. They say God is good and wouldn't do that, but the rest of the Bible determined that that was a lie.

Simply put, the Democrats have a better story and have a major movement to piggyback on. Just like Gay Marriage, it gets to back the victims and take on the [Christian] establishment. On the other hand, Kavanaugh is kind of unlikable and rich. And Republican. Boo hiss. That this is happening is kind of scary, but not much more so than it was before #metoo blew up. I still think this is mostly in response to the SCOTUS seat that the Republicans stole in Obama's last year of office, and everything else is kind of incidental.

That was just terrible. Is that anything like the Soul Plane? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_Plane

I would argue that not only do we have the right to judge, but the capability as well, as we know good and evil as well as God does. Believe it or not, this was the straw that broke the camel's back of my deconversion. Again, we know good and evil, and can point out evil in the face of God, such as it is.

Ironically, emotionalism as an adult is what helped drag me out of Christianity. I agree with midniterider though. Sometimes age gets the best of us, and a lot of people are still afraid of death, no matter what you believe in.

Just because he's not covering it up now doesn't make him better than the last few Popes. No religion is safe. https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/i-knew-about-sexual-abuse-by-buddhist-teachers-dalai-lama/article24962042.ece