Guest Reelidgeown Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Brief statement of my situation. Born into a fundy family, went to Sunday school and what not. Owned all the kids at relay races (GG). Heard the stories, thought they were cool. Since my Mother and Father are extremely smart I didn't question Christianity for a good 20 years. Fell away from it all when we stopped going to church (Mother could never find one she liked, we tried around 30-40 I think). A few years later I remembered about God and went buck wild on reading everything I could get my hands onto. Searched the major religions of the world, concluded that the only religion which had a possibility of being true was Christianity. It had some historic validity so I gave it a try again. Went extreme fundy, did the whole witnessing thing, youth group and all that good stuff. I actually really liked all the people I met and they were quite intelligent. Started to do some major thinking about the whole idea, hell was a major problem in my head. What's the point of sending someone to hell for eternity? I think they would learn their lesson after 5 or so minutes. Eternity is just a bit too long. I also had many other questions which couldn't be answered such as if jesus really did exist (which I still do think that a man named jesus walked the earth around 2000 years ago) and the events in the bible really happened then why do I have to believe they happened. History is history no matter if I believe it or not. I Kept trying to rationalize these problems in my head but that started to make me go insane. I asked my youth pastor about hell but I didn't get any answer, he went really quiet (maybe he was struggling with it too? ahah!). Anyways, I started to have a big problem with telling people they will go to hell for eternity with no proof on my side. I thought in my head, "only insane people do these things, right?" Struggled with it for quite a long time, till I seriously started to go insane. I would start to hyperventilate when I thought about hell, so I decided that I couldn't deal with this anymore. If god is real then im sure he can take 5 seconds (jesus could come too, since god would kill me if I saw him, not like that's a bad thing cause I would go to heaven anyway--but thats another story) out of his busy schedule --creating super pretty stuff like lollipops-- to come down to earth which would use 0 energy since he has infinite energy BTW and just say hi to all of us. Let us know that he's still around, nothing too much. So basically im sitting here now as an atheist until proven otherwise, I think that is the situation people should take on religion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I find it very interesting to read all the different aspects of Christianity about which people get hung up about, and finally deconvert. It seems to be a long drawn-out struggle for most people. There is so much at stake. For starters, there's Hell for eternity of which ten-thousand years is but the beginning. I've been trying to think of Christianity in the same light as Westerners normally see "primitive religion." Well, it's really hard. It's what we grew up with. It's what was drilled into our brains since day 1. Our very world view and self image grew around the premise of this religion. To equate the God of the Universe with Zeus or the Corn Goddess, well, it just doesn't wash. But why not? Because it is how we were taught to see life. I've been working on it for a while, now, and I think I am making some headway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Hello, Reelidgeown, and welcome... That whole fundie idea of the eternal hell was an unreconcilable bugaboo for a lot of us. It just didn't digest, that a supposed loving, merciful, almighty creator-god could allow punishment for eternity, for even the most minor of "sins", unless you had that jesus-get-out-of-jail-free card in your wallet. Glad you came to the same conclusion as we did. That is, it has to be bullshit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Reelidgeown Posted January 30, 2007 Share Posted January 30, 2007 I find it very interesting to read all the different aspects of Christianity about which people get hung up about, and finally deconvert. It seems to be a long drawn-out struggle for most people. There is so much at stake. For starters, there's Hell for eternity of which ten-thousand years is but the beginning. I've been trying to think of Christianity in the same light as Westerners normally see "primitive religion." Well, it's really hard. It's what we grew up with. It's what was drilled into our brains since day 1. Our very world view and self image grew around the premise of this religion. To equate the God of the Universe with Zeus or the Corn Goddess, well, it just doesn't wash. But why not? Because it is how we were taught to see life. I've been working on it for a while, now, and I think I am making some headway. Hell was the main reason I stayed with it so long, but then the bullshit of it all just got so overwhelming that I knew for sure it wasn't true. It's a journey of enlightenment that each person has to go through to find their way in life, and I hope yours goes well, wherever it may lead you. In my mind there are so many problems with Christianity that wouldn't be there if a god created the religion. What kind of god would create (inspire people to write, same thing) a book that is supposed to hold your eternal destiny in it and every word is supposed to be correct, but that no one can decipher properly. If the god of the bible did have his hand in making the bible, surely he would come down and straighten us out and show us his true gospel message, right? I could go on and on about the problems I have with Christianity and the bible. And about the whole programmed issue of Christianity, I now realize how my whole brain is wrapped up in the thoughts of it. I never realized how bad the state of my mind was in until now, as a kid it was all normal to me. But now I hate that I have these impregnated opinions before I even truly think about my opinion, these thoughts just pop into my head out of no where. I am thinking it will take many a years to wash all that sludge out of my brain, it may never leave me. Quite a horrible way to raise a child, into subconscious mind control. Good job mom and dad, you guys rock! Hello, Reelidgeown, and welcome... That whole fundie idea of the eternal hell was an irreconcilable bugaboo for a lot of us. It just didn't digest, that a supposed loving, merciful, almighty creator-god could allow punishment for eternity, for even the most minor of "sins", unless you had that jesus-get-out-of-jail-free card in your wallet. Glad you came to the same conclusion as we did. That is, it has to be bullshit. Totally agree! I remember when I would use the argument "don't you think it's fair that you should deserve to be punished for eternity for sinning against an eternally holy god?" WTF? Hell no bitch, I never sinned against god, wouldn't I have to meet or know this god exists to do something against him? Even if he is in the sky, what's the point of sending someone to hell because they lose by default? It's impossible not to sin but we still get hell-fired to death for it. Awesome! God must be up in heaven laughing his ass off at us, I can hear him now --"haha fuckers! Sucks to be you!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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