Thunder 34 Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 Hello. Well, I haven't been a Christian since around April, but since then, and especially now, I've felt like my mind telling me "You know you believe in God, but you are just denying it." I cant stand it! And it seems like I KNOW that Christianity is wrong in my head but I still sorta have a soft spot for it in my heart or something....IDK....Could this all just be a part of the "deprogramming" people talk about?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirangel Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 I've had that before, I still get it a tiny bit once in a while. I'd say it's part of the deprogramming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunder 34 Posted July 14, 2007 Author Share Posted July 14, 2007 Also.....just somethings that I've been wandering about...while talking to a Christian friend he brought up some things that I couldnt think of a answer to...1. Why is the belief of the world wide flood so widespread and was believed by different people who didnt know about each other for so long? 2. Same thing except the belief of hell not the flood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 That happens to me too sometimes. I just tell the Talking Snake that I doubt his doubt. That confuses him, and it makes the Holy Farter smile with pride. Glory! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 Also.....just somethings that I've been wandering about...while talking to a Christian friend he brought up some things that I couldnt think of a answer to...1. Why is the belief of the world wide flood so widespread and was believed by different people who didnt know about each other for so long? The short answer is: Because the Bible is widely read and believed. For the long answer, here goes: I would have to know exactly who he thinks believes in the flood story before I could give a definite answer. Not that definite answers are too plenty but there's educated guesses. Some biblical scholars believe the flood story came from the Babylonians, and that the OT was written after the Babylonian captivity. Thus it is believed the story was adapted from the Babylonian religion to the Jewish religion. And we know that in the past couple thousand years both stories have spread far and wide, esp. the Biblical story. Given the many billions of people who have been influenced by the bible it is no surprise that many people know about Noah's Flood. Now if your friend is looking at people outside the Abrahamic religions, such as Native American mythology, then we're into interesting stuff. There is talk about a primordial flood that shows up in mythology world-wide. In some of those myths, the earth evolves out of the primordial flood. It takes no leap of faith to see that the Genesis 1 account also had a primordial flood. Here's verses 1 and 2 (NRSV): In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. #_ftn3 "Face of the deep" and "face of the waters" sounds like primordial flood to me. 2. Same thing except the belief of hell not the flood. The case of hell, so far as I know, is very different from the case of the flood. Does it exist in any religions other than the Abrahamic religions? It exists in Islam and Christianity. Do Jews believe in it? Not that I know of but I could be wrong. I understand the history of hell shows that the concept existed in the NT, but not in the full-blown form of the lake of fire our brimstone and hellfire preachers use these days to scare people into heaven. The ancient Greeks of NT times, and in the centuries following, believed the souls of the dead were carted to the underworld. The descriptions of this underworld in the tales by Lucian of Somosata are of dry but drab cellar-like rooms under the earth. That works for the three-storied universe of popular belief at the time. The earth rested on pillars. The "firmament" of Gen. 1 is a solid inverted bowl, which we know as sky. But it's solid, with holes pieced in it for the stars and other heavenly bodies of light to shine through. According to the story of Job, there was also a storehouse for snow, another for hail, and another for rain, and so on. All this was stored above the solid inverted bowl or firmament. God opened and closed these gates or windows of heave. In the Noah's Flood story we also read about the windows of heaven. Needless to say, this is a very far cry of the pictures of the universe we see now-a-days. So anyway, those cellar-like rooms in the underworld were hell or sheol. No lake of fire even near the place. In the NT we read about hell in terms of fire. I have in mind some people believe that was an interpolation inserted later. Others think Jesus was merely referring to a trash pit outside Jerusalem that smoldered all the time. My imagination suggests that as a boy Jesus might have enjoyed playing there and with school-boyish imagination visualized torturing the hated Romans in it. Kinda like the games today where you can act out your rage by proxie game characters. So why do so many people believe the lake of fire doctrine if it's not true? Because around the middle ages some genuis developed the idea as we know it today. It's a new invention that did not exist in the Bible. But people don't know that so they imagine Jesus was talking about the same thing they learned about in church. He wasn't. But when Dante made his painting of it, it because widespread and popular. Given that Christianity has spread around the world, automatically there are large numbers of people who believe in hell. I feel like I've only rambled but maybe there is something of worth in this post so I'll submit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike D Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 I've felt like my mind telling me "You know you believe in God, but you are just denying it." I cant stand it! Have you thought about looking at deism as an alternative to Christianity? Deism is just a belielf in god, with no religion attached to it. I think the basic premise of deism is that you can learn about god through nature and scientific discovery vs revelation or some old book, or what your pastor tells you. I wasn't sure what to think after I left Christianity, but ended up an atheist eventually... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perianwalsh Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 maybe is deprogramming...maybe it's some mental disorder(touchwoodly speaking)........i dunno....i got simillar things b4 and recently i just realised that it was my ocd . Here's links for recovering from religion http://www.catalaw.com/detox/detox.shtml http://www.successfulschizophrenia.org/links.html http://www.recover-from-religion.com/personal_coaching.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lycorth Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 The myths of a worldwide flood and Hell aren't that common, especially in the Abrahamic/Xian sense. It's just part of the deprogramming - during times like these, just bone up again on solid anti-xian criticism and make yourself rely not on fleeting emotions but on the facts. Emotions are all that fervent Xians have left to sell their religion on - don't play into their game. Stick to verifiable truths. Just the facts, man Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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