"i Am No Longer A Believer Because..."

[Bro]

The testimonies shared here are very insightful and even helpful to others (such as myself) who are in a similar situation.

 

I thought it would be helpful to one and all if posters here would quickly summarise the main reasons as to why they left Christianity. A snapshot if you like of what you perceive to be the worst and therefore strongest reason (or reasons) as to why you are not a believer anymore.

 

Thank you all in advance

[Guest Valk0010]

I was shown, how almost every detail I can recall from christian, in one or more amount is found in tons of other religions and histories.

[Vixentrox]

A number of factors but the Bible is one of the prime ones. Actually reading the Bible and reading about the history of Christianity can be very damaging to a believer.

[lunaticheathen]

Part reading the Bible, and seeing how absurd it is, how evil the god of that book is, and how far the whole religion just flew in the face of who I truly am and what I really believe. Their idea of what "sin" is, or even what is "wrong" is verging on insane to me, in several areas. Also what is "righteous" for their god to do. Nuts, I say!

[Shyone]

The evolution of religion. I started with Christianity, but I wondered why God had changed so much between the old and new testaments. Digging deeper, I saw that the OT religion was a poor imitation of nearby middle eastern religions. That made the "Christian Correction" necessary if one needed to explain "Whatever happened to Yahweh?"

 

Then the church.

 

Anyway, the evolution of religion convinced me it was man made. By the same token, looking at other religions showed me that there had been no universal revelation, but if there were a god interested in all of humanity, he should have spread the message universally instead of locally.

[ShallowByThyGame]

Not only can any theology ever be shown to be correct, but all mysteries can be explained through natural processes, and by looking the wealth of different belief systems, and the psychology of the human's desire to belong and be part of a tribe, it seems easy to create a religion with a believable-enough mythos. Just ask L. Ron Hubbard.

 

The explanation that has evidence, and is the simplest, is that men are just animals like any other, and have invented all religions over time.

 

The world makes sense under that light, because that what searching for truth has lead to.

[Seeking]

...because I read the Bible with an open mind for once. Without relying on pastors and apologists to explain away the errors and contradictions, I could see the Bible's flaws for what they actually were.

[RationalOkie]

I knew something didn't add up. People don't walk on water, rise from the dead, cause blind people to see and zombies don't pop out of the ground in Jerusalem around 30 AD and go unnoticed by Non-Christian scholars that were writing there at the time.

 

Then....I received a world class education in science. When a church person dives into science they finally understand how precarious their precious ‘miracle’ claims really are. Science doesn’t allow outrageous statements to go unchallenged. Science doesn’t suffer superstition or care about your personal feelings or emotional experiences. Science is a cold dark place concerned only with facts, figures, repeatable experiments, and peer reviews. Better yet, science is always prepared to state that a theory is possibly …gasp…wrong. You can have all the mushy gushy feelings you want about your god, but science could give two squirts of piss about your subjective funny feelings. I sometimes felt funny when I climbed the gym rope at school, but I never turned it into a religion.

 

Finally....I read all of Bart Ehrman books. I read the Epic of Gilgamesh, The book of Gates, The book of the Dead, The Egyptian Gods by Alan Shorter, Atheist Universe by David Mills, Several Walter Budge books on Egyptian gods. Bottom line, none of the bible is original. Not it's creation stories, flood stories, and neither are it's gods and virgin born sons of gods. All of them are predated by earlier Mesopotamian, Summaritan & Egyptian stories.

[J.W.]

The testimonies shared here are very insightful and even helpful to others (such as myself) who are in a similar situation.

 

I thought it would be helpful to one and all if posters here would quickly summarise the main reasons as to why they left Christianity. A snapshot if you like of what you perceive to be the worst and therefore strongest reason (or reasons) as to why you are not a believer anymore.

 

Thank you all in advance

 

I genuinely do not want to live forever.

 

The problem of poor design. why only 2 sets of teeth? why do limbs not grow back? why do teenagers get acne?

 

The problem of evil. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil

 

General lack of godly manifestation.

[HRDWarrior]

The character of Yahweh (which includes a multitude of other things), the treatment of women in the Bible as a whole, and the unanswerable questions (such as where did evil come from if god created everything).

 

These lead to more research and study, which only confirmed the ridiculous nature of christianity, giving me the backing to what I probably knew all along and was too brainwashed to pay heed to.

[Gobbler]

One day while in the basement of the church I was teaching Sunday School for I was waiting for the students to come down from the worship service. As I was listening to the hymns being sung overhead I just had this epiphany and I thought to myself that it just can't be like this. In other words, the weekly worship services the same songs out of an old hymnal week after week, year after year. Doesn't God get tired of this? Why would the God of the whole universe require worship anyway? From that one little thought it slid downhill and I started doing my own research about church history and how the bible came together. Not to mention the horrid doctrine of hell and biblical atrocities. Always had a problem with the story of Job. So from that one little thought it all began to lead to freedom from that mind-numbing virus we all know as Christianity!

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

A number of factors but the Bible is one of the prime ones. Actually reading the Bible and reading about the history of Christianity can be very damaging to a believer.

Reading the Bible did lead me down the spiral toward disbelief, though reading about it's history afterward by accident (while looking for other religions), just finished any possibility of ever becoming a christian again. It wasn't even the only thing, there was a few things that sealed the deal.

 

 

The evolution of religion. I started with Christianity, but I wondered why God had changed so much between the old and new testaments. Digging deeper, I saw that the OT religion was a poor imitation of nearby middle eastern religions. That made the "Christian Correction" necessary if one needed to explain "Whatever happened to Yahweh?"

 

Then the church.

 

Anyway, the evolution of religion convinced me it was man made. By the same token, looking at other religions showed me that there had been no universal revelation, but if there were a god interested in all of humanity, he should have spread the message universally instead of locally.

Learning that Judaism is a sect of Canaanite paganism that was syncretized with Babylonian and Persian religions was a real eye opener. So much for the canaanite genocide, they were canaanites. Though it made it hard to remain a mesopotamian pagan as well. Who would want to worship any god with any association with Yahu/Yah/Yaw?

 

Does anyone realize that the YHWH is actually the feminine of YHW?

[RationalOkie]

A number of factors but the Bible is one of the prime ones. Actually reading the Bible and reading about the history of Christianity can be very damaging to a believer.

Reading the Bible did lead me down the spiral toward disbelief, though reading about it's history afterward by accident (while looking for other religions), just finished any possibility of ever becoming a christian again. It wasn't even the only thing, there was a few things that sealed the deal.

 

 

The evolution of religion. I started with Christianity, but I wondered why God had changed so much between the old and new testaments. Digging deeper, I saw that the OT religion was a poor imitation of nearby middle eastern religions. That made the "Christian Correction" necessary if one needed to explain "Whatever happened to Yahweh?"

 

Then the church.

 

Anyway, the evolution of religion convinced me it was man made. By the same token, looking at other religions showed me that there had been no universal revelation, but if there were a god interested in all of humanity, he should have spread the message universally instead of locally.

Learning that Judaism is a sect of Canaanite paganism that was syncretized with Babylonian and Persian religions was a real eye opener. So much for the canaanite genocide, they were canaanites. Though it made it hard to remain a mesopotamian pagan as well. Who would want to worship any god with any association with Yahu/Yah/Yaw?

 

Does anyone realize that the YHWH is actually the feminine of YHW?

 

That's good stuff. I'm an avid reader do you have any recommendations on the whole Canaanite paganism 'thingy'?

[StevoMuso]

For me it was studying neurology. Every single human function, including memory, consciousness, communication etc. is a function of the brain. If the brain dies, it is oblivion (like before you were born). According to current medical knowledge with regard to the human brain and nervous system, the "afterlife" can be no more than a myth, a feeble panacea for the fear of death.

[RationalOkie]

For me it was studying neurology. Every single human function, including memory, consciousness, communication etc. is a function of the brain. If the brain dies, it is oblivion (like before you were born). According to current medical knowledge with regard to the human brain and nervous system, the "afterlife" can be no more than a myth, a feeble panacea for the fear of death.

 

Oh Yah, well where does your 'SOUL' go? ( sorry...couldn't resist sounding like the trolls )

[Shyone]

For me it was studying neurology. Every single human function, including memory, consciousness, communication etc. is a function of the brain. If the brain dies, it is oblivion (like before you were born). According to current medical knowledge with regard to the human brain and nervous system, the "afterlife" can be no more than a myth, a feeble panacea for the fear of death.

I must admit that this was big for me too. I even remember the book that shook my foundations: The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat.

[StevoMuso]

Oh Yah, well where does your 'SOUL' go? ( sorry...couldn't resist sounding like the trolls )

 

Soul? What soul? We were souled out to a lie - natural soulless creatures. Sorry to break the news to you, I know, finding out we have no eternal "soul" is probably worse than finding out there is no Santa (yup, he's a myth too). Hey RationalOKie, I know you KNEW that and you were merely pointing out, in a funny way, how the Fundies react, but forgive me for giving my usual response (no Santa, no Soul, no Shit).

[RationalOkie]

Oh Yah, well where does your 'SOUL' go? ( sorry...couldn't resist sounding like the trolls )

 

Soul? What soul? We were souled out to a lie - natural soulless creatures. Sorry to break the news to you, I know, finding out we have no eternal "soul" is probably worse than finding out there is no Santa (yup, he's a myth too). Hey RationalOKie, I know you KNEW that and you were merely pointing out, in a funny way, how the Fundies react, but forgive me for giving my usual response (no Santa, no Soul, no Shit).

 

No....(sigh)....Santa? YOU BASTARD!

[StevoMuso]

No....(sigh)....Santa? YOU BASTARD!

 

BwuaaaahahahaHAAAH

[★ Citsonga ★]

The nutshell for me: studying the bible. I first started questioning my faith when I realized that (despite what I had believed for years and years) there really are discrepancies in the bible that render it fallible. I progressed into firm disbelief when I realized that the gospel writers took OT texts completely out of context in order to fabricate prophetic fulfillments (why would anyone writing a true story need to resort to such underhanded tactics?).

 

Does anyone realize that the YHWH is actually the feminine of YHW?

 

I don't recall hearing that. If true, then don't tell YHWH about it, 'cause he may ejacolate on you for your blasphemy!

[ebonileigh]

The last few years I was in the cult things just didn't ring 'true', all the hatred, all the judgement, all the hypocrisy, all the church discipline, the treatment of women, especially women like myself. Then all the contradictions in the bible, and all its horror, then when I left and I really began to seek and search out the truth about that which I had believed, and the deprogramming and debunking was done in earnest. At each step I became more liberated and more horrified at what I had been severely indoctrinated and brainwashed into. The bible itself and the hardcore independent fundamental baptist cult which was a reflection of it, and all my subsequent studies lead me to being an atheist, and not only that but anti-theist.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Soul? What soul? We were souled out to a lie - natural soulless creatures. Sorry to break the news to you, I know, finding out we have no eternal "soul" is probably worse than finding out there is no Santa (yup, he's a myth too). Hey RationalOKie, I know you KNEW that and you were merely pointing out, in a funny way, how the Fundies react, but forgive me for giving my usual response (no Santa, no Soul, no Shit).

You LIAR! OF COURSE THERE IS A SANTA!!!!!!

 

There just has to be one!

 

His noodly appendage said so.

[Guest Babylonian Dream]

Does anyone realize that the YHWH is actually the feminine of YHW?

 

I don't recall hearing that. If true, then don't tell YHWH about it, 'cause he may ejacolate on you for your blasphemy!

Well -h is a feminine ending for a noun. And yhw is a god that appears in the historical record in Egypt for a god of the Shasu

[YellowJacket]

my story is ridiculous and simple.

 

I met Marjoe Gortner. Now as a good Xian, I should have felt like I needed to "save" him. He was so much cooler and well-adjusted than Xians. I would never even entertain the thought that he could be made "better".

 

Meeting him led me to search his backstory, which led me to Dawkins, then right on down that slippery slope.

 

I must say that one thing that always bothered me was the idea that all my non-believer friends (of which most were) would burn eternally. They were just much nicer, moral people than Xians. At my age, many dear friends have shuffled off this mortal coil, and I refuse to believe they are condemned for not chanting the Jeebus mantra.

 

The Jeebus stuff was always reserved for family w/ me, even tho I live in the Bible belt, and gawd talk in the professional world is met w/ a bit of eye rolling and maybe an idulgent "well, that's fine for you . . but . . "

 

I was always a closet Xian since it is frowned upon in my industry, but I was raised that way and the family will not budge.

[Shadow Wolf]

After 16 years of being a "super" Christian, living not by picking an choosing what laws to live by, but actually being aware that eating pork and shell fish and wearing polyester were just as wrong as being gay, attending church at least three times a week, born again, morning and evening Bible reading, praying several times daily, and justifying EVERYTHING in accordance to God's word, it seemed as if God had forsaken me to a mentally abusive mom, an alcoholic dad, no friends, and even my dog who was my only friend was taken from me. With the promise of God being their for his children in times of trial to uplift them, carry them through, and a shoulder to lean and cry on not being a promise for me, the foundations of my faith began to weaken.

I was also struggling with being bisexual and transsexual. I prayed for those thoughts and feelings to go away more than for anything else, for man shall not lay with man as he would a woman, and man shall not wear that which pertains unto a woman, and I shouted that in Jesus' name the devil to be gone from me, but it was all in vein. The foundations of my faith were rapidly crumbling.

After my mom took me out of home schooling (which was Christian based) and into public school, and I learned lessons of real history and how the Bible is anything but original, and I learned that I had been lied to about what evolution is, and what was left of my faith was in a pile of ruin.