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Goodbye Jesus

Christianity Is Dead


sovereign

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I spent the first 18 years of my life in a fundamentalist Christian cult. Members were not allowed to visit other churches or have sympathy for outsiders. I never fell for the cultish teachings. From as early as I can remember, I questioned all that came from the pulpit. What I did not question, however, was Christianity. During my teen years, I purchased several Bibles and concordances. I did extensive research on Bible passages that were not clear to me. I tried to make everything fit, and at one point, I thought I had pieced the scriptural puzzle together. When I entered college, I was more than ready to leave the cult, and I did, but it never occurred to me that I should leave Christianity. I attended a Methodist college with the intention of majoring in religious studies. Exposure to comparative religion frightened me. Looking back I see that you can take the student away from the teachings, but you can't take the teachings away from the student. I internalised more from that cult than I realised. I was not ready to major in religious studies because comparative religion felt anti-Christian to me.

Fast forward two years - I transferred to a public university and changed my major to liberal arts. I met people from all over the world, people who respected me in a way the cult members had not. The members had no capacity for compassion anyway. I remembered what Jesus said to the religious people, "even the prostitutes and publicans will enter the kingdom of God before you." I was open to friendships with non-Christians, but I still saw myself as a Christian forever. I thought to myself, I will never leave. I will be faithful until death.

It took several years to be comfortable with religions other than Christianity. Yet, I still clung to Christianity. Last year, I visited a Unity church where Christianity is taught from a New Age perspective. As a child I was interested in esoteric spirituality, but I never told anyone. My stint at the Unity church was my opportunity to explore my childhood interest. It turned into something more. Some of the teachings resonated with me. Yet, how organized it was. How Christianised it was.

Several years ago while house-sitting for a friend, I picked up a book called The Book of Understanding by Osho. The gist of it is: Trust only in yourself and don't apologise for living the truth of you. Most people don't live the truth of themselves. Giving lip service to religion in one way or another is what they do, to be socially acceptable. I couldn't forget about that book. I recently signed up for the Osho library and read about Jesus, who was an ordinary man and a rebel Jew. I doubt he wanted people to remember him at all. It's a paradox in a way. To me, he wanted people to live in total happiness and freedom, to be your own guide, to not let anyone else tell you what to think. Yet he had no desire to be remembered, let alone worshiped. There is little evidence that he existed aside from anecdotes, but if he did exist, it's still silly to worship him.

I now feel no guilt about enjoying the ride on our planet, for having my own preferences and no judgment, for living the truth of me with no approval from a religious organization.

I won't make this post too long. More to come. I'm getting tired. Thank you for reading.

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Good for you! :D

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Welcome to Ex-C. Looking forward to hearing more of your journeys and experiences.

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I've always meant to read Osho books after seeing them in the spiritual section for years.

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sovereign,

When I've allowed right brain, straight lined theoretical thinking to rob me of a pulse, I take a phase, pour up a nice cup of green tea, find a quite spot and read Osho.

 

No less than three or four pages into any of his writings my heart begins to beat, the blood starts to flow and the paleness of spirit fades as the warmth of life opens out.

 

God is not a person; God is not sitting somewhere. Those ideas are stupid. God is the total presence of existence, the being, the very ground of being. God exists wherever their is union; wherever there is yoga, God comes into existence.

 

Forget God, love will do. But never forget love, because God alone won't do.

 

Good to have you here sovereign!

 

saner

 

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Welcome to Ex-C sovereign!!!! Glad to have you with us.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Welcome, sovereign. If Jesus did exist, and he never claimed to be the Son of God or divine and all that, he would flip his shit if he saw what was being proffered in his name.

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Guest ThereIsNoGod

Well I guess, sadly for people who still have christian friends and family, it isn't quite dead enough. But heres a thing.....are human beings such that if they're not being horrible through their religion, they'll be horrible through something else?

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