FloridaGirl Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Learning about human trafficking and other evils in the world is what triggered my deconversion. I thought about why God would not stop this evil from occurring. I wondered how he could for instance, answer my prayer as a privileged middle class college student to do well on an exam but not answer a slave's cry for freedom or a starving person's cry for food. The whole idea of prayer began to feel really narcassistic to me. I also realized that if those people who spent their entire lives suffering either never heard about Christianity or happened to practice the wrong religion, God would throw these people into hell. This is all based on Christian ideas of salvation. I started becoming active in nonprofits to stop the suffering I saw around me. One thing really began to confuse me though. Both the anti- human trafficking organizations in my city were found by Christians. I met a lady at a Salvation Army volunteer orientation who had her daughter kidnapped and sold into prostitution. She still believes in God and talked about Him every other sentence. The nonprofit I am currently interning at which teaches ESL and GED classes was also found by Christians. Can anybody explain to me how these people who have encountered the suffering in the world still remain Christians? Do the questions that have lead to my deconversion ever cross their mind? I am just trying to understand this because it completely perplexes me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
par4dcourse Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 Christians are quite adept at confirmational bias, and will go to great lengths to rationalize why god is, even in the face of atrocities, really kind . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overcame Faith Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 I think it goes to what we have heard a thousand times. God has a plan and is in control, but we cannot understand that plan at this time. When we get to heaven, we will understand. For now, our job is to help people as much as we can and to have faith. That's it and that works for many, many people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Super Moderator florduh Posted June 7, 2013 Super Moderator Share Posted June 7, 2013 Cognitive dissonance as a result of the brainwashing. Reality finds no quarter with the True Christian. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greylight Posted June 7, 2013 Share Posted June 7, 2013 When I deconverted and realized all the cognitive dissonance happening to keep my faith, I wasn't sure I could ever trust my own thoughts again. It's absolutely mind-boggling to me how EASY the human brain is to manipulate and deceive itself. Now I try and look at things with a skeptical view first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 "The lard works in mysterious ways...the meek shall inherit the earth...righteous suffering tests true faith..." I assume it has to do with that type of crap mentality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesaway Posted June 8, 2013 Share Posted June 8, 2013 Can anybody explain to me how these people who have encountered the suffering in the world still remain Christians? Do the questions that have lead to my deconversion ever cross their mind? I am just trying to understand this because it completely perplexes me. I wondered why their god would do nothing about the thousands of young girls trafficked around the world, yet jumped at the chance to get some super wealthy family a brand spankin new car b/c the new one they bought only a year ago is too old. The more i think about it, the more i realize how narcissistic and selfish this whole thing really is. My best guess is that those who remain in xtianity are rationalizing whatever suffering they've experienced or witnessed firsthand. The questions you had probably don't cross a lot of their minds, b/c those are the ones who don't seem to be curious and are perfectly fine with not learning new things. The ones that have those questions but decide to stay lack the intellectual honesty and the courage to address them or find the answers on their own initiative. I bet the reason that Salvation Army volunteer talked about god every two seconds was that she was trying to convince herself that god is still the bee's knees despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. On the other hand, xtianity is like a security blanket, it makes a scary world where all sorts of shit happens okay to them. Giving up that security blanket is a huge step b/c it provides an incentive to help push for real changes instead of merely wishing it weren't so and waiting for someone else to fix things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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