Hello Everyone

[SkepticalHumanist1980]

I have made a couple of posts on the forums already but I have never properly introduced myself so I thought I would give it a try. I am a psychiatric nurse from Kentucky, USA and I left Christianity about 7 months ago. I found this site shortly afterward when I was looking for an online support group and I have been lurking for several months now. I have gotten a lot of benefit from reading the posts during that time and I want to thank everyone on here for the role they played in that. I am glad to be a part of the ex-c community.

[Travi]

Small world SkepticalHumanist. I, too, hail from Kentucky. Nice to meet you

[Geezer]

Howdy! Glad you found us. This is a good place to explore different religious perspectives & experiences. What group or denomination did you affiliate with, if I may ask? What caused you to lose your faith or interest in religion?  

 

I have a passion for history so I eventually decided to research the origins & evolution of both the bible & Xianity. The results of my study & research convinced me that both Xianity & the bible are man made nonsense. I left religion at that point. Although I've found sufficient evidence to make an informed conclusion I still continue to investigate the subject & look for new information. I suppose it's become a hobby or maybe an obsession.

[SkepticalHumanist1980]

@Geezer I was affiliated with a charismatic group known as "the Message". They believe, and I used to believe, that a man named William Branham was the major prophet for this age. I was taught that from a small child and it never really occured to me to question it until some events that happened fairly recently in the church group with which I was affiliated. Over the past couple of years there were not one but two major splits in the church. Because of this, many relationships I had (some of which I thought were very close) were severely damaged. I was heartbroken and I wondered why this kept happening. It occurred to me that maybe I should check the source to see if there might be a problem there. I had heard of critical websites against William Branham but I never thought much about them because I thought that great men were usually criticized a lot. After everything happened it the church though, I felt like I owed it to myself to look at them to be sure. I  thought if he really was a prophet his message would bear out under the scrutiny. When I got to looking at the websites I diacovered that his status as a prophet and his message was debunked over and over again, even by people who were at first looking for evidence to prove him right. 

   When I realized William Branham wasn't who he said he was it was like a nuclear bomb went off in my mind. I realized that I had been in a cult and that I had used his message as the bulk of my epistemology about the world around me and within me. Without his message I had to find out a new way to be able to know what is true about the world and to protect muself from being decieved like that again. I started researching cults and their tactics and the more I read about them the harder it was for me to see any church as not a cult. Around the same time I also started reading about critical thinking and appropriate standards of evidence and I realized I didn't really have sufficient evidence to even believe in the god of the Bible and probably not any other god. I realized it was my low standards of evidence, as well as my tendency to be a pleaser, that had made me susceptible to being a part of that group and I would have to grow out of those in order to protect myself from deception and manipulation in the future.

     It has been an interesting ride since then and even really hard sometimes but I don't regret it. For me, the truth (or even the courage to say I don't know) is still better than false certainty about a lie.

[LogicalFallacy]

Hey Skeptical, good to see you posting an intro

 

I'm probably (If I may fluff up my feathers) the only member here who understands "the message" thing fully having been in the same situation worlds apart.

 

So much of what you posted there is so close to my situation it hurts. Re your last line: Carl Sagan said "Knowledge is preferable to ignorance. Better to embrace the hard truth than a reassuring fable" All Branham was, was a reassuring fable at its very best. In reality the man was a fraud.

 

For instance, remember his "vision" of a car with people sitting facing each other and it driving itself and he "prophesied" this would happen? Funny, but in the 1930's a paper published a picture of an oval shaped car with people facing each other... what's more likely, both Branham and the paper had the same vision, or Branham stole from the paper?

 

Remember the Serpents Seed teaching? Great revelation about Eve having sex with the serpent? Funny, Ellen White was preaching that in the 1800's, and the Jewish Midrash had it long before that... so much for "revelation" by a "prophet".

 

Yep, you actually research the guy and you realise your whole world foundation is built on lies.

 

But we are strong, we look, we research and we find a way out.

 

 

 

[Insightful]

Welcome SH80!  Glad you are here.  Congratulations on bring able to get out of the cult you were in - that takes a lot of courage!  

[Margee]

11 hours ago, SkepticalHumanist1980 said:

 

   When I realized William Branham wasn't who he said he was it was like a nuclear bomb went off in my mind. I realized that I had been in a cult and that I......

 

Welcome SkepticalHumanist and thank you so much for sharing this part of your story with us. Funny, when you said a nuclear bomb went off in your mind, I was thinking about the final  day that I '(tried) to receive communion. I had already been doubting many things and felt as if I had belonged and brainwashed by a cult and that day was the bomb that went off for me in my brain. I could not 'drink the blood' or 'eat the flesh' and had to go back to my pew and sit down. I knew intuitively that day that all forms of christianity may be a total lie. This is also the time I found Ex-c when I really began my investigation about cults. I'm so glad you are here with us my friend! Keep reading. Keep posting. We are all in this together.

 

Big ((hug))

[Geezer]

On February 28, 2017 at 10:14 PM, SkepticalHumanist1980 said:

@Geezer I was affiliated with a charismatic group known as "the Message". They believe, and I used to believe, that a man named William Branham was the major prophet for this age. I was taught that from a small child and it never really occured to me to question it until some events that happened fairly recently in the church group with which I was affiliated. Over the past couple of years there were not one but two major splits in the church. Because of this, many relationships I had (some of which I thought were very close) were severely damaged. I was heartbroken and I wondered why this kept happening. It occurred to me that maybe I should check the source to see if there might be a problem there. I had heard of critical websites against William Branham but I never thought much about them because I thought that great men were usually criticized a lot. After everything happened it the church though, I felt like I owed it to myself to look at them to be sure. I  thought if he really was a prophet his message would bear out under the scrutiny. When I got to looking at the websites I diacovered that his status as a prophet and his message was debunked over and over again, even by people who were at first looking for evidence to prove him right. 

   When I realized William Branham wasn't who he said he was it was like a nuclear bomb went off in my mind. I realized that I had been in a cult and that I had used his message as the bulk of my epistemology about the world around me and within me. Without his message I had to find out a new way to be able to know what is true about the world and to protect muself from being decieved like that again. I started researching cults and their tactics and the more I read about them the harder it was for me to see any church as not a cult. Around the same time I also started reading about critical thinking and appropriate standards of evidence and I realized I didn't really have sufficient evidence to even believe in the god of the Bible and probably not any other god. I realized it was my low standards of evidence, as well as my tendency to be a pleaser, that had made me susceptible to being a part of that group and I would have to grow out of those in order to protect myself from deception and manipulation in the future.

     It has been an interesting ride since then and even really hard sometimes but I don't regret it. For me, the truth (or even the courage to say I don't know) is still better than false certainty about a lie.

 

I was Church of Christ & they are a bat shit crazy group of self righteous legalistic a-holes, but it sounds like your group was even worse. Glad you got out.

[☆ DarkBishop ☆]

Glad you got out skeptical and glad you found this site. It's amazing what a little research reveals about religion. I also found this community when looking good for an online support group. Everyone here so far have been very helpful and lend a sympathetic ear to our religious plight. I still catch myself wanting to say your in my prayers..... but I guess I will just say your in my thoughts :-)

 

DB

[AlienGoddess]

It was good to hear about this. I perfectly understand what you feel in your entire lifetime. Being surrounded by delusional people in Christian community can be a big depressing event. You will feel worried sick in your stomach about the probabilities that if their god exists and you may be wrong or risk eternal damnation. Please stay and you need support from like minded people . You are not delusional one but they are, they are to afraid to admit that hell and god didn't exist. Congratulation to you for breaking free from bondage of dogma.