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Goodbye Jesus

Did you have a "special" Bible passage that "opened your eyes"?


FuzzieConcepts

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While reading a testimony thread, I was very interested in some of the responses stating which Bible passage caused their “ah-hah” moment when they finally start to realize that it was all nonsense. One poster said that the Ananias & Sapphira story did it for him… I could definitely identify with that.

For me, it was Jesus cursing the fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. I just couldn’t shake the feeling of injustice when he cursed the unfortunate tree and killed it. Why, I couldn’t stop wondering, if Jesus was God, couldn’t he have just performed one of his many miracles by making the tree bear fruit? That he was such a jerk about it (imho), started me on my road to questioning all of it.

Do many of you have a particular Bible passage that “opened your eyes”? I’d love to see what did it for you.

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For me it was the contradictions in two stories in Matthew and Luke. First, seeing contradictions between the two gospels' accounts of the centurion going to or sending for Jesus started to crack the foundation of inerrancy. Second, seeing contradictions between the two gospels' accounts of the nativity story sent the crack into a major break. From that point on, I could no longer believe in the alleged inerrancy of the Bible. There were clearly mistakes in the Bible.

 

(Later on, seeing how the gospels' alleged prophetic fulfillments were contrived by taking OT verses completely out of context showed me that it wasn't just that the Bible had mistakes in it, but it clearly has outright fabrications and is completely unreliable.)

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For my grandad the "spare the rod, spoil the child" quote was used to advocate physical child abuse. Supported by respect your parents or die type quotes and women should be seen but not heard suppression of rights really made everyone look clearly at what was being stated and turn away in horror.

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Pretty much Judges 19 created a what the hell am I reading moment in my mind.

 

What message is God giving here?

 

Why are kids told to read the bible each night with this sickness in it, but told all sorts of consensual acts is evil?

 

The second great epiphany came from Archaeology - the story of the early Israelites' just doesn't match archaeology. Thus we have some problems. Snowballed from there.

 

I also read Citsonga's letter - that didn't help my growing doubts lol

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26 minutes ago, LogicalFallacy said:

I also read Citsonga's letter - that didn't help my growing doubts lol

 

Glad to not be of help. ;)

 

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The 2 genealogies are different & they are both wrong. Only two gospels contain a birth story & they're different. The supposed original gospel (Mark) doesn't contain a birth story or a resurrection in its original form. Jesus trial was illegal according to both Jewish & Roman law.

 

The gospel writers somehow knew what Jesus prayed when he was alone in the Garden of Gethsemane. The author of Acts somehow knew what Stephen saw in his vision as he was dying. There are no known eyewitnesses to anything written in the gospels, and the authors are unknown, but the gospels are filled with Jesus quotes.

 

All of that and much more clearly indicate the Bible is a collection of (fictional) stories not a accurate record of historical events.

 

 

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The whole entire book of Genesis fell apart for me. And the whole bible itself, (according to Pentecostals) is the main story for the rest of the bible. When I couldn't believe Genesis anymore, the whole house of cards fell. One nice thing about this (for me anyway) is that I don't feel as if I have anything else to debate in the bible. It was over after I realized how silly the book of Genesis is. 

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It was kind of a combination of several things. When I went and looked up for myself that Jesus had called us dogs, I started wondering if maybe Christians were wrong about what Jesus thinks about us.....I remember seeing something on facebook about how there was evening and morning the first few days of creation if there wasn't a sun yet....the whole "don't rape these strange angel-men I don't know, here take my daughters and rape them all night long instead" Bible story was deeply unsettling....

 

Even as a kid I always wondered why God was allowed to be jealous if we weren't...

 

Then, one day, it's like all the shit hit the fan at once. 

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Yeah.

 

Lot's of material    fodder in the books for this topic.

The part about gentiles playing second fiddle for God threw me a curve, too. But I quickly realized (already questioning at that point) that this was some writer's feeble minded attempt at "gluing" the OT to the NT together and thus securing the future of one horrifically abusive and retched cult.

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Reading Genesis again opened my eyes, that this was myth. No particular verse, just the stories. Of course this was after a degree in cultural Anthropology, so I could spot the folklore elements that were shared with other religions and cultures. Without that, oddly, I might not have deconverted.

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For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Jeremiah 29:11

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There wasn't a biblical passage that finally did it; it was a Christian book that stated Jesus made his "sacrifice" ultimately for his glory, rather than for saving humanity. That added up when I thought about God's arrogant and entitled attitude, going on so much about demanding worship from people. And that brought it all crashing down for me, because then what was the point of believing in him?

 

The closest thing to my special passage would be Paul's comments in Ephesians on marriage. No matter how much anyone told me that husbands were to protect their wives and keeping the marriage afloat didn't all fall to women (missing the point and setting up a straw man too), I couldn't believe that telling them to be subservient was right. Husbands not being allowed to beat their wives didn't change that all of it, the command to protect as well as submit, was extremely condescending and infantilizing. This passage sent me on the path to de-conversion.

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I don't recall the EXACT verses (I will if pressed to deliver) but those that clearly discourage knowledge and learning.

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8 hours ago, MOHO said:

I don't recall the EXACT verses (I will if pressed to deliver) but those that clearly discourage knowledge and learning.

 

The proverb about trusting the lawd with all your heart and not leaning on your own understanding comes to mind. Ironically, everyone who trusts the lawd actually IS leaning on his/her own understanding, albeit an extremely faulty understanding. 

 

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11 hours ago, Citsonga said:

 

The proverb about trusting the lawd with all your heart and not leaning on your own understanding comes to mind. Ironically, everyone who trusts the lawd actually IS leaning on his/her own understanding, albeit an extremely faulty understanding. 

 

I saw this sign that said "Walk by faith and not by sight." Okay, next time I cross the road I'll shut my eyes and have faith there isn't a car coming.

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1 hour ago, Lilith666 said:

I saw this sign that said "Walk by faith and not by sight." Okay, next time I cross the road I'll shut my eyes and have faith there isn't a car coming.

 

Bet 'ya dollars to doughnuts you will not find a single fundy willing to attempt that! ^_^

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There were so many, it was a long process of asking questions and getting no answers. It culminated in my study of the Book of Revelation at Moody. 

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When I was agnostic and searching for clarity back in my teens, I attempted to do an unbiased look at the story of Noah's Ark. My plan had been to bounce the arguments back and forth to see which side had the best answers and what sticking points allowed such a debate to continue for centuries.

What I found (I'm sure you can all guess the result) was there was the atheist view which had so much science and so many problems to point out while the religious side gave hand waive dismissal of the evidence with a empty "God did it with miracles" kind of answer. I counted at least 14 additional miracles that would be required over and above what the bible mentioned. You are left with the question why do it in such a convoluted way when He could have just fixed the problem with a click of his fingers.

I would say that research made me change from agnostic to atheist.

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On 12/19/2017 at 4:41 PM, FuzzieConcepts said:

 

 

Do many of you have a particular Bible passage that “opened your eyes”? I’d love to see what did it for you.

 

 

 

Acts 1:9

 

So a piece of a god shed it's earthly body to go back to where it came from. Not much of a sacrifice there.

 

 

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2 Timothy 3:16.  Every horrible thing I tried to ignore was good and righteous.  I could have accepted an evolving religion, because things were so different when the Old Testament was written versus what the New Testament was trying to do, but considering it all God-breathed and useful was too much of a stretch for me.

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Genesis 3! Who knows how many times I'd read this in my life, but one morning in church the preacher read a couple of verses, and I read the whole chapter. It just hit me that there was no Satan there! I'd always thought of Satan as tempting Eve, but there's nothing in the context that allows that interpretation.

 

I was an atheist within a month.

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No one specific passage comes to mind. Far too much of the Bible just never really rang true to me -- I always thought that you would have to be outta yer damm mind to actually prefer a literal reading of the goldang'd thing to common sense, reality, science, and stuff!  And yet I continued goin' ta church fer so many years. Maybe I'm crazy, too!  Hmmmmm......

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Chiming in again....

 

Any passage that says "It came to me/him in a dream."

 

WTF?

 

If I said to any of you that I dreamt that God said you are to write me a check you would tell me to go pound sand!

And why have theses dreams not occurred in the pass 2k + years? I mean with the exception of Herald Camping. :lol:

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12 hours ago, Lerk said:

Genesis 3! Who knows how many times I'd read this in my life, but one morning in church the preacher read a couple of verses, and I read the whole chapter. It just hit me that there was no Satan there! I'd always thought of Satan as tempting Eve, but there's nothing in the context that allows that interpretation.

 

I was an atheist within a month.

 

Very true. An even bigger shocker for me was realizing that, contrary to Christian spin, the serpent in the story actually told the truth. What the serpent said would happen if they ate the fruit is exactly what does happen in the story. It turns out that the story actually has god being the one who lied. The church puts a huge spin on what god says in the story to get god off the hook, but the reality of what the text actually says indicates that god is the liar in the story. It was always right there in front of me, but as a believer I had always viewed it through the Christian filter. I was blown away when I finally realized that what was actually happening in the story was very different from what I thought it was.

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16 hours ago, Lerk said:

Genesis 3! Who knows how many times I'd read this in my life, but one morning in church the preacher read a couple of verses, and I read the whole chapter. It just hit me that there was no Satan there! I'd always thought of Satan as tempting Eve, but there's nothing in the context that allows that interpretation.

 

 

If you read a little further down in verse 9 the god is "walking" in the garden and "asks" where Adam is. Isn't this god supposed to be omnipresent and omniscient?

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