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Goodbye Jesus

I just said fuck it


BookOfRuthless

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Wow, I rarely read all of a long testimoney, but yours was so interesting I read every word. Sadly, it took me 47 years to figure out that Christianity is all manmade bullshit, as are all religions. Now, I wonder why I ever believed any of it.

 

I'm looking forward to reading more of your thoughts. 

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@BookOfRuthless,

 

Thanx for posting this. 

 

You write very well.

Your extimony is well written and laid out in an orderly fashion that is easy to follow.

You touched on all the points that lead to your deconversion.

 

If I could just get the fams to read content like this...

 

 

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Thanks guys :) Yeah, @MOHO, that's the difficulty. As someone else said, churches will never endorse an extimony, so people in the faith see content like this as evil and are automatically turned off to it.

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Love the side notes. 😁 They reminded me of someone I knewwho was put out of leadership for a time for calling sex lines. *  He's now a leader again and the church supported his daughter when she married her wife.  They just make up their morality as they go along. 

 

* for those who may think these lines are exciting, I leave you with a warning. According to a taxi driver who drove me in Scotland the lines are wommaned mainly by women in their 50s +. His description was along the lines of 'the card in the phone booth shows you a picture of Megan Fox, but the voice on the line is your granny.'  You have been warned! 

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I enjoyed reading this! Reminds me of my attempt to fit in with all different groups in my teenage and college years and later a career in teaching at a religious college. I, too, finally had my "fuck it" moment and left.

Thanks for posting your story, BookofRuthless. I LOVE your name!

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Welcome to ExC @BookOfRuthless!

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Thanks everyone!! Ummmmm how do I like or react to posts? Haha

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Welcome, @BookOfRuthless! Love your testimony! Glad you trusted your conscience and critical thinking through all of that! You're doing it right!

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I really enjoyed reading your story, well written and entertaining. I only wish I'd have been able to start sorting out what's what at a much earlier point in my life, but being deeply indoctrinated really takes a while to swim out of. Your father sounds like a thinker, that influence likely played a big part in your "religiously lax" upbringing and the fact that you were able to question things more freely. I think religion would lose a lot of the hold it has on people if religious parents could at least tell their kids, it's ok to figure out what you think on your own, thinking is not a sin.

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They say that Catholics don't celebrate their faith but rather mourn it.  I think it's the most virulent strain of Christianity because it has negative consequences on a global level.  Sorry you had to grow up in that bland, oppressive environment.  Some of the elements of your story remind me of my own journey, the main being the constant cognitive dissonance.  I'd liken religion to computer malware, running in the background eating up memory and system resources.  The mind can run so much more efficiently once you uninstall the God virus.  Your experiences also made me think of all the immaturity displayed by my former peers (especially the bit about your BF dumping you).  I can recall how in our college group (and even beyond) men and women were not allowed to be alone together because "the burning of the loins".  Everything was a stumbling block, a potential sin, etc.  We weren't allowed to be proper adults.  

The last paragraph offers some hope though, despite all the brain stunting indoctrination, people are capable of growing and moving on.  Now that I think about it, every one of my Christian peers who decided to not follow the cult's advice went on to live a fulfilled life.  I was able to later reconnect with some of them and they did apologize for their behavior.  

 

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16 hours ago, BookOfRuthless said:

Thanks everyone!! Ummmmm how do I like or react to posts? Haha

 

Ask a mod but I think you have to have a minimum of 25 posts to react or edit posts. Not sure 25 is the correct number though. 

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On 8/7/2018 at 12:47 AM, BookOfRuthless said:
EDIT: removed extimony for ease of reading lol.

 

I just wanna say you're the shit and I read every word. Welcome here, I'm really looking forward to learning more about you and hearing what you have to say. I laughed right out loud at you deleting "every one of those fuckers" from facebook, it amused me.

 

You have a very clear knack for writing, keep pursuing it! Enjoy the shit out of it and one day some "amateur" will be asking you questions and for advice. :)

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10 hours ago, RealityCheck said:

Your experiences also made me think of all the immaturity displayed by my former peers (especially the bit about your BF dumping you).  I can recall how in our college group (and even beyond) men and women were not allowed to be alone together because "the burning of the loins".  Everything was a stumbling block, a potential sin, etc.  We weren't allowed to be proper adults.

 

So true, all of those friends thought it was wrong to hang out 1:1 with a friend of the opposite sex if they were in a relationship. I still don't get it. If you're so certain of your relationship and so trusting of God, then why are you afraid to be alone in a room with a dude? They said it was out of respect for their partners, but if anything I feel like it communicates a lack of respect and lack of self-control.

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@GeezerYup, that's it. 25. Thanks! I'll get there eventually... lol

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Aw thanks, @ag_NO_stic, that means a lot. Lifelong hobby :) I've been perusing your posts and you seem to be the shit as well!

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3 hours ago, BookOfRuthless said:

 

So true, all of those friends thought it was wrong to hang out 1:1 with a friend of the opposite sex if they were in a relationship. I still don't get it. If you're so certain of your relationship and so trusting of God, then why are you afraid to be alone in a room with a dude? They said it was out of respect for their partners, but if anything I feel like it communicates a lack of respect and lack of self-control.


I found this the most ironic aspect of the faith.  You see, the fact that we were higher and set apart from the animal kingdom was always emphasized.  Yet, it was assumed that if you put a male and female human together, their mating was inevitable like a pair of rabbits.  I was close with one girl but she refused to hang out with me on a one on one basis, even in a public place for the reasons I mentioned already.  One day, I was so fed up with it that I told her "honey, you're not that attractive, I can restrain myself".  Yes, there were some people who were so narcissistic that they believed that sex with them was the only possible outcome in that situation.  I guess the Christian trait of humility wasn't on their virtue list.  My relationship with the opposite sex is far healthier now.

There are so many other parallels in your story with mine that I would like to comment on and ask about but I would likely end up hijacking the thread.  I love your enthusiasm and the candid way you titled this post.

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3 hours ago, RealityCheck said:

One day, I was so fed up with it that I told her "honey, you're not that attractive, I can restrain myself".

Hahaha, honesty is the best policy.

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16 hours ago, BookOfRuthless said:

Hahaha, honesty is the best policy.


At some point, honesty is the only productive course of action.  The consequences of staying quiet exceed those of speaking out.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 8/6/2018 at 11:47 PM, BookOfRuthless said:

faith is "believing without seeing,"

 

The Bible even says so! "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In other words, faith is a substitute for substance and evidence. Faith is what allows a person to believe when there's no real reason to.

 

Welcome to the real world!

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45 minutes ago, Lerk said:

 

The Bible even says so! "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In other words, faith is a substitute for substance and evidence. Faith is what allows a person to believe when there's no real reason to.

 

I've heard this countless times. And as a believer, you're supposed to be proud of this, because you can believe without evidence. "I have faith, not logic or reason" (which are sins and the devil tempting you) give you a higher moral ground. And believers say this while claiming that non believers are the self righteous ones. 🤣

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8 hours ago, TruthSeeker0 said:

And believers say this while claiming that non believers are the self righteous ones. 🤣

 

It's nice to see someone laughing at this. To laugh at silly people is to relegate them to satire and nothing more. Unfortunately I'm not there yet, the too-obvious hypocrisy still makes my blood boil.

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I enjoyed reading your story. welcome aboard!

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