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Goodbye Jesus

Jesus-free and loving it


HeartFromTexas

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There are only 3 things that still REALLY bother me 5 years after my faith left me:

(1) Regret for the staggeringly countless hours, dollars, emotions wasted over 44 or so years of having an imaginary friend.

(2) Most of my kids are are still infected with the virus, several of whom have directly told me that my being in Hell for eternity won’t bother them as they’ll be worshipping Jesus in person. 

(3) I cloak the truth from my parents as it’ll kill them. 

 

When I was in I was REALLY in: Christian schools through college; married into a family full of pastors, Christian educators, and such - I was proud that they were Jesus Royalty; involved in lay leadership and ministry as much as one could be; and more. It’s pretty fucking embarrassing, frankly. 

 

It was a several-years-long process that I went through. It involved massive amounts of reading, studying, debating, and listening. It wasn’t easy and I was pretty unhappy about it. I didn’t really want to leave the cave, but as soon as I suspected that I had been just looking at shadows on the wall I couldn’t rest until I knew for sure. 

 

Once I knew, however, I was in the real world and the efforts to climb out were perhaps the best moments of my life so far. 

 

One thing that that hasn’t happened and I seem to be in a minority, is that I remain politically a classical liberal. For some reason, rejecting supernatural claims seems to result in many people taking up a position on the left (or far left) of the political spectrum. I don’t see how rejecting faith as a valid way of knowing all of a sudden means that individual liberty and freedom are somehow less valuable. Other than for the Objectivists or a handful of outliers, being faith-free seems to be (mostly) synonymous with progressive.  

 

A buddy told me of this site and im glad to be here!

 

Thanks,

 

HeartFromTexas (a fake name designed to hide my identity and location, lol)

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I'm glad that you're out and about, and free from the shackles of religion. It certainly is a good feeling.

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Hey Heart,

 

Welcome to our group!  Don’t I know you from somewhere?😎  I think you’ll like it here.  

 

I hate it that some of your own kids have reacted that way.  I can only hope that at some point the idea that their father is going to Hell - simply because of what he doesn’t believe - will strike them as the biggest indictment possible of their loving god.  They would not be the first ones to abandon the church after trying to reconcile Hell with any concept of a loving god!

 

Looking forward to hearing more from you...

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3 hours ago, ThereAndBackAgain said:

 I can only hope that at some point the idea that their father is going to Hell

 

Did @HeartFromTexas mention his/her gender?

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3 hours ago, HeartFromTexas said:

One thing that that hasn’t happened and I seem to be in a minority, is that I remain politically a classical liberal.

 

Can of worms here potentially.

One might move to the Left SOCIALLY after deconversion as we no longer have a "valid" reason to hate those who choose a different life style. Fiscally, however, I'm not seeing how religion plays a part there. 

 

Anyway, welcome to Ex-C and I hope "hear" more from you.

    - MOHO  (Mind Of His Own)

 

 

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14 minutes ago, MOHO said:

 

Did @HeartFromTexas mention his/her gender?

 

Good catch!  No. 

But I know him and encouraged him to join our community.  I believe he is still identifying as male. 

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27 minutes ago, ThereAndBackAgain said:

 

Good catch!  No. 

But I know him and encouraged him to join our community.  I believe he is still identifying as male. 

 

Got it.

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Welcome aboard! I'd say that I'm from Texas, too, but you've implied that you may not be!

 

And oh, the hours and dollars! One of my biggest regrets about having been a believer is missing the stuff we could have done on Sundays as a family, and throwing money at mythology instead of using it to enjoy time together. One of my kids is still a believer (a minister, no less) and I'm in the closet because of him. (Long, unpleasant story.) The most amazing thing is how easy it was to get into the atheist closet after having been outed and seeing how badly that was going to go!

 

Anyway, I've enjoyed being on this board and I suspect you will, too.

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2 hours ago, MOHO said:

 

Can of worms here potentially.

One might move to the Left SOCIALLY after deconversion as we no longer have a "valid" reason to hate those who choose a different life style. Fiscally, however, I'm not seeing how religion plays a part there. 

 

Anyway, welcome to Ex-C and I hope "hear" more from you.

    - MOHO  (Mind Of His Own)

 

 

No kidding. Total can of worms. 

 

Frankly, the classical liberal position is very libertarian on other’ lifestyles - dow hat you like, provided it has the approval of anyone else involved. I’ve ALWAYS had that perspective, although it probably had a little “love the sinner but hate the sin” thrown in - that’s now gone. lol. 

 

Thanks and chat w you later!

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6 hours ago, ThereAndBackAgain said:

Hey Heart,

 

Welcome to our group!  Don’t I know you from somewhere?😎  I think you’ll like it here.  

 

I hate it that some of your own kids have reacted that way.  I can only hope that at some point the idea that their father is going to Hell - simply because of what he doesn’t believe - will strike them as the biggest indictment possible of their loving god.  They would not be the first ones to abandon the church after trying to reconcile Hell with any concept of a loving god!

 

Looking forward to hearing more from you...

Thanks man! And yes, you do. Lololol

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1 hour ago, Lerk said:

 

 

Anyway, I've enjoyed being on this board and I suspect you will, too.

You caught that - yes, I was being cagey. 

 

Thanks!!!

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7 hours ago, HeartFromTexas said:

I didn’t really want to leave the cave, but as soon as I suspected that I had been just looking at shadows on the wall I couldn’t rest until I knew for sure. 

 

 

Love the Plato analogy. 

 

You're very brave. I imagine a lot of people feel the same way as you, but will never have the courage to admit it to their circle, because social interaction is just so much easier by going along with the hive. This is especially true in the Southern/Midwestern part of the USA, which includes Texas.  

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10 hours ago, HeartFromTexas said:

One thing that that hasn’t happened and I seem to be in a minority, is that I remain politically a classical liberal. For some reason, rejecting supernatural claims seems to result in many people taking up a position on the left (or far left) of the political spectrum. I don’t see how rejecting faith as a valid way of knowing all of a sudden means that individual liberty and freedom are somehow less valuable. Other than for the Objectivists or a handful of outliers, being faith-free seems to be (mostly) synonymous with progressive.  

 

 

Not to worry HFT, you're in good company here among many classical liberals and both liberal and conservative oriented libertarian folk. Many of whom are agnostic atheists and non-theistic spiritual minded people. Welcome to the crew!

 

6 hours ago, ThereAndBackAgain said:

But I know him and encouraged him to join our community.  

 

Hopefully he enjoys the place. 

 

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3 hours ago, Blood said:

 

Love the Plato analogy. 

 

 

I wish I’d recognized the Plato analogy!  The other day a guy at work mentioned somebody facing a Sisyphean task.  I was impressed, but I had to have him explain it to me...

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Welcome, @HeartFromTexas! I'm glad you're here. I'm really sorry about 2). My dad basically gloat about how much he's going to enjoy watching me burn in hell while he rejoices in heaven, too. The mental/emotional pretzel is hard enough without feelings about family getting involved in it. In any case, I'm glad you made it out of the brainwashing and I hope the website and the people here help!

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He literally said that? How fucked up is that. It’s one thing for a brainwashed 9-year old to say it, but wholly another for a father. 

 

I expect that my parents, knowing something is up and also that I just married a Jew 2 1/2 mo’s ago, are slowly changing their theology to eke out a workaround so that she and I still end up in heaven. 😂

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1 hour ago, HeartFromTexas said:

I expect that my parents, knowing something is up and also that I just married a Jew 2 1/2 mo’s ago, are slowly changing their theology to eke out a workaround so that she and I still end up in heaven. 😂

 

I hope they do; it’s not at all uncommon. And it shows that many Christians are ultimately better than the god they believe in or the scriptures they trust in. 

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Why didn't God mention "hell" in the Old Testament? Seems like that was a serious omission. I love how Christians never examine basic questions like this. 

 

Besides, it is your "soul" which would be in hell, i.e., a ghost. You can only feel heat if you have a body. You don't have a body in hell. 

 

The whole thing is so fucking stupid. 

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Hi HeartforTx,

 

Welcome!  Thanks for sharing your story. I totally experienced the "leftward shift" as well.   (Of course we welcome ex-c's of all non-hateful political perspectives!)

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21 hours ago, Blood said:

Why didn't God mention "hell" in the Old Testament? Seems like that was a serious omission. I love how Christians never examine basic questions like this. 

 

Besides, it is your "soul" which would be in hell, i.e., a ghost. You can only feel heat if you have a body. You don't have a body in hell. 

 

The whole thing is so fucking stupid. 

 

I took my girlfriend and her sons to see, "The Nun." 

 

Then afterward I wound up explaining all of the Catholic demonology bullshit. And how the serpent wasn't the devil until they eventually evolved the idea of the devil and back placed it to Genesis. How the story of a fallen angel was placed in later from extra cannonized material. How it was all later woven together like a patch quilt of diverse mythology in the NT era's. And more importantly, how the gods of other cultures were usurped and placed as either saints or demons depending on the churches choice of usage, as they went out creating their holy empire.

 

By the end of it they weren't nearly as scared at the prospect, "what if these kind of movies are true." 

 

 

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On 10/7/2018 at 9:38 AM, Blood said:

Why didn't God mention "hell" in the Old Testament? Seems like that was a serious omission. I love how Christians never examine basic questions like this. 

 

Besides, it is your "soul" which would be in hell, i.e., a ghost. You can only feel heat if you have a body. You don't have a body in hell. 

 

The whole thing is so fucking stupid. 

 

I pointed that out to my wife once. She then asked the preacher if he could preach a sermon on it, and he tried! But there's nothing about Hell in the OT. The Jews are only ever threatened with losing their national status for disobeying their god. And there's no promise of Heaven, either! Only Enoch and Elijah seem to have gone to Heaven -- everyone else goes to Sheol, aka the Underworld.

 

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8 hours ago, Joshpantera said:

 

I took my girlfriend and her sons to see, "The Nun." 

 

Then afterward I wound up explaining all of the Catholic demonology bullshit. And how the serpent wasn't the devil until they eventually evolved the idea of the devil and back placed it to Genesis. How the story of a fallen angel was placed in later from extra cannonized material. How it was all later woven together like a patch quilt of diverse mythology in the NT era's. And more importantly, how the gods of other cultures were usurped and placed as either saints or demons depending on the churches choice of usage, as they went out creating their holy empire.

 

By the end of it they weren't nearly as scared at the prospect, "what if these kind of movies are true." 

 

 

 

That was time well spent - good job, man!

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1 hour ago, ThereAndBackAgain said:

 

That was time well spent - good job, man!

 

I have them reading through Joseph Campbell and listening to Alan Watts to gain an understanding of the bibles borrowed mythology and how that works.  

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28 minutes ago, Joshpantera said:

 

I have them reading through Joseph Campbell and listening to Alan Watts to gain an understanding of the bibles borrowed mythology and how that works.  

 

Now that’s some heavy shit. At least for me it was...

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On 10/6/2018 at 8:24 AM, DestinyTurtle said:

Welcome, @HeartFromTexas! I'm glad you're here. I'm really sorry about 2). My dad basically gloat about how much he's going to enjoy watching me burn in hell while he rejoices in heaven, too. The mental/emotional pretzel is hard enough without feelings about family getting involved in it. In any case, I'm glad you made it out of the brainwashing and I hope the website and the people here help!

 

YOWZA!! That's pretty mean-spirited. 

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