New here, looking for encouragement

[Kdeaustin]

6 minutes ago, TruthSeeker0 said:

Well I don't think it's at all surprising that this god only "reached out" to the people who lived at the time these documents were written. Of course millions of people nowadays are ok with thinking that god somehow "reached out" to them because some good thing happened in life, like they found a parking spot or they were cured of cancer. Some people just can't live with uncertainty and fall into whatever belief system they were raised with. 

Yeah a rational mind can think that way, but alas, my mind is not rational right now.

 

Another thing I don't understand... people argue that if we sin against God, it is an infinite sin against an infinite God so we must pay the penalty for that. However, those who are "washed in the blood" continue to sin their entire lives. I mean no one can go an entire day and not "sin." So how are their "sins" really being atoned for. I know the answer is Jesus covers their sins. But then they get a free pass. Where as they still sinned... against an infinite God... 

 

Also Jesus just died. He didn't go to hell for eternity which makes me think the literal punishment for sin is death. Right?

[Kdeaustin]

Also another thing that I have been struggling with about all these people who have died and went to "hell."  Which has made me stop and say what if....Well if the Bible is true, no one is in hell right now. Everyone is asleep until judgement day. Satan and his demons are apparently on the earth. But no souls are being tormented in hell right now because according to the scripture, no one will rise until judgement day, so that means no one is in heaven right now too. I would think. Just based on scripture. (Again saying if the Bible is true)

[TruthSeeker0]

3 hours ago, Kdeaustin said:

Yeah a rational mind can think that way, but alas, my mind is not rational right now.

 

Another thing I don't understand... people argue that if we sin against God, it is an infinite sin against an infinite God so we must pay the penalty for that. However, those who are "washed in the blood" continue to sin their entire lives. I mean no one can go an entire day and not "sin." So how are their "sins" really being atoned for. I know the answer is Jesus covers their sins. But then they get a free pass. Where as they still sinned... against an infinite God... 

 

Also Jesus just died. He didn't go to hell for eternity which makes me think the literal punishment for sin is death. Right?

The infinite sin thing serves a handy purpose: just another way of trying to put this god beyond critism or judgement. 

I don't know if it would help to tell you that if you grew up Muslim you'd be having similar struggles with leaving your Muslim faith. Only difference is this is your religious inheritance so you're struggling with this. Rather a coincidence that most people believe how their parents did, wouldn't you say? The hand of god in all that stuff is rather non apparent. It's an accident of birth. 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

13 hours ago, TruthSeeker0 said:

 

It might seem disastrous right now, but one day you may be very grateful for your questioning and curious personality. 

 

 

I would only change one word in that statement.  You WILL be very grateful.  At least I have been, and more so as the years go by.  At 78 years of age I no longer fear death.  Like you, I have always been very curious, and more than once lately it has occured to me that maybe my curosity about life after death wil be answered.  HA!  If there is consciousness!  But either way, the fear is gone.

 

I think the final straw for me with de-conversion was when it occurred to me that my faith in Christianity was determined by being born into it, and conditioned into it.  If I had been born in a Muslim country, into a devout Muslim family, I would have believed that was the truth.  Or whatever I had been conditioned into.   That is when it became so clear to me that religion was fabricated by mankind.

[Myrkhoos]

1. Interpreting the Bible is really something. There literally thousands of books about it. The Bible seems to mention hell. https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=Hell&qs_version=NKJV

 

 

But this is a trap. Remember that many confessions of christianity have different opinions and many other sources than JUST the bible as in many personal testimonies.

 

2. Sinning . One has to define sin first . But any kind of mystake cannot hurt God or damage him in any way. This is usual theology. So God cannot be offended, neither angry, neither sad and naither happy or joyous. Because he cannot be affected or influenced by actions of created beings. So if you do something against an infintely invulnerable , loving, poerful God it would mean that your sin equals 0, not infinite. I mean if you hit a woman, as a man, your damage is greater than hitting a man and so the so called retribution. If you hit your child, or your husband, chances are your husband suffers a lot less. The legal system in the US recognizes this and for example child rape is far worse that adult rape. The punishment is equal to the damage inflicted on the other party. But God, cannot, I repeat, cannot, by sheer definition, be hurt, so you inflict 0 damage on him whatsoever. Like punching air or smth. 

[Kdeaustin]

I wanted to check in with everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and interacted. I know it sounds weird, but since I was in such a dark place when I first visited here, it’s kind of triggering to come back to this website right now. For some reason it makes me anxious. But I wanted to let you all know I am doing better. You all gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to even start questioning everything. So I just wanted to say thanks!!! I am doing better but still struggling. I think that’s expected. It will definitely be a process I see. But I hope to feel okay enough in the near future to come back and interact with you all more!!!! 

[Joshpantera]

On 11/7/2019 at 5:51 PM, Kdeaustin said:

That makes sense to me! If God is real, why couldn't he just let us love him freely. Get to know him first. Show himself to us. Give us a hug and say "i'm so happy I created you", without the fear of hell. I mean I still can't get the whole scare you into a relationship.

 

Exactly. If it's even real, then the christian approach only makes sense if the god is a narcissistic type of psycho, not unlike the religious zealots of the bronze age who were themselves WRITING all of this down, contradicting one another's writings in the process, and generally not keeping very good track of the claims which are being made within the same said writings and various ramblings. 

 

Some type of all knowing, all present, all good, all this or that supernatural being shouldn't very well be nothing more than a temper tantrum throwing little shit, right?  It should by default, be much more than that. Way beyond (hint, hint see the definition of transcendent) all of that. That just sounds like the ramblings of a human ego. Magnified to supernatural status. Not necessarily what we would expect of a superior being.

 

What we find in scripture doesn't make very much sense unless it's put into it's actual historical context - eccentric personalities involved with religion during the bronze age ranting and raging about what ever happened to be on their own minds, and acting as if it were not their own personal opinions, but the absolute word of a supernatural creator of the universe. 

 

The simplest and most obvious explanation often tends to be the correct one. This instance not withstanding.....

[Joshpantera]

On 1/1/2020 at 7:53 PM, Kdeaustin said:

I wanted to check in with everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and interacted. I know it sounds weird, but since I was in such a dark place when I first visited here, it’s kind of triggering to come back to this website right now. For some reason it makes me anxious. But I wanted to let you all know I am doing better. You all gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to even start questioning everything. So I just wanted to say thanks!!! I am doing better but still struggling. I think that’s expected. It will definitely be a process I see. But I hope to feel okay enough in the near future to come back and interact with you all more!!!! 

 

About that baby! Fear not! Life is just fine on the other side of the christian hurtle. Many of us who are raising kids without christianity, or religion at all for that matter, are doing just fine and so are the kids.

 

In fact, I think we're all much better without the smoke and mirrors and sleight of hand that christianity brings. There's a certain amount of integrity that goes along with raising children without lies, fear tactics, and all that went into fucking us up in the head for some many years. Why pass that along to another generation? Well, for myself and others, there is no good to reason to pass any of that along so we've nipped it in the bud! 

 

Encouragement!

 

Happy New Year!!! 

[TruthSeeker0]

On 1/1/2020 at 7:53 PM, Kdeaustin said:

I wanted to check in with everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and interacted. I know it sounds weird, but since I was in such a dark place when I first visited here, it’s kind of triggering to come back to this website right now. For some reason it makes me anxious. But I wanted to let you all know I am doing better. You all gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to even start questioning everything. So I just wanted to say thanks!!! I am doing better but still struggling. I think that’s expected. It will definitely be a process I see. But I hope to feel okay enough in the near future to come back and interact with you all more!!!! 

It's a long process. But it gets easier. For me it's been easiest getting on by cutting contact with people I knew in my ex church and anyone who tried to control my choices or influence my mind. 

Listen to yourself. Listen to your own mind. Walk your own truth. Religious people would have it otherwise, but you can cut yourself free of all that. 

[older]

On 1/1/2020 at 4:53 PM, Kdeaustin said:

I wanted to check in with everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve been on here and interacted. I know it sounds weird, but since I was in such a dark place when I first visited here, it’s kind of triggering to come back to this website right now. For some reason it makes me anxious. But I wanted to let you all know I am doing better. You all gave me the hope and encouragement I needed to even start questioning everything. So I just wanted to say thanks!!! I am doing better but still struggling. I think that’s expected. It will definitely be a process I see. But I hope to feel okay enough in the near future to come back and interact with you all more!!!! 

  

Good to hear from you! Hang in there. It's sort of like healing from having your wisdom teeth removed. The teeth are gone now, soon the rest will be OK, too.