Long-Time Member, But Away for Awhile

[Overcame Faith]

I am so glad to see that ExC is still here engaging in its very important mission.  I see a lot of familiar names and a good number of new members.  I am glad.

 

I first came here in 2009 and received an incredible amount of help in my deconversion (is that term still used here?).  I found this place to be a very welcoming community and I am sure it still is.  Untold thousands have been helped by webmdave’s website/forums, assisted by the capable moderators and caring members.

 

if anyone is interested, you can find some of my old postings buried somewhere here.  But one thing I will say is that I have never looked back, never returned to Christianity, and remain a steadfast non-believer.  Life is better without that religion dragging its victims into the depths of a non-existent hell.  That’s right, hell does not exist.  It is a control device used to keep scared people in the prison of Christianity, shackled to a cross on which no savior was ever crucified, and bound to a Bible that offers no freedom.

[TheRedneckProfessor]

Welcome back!

[Overcame Faith]

Thanks.

[florduh]

Welcome home!

[Overcame Faith]

Thanks, florduh.

[Margee]

1 hour ago, Overcame Faith said:

I am so glad to see that ExC is still here engaging in its very important mission.  I see a lot of familiar names and a good number of new members.  I am glad.

 

I first came here in 2009 and received an incredible amount of help in my deconversion (is that term still used here?).  I found this place to be a very welcoming community and I am sure it still is.  Untold thousands have been helped by webmdave’s website/forums, assisted by the capable moderators and caring members.

 

if anyone is interested, you can find some of my old postings buried somewhere here.  But one thing I will say is that I have never looked back, never returned to Christianity, and remain a steadfast non-believer.  Life is better without that religion dragging its victims into the depths of a non-existent hell.  That’s right, hell does not exist.  It is a control device used to keep scared people in the prison of Christianity, shackled to a cross on which no savior was ever crucified, and bound to a Bible that offers no freedom.

 

Yay! My ole' buddy is back!! Welcome and good to have you here! 

[Overcame Faith]

6 minutes ago, Margee said:

 

Yay! My ole' buddy is back!! Welcome and good to have you here! 

Glad to be back and glad to hear from you!

[older]

Hope you'll stick around and contribute. It's been rather quiet lately and we could use more folks in the discussions.

[Overcame Faith]

10 hours ago, Margee said:

17 minutes ago, older said:

Hope you'll stick around and contribute. It's been rather quiet lately and we could use more folks in the discussions.

Thanks.  I look forward to some discussions.

[♦ ficino ♦]

On 1/18/2020 at 7:51 AM, Overcame Faith said:

[Hell] is a control device used to keep scared people in the prison of Christianity, shackled to a cross on which no savior was ever crucified, and bound to a Bible that offers no freedom.

 

Well said! Sounds like something Ingersoll might have written!

[buffettphan]

It's so great to hear from you again!  Glad you're doing well.

[Overcame Faith]

11 minutes ago, buffettphan said:

It's so great to hear from you again!  Glad you're doing well.

it’s great to hear from you, too.  I hope all has been well.

[TABA]

Hi @Overcame Faith, nice to meet you!  I’m one that came along while you were away: I deconverted 2014-2016 and I’ve been active here since then.  Yeah, we all owe a debt of gratitude to @webmdave and the moderators.  This is a great place, providing an invaluable service!

[LogicalFallacy]

Hi Overcame Faith

 

Welcome back. Like TABA I came along while you were away - 2016 it was.

 

And yes the term deconversion is still in use.

 

Regards

LF

 

 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

7 hours ago, LogicalFallacy said:

 

And yes the term deconversion is still in use.

 

 

WELCOME BACK!

It's a play on words, but for some of us leaving Christianity was a conversion.  I was never "converted" into it.  I was born into into it, so I naturally believed it was true from the beginning.  And leaving was a conversion to agnosticism. 

 

[LogicalFallacy]

1 hour ago, Weezer said:

And leaving was a conversion to agnosticism. 

 

 

Good point. I was never converted either. I was indoctrinated. But I tend to think of deconversion  as a reversion back to my natural state rather than a conversion to a new state. The natural blank state is to not believe in any God/s. Deconversion is simply the reversion back to that state. 

[Joshpantera]

On 1/18/2020 at 7:51 AM, Overcame Faith said:

I am so glad to see that ExC is still here engaging in its very important mission.  I see a lot of familiar names and a good number of new members.  I am glad.

 

I first came here in 2009 and received an incredible amount of help in my deconversion (is that term still used here?).  I found this place to be a very welcoming community and I am sure it still is.  Untold thousands have been helped by webmdave’s website/forums, assisted by the capable moderators and caring members.

 

if anyone is interested, you can find some of my old postings buried somewhere here.  But one thing I will say is that I have never looked back, never returned to Christianity, and remain a steadfast non-believer.  Life is better without that religion dragging its victims into the depths of a non-existent hell.  That’s right, hell does not exist.  It is a control device used to keep scared people in the prison of Christianity, shackled to a cross on which no savior was ever crucified, and bound to a Bible that offers no freedom.

 

Welcome back! 

 

We're still letting newbie's know the facts on the table, which, point to the above conclusions. Still debating apologist's for the sake of onlooking readers as well. Keeping those blow hards and bluffs against the ropes when they throw arrogant and untenable claims around. For the sake of the viewing audience. We just finished whipping around a run of several of them last year. Until they crawled off to lick their wounds.

 

It went quite over the holidays. Maybe some more will come along and try and their luck in 2020. We'll just have to wait and see. 

[Overcame Faith]

On 1/20/2020 at 11:41 PM, Joshpantera said:

 

Welcome back! 

 

We're still letting newbie's know the facts on the table, which, point to the above conclusions. Still debating apologist's for the sake of onlooking readers as well. Keeping those blow hards and bluffs against the ropes when they throw arrogant and untenable claims around. For the sake of the viewing audience. We just finished whipping around a run of several of them last year. Until they crawled off to lick their wounds.

 

It went quite over the holidays. Maybe some more will come along and try and their luck in 2020. We'll just have to wait and see. 

Now, that is what I wanted to hear!  The apologists must be defeated for the sake of the newly deconverted.  Great job.  I am proud of you and the rest who insist that the truth be known.

[Overcame Faith]

On 1/19/2020 at 2:12 PM, TABA said:

Hi @Overcame Faith, nice to meet you!  I’m one that came along while you were away: I deconverted 2014-2016 and I’ve been active here since then.  Yeah, we all owe a debt of gratitude to @webmdave and the moderators.  This is a great place, providing an invaluable service!

Good to meet you, taba.

[Overcame Faith]

On 1/19/2020 at 4:08 PM, LogicalFallacy said:

Hi Overcame Faith

 

Welcome back. Like TABA I came along while you were away - 2016 it was.

 

And yes the term deconversion is still in use.

 

Regards

LF

 

 

Good to meet you, LF.  Good name, it says a lot.  So many Christians don’t even realize their logical fallacies.  What I like is that your name lays it to them direct and hard core.  Great job!

[◊ Weezer ◊]

On 1/20/2020 at 12:19 AM, LogicalFallacy said:

 

Good point. I was never converted either. I was indoctrinated. But I tend to think of deconversion  as a reversion back to my natural state rather than a conversion to a new state. The natural blank state is to not believe in any God/s. Deconversion is simply the reversion back to that state. 

 

Like a lot of things in this world, there is more than one way to interpret it.

[Bhim]

On 1/18/2020 at 6:51 AM, Overcame Faith said:

But one thing I will say is that I have never looked back, never returned to Christianity, and remain a steadfast non-believer.  Life is better without that religion dragging its victims into the depths of a non-existent hell.  That’s right, hell does not exist.  It is a control device used to keep scared people in the prison of Christianity, shackled to a cross on which no savior was ever crucified, and bound to a Bible that offers no freedom.

 

Welcome back sir. Thank you for eloquently stating what I also believe. You joined this site around the same time I did. I believe you were a couple years earlier than I, I'll need to check my join date. After leaving Jesus I also found the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell for nonbelievers to be a detestable and vile belief, and to be one of the most awful things that Christianity teaches. I thank you for recognizing how false and deceptive this belief is, and for pointing it out so directly. Like you, I too have left Christianity and never turned back. A lot of my ideologies have transformed over time. I've returned to the Hindu religion in which I was raised, and adapted my religious beliefs in light of the Christian "values" I left behind. I've figured out how to be religious without believing in anything resembling Jesus. I've transitioned from an academic scientist to an industry sellout. I've even joined the American political dark side (yeah, yeah, I joined team Trump, but let's not go there right now). But one thing I never did was reconsider my lack of belief in Jesus. Jesus is impotent to save anyone from the imaginary hell of fire. However intellectually diverse this community is, we all share a common belief that Jesus is no god at all, and that is an important common unifying principle. In a culture that is dominated by the Christian religion, it's important to associate with a group of like-minded individuals who know that Jesus is not just a false deity, but an outright evil individual who poisons the human soul with a manufactured fear of hell.

 

I'm glad you've reconnected with ex-C; I look forward to many great conversations.

[Overcame Faith]

5 minutes ago, Bhim said:

 

Welcome back sir. Thank you for eloquently stating what I also believe. You joined this site around the same time I did. I believe you were a couple years earlier than I, I'll need to check my join date. After leaving Jesus I also found the doctrine of eternal conscious torment in hell for nonbelievers to be a detestable and vile belief, and to be one of the most awful things that Christianity teaches. I thank you for recognizing how false and deceptive this belief is, and for pointing it out so directly. Like you, I too have left Christianity and never turned back. A lot of my ideologies have transformed over time. I've returned to the Hindu religion in which I was raised, and adapted my religious beliefs in light of the Christian "values" I left behind. I've figured out how to be religious without believing in anything resembling Jesus. I've transitioned from an academic scientist to an industry sellout. I've even joined the American political dark side (yeah, yeah, I joined team Trump, but let's not go there right now). But one thing I never did was reconsider my lack of belief in Jesus. Jesus is impotent to save anyone from the imaginary hell of fire. However intellectually diverse this community is, we all share a common belief that Jesus is no god at all, and that is an important common unifying principle. In a culture that is dominated by the Christian religion, it's important to associate with a group of like-minded individuals who know that Jesus is not just a false deity, but an outright evil individual who poisons the human soul with a manufactured fear of hell.

 

I'm glad you've reconnected with ex-C; I look forward to many great conversations.

 

Hi, Bhim,

 

I remember you and am glad to be back and also glad to be communicating with you.

 

if I remember correctly, you were Hindu who converted to Christianity.  You then started seeing the same problems with Christianity that are so commonly written about here, but which are not so easily dealt with.

 

i am glad to hear that you were able to shed yourself of Christianity.  And i, too, look forward to communicating with you.

[Bhim]

2 minutes ago, Overcame Faith said:

 

Hi, Bhim,

 

I remember you and am glad to be back and also glad to be communicating with you.

 

if I remember correctly, you were Hindu who converted to Christianity.  You then started seeing the same problems with Christianity that are so commonly written about here, but which are not so easily dealt with.

 

i am glad to hear that you were able to shed yourself of Christianity.  And i, too, look forward to communicating with you.

 

Hi OF, I was fairly certain we overlapped for at least awhile! Like you said, I was born and raised Hindu, and converted to Christianity. Fortunately, my six years in this religion was short enough that I was able to resume my former life. I even reintegrated into my family's religious practice and got an arranged marriage to another Hindu, so all in all I was not as profoundly affected by this terrible religion as others have been. However hard it is to talk about the problem of Christianity, you have at least stated the problem directly: Christianity teaches that if you do not intellectually assent to the belief that Jesus is your savior from eternal hell, you will be consigned to that hell forever. Your flesh will burn and your body will be in utter agony for a million times your earthly lifespan, and then when that torment is over, you will suffer a million times even that length of torment. When that is over, your punishment will still not be complete, since eternity is forever. Christianity successfully invented a punishment that a rational mind would not wish on even Hitler. A religion that teaches such things is disqualified from making any moral pronouncement whatsoever.

 

This was essentially the quandary that I encountered as a Christian. Believing in hell is easy when every member of your family is also a Christian and is going to heaven. It becomes easy to believe in hell with an intellectual detachment. But when one was raised by and lived among people whom Jesus would consign to hell, it becomes necessary to confront this vile philosophy, and I found that the rational mind cannot withstand the conflict with what the Apostle Paul might call "the law written on our hearts," i.e. the human conscience.

 

Even if I took issue with no other teaching of Christianity, the teaching of hell would make it impossible for me to believe in this religion.

[◊ DestinyTurtle ◊]

woohoo! I'm not here as much as I would like because busy with work and all, but I still find my time here very encouraging and therapeutic. Glad to see other people feel the same!