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Goodbye Jesus

Why Did god Stop Talking to Us?


Chicken0Life

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I've had this question since high school and I've never gotten a satisfactory answer. In a quick Google search I just did, it came up with the results I expected to see with answers like "God never audibly spoke" or "he said everything he needed to say". These are both answers I got from numerous people in the church growing up and I would raise the following concerns and immediately get shut down. 

 

If God never audibly spoke, then the Bible can't be literally true. 

 

If he said all he needed to say, then what is the new testament? Anything other than the gospels is just people adding their own commentary. Other than revelations. (Why aren't all the commentary books in the Christian book stores scripture as well?) And then the church edited all of these things to make the bible we have today. They literally added to and, probably, took away from the word of God. 

 

I don't understand how Christians reconcile all of this. I guess they "just have faith" and ignore it.

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He quit talking to me after I insinuated that he was a violator of gimp‐legged wombats and Vishnu had used his mom for a whore. 

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2 hours ago, Chicken0Life said:

I don't understand how Christians reconcile all of this. I guess they "just have faith" and ignore it.

 

Bingo! Once believers buy into the cult, they belong to a new social circle that emotionally reinforces the imaginary world. I see it as similar to those that dress up like Klingons and learn Klingonese, go to Star Trek gatherings and such BUT actually think they are Klingons and that the imaginary world they see portrayed on screen is all real. 

 

Then there are the Christian Pentecostals that don't think that god stopped speaking and imagine conversations with him, or feel directives from his spirit. Baptists cringe at the very idea, and fired one of my pastors for once saying that god told him to have the churches do a collective Easter service and give the offering to the poor. Easter is a big money-maker for congregations, so giving it away to those icky poor people was against everything they held dear... 

 

I went from Nazarene to Bapti-costal to Pentecostal in my 30 year stint in the cult. I heard directly a few times and honestly don't know where that came from, whether a part of my mind pretending to be god based on all I had read and believed or something else, though I know now that it wasn't the god of the bible. I do remember that other believers got really nervous when I spoke about it. I didn't bother mentioning those times to my Baptist pastors. They replaced god with a book, a nice controllable book. 

 

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2 hours ago, Chicken0Life said:

I've had this question since high school and I've never gotten a satisfactory answer. In a quick Google search I just did, it came up with the results I expected to see with answers like "God never audibly spoke" or "he said everything he needed to say". These are both answers I got from numerous people in the church growing up and I would raise the following concerns and immediately get shut down. 

 

If God never audibly spoke, then the Bible can't be literally true. 

 

If he said all he needed to say, then what is the new testament? Anything other than the gospels is just people adding their own commentary. Other than revelations. (Why aren't all the commentary books in the Christian book stores scripture as well?) And then the church edited all of these things to make the bible we have today. They literally added to and, probably, took away from the word of God. 

 

I don't understand how Christians reconcile all of this. I guess they "just have faith" and ignore it.

 

I agree. If you believe in God then there may not be any satisfactory answer to your question as you suggest, concerning "why did God stop talking to us." But if you don't believe in God like me, then the Bible would be a fantasy and the answer to your question would be very simple, as I'm sure you can realize.

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In my opinion there is not a lot of logical thinking that goes on in christianity.  It is emotional fantasy programmed into people as children, with fear at it's core, and covered with a veneer of "love".   It takes a fairly secure, curious, logical and open minded person to even question the status quo.

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1 hour ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

He quit talking to me after I insinuated that he was a violator of gimp‐legged wombats and Vishnu had used his mom for a whore. 

🤣 This would certainly be an effective way to get someone to leave you alone. 

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35 minutes ago, Chicken0Life said:

🤣 This would certainly be an effective way to get someone to leave you alone. 

Yep!  one thing about this forum is a wide variety of suggestions.  Some very creative.  😁

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3 hours ago, pantheory said:

 

I agree. If you believe in God then there may not be any satisfactory answer to your question as you suggest, concerning "why did God stop talking to us." But if you don't believe in God like me, then the Bible would be a fantasy and the answer to your question would be very simple, as I'm sure you can realize.

It was extremely disorienting when I finally realized that God talked to people as much in the Bible as he talks to us now (not at all). Prayer is just our inner dialogue. God's just a tool people used to try and navigate the world and explain things we didn't have explanations for yet. His "voice" is no different than our consciences.

 

It's odd. Why were people's consciences so unjust? 

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3 hours ago, Fuego said:

 

They replaced god with a book, a nice controllable book. 

 

This was the most disturbing thing for me to learn. The thought first crossed my mind when I read the Foundation series by Asimov. The concept of people creating religion for the sole purpose of control was horrifying to me. I wrote it off at the time as just a part of the fiction I was reading, but the idea stuck with me nonetheless.

 

It feels like a crazy conspiracy theory, but the more I learn about the assembly of the Bible, the more it feels right. Maybe the people in charge believed it. Maybe they had some good intentions. But seeing how Christianity is being used in the USA today for expressly political reasons leads me to think that's what it's always been harnessed for. 

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Or maybe he hasn't stopped?

 

There is a movie from the channel "God's Messages for You" or something like that, and it's not the first time that what is mentioned in the movie works for me: recently I started packing to move out of the house for a while, today I see a movie allegedly from God about leaving home.

 

This is not the first message that fits my life. To this day, I have not found a satisfactory answer to why this is so. Does God talk to us in different ways, e.g. through such videos, but we just don't react? And why doesn't he talk to everyone that way? Perhaps that confirms Calvinism then? I do not know. I note that I am an agnostic. If you have an idea how to figure it out, tell me what it could be if not a message from God, since it fits perfectly into my every situation.

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1 hour ago, Aibao said:

Or maybe he hasn't stopped?

 

There is a movie from the channel "God's Messages for You" or something like that, and it's not the first time that what is mentioned in the movie works for me: recently I started packing to move out of the house for a while, today I see a movie allegedly from God about leaving home.

 

This is not the first message that fits my life. To this day, I have not found a satisfactory answer to why this is so. Does God talk to us in different ways, e.g. through such videos, but we just don't react? And why doesn't he talk to everyone that way? Perhaps that confirms Calvinism then? I do not know. I note that I am an agnostic. If you have an idea how to figure it out, tell me what it could be if not a message from God, since it fits perfectly into my every situation.

I was always taught nothing more could be added to what he already said. It was odd to me how the old testament tells God's exact words. Like he spoke clearly. The new testament is very different from my experience. It's more about "inspiration". I can get "inspired" when I listen to music. Does that mean, let's say, Iron Maiden is speaking through me if I write about it? 

 

I've come to the conclusion God never spoke to us. Writers may have had a moment of inspiration while they were thinking about god, or used their concept of a god to make their decisions. I just always thought that shift from direct voice to inspiration was odd. 

 

I think attributing everything that happens to the supernatural is kind of lazy. It's also demeaning to people who work hard and make the world a better place. People have done amazing things. It all is so much more amazing when you realize we did it all without the help of some all powerful being in the sky. 

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22 hours ago, Aibao said:

 

Or maybe he hasn't stopped?

 

 

Aibao, have you ever questioned how Hitler came to convince so many people to committ the atrocities they committed?  He learned a lesson from observing religions and human beings.  He reportedly said that, "If you tell a lie long enough, people will begin to believe it."  And history shows us how successful he (and others) have been at getting people to believe their lies.   Then think of the hundreds and thousands of years that the myths of different religions have been told (giving different messages) and the millions of people believing that each religion was THE TRUTH.   It became THE TRUTH because it had been told over, and over, and over, for hundreds of years.  And in some cases the people who disagreed with "the truth" were slaughtered because they were considered heritics.   My conslusion is that these myths didn't all come to us through miracles.  They were concieved by humans who told us it is from a god, and passed down through the years by himans who believe the myths are gods word because that is what their priests, ministers, familes and even their societies are telling them.  They can't all be the truth from one true god.

 

If you continue to obsess about these issues and are disturbed by them, please see a doctor who can help you with your obsessions.

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The problem of divine hiddenness is probably the biggest one that religion faces.  If god would show up then all doubt and conflict would end.  Its claimed He wants us to know Him, to have a relationship with Him and yet He won't do the bare minimum to let us know He is there?

Prayers go unanswered, Christians suffer from disease, hardship, accidents and crime at the same rate as everyone else.  God could turn up at any time and convince millions that He cared, gaining followers and saving them from hell, but He can't or won't.

 

The bible says He spoke from a burning bush, appeared as a column of fire, spoke from the sky, sent angelic messengers and granted people the ability to do supernatural tests on command such as Elijah calling fire from the sky.  It is claimed He directly communicated to thousands of people in the bible, yet in the couple of thousand years since those claims were made we see nothing of the sort.

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15 hours ago, Wertbag said:

The bible says He spoke from a burning bush, appeared as a column of fire, spoke from the sky, sent angelic messengers and granted people the ability to do supernatural tests on command such as Elijah calling fire from the sky.  It is claimed He directly communicated to thousands of people in the bible, yet in the couple of thousand years since those claims were made we see nothing of the sort.

The people of the old testament didn't need faith. They either saw those things. They had proof of his power. I wonder how much time passed between the last old testament display of power and Jesus's miracles.

 

I don't believe those miracles and things actually happened. It's all no different than other ancient myths. I'm sure there are kernels of truth in the stories, but the writers of the Bible weren't trying to record accurate history as we know it today. At one time people genuinely believed in Zeus and the other Greek gods and goddesses. If Christians have no problem calling that stuff fiction, why is it so hard to see the Bible as the same? (I feel like an idiot for believing so much of this stuff for so long. I had the curiosity, the knowhow, and the resources to figure all of this out sooner. But the church got me so scared of knowledge... not even knowledge... I was scared of even THINKING about the doubts and red flags I saw. The church made me scared to think, and I feel like such an idiot for allowing it to happen.) 

 

Jesus started to come into focus a little better for me recently. His teachings have a lot of good things in them. Really, those teachings are just basic human decency. Love one another. Care for the needy. Do no harm. They were, and still are, radical concepts that could change the world if implemented. But he's not the only one to come up with this stuff. People may have been desperate for some supernatural display and chose to see it in Jesus. Or worse, Jesus intentionally did magic tricks to dupe people and make them think he was god. Not unlike a cult leader of today. 

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On 8/28/2022 at 2:53 PM, Aibao said:

Or maybe he hasn't stopped?

 

There is a movie from the channel "God's Messages for You" or something like that, and it's not the first time that what is mentioned in the movie works for me: recently I started packing to move out of the house for a while, today I see a movie allegedly from God about leaving home.

 

This is not the first message that fits my life. To this day, I have not found a satisfactory answer to why this is so. Does God talk to us in different ways, e.g. through such videos, but we just don't react? And why doesn't he talk to everyone that way? Perhaps that confirms Calvinism then? I do not know. I note that I am an agnostic. If you have an idea how to figure it out, tell me what it could be if not a message from God, since it fits perfectly into my every situation.

 

Hi Albao, Hope all is well with you concerning moving away from home.

 

The topic of this thread was a loaded question, In English this expression means that the answer is already known, The assumption in this case is that God does not exist. Look at the details of the author's profile. It says that he is an atheist like I am. So he is really not asking a question at all. What he is essentially saying is that if Got talked to people in the Bible, why doesn't he talk to people audibly now so that others can hear him? Of course as an atheist, he does not believe any of it. He is reflecting on what we believe to be the contradictions of the Bible.

 

To make a joke of religion and its beliefs one could say that God equates to Santa Clause, and Jesus equates to the Easter Bunny.

                               Image result for picture santa claus with halo                                                              Easter bunny jesus cartoon character Royalty Free Vector

 

Horror, Devil, Mask, Evil, Fear, Scary

 

 

And a vengeful God is played by the German Evil Santa Krampus. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/27/2022 at 9:23 AM, Chicken0Life said:

I've had this question since high school and I've never gotten a satisfactory answer. In a quick Google search I just did, it came up with the results I expected to see with answers like "God never audibly spoke" or "he said everything he needed to say". These are both answers I got from numerous people in the church growing up and I would raise the following concerns and immediately get shut down. 

 

If God never audibly spoke, then the Bible can't be literally true. 

 

If he said all he needed to say, then what is the new testament? Anything other than the gospels is just people adding their own commentary. Other than revelations. (Why aren't all the commentary books in the Christian book stores scripture as well?) And then the church edited all of these things to make the bible we have today. They literally added to and, probably, took away from the word of God. 

 

I don't understand how Christians reconcile all of this. I guess they "just have faith" and ignore it.

 

Most of the churches I went to taught that, as the scripture says, the Holy ghost would speak to us. 

 

John 16:13

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

 

Acts 2:38

Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost

 

So our particular brand of Christianity made us feel like we had God's Holy Spirit literally living inside of us. It was also our belief that after salvation that you actually could go without sinning. Because God can not dwell where there is sin. And if you let the Holy spirit control your life you won't sin either. 

 

Ya know. You would think that with God dwelling inside of us all that time he could have answered a few more prayers lol....

 

I think about those scriptures in the old testament talking about deaf and dumb God's that people worshipped. The Christian God is no different. Might as well talk to a fence post. 

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5 minutes ago, DarkBishop said:

Might as well talk to a fence post. 

Somebody might take a fence to that, though.

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  • 3 months later...

I've often pondered about the fact that God could save everybody from damnation by talking to us in an audible voice simultaneously, but he doesn't. This bothered me a lot as a Christian. 

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Good to see you again, @megasamurai.

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I have heard a theory based on Exodus-Numbers as to why miracles don't happen. Christians use the story of Israelites hearing God's voice and still building a golden calf and whining as proof that miracles would not sway people to abandon Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. Or alternatively, that the reason that miracles are so rare and that they happen in remote African villages is because those are the only places that would be receptive to miracles. I'm not sure miracles would be that ineffective and the idea that the reason miracles are so rare is that places that miracles don't happen would reject them as evidence. 

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