Were they not human? Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. charlie from From Kingdom of God living on Planet earth in between the oceans on September 11, 2018: the main reason anyone would leave christianity is because it is a man made religion that we are warned in scripture to avoid. Scott agreed when I asked him; he was the Gandalf to my Frodo. There is too much brokenness in this weary world, and too great a responsibility, and (by the way) saving souls should never, ever, ever, be thought of in numerical terms Don't give me a church with good music and good public speaking. I've never felt that feeling again, and I'll never forget that feeling, and honestly, I don't want to reason that feeling away with excuses involving heat or dehydration or exhaustion. Our own set of circumstances, environment, etc that defines who we are. Is capital punishment OK, if someone is really, really bad and killed a lot of people? Not only does God give us no good evidence in support of His existence, He allows there to be plenty of evidence that leads us to believe that the Bible is wrong about many things and that God doesnt exist. And look at how many who I'm assuming come in good faith searching for God and fall into traps of all kinds with false prophets and church's. Your 100% certainty seems less than 100% certain, at least to me, but perhaps you have special access to information and knowledge that I, or anyone else, do not have. Ive cut my dad out of my life completely after he ignored my son and me for years. This was an important step in my de-conversion. Yep, kill a million people, still go to heaven. Either way felt like a win, and I just felt safer, hedging my bets. I found myself continually dissatisfied, and unable to justify this kind of "feel-good" attitude I found in so many churches I encountered. Maybe its true, maybe its not, in retrospect, Ive met very few Christians who behave like Jesus did- though most at least try to live better. God causes people to be born in a situation (geographic location, for example) where they will live their lives without ever hearing the gospel message and go to hell for no thought of their own. This is the kind of god we have who curses the whole family tree until all be destroyed. There were expectations and measures of how Christian you were. I dont know any of them who dont think the Bible is inerrant. Thinking things through, I finally realized how evil and senseless God would have to be for him to send a person to hell. 5) God tells you to die to your old self and only look to God for everything. I once heard a speech where the speaker said, "no one knows for sure, it is an eternal mystery." It'schildish not to mentionridiculoustoinvokethe Magic Man for anything. " Beginning Christianity headed for Judaism - David's Anecdote. Through this, I got a sense for the rigidity and formality of debate, learned to spot fallacies, and realized in a way I hadnt before that I could discover truth by logical reasoning and testing the validity of various arguments. Something went wrong while submitting the form. The same holds true for our other investments in life, including social groups, belief systems, cultural influences, and more. My faith teaches me not to judge others. I was afraid of my parents and friends finding out. Because science and nature contradict the Bible, Christians steer people away from discovering the scientific truth. If you choose not to read this article, you wont hurt my feelings one bit. The Universe has lots of mysteries- including big things such as the nature of life, time, matter, and gravity. Huangdi ( the yellow emperor ) is another. The moment I felt attracted to someone, I felt wrong. Fellowship is what we Christians need. By my calculation, that would be roughly Not at anyone in particular, there was no one to blame. Maybe I am innately too rational to fool myself into believing I was actually having experiences with God. We tell people that the Bible is the basis of Christianity. I also got tired of staring science in the face and refuting it for the sake of doctrine and propaganda. does he not see???? It was often subtle, but it deeply pervaded every corner of the church. I understand what you are saying - the concept of salvation/hell was the point that troubled me the most but made it most difficult to leave fundamentalist Christianity. I wanted to remain a Christian. Powered by Invision Community. Weknow a magic god fairy was never necessary for anything. Christian Theologians made up things like the Age of the Accountability so God didnt look like a monster for sending kids to hell, even though the Bible didnt instruct it. But for other people? I liked having a pattern to live by, it made decisions easy. It's still a research opportunity but scientists know it wasn't a magical event. We're sinners because our great-great-great-great-great-times-a-thousand grandparents pissed off God by eating an apple. God is one..All people are one in his eyes Hit a nerve! Because there is no God directing my fate, I am fully responsible for making this world a better place. I relied on it more in my day-to-day life than I did on God. You obviously need to study evolution as do several million other people. To my horror, I found that there were whole realms of questions that led to other questions, all which I could think of few or no answers to. For his glory. For many Christians I encountered, this encouraged a rather two-faced persona. Youre bad when you do anything that God might disapprove of. The questions in the bullet points were so spot on that I copied them and squirreled them away for later use. But an innocent baby, who dies before baptism, and never hurt a fly doomed to hellfire. But I no longer believed in the work I was doing. Curiosity means exposing yourself to all kinds of ideas, social groups, and experiences but always keep your mind open and aware. It was easier to believe I was failing at having faith than it was to imagine the world wasnt full of the supernatural. Once I had an individual in this church complain to the pastors that I didn't look "reverent" enough during the church service, and it really discouraged me. I don't know whether there is a heaven. And Eve was not responsible for the Fall of Man. I am 100% certain magical creatures are not real including the moronic ridiculous god fairy fantasy. At first, I was very resistant to the Gospel message and to some of the content of the Bible. 2) Rebuild them with a new mindset. Thanks! Somehow, I felt like I was suddenly part of something bigger than myself. However, as powerful as it is, people in the U.S. are leaving the religion in droves. But here I am today, only mere months after I finally garnered the courage to change my Facebook status (oh, heaven forbid!) Some good reasons, TMApsey. It was as if I was being told the answer as well as my child. If you extrapolate this trend, you will arrive at atheism. I found Karen Armstrong's book A History of God to be most informative. Two weeks too late. A Christian believes that he or she is following after a God of perfect love. Personally, I just think god is the most horrible creator u could imagine. It sets itself up only torefute itself. The left/right schema must go: The task of moral political analysis; Christian SalvationPart One: Problems with Atonement Theology; Some biblical bases for pacifism; Why World War II was a moral disaster for the United States (Part one) Yes, I HAVE found Christianity to be very oppressivenot because of God, but because of people. But even fast-forwarding to today, it feels like so many Christians I met were content to pick-and-choose the parts of the bible they would follow. All of us are born into sin, fully flawed, and therefore the responsibility of judgement is exclusively reserved for God. What kind of God denies people basic necessities for living and then demands their thankfulness if he does choose to provide? I used to think along the lines of It sucks that a place like Hell exists, but thats just the way things are. Personally, I found 5 of my own core values aligned deeply with Christianity, and this is what made it so attractive to me.. I would rather that God does not exist, than choose to follow that kind of god. I said, simply because you were born. "Love God, or go to hell"? I was reluctantly forced to admit the obvious to myself: Logic was superior to faith and it made no sense to make faith superior to logic in special cases. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you." (Matthew 7:1-2) "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'. Not to plagiarize but to present to those who question my deconversion - whatever may be their intent. If you ever decide to completely throw out the god bullshit that's a good thing. I just know that I have had numerous prayers answered, as well as experienced multiple coincidences which I believe are from God. Fundamentalism wanted my world to stay small and controllable. They can make them divide. Some arguments against Christianity seemed solid at first, but after researching them, much to my relief it turned out that they were very flimsy. You may turn your back to God, but when your back is against the wall, and there is no way out. When you are in an organization with a strong moral code, social interactions feel simpler.. Products > Why I left Christian Science. In that way, I could weirdly be completely alone, and still somehow never feel lonely. However, I am still in the closet about all of this, so I still try to pretend to be Christian. I know I speak broadly, and am at risk of generalizing, but too often I feel like in so many parts of the North American church, there is far too little emphasis on an ongoing option for appropriately caring for the poor, and that such care manifests itself in ways that do not "inconvenience us" or involve colonialism (like short-term missions trips, for instance). There is only one reason why anyone will walk away from their creator. I'm not sure that we can be 100% certain of anything for that matter. The religion constantly denies human rights to its female followers by allowing rape and segregation where women are constantly noted as the ones being at fault for the crimes they're victimized in. Wake up to the day's most important news. But which Christian church is teaching me the right way? I reached out to my friend, Shane, who was a worship leader at another church, but he ignored my calls because, I later found out, he had recently tried to cheat on his wife with a mutual friend. Be the first to rate this. I grew up in a Southern Baptist home, and I probably would have gotten through that less scathed and would have had less emotional torment leaving religion, but I was tremendously indoctrinated in a Christian school (founded under the template of Bob Jones University - many of the teachers had attended BJU or Pensacola Christian College and our Science and Religion curricula were from BJU Press). We must bow before the Almighty God and quit trying to fit him into our mold. And for all of the things I can do, I cannot go up against that kind of strength of belief -- to many, it is church doctrine, and not something that simply changes. Jesus exists, and He rose from the dead. To me it feels like there's a tremendous stigma in a lot of Christian circles about people leaving the church, and this assumption that I'm not a good person, or a person Christians can be friends with, because my views are now so different. Blessings, Sparklea, You made incredible points in this excellent hub. They were normal people, reaching out with Compassion because it mattered to them. These two things are separate. For a while, I was very frustrated because of these things and I felt like God was either arbitrarily silent towards me or I wasnt saved or I was doing something wrong. Its the acceptance that there are things you dont know, that govern your life. And so it goes on. Before experiencing spiritual abuse from the elders at Rockport, I had a pastor who swindled money and had to hightail it out of town, only to be hired by a church in Vegas he had connections to. Im pretty sure that Jesus didnt even know what a comfort zone was. Ive been in candle-lit Russian Orthodox churches at 1 am, burning incense, echoing the chants of devoted masses who braved the frigid winter night, huddled in fur coats.. Ill never forget the time he privately told me he spanks his wife like you would a child when she gets out of line.. The next thing I saw was the lack of evidence for local miracles, ghosts, demons. I believed God dwelt in all who called on his name and that his presence was so powerful that it changed whomever it touched. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Or they would give emotional reasons or other reasons that are irrelevant. We are merely people who decided to examine Christianity with a critical eye and found, based on their observations, that Christianity just is not for them. Regarding the part of your post that I quoted above: I have often heard people refer to xianity and the three (one ?) And also antireligious.". Currently, I have doubts about whether evolution could be unguided. With food, flavor is great, but nutrition is ultimately what matters most.. Not sure Id ever really felt that before. Your previous content has been restored. We trust you." Thats it. It is a collection of myths, legends, folklore & Jewish midrash. The decision of what went into them was made by man alone. Of course they never did think it was magical. "Currently, I have doubts about whether evolution could be unguided.". It was designed to control people, to keep him in fear and feeling inferior. I'm not sure that we can be 100% certain of anything for that matter. I felt annoyed and uneasy when sites like Answers in Genesis would answer a scientific question with the Bible more than they did with science. Your"guided" nonsense is not reality. However I do formalize this a bit, through a kind of personal code, outlined here; And by asking reflective questions. Here are five reasons people are really leaving the church. The autor knows very little about the christianity through the eyes of christians themselves. I am now pursuing a BA in Religion and Philosophy. Yes, I HAVE found Christianity to be very oppressivenot because of God, but because of people. e.g. Until, one day, it wasn't any longer. It's alright talking about apostasy but if people pray for bread and get given stone (for 20 years), then eventually you come to a point of inevitability. The Dark World of Megachurches [ Youtube video ], Oops! The next year at this same event, the speaker they invited was conservative, and talked about the usual stuff; how you should accept Jesus into your heart and all that. How was the kingdom growing, really? Inside of Churches, among Christians, I saw an entirely different goal. Similarly, I also have doubts that human consciousness and abiogenesis could be convincingly explained without the Magic Man. Im sure I could think of a lot more to say if I took the time, but this post is long enough already. I could doubt my faith, and that was OK. There is no historical Jesus & Marcion rather than Paul probably wrote the Epistles. I was also incredibly naive at the time and didn't think getting sexually assaulted could possibly happen to me on this trip to Vancouver but it kind of did. Confusion went away., For the first time, I had a written manual on how to live and how to make good decisions.. "The Truman Show" movie did it for me! And in that moment, I suddenly became very, very tired of the uphill battle I felt like I had been fighting on for years, and I desperately wanted to distance myself from the institution I was once willing to give my life for. A couple of people who hadn't been at the first talk came to the second talk, and one individual in particular got very upset, and started saying that I was sinning, and "demonizing the church" and how dare I say anything negative about the church. Students were thoroughly indoctrinated with young earth creationism, the doctrines of salvation/sin/grace/hell/etc. I eventually had a very honest conversation with my bosses when my work performance began to fail, and I decided to quit the church and ended on good terms. 10:4 and Matthew 12:31 discourage them of even thinking of leaving the faith to begin with. I could probably write books on the inconsistencies I found, so Im going to focus on a handful of ones that were very important to me. 10:4, Proverbs 3:5-6, Isaiah 55:8-9, James 1:6, etc. He doesnt give them a choice of whether they want to be born into this world or not. People who believe different religions use faith to support ideas that contradict with Christianity, and I had no answer to why my faith should be accepted but theirs rejected. I kept my bible in my backpack, I went to church every week (it was also convenient because I played piano for various church choirs so I had a commitment to go, and playing was so easy and fun for me) I even prayed the rosary. Fundamentally, morally, and ethically, I cannot follow a religion that would advocate such hate, judgment, and ignorance. Very much. How cruel is that? Do I have friends that are Christian? No problem. Religions are indistinguishable from cults. The place is free. Ive taken confession. Having said that, the perspectives that Ill share here on my own personal journey may challenge you anyway., Make sure youre OK with that possibility.. (i.e. These doubts are the only things preventing me from going all the way to atheism. Shiningstar4u2c from Hilton Head Island on February 10, 2012: Very good reasons! Education has been the biggest enemy of religion and the more intelligent we become as a society the less we need the simple comfort of ignorant dogma. Christians are no different at all, not one bit less sinful. Yet they would go to great lengths to put on this huge, happy, God-forgiven, people-pleasing face on Sundays. And that bothered me too. The deep shaming of yourself in areas where you didn't feel you met the standards of Christianity, The tendency for elitist and self-righteous attitudes to form, The unwillingness to stand out as too successful. Earlier this year, the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye (and several other popular books) took to Instagram to explain, "By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Isnt that what He wants? Logic was incredibly useful. The therapist who introduced me to Spiritual Abuse gave me a new script to read from. I've never heard things explained this way. Theyd speak of how much God blessed them in different ways. There is a clear double standard in many Christian denominations, and because of that, churches are actually not a place for fellowship for everyone. And as shown above, God created the problem to begin with (because of the way He set up the rules and the way He created us), but does this loophole actually fix the problem? Within a year, we had a son. I might have given you the impression above that I see all Christians as fake, two-faced, judgmental people. Doesnt God know that by doing this, He is gambling with our eternal destiny? So who was right? And why was it that I had to give my 10% to the church, rather than anonymously but directly to people who I knew desperately needed it? My parents, who are two loving and supportive people, both grew up in Christian homes (Dad was Lutheran and Mom was Catholic) but both stopped going to church very quickly after they grew up. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. Roxanne Lewis from Washington on February 02, 2012: Your courage is inspiring and your right! These doubts about evolution still linger from my Christian days, and I still need to thoroughly research the subject again without the blinders of religion. One month went by. And then a couple of things happened, that in my mind, I refer to as the "nails in the coffin." After I learned about other religions and that they existed, I instantly knew there was something wrong bout religion itself. Hypocrisy happens when we say one thing and do another. Verses like Mark 16:15 also serve this purpose. Religion is a set of pre-formed beliefs, practices, rituals, that are packaged and handed to you. Daily, we receive messages saying how the work we are doing is changing lives, and Im so grateful to see affirmation and healing grow from my negative experiences. Living with this secret, this "sin" made me realize that I didn't feel welcome in the churches I went to anymore, and the times when I felt most welcome, were the times before anything bad had happened to me which feels very backwards to what I understand Christianity to be about.
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