Former Christians: How’d you do it?

[JustGeorge]

Great idea, except that I move in mysterious ways.

Ah, so that's the excuse you'll use for occupying the bathroom all morning....

 

[Secret Chief]

Ah, so that's the excuse you'll use for occupying the bathroom all morning....

Works for me.

 

[Tiberius]

For the first time in my life, I am considering abandoning my Christianity. I am considering becoming a deist / auto theist.
Perhaps Christ was a great philosopher, and a religion was made out of a simple man.
I doubt I was lucky enough to be born into the right religion, while most other people were not. In fact I want to refuse to believe that. When I joined RF, I identified as a syncretist, because I was trying to find a way to synchronize all religions. This pursuit burnt me out when I found it to be a silly impossible task.
I believe there to be a higher power, I know this. I’ve been a young earther intelligent design believer all my life, I’m thinking of letting that go.
I have been proud to use God as my crutch all my life. I thought that this is what God is for. But God doesn’t hear our prayers, does He? He doesn’t hear our begging. Those in Ukraine cry out to Him every day I’m sure, yet they die every day. Does God hear them?
I’m fearful of the Christian God as I type this, because if He is real, I am sure He is sorely displeased by my betrayal. But I accepted Christianity all of my life because I’ve hoped it to be true. I’ve gone through all the apologetics and have let myself be convinced that Christianity is the right religion. By doing this, I have given up the power of independent thought from an early age. I was never afforded the chance to decide for myself if Christianity was true. Salvation was brought to me at an early age thanks to my environment.
I have a religion of one. That being what I’ve come to understand through the power of my own independent thought. I am tired of looking to religions to spoon feed me the truth.
former Christian, did you ever fear God? I fear Him, I’ve trained myself to. I rely on this fear. But fear is bad! Were you not afraid of being wrong? I want to claim my freedom and be an auto theist, and through my own power change the world positively. Scared of Hell though. Yet, most of those who I know and associate with, including many of this site, are supposedly going to burn for eternity. To hell with it, if I abandon Christianity and am wrong, I’ll have plenty of company in hell.
I feel abandoning my Christianity and relying on my own power is the only way to change my life around. Through definiteness of purpose, I will achieve all of my aims. I do not need a theistic God to submit to. I should submit to no one but myself.
As I type this, I’m sure God is going to have me hit by a car next week and send me straight to hell. I’m scared of this God. More the reason to break free?
I would like to hear from former Christians. Did you get struck by a lightning bolt or something shortly after disowning Christianity?

I looked at the evidence for God and found it lacking and I looked at the arguments for God and found them filled with logical fallacies. I could not escape the natural conclusion that there was no good argument for God's existence, and in the lack of a good reason to believe, then there was no reason for me to believe.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Some of us grew up fearing both.

Exactly. I learned at an early age that we mere mortals are worthless scum compared to the God of the Bible, and every person alive deserves never-ending torture and suffering in an eternal hell for sinning against God. In the meantime, I was also taught to believe that this holy and righteous God loved me, in spite of the fact that I was living in an extremely abusive home while I was growing up. For the majority of my life, I held on to a false hope in God until I finally found the strength within myself to disavow my faith in God and abandon my Christian faith. Despite it being a difficult journey for me, I don't regret my decision. It was a difficult and painful experience, but I was finally able to let go of my fear of God, the shame and guilt for sinning against God, and my fear of going to hell. To be honest, it was the best decision that I've ever made for my mental health. I have peace and contentment in my life now, and that's something I never experienced all the years I genuinely believed in God and was a devout Christian.

 

[Tiberius]

Exactly. I learned at an early age that we mere mortals are worthless scum compared to the God of the Bible, and every person alive deserves never-ending torture and suffering in an eternal hell for sinning against God. In the meantime, I was also taught to believe that this holy and righteous God loved me, in spite of the fact that I was living in an extremely abusive home while I was growing up. For the majority of my life, I held on to a false hope in God until I finally found the strength within myself to disavow my faith in God and abandon my Christian faith. Despite it being a difficult journey for me, I don't regret my decision. It was a difficult and painful experience, but I was finally able to let go of my fear of God, the shame and guilt for sinning against God, and my fear of going to hell. To be honest, it was the best decision that I've ever made for my mental health. I have peace and contentment in my life now, and that's something I never experienced all the years I genuinely believed in God and was a devout Christian.

I've never understood how people can believe it when their religion tells them that they are worthless scum, but God still loves them.

I mean, if I told my girlfriend that, I'd be a toxic and abusive monster. So why does religion get a pass on it.

 

[Twilight Hue]

I've never understood how people can believe it when their religion tells them that they are worthless scum, but God still loves them.

I mean, if I told my girlfriend that, I'd be a toxic and abusive monster. So why does religion get a pass on it.

Then they have the gall to want money on top of it all.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

I've never understood how people can believe it when their religion tells them that they are worthless scum, but God still loves them.

We humans being the scum of the earth compared to God is a common teaching among evangelicals, and it's primarily based on Isaiah 64:6, which says, "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind, our sins sweep us away" (New International Version). The teaching to fear God (not in reference to reverence) is primarily based on what's accredited to Jesus himself, saying, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28; New International Version).

I mean, if I told my girlfriend that, I'd be a toxic and abusive monster. So why does religion get a pass on it.

And that's exactly what the God of the Bible is: a toxic and abusive monster.

A God who orders his followers to mercilessly massacre an entire race of people and wipe them off the face of the Earth, killing every man, woman, child, and infant and slaughtering all of their animals (Exodus 17:8–13; 1 Samuel 15:2; Deuteronomy 25:17) is a sadistic, psychopathic, bloodthirsty monster. A God who commits global genocide, drowning all of humanity in a worldwide flood (except for one man, his wife, his sons, and his son's wives), is a sadistic, psychopathic, bloodthirsty monster. A God who allowed the Holocaust to happen and all the other horrific atrocities throughout the history of humanity isn't a loving and merciful God who loves humanity. According to the Bible, this God also intentionally creates people to be wicked: "The Lord has made everything for its own purpose, even the wicked for the day of evil" (Proverbs 16:4). That's a sadistic, psychopathic, bloodthirsty, barbaric God, because he deliberately creates evil, disasters, and calamities (Isaiah 45:7) to inflict immeasurable pain and suffering on mankind.

KJV, "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things."

Evil:
1. Morally bad or wrong; wicked, 2. Causing ruin, injury, or pain; harmful, 3. Characterized by or indicating misfortune; ominous.

NIV, "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things."

Disaster:
1. An occurrence causing widespread destruction and distress; a catastrophe, 2. A grave misfortune, and 3. A total failure.

ESV, "I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the LORD, who does all these things."

Calamity: 1. An event that brings terrible loss, lasting distress, or severe affliction; a disaster, 2. Dire distress resulting from loss or tragedy, 3. Any great misfortune or cause of misery; in general, any event or disaster which produces extensive evils, as loss of crops, earthquakes, etc., but also applied to any misfortune which brings great distress on a person; misfortune; distress; adversity.

If the Bible is accurate, then God cruelly manipulates his creation for his own personal pleasure. Humanity and everything else in his creation are nothing more than his playthings. He obviously takes personal pleasure in deliberately creating total pandemonium throughout the world, and then he sits back and watches his creation tear itself apart, and he does absolutely nothing to stop all the violence and human suffering. I know devout Christians (and other devout Abrahamic theists) prefer to fall back on "freewill" in an attempt to defend God's absolute atrocious behavior, but let's think about that for a few moments. If I see another person being physically attacked, I'm not going to turn a blind eye and think, "I'm not going to try and save this poor person from being physically attacked (beaten up, raped, or killed) because I don't want to impede on their attacker's freewill!" And I'm not going to think, "I'm not going to try and save this innocent child from being abused because I don't want to impede on their abuser's freewill!" I'd be a morally depraved, callous, cold-blooded monster if I refused to do whatever I could to save another person's life. That's the truth.

 

[Viker]

Did you get struck by a lightning bolt or something shortly after disowning Christianity?

I got struck by a lightning bolt then left the fold.

It dawned on me I needed to go elsewhere. I keep getting struck by lightning, btw. It's motivating.

 

[The Believer]

For the first time in my life, I am considering abandoning my Christianity. I am considering becoming a deist / auto theist.
Perhaps Christ was a great philosopher, and a religion was made out of a simple man.
I doubt I was lucky enough to be born into the right religion, while most other people were not. In fact I want to refuse to believe that. When I joined RF, I identified as a syncretist, because I was trying to find a way to synchronize all religions. This pursuit burnt me out when I found it to be a silly impossible task.
I believe there to be a higher power, I know this. I’ve been a young earther intelligent design believer all my life, I’m thinking of letting that go.
I have been proud to use God as my crutch all my life. I thought that this is what God is for. But God doesn’t hear our prayers, does He? He doesn’t hear our begging. Those in Ukraine cry out to Him every day I’m sure, yet they die every day. Does God hear them?
I’m fearful of the Christian God as I type this, because if He is real, I am sure He is sorely displeased by my betrayal. But I accepted Christianity all of my life because I’ve hoped it to be true. I’ve gone through all the apologetics and have let myself be convinced that Christianity is the right religion. By doing this, I have given up the power of independent thought from an early age. I was never afforded the chance to decide for myself if Christianity was true. Salvation was brought to me at an early age thanks to my environment.
I have a religion of one. That being what I’ve come to understand through the power of my own independent thought. I am tired of looking to religions to spoon feed me the truth.
former Christian, did you ever fear God? I fear Him, I’ve trained myself to. I rely on this fear. But fear is bad! Were you not afraid of being wrong? I want to claim my freedom and be an auto theist, and through my own power change the world positively. Scared of Hell though. Yet, most of those who I know and associate with, including many of this site, are supposedly going to burn for eternity. To hell with it, if I abandon Christianity and am wrong, I’ll have plenty of company in hell.
I feel abandoning my Christianity and relying on my own power is the only way to change my life around. Through definiteness of purpose, I will achieve all of my aims. I do not need a theistic God to submit to. I should submit to no one but myself.
As I type this, I’m sure God is going to have me hit by a car next week and send me straight to hell. I’m scared of this God. More the reason to break free?
I would like to hear from former Christians. Did you get struck by a lightning bolt or something shortly after disowning Christianity?

Without getting into a long philosophical discussion. May I suggest watching Voddie Bachum. You can find him on you tube and i recommend watching the full length services. Very informative clear and imo spot on.

 

[Riders]

For the first time in my life, I am considering abandoning my Christianity. I am considering becoming a deist / auto theist.
Perhaps Christ was a great philosopher, and a religion was made out of a simple man.
I doubt I was lucky enough to be born into the right religion, while most other people were not. In fact I want to refuse to believe that. When I joined RF, I identified as a syncretist, because I was trying to find a way to synchronize all religions. This pursuit burnt me out when I found it to be a silly impossible task.
I believe there to be a higher power, I know this. I’ve been a young earther intelligent design believer all my life, I’m thinking of letting that go.
I have been proud to use God as my crutch all my life. I thought that this is what God is for. But God doesn’t hear our prayers, does He? He doesn’t hear our begging. Those in Ukraine cry out to Him every day I’m sure, yet they die every day. Does God hear them?
I’m fearful of the Christian God as I type this, because if He is real, I am sure He is sorely displeased by my betrayal. But I accepted Christianity all of my life because I’ve hoped it to be true. I’ve gone through all the apologetics and have let myself be convinced that Christianity is the right religion. By doing this, I have given up the power of independent thought from an early age. I was never afforded the chance to decide for myself if Christianity was true. Salvation was brought to me at an early age thanks to my environment.
I have a religion of one. That being what I’ve come to understand through the power of my own independent thought. I am tired of looking to religions to spoon feed me the truth.
former Christian, did you ever fear God? I fear Him, I’ve trained myself to. I rely on this fear. But fear is bad! Were you not afraid of being wrong? I want to claim my freedom and be an auto theist, and through my own power change the world positively. Scared of Hell though. Yet, most of those who I know and associate with, including many of this site, are supposedly going to burn for eternity. To hell with it, if I abandon Christianity and am wrong, I’ll have plenty of company in hell.
I feel abandoning my Christianity and relying on my own power is the only way to change my life around. Through definiteness of purpose, I will achieve all of my aims. I do not need a theistic God to submit to. I should submit to no one but myself.
As I type this, I’m sure God is going to have me hit by a car next week and send me straight to hell. I’m scared of this God. More the reason to break free?
I would like to hear from former Christians. Did you get struck by a lightning bolt or something shortly after disowning Christianity?

I don't know that I disowned Christianity as much as I disowned my old Pentecostal church and embraced Universalism. So as a Universalist I do not accept the idea that Jesus is God and the one only way to heaven. However, as a religion like all religions, I embrace it from a Universal viewpoint. Jesus was one of many Messiahs and had a good message like Krishna did, but he's not the only one.

I do believe in one God though. I also believe in the inner Godself as well as an outward God, it sounds like maybe you believe in the inner Godself too. Some Quakers believe this, Unity church teaches it, and many Unitarian Universalist churches teach it. I am just giving you some options here.Good luck.

 

[AdamjEdgar]

Scared of Hell though. Yet, most of those who I know and associate with, including many of this site, are supposedly going to burn for eternity. To hell with it, if I abandon Christianity and am wrong, I’ll have plenty of company in hell.

Firstly,
The main reason for your dilemma is poor theology from the getgo!

You have been trained with a fundamentally errant view of biblical narrative and it has negatively influenced what would normally be a successful journey in apologetics.
Instead of apologetics cementing your faith, I would suggest it has had the reverse effect.

1. Choose a denomination that does not explain away biblical truths to form doctrine (believe it or not, it's fact that only a tiny fraction of denominations that truly do this the right way...in fact I would state there is only one actually)
2. Go back to basics...why are you here...what is the point of human existence and where does all this lead...what comes next?
I recently sat in a funeral where dozens of young people who did not have a faith were mourning the tragic loss of friends from a car accident. They had no hope...because they had no faith. The complete hopelessness and heartache was unbearable for me to see on all their faces. We humans need hope, we need a purpose beyond the here and now. Only God truly offers those things.
3. Even the great agnostic scholar Bart Erhman categorically believes that the characters of the New Testament existed (even Jesus)...they were real people. Bart says without a doubt, the most influential person who has ever lived is Jesus Christ!
4. Start studying Answers in Genesis YouTube channel. These guys are revolutionising creation science...something that Christians have desperately needed but did not have in the past. These guys really are publishing a wonderful ministry in an effort to balance the science and they have pioneered some phenomenal research as a result...mouny St Helens being one, the research from Grand Canyon, another, their research on tracing the y chromosome appears particularly impressive.
5. Study some biblical and early church history...understand the story in the right context...find out why the statue of Daniel 2 is so important and why it does not end at Jesus death. It ends at the end of time in fact...contrary to many historical church claims.
6. Read the fourth commandment...and live by it. Contrary to the mainstream view, if modern Christians are spiritual Israel, and the patience of the saints in Revelation 9:6 are those who keep those commandments, you should worship the seventh day Sabbath and not Sunday.

If the above isn't good enough to change your mind...
Ask a secular scientist to explain to you exactly how the in absence of a creator God, matter and energy could provide the means and the mechanism for the big bang!

Science is based on the law that matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed...so where did it come from in order for the big bang?

What follows next should have you rolling your eyes in disbelief at the absolute stupidity of what flows out of that idiots mouth!

 

[metis]

I have long considered Gandhi to be my mentor, thus my outlook towards religion is like he used to say "I'm a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian, ..." [paraphrased]. IOW, same Boss, different ways of looking at Him/Them [I allow for polytheism even though that's not my drift].

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Speaking of Gandhi, I like his quote about his experience with Christians, and I often think of it when I'm interacting with some Christians online or in real life. He said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

 

[The Believer]

I'm still standing, unscathed for going on ten years apostate. Feels fine.

And it will. The enemy is counting on it.

 

[metis]

Speaking of Gandhi, I like his quote about his experience with Christians, and I often think of it when I'm interacting with some Christians online or in real life. He said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

Obviously, that was a use of hyperbole as many Christians joined his movement, plus he well knew that there were myriads of moral
Christians.

 

[pearl]

Speaking of Gandhi, I like his quote about his experience with Christians, and I often think of it when I'm interacting with some Christians online or in real life. He said, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."

If I remember correctly, in the book 'Gandhi's Truth', the comment about Christians was made in conversation with a priest friend of his. But he certainly made the point that for him Christians were/are the stumbling block for believing in Christ.

 

[Dawnofhope]

For the first time in my life, I am considering abandoning my Christianity. I am considering becoming a deist / auto theist.
Perhaps Christ was a great philosopher, and a religion was made out of a simple man.
I doubt I was lucky enough to be born into the right religion, while most other people were not. In fact I want to refuse to believe that. When I joined RF, I identified as a syncretist, because I was trying to find a way to synchronize all religions. This pursuit burnt me out when I found it to be a silly impossible task.
I believe there to be a higher power, I know this. I’ve been a young earther intelligent design believer all my life, I’m thinking of letting that go.
I have been proud to use God as my crutch all my life. I thought that this is what God is for. But God doesn’t hear our prayers, does He? He doesn’t hear our begging. Those in Ukraine cry out to Him every day I’m sure, yet they die every day. Does God hear them?
I’m fearful of the Christian God as I type this, because if He is real, I am sure He is sorely displeased by my betrayal. But I accepted Christianity all of my life because I’ve hoped it to be true. I’ve gone through all the apologetics and have let myself be convinced that Christianity is the right religion. By doing this, I have given up the power of independent thought from an early age. I was never afforded the chance to decide for myself if Christianity was true. Salvation was brought to me at an early age thanks to my environment.
I have a religion of one. That being what I’ve come to understand through the power of my own independent thought. I am tired of looking to religions to spoon feed me the truth.
former Christian, did you ever fear God? I fear Him, I’ve trained myself to. I rely on this fear. But fear is bad! Were you not afraid of being wrong? I want to claim my freedom and be an auto theist, and through my own power change the world positively. Scared of Hell though. Yet, most of those who I know and associate with, including many of this site, are supposedly going to burn for eternity. To hell with it, if I abandon Christianity and am wrong, I’ll have plenty of company in hell.
I feel abandoning my Christianity and relying on my own power is the only way to change my life around. Through definiteness of purpose, I will achieve all of my aims. I do not need a theistic God to submit to. I should submit to no one but myself.
As I type this, I’m sure God is going to have me hit by a car next week and send me straight to hell. I’m scared of this God. More the reason to break free?
I would like to hear from former Christians. Did you get struck by a lightning bolt or something shortly after disowning Christianity?

I was a Christian and became a Baha'i. When Jews in the days of Christ recognized in Jesus their highest spiritual aspirations they did not see themselves as leaving Judaism though to many Jews they had gone astray.