Wish me luck
Sent in by Roger W
Right now I am in the middle of my deconversion. It all started when I began a critical study of Matthew 24 and the word "generation."
After hours of study, I began to realize that Jesus meant to return in the first century. There is NO other way to look at it. I started bringing this up with my preacher brother and missionary sister and my mother(the holiest of holies in the family). I even had the audacity to say that I didn't think the great flood happened or that Balaam ever got in an argument with his ass. Maybe,just maybe a parrot. But an ASS? No way.
All HELL broke loose. How dare I question such things. Ex-Christians have pointed out to me that most believers hardly ever even read the Bible. They use misdirection and rely on beliefs that they were taught from childhood.
I am currently doing a critical study of the entire Bible. If this turns me into a heathen,so be it. I never felt comfortable as a Christian, and doubts about my beliefs continually bugged me to the point of insanity. I do enjoy the fact that I don't have to suspend common sense and logic anymore. I will no more go on blind dumbass faith to believe something.
Wish me luck.
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Right now I am in the middle of my deconversion. It all started when I began a critical study of Matthew 24 and the word "generation."
After hours of study, I began to realize that Jesus meant to return in the first century. There is NO other way to look at it. I started bringing this up with my preacher brother and missionary sister and my mother(the holiest of holies in the family). I even had the audacity to say that I didn't think the great flood happened or that Balaam ever got in an argument with his ass. Maybe,just maybe a parrot. But an ASS? No way.
All HELL broke loose. How dare I question such things. Ex-Christians have pointed out to me that most believers hardly ever even read the Bible. They use misdirection and rely on beliefs that they were taught from childhood.
I am currently doing a critical study of the entire Bible. If this turns me into a heathen,so be it. I never felt comfortable as a Christian, and doubts about my beliefs continually bugged me to the point of insanity. I do enjoy the fact that I don't have to suspend common sense and logic anymore. I will no more go on blind dumbass faith to believe something.
Wish me luck.
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Comments
Welcome to the real world.- Morpheus
Then there are people on the other side of the Earth, and some may believe in Buddha or some may have never heard of Jesus, yet they are still destined for hell.
If I were a God, I would be more concerned about keeping the flames going in the Sun and keeping the planets and galaxies aligned.
It's so obvious that the Bible God is plainly the invention of men to coerce and bilk people out of their hard earned money by fraud and fear, I want to see an end to the fraud of all religions.
You are too smart to remain a Christian. I won't wish you good luck because you don't need it. You are doing really well already.
It was OK for people 2000 years ago to believe that some ghost was going to comeback, but today in the 21st century, we know better than that, as exemplified by the critical thinking you are using to read the Bible.
Good Luck!
Let's see shall we...Genesis includes the entertaining stories of Adam and Eve and their talking snake, Abraham and his codependent love for God, Lot and his incestuous daughters, Noah, his boat, his alcohol and one very inconsiderate son, a bunch of patriarchs who lived to be 900 years old, Isaacs very hairy arms and a hunger so intense he chooses to give up his birthright for it, and an introduction to the life of Moses, a muderer with a stutter, a staff, and a burning bush.
Yep, these fantastic stories should be all that's necessary to turn the faith of your youth into a hilarious Grimm tale.
I have the same experience as well. It was not from friends that I deconverted, but because I read the bible seriously and found that most of it does not make sense to me. I was lucky to find the skeptics annointed bible and this site that boost my deconversion process.
Same here. I had a few doubts, read the BuyBull all the way through (after 11 years of Christianity) and logged my gripes on my PC. The best way to become an ex-Christian is to start reading the Bible from Genesis w/o skipping (well, skip Numbers hehehehehhehe). I guarantee it!
Tim
Once you have finished reading the Bible and then opt to deconvert, that shouldn't come as a surprise. Some people have found the Bible revolting, brimming with acts of evil and immorality initiated by none other than the Bible God himself, and they have deconverted as a result. I was one of them.
You'll find that Christianity, as well as every other religion, is based on astrology evolved thousands of years ago.
Check this video out
The word generation, or age, probably refers to the next zodiac sign. I think it means an entire solar year.
Anyway, you'll see that the Bible makes frequent references to nature and astrological signs.
I certainly hope all this “religious stuff” works out for you. Most of all, I hope you don’t lose your family as many have, although the Bible does say that Jesus came “to divide” (Luke 12:51-53).
In my experience, serious Bible Study actually led to my “non-Christian” state. To me and millions, the “God of the Bible” is a pretty vile character – very man-like and seriously inept when it comes to controlling evil and disasters.
Also, the Biblical God and the teachings of the Christian faith are VERY complicated and difficult to understand. Why would an All-Knowing, All-Loving, All-Powerful God do this to his hapless subjects, especially if this understanding is so crucial to their eternity? If there is a God, the Biblical depiction of he/she/it can not be correct!
Whatever you decide about God, don’t give up your dreams! This is probably the only life you are going to get and you don’t want to spend it on the sidelines! Welcome!
You don’t need any luck. It sounds like you’re already there. I have heard that the bible itself holds the greatest argument for atheism. It’s as good a place as any to start. Personally I would recommend looking forward and not back and therefore look to science. Read the Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins.
I like your remark about how Matthew 24 indicates that Jesus should have returned much longer ago. Here’s a funny aside from your studies: read about John Frum on the Internet. John Frum is basically a messiah for people in the Vanuatu Islands. They are waiting for John Frum to return and if you question a local about their beliefs, they will most likely reply that you have been waiting for your messiah to return for over 2000 years – while they have been waiting for only 70.
When you get to the point where you have been bold enough, for long enough, you will see the Bible and Christianity for exactly what it is. Just one of many attempts by men to explain their existence.
When you have read enough here and elsewhere, the thought of taking the principle concepts of the Bible seriously will be replaced by an "almost boredom" when you examine them under the light of reason.
They will eventually loose their power to frighten you, and even though you will loose you membership in the cult, you will be able to look at those you left behind, and are still being controlled by it, with sympathy.
You will be able to think freely, and live life boldly and enjoy it. It's not so bad to say: "I don't know why I'm here, and I don't know what will happen when I die, but I do know the answer ain't in the bible."
Now in the year 2007 Almost everything in the Bible has been found to be either simply wrong, or has been explained better by scientific inquiry.
Dan
It may be a little off the theological track, but one of the books that was instrumental in my deconversion was 1-Dimensional Man by Herbert Marcuse.
His subject is information dominance in post-industrial society. The main thesis is that people are by nature two-dimensional. We have within us a complex set of desires and interests that fuel our individuality. However, we are also social beings. We live and work in groups and the interests of the group also exert an influence on us. The natural tension between those two dimensions is therefore a natural and healthy state of affairs. The problem Marcuse observed was that, in post-industrial society, the individual is sacrificed to the collective through overwhelming information dominance on the part of the latter.
Reading that as a deconverting xian, I realized that this is also an apt description of the church. I realized that my reason and personal observation of the world were parts of my inner dimension that the church had devalued and sought to obliterate in the interest of it's own view.
Contrary to the xian propaganda, leaving the church's control is not an act of wicked selfishness. It is rather a return to balance. I have not become a scoundrel or thief. My sense of the social consequences of my actions remains. What has been restored is the healthy balance of respect for my own imagination, intellect and creativity.
The departure from xianity opens the door to a balanced existence. I do indeed wish you luck and wisdom as you rediscover the worth and dignity of Roger W.
/joe
Now in the year 2007 Almost everything in the Bible has been found to be either simply wrong, or has been explained better by scientific inquiry.
Dan
Now only if we could find a way to get that message to the general cretin population.
Jim Earl
Dano wrote:
Now in the year 2007 Almost everything in the Bible has been found to be either simply wrong, or has been explained better by scientific inquiry.
Dan
Now only if we could find a way to get that message to the general cretin population.
Jim Earl
ROGER YOU NEED TO RENEW YOUR MIND ... STOP THINKING WITH LOGIC... THE BIBLE DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO THE LOGIC MINDED PERSON, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO EXPLAIN BIBLE WITH LOGIC ... RENEW YOUR MIND, SIR RENEW YOUR MIND
you said "blind dumbass faith " YOU NEVER HAD ANY FAITH.. YOU NEVER HAD ANY FAITH AT ALL ... YOU WERE A RELIGIOUS PERSON IN RELIGION NOT IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LIVING GOD
GO DO YOUR "critical study" but i tell you one day when you Die ... you will regret it all
No God, no eternal punishment for all the 10s of billions of people who are proselytized in other "mighty names."
"...I didn't think the great flood happened or that Balaam ever got in an argument with his ass..."
Maybe it was a hole in the ground; no point in asking a Xtian.
The following comment is the one I was going to make before I even started reading any of the others' comments in this thread, which only confirm it.
I had a teacher in highschool who said that people have to hear a fact 37 times before it sinks in. Well, I think he just pulled that number out of a hat somewhere; but I do think that you have to hear something a number of times before it meta-sinks-in. That is, that not only has the fact become part of your knowledge, but the _fact_ that it has become part of your knowledge has _also_ become part of your knowledge. About three weeks ago, when I was thinking of what line of reason eventually persuaded the majority of Xtians to leave the cult, it finally registered on me just how many of the members here de-converted when they finally went and seriously JUST READ THE BIBLE[!]. No way would that have been my recommendation to someone; but I must accept what I read. Evidently, coming from that community, and having doubts, the person will be differently affected by what s/he reads than I would have been. (I must point out here that I've never been a Christian. But they let me stick around anyway. Must be fellow eel lovers.)
So you have, one way or another, hit upon a time-honoured exit path from the cult. I too expect this to be a speedy and enduring move to self-knowledge for you, and agree that you don't need good luck wishes from anyone.
"...as for the generation Roger you are part of that Generation Jesus was talking about a generation that seeks for sighs and wonders..."
This is a mis-translation, G.C.; the original text referred to "a generation that sighs and wonders about Sikhs". How many crackers from the bible belt have been led astray by that one over the years, we may never know.
A question for you, God's Non-begotten Child: Do you believe that the Sun remained stationary in the sky so that the combatants of the winning side of the siege of a town could gain their victory before nightfall, as reported in your one and only textbook, the bible?
"GOD WITCH IS SHARPER THAN A 2 EDGED SWORD"
I'm going to go find and worship this "God Witch" now!
God's Child, when your brain matures, and you can tell the difference between "which" and "witch", I'm sure you'll also be able to see the insanity of your own post.
Precisely, sir or madam.
The Bible says that my gay neighbours across the back alley should be put to death.
The Bible says that the god of the Bible ordered the extermination of the entire Amakelite people.
The Bible says that the god of the Bible once flooded the planet and killed virtually everything. Including, I presume, all but two of the cats then in existence. (Never mind that, at the time this supposed flood happened, the Sumerians were busy inventing beer and the Egyptians were so busy building architectural marvels that they didn't even notice they were underwater.) Nonetheless -- A god that would deliberately kill cats is no friend of mine.
The Bible is a piece of steaming crap, and people who call it a "good book" are sadly mistaken.
1. my intelligence
2. my Biblical literacy
3. my encounters with fundamentalists