My Eroding Belief in God

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WileyCoyote

Active Member
I once was a devout Christian. But after meeting many people with different views, and after years of "soul searching", I find myself practically a non-believer. I don't discount the existence of God, but I find it very hard to believe.

I don't hold anything against devout Christians. Most of my family, and several of my friends, are devout Christians. I didn't CHOOSE to quit believing. It just happened (do we ever really choose what we believe?).

The first move towards that came when I stopped believing that there could be a literal hell. How could a loving God send anything or anybody to hell forever? What kind of sick being would eternally torture anything that it created? Psychologists tell us that animal torturers have perverted minds. Yet God could touture billions of his creations by fire forever and be righteous?

What if you tortured your children by fire for disobeying you? You would rightfully be incarcerated so that you could never do that again. Yet a loving God is supposed to be able to do that to billions of his children, and justify it?

And why is the Bible so confusing? So vague? If I were God and I decided to leave my wonderful creations a book by which they were supposed to pattern their lives, I would have made it so simple, consistent, and specific that a caveman could understand it without question. Yet we have so many different versions of Christianity in our world (Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Church of Christ, etc.). All because they can't agree on what the Bible means.

And why is blood sacrifice required for the forgiveness of sins? The Bible commands us to forgive people who wrong us. Just plain forgive them. But for doing the same thing, God requires a blood sacrifice? Doesn't that mean he is asking more of us than himself? If I'm supposed to forgive people even when they don't want my forgiveness, why couldn't God do the same thing?

Isn't the idea of sacrificing your own son to be crucified a sick thought to you?

God created us, gave us free choice, and then is gonna torture anybody who doesn't make the choices He wants?

Just a few of the honest, logical, non-combative things that I ponder. What's your take?
 
ginjawarrior

ginjawarrior

Well-Known Member
my first doubts of christianity came from looking at the morality of the bible and realizing how skewed it was

it was looking at the morals of "christians" that really turned me off it
these video's speak quite well of how i feel about religion's morality dogma
[youtube]T7xt5LtgsxQ[/youtube]
 
tyler.durden

tyler.durden

Well-Known Member
That's an important point, that we cannot choose what we believe. I lost my faith at about age 12 going through the same critical thought process that you describe. If one observes reality objectively with as little bias as possible and asks the right questions, one is in danger of leaving religious dogma behind. Kudos on your healing, you just may help others do the same...
 
PrivateEye6

PrivateEye6

Member
I am not religious but i believe in god, religion is tool to dumb down the masses. If only people were to wake up :???: i still respect friends and family that are into that stuff tho.

I lost my faith when i realized i was a jehovas witness only because my mom was only because her mom was and so on. My minds been open to all ever since
 
mindphuk

mindphuk

Well-Known Member
You should watch this whole series. I saw this on Showtime one night and thought it was great.

[video=youtube;Bqh53RCkURQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqh53RCkURQ[/video]
 
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WileyCoyote

Active Member
At first, I was afraid to admit to myself that my belief in God was eroding. It was a difficult realization. I may have a glimpse of what gays go through when coming to terms with who they are.
 
ginjawarrior

ginjawarrior

Well-Known Member
WileyCoyote said:
At first, I was afraid to admit to myself that my belief in God was eroding. It was a difficult realization. I may have a glimpse of what gays go through when coming to terms with who they are.
Click to expand...
it might take something big to rid you of that niggling little worm in the back of you head that says "what if im wrong" but when it gone its very liberating
 
W

WileyCoyote

Active Member
If there are any devout Christians here, please feel free to chime in. The water is warm. Your opinions will be respected.
 
gogsyc

gogsyc

Active Member
i think its gotta do with where in the world you happened to be brought up.
I was reared as a catholic just because of where i'm from and because my parents and grasndparents and so on were reared too,. before me.

If you were bornin thailand you would more than likely be a Buddisht, if born in india more likely be practicing hindi, who's to say which one is the right one to follow.
Personally i think when u die that its bye bye u cease to exist in any way shape or form. Just like before you were born.

Who knows? Its all about faith
 
cannabineer

cannabineer

Ursus marijanus
WileyCoyote said:
Isn't the idea of sacrificing your own son to be crucified a sick thought to you?
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You've put your finger on the heart of one of my gripes with Judasim and Christianity.
In the OT you have the story of God commanding Abraham to sacrifice his firstborn som for no better reason than to test his loyalty unto destruction. Then there is the crucifixion story.

It baffles me that these two instances of the most severe contradiction of human instinct (Kill your firstborn/only child. Badly. Because I say so.) that I can imagine ... are somehow converted into the central and indispensable miracles of God's approbation and mercy.
My goodness, if they can sell that as a good and necessary thing, they could sell ham sandwiches in Riyadh.
cn
 
bud nugbong

bud nugbong

Well-Known Member
boneheadbob said:
I think you should seek out a multitude of wise consulers before you make that decision.
You need to find a good baptist preacher and ask him those questions.
He willtell you why
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he will say some balogna, but will be thinking "because it pays my bills"

I lost my faith at a pretty young age, but i do belive in karma and bieng a decent person.
 
Farfenugen

Farfenugen

Well-Known Member
Religion was invented by MEN as a means to hold power, control and to subjugate others, to venerate them, pay taxes, farm the lands, obey on command. Sins were put in there as a means to hold power, control and subjugate others, to cause fear... that's all and nothing more. Except that Catholic priests can have sex with children. All religion is subjugation. There is very little value in it other that some grand reward at the end of it all. Burn for all eternity or live with the lions and the bears and all the white people with some hippie dude named Jesus.

God is an invention by apes to put order to the chaos.

Watch the doco "DMT the Spirit Molecule" and you'll understand that religion and the whole God debate doesn't make much sense anymore.
 
eye exaggerate

eye exaggerate

Well-Known Member
Farfenugen said:
Religion was invented by MEN as a means to hold power, control and to subjugate others, to venerate them, pay taxes, farm the lands, obey on command. Sins were put in there as a means to hold power, control and subjugate others, to cause fear... that's all and nothing more. Except that Catholic priests can have sex with children. All religion is subjugation. There is very little value in it other that some grand reward at the end of it all. Burn for all eternity or live with the lions and the bears and all the white people with some hippie dude named Jesus.

God is an invention by apes to put order to the chaos.

Watch the doco "DMT the Spirit Molecule" and you'll understand that religion and the whole God debate doesn't make much sense anymore.
Click to expand...

...religion was not 'invented' by men. It sprang forth from a place of pure potentiality and was adapted by man. Those who adulterated it are to blame, not religion. I'm quite positive, also, that there were non-religious people who messed things up.

"Religion" on its own just is.

And you're right. That whole religion and God idea is being nullified. Running parallel to that is life being nullified. It's plain to see.
 
ginjawarrior

ginjawarrior

Well-Known Member
eye exaggerate said:
...religion was not 'invented' by men. It sprang forth from a place of pure potentiality and was adapted by man. Those who adulterated it are to blame, not religion. I'm quite positive, also, that there were non-religious people who messed things up.

"Religion" on its own just is.

And you're right. That whole religion and God idea is being nullified. Running parallel to that is life being nullified. It's plain to see.
Click to expand...
"a place of pure potentiality" sorry but what the fuck is that when its at home? sounds like meaningless drivel to me

"god" is little more than a thought, an idea, an admission that the people back then didnt know what the fuck was going on in the world around them and that they were too lazy to look to see so "goddit"

that thought/ idea has been spoonfed into each successive generation at a very young age and now thousands of years later us humans are wising up to the reality that we are living in
 
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