Christians turned Atheists?

[Jackson2005]

What made y’all convert?

[Lliam]

I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic school from 1st through 9th grade, was an altar boy, liked a lot of the nuns in 1st through 8th grade and admired one of the young priests who was really cool.
I didn't have a problem with Catholicism, but I began to have questions about dogma when I reached my teens.

I kind of lost interest in religion but was still very interested in questions of God and spirituality.

As time went on, I read books about the history of Judaism and Christianity. I studied ancient history, world religions, mythology, cultural anthropology, archeology, geology and paleontology.

It became apparent that the Biblical story of creation was ancient mythology.
I realized that people believed in gods for thousands of years. Cultures all over the world have various creation myths and religious beliefs. Why is the God of a nomadic tribe of goat herders from the backwaters of nowhere the "one true God"? Because they said so themselves?

I came to realize through historical and archeological discoveries that the Old Testament narratives are entirely fictional. The Hebrews weren't enslaved by Egypt, they didn't escape, and they didn't conquer anything. Israelites and Judeans were tribes who appointed kings, but they were insignificant. Although Judeans had militants who were an annoyance to dominant empires.

Do I really believe that God is male, lives in the sky and is the image of an ancient king but all knowing and with infinite power?

I saw why the Romans who compiled the Christian Bible included the Old Testament. And I saw that Christianity was spread by force.

I realized that, aside from the Bible, there is no proof of God. There is no way to prove that "He" exists. People just take it as a matter of faith.

And if there is a God, "He" doesn't seem to do much good.

[Jackson2005]

Couldn’t have worded it better myself. You took basically all the words from my mouth. I have always thought “How could there possibly be an afterlife if only one God is ruler of heaven and there are thousands of Gods people worship?” And “What if we all go to hell for worshipping the wrong God?” I myself also came to realize people worship Gods as a matter of faith, and my personal opinion as kind of a peace of mind type of thing, so they’re not as scared of death believing that there’s an afterlife and not just nothing.

[Jackson2005]

I also agree with you on your statement that God isn’t doing that good

[Lliam]

Thanks for the MHO, Jackson. :-)

[Paradox316]

For me it was a bunch of things:

Inconsistencies in the Bible (either with itself or with reality). The contradictory nature of the Christian god. The doctrine of original sin. The problem of suffering and evil. The religion doesn't make any sense when you think critically about it.

[Jackson2005]

Exactly, how was the Virgin Mary a “virgin” yet, still had a kid? God is apparently everyone’s “heavenly Father” So Why out of everyone did God choose Jesus to die on the cross? How did Jesus rise from his grave? And why is Jesus the almighty that can deliver judgement it makes no sense to me.

[strateguy632]

Shocking how nobody in bible colleges "picked up" on that stuff... or they did. And stayed.
If you wanns know, " nature of the Christian god. The doctrine of original sin"
go to bible college it is a long course not a one day decision.
Some churches reject the guilt doctrine called originally sin.
So you would need a catholic one, or protestant.

[Anonymous]

I'd imagine they took the Bible way too seriously like it was a science textbook

then they started questioning the existence of God and the events in the Bible etc.

then they came to the conclusion God didn't exist so now they can do whatever they want and not give a shit when they get taken advantage of

however I believe sexuality played the biggest role in conversion out of religion

good church girl finds herself aroused by a non-church bad boy, gets used for sex and loses her virginity, then starts making a series of bad mistakes into the bad girl, rebels against God and eventually becoming a feminist

good church boy sees the good church girl fall for the bad boy, sees no incentive to be traditional or good anymore so adopts the path of the bad boy instead and rebels against God so he can plough through a bunch good girls himself

and the cycle repeats itself over generations

[Jackson2005]

Pretty interesting, in-depth analysis. However, don’t you think it could also be the lack of evidence of God? All we’ve really got to go off of is a book that was written after Jesus died, so of course he couldn’t have wrote it, so how can we know if we’re really living life how he wants us to live it? We also have other theories such as the Big Bang Theory which makes sense. Why wouldn’t God just put people on earth in the first place instead of placing dinosaurs only to wipe them out?

[Opinion Owner]

that's the issue with a lot of believers and non-believers. they read the Bible like it's a science textbook when it's more so a series of stories with a moral lesson at the end

if anything the Bible actually reflects psychology a lot more than people realize. it's only in recent years has science come to fill in the gaps.

the Bible says God gave us free will but with all actions there are consequences. rather than force us to comply God gave us the ability to learn. one of the 10 commandments is to not steal. while God can't exactly enforce you to not steal, when you do steal, you'll face consequences for it.

think of hungry hyenas trying steal a dead zebra carcass from hungry lions. animals don't have the morality humans have but even then there are consequences for such actions.

I believe creation and evolution can work side by side. we can create life too but there's something before that created us too and the thing before hence it's plausible God is origin of all creation. free will allows us to change and evolve whether physically or mentally.

[Jackson2005]

But couldn’t he force us to comply whilst still having the ability to learn and evolve? Couldn’t he enforce us not to steal, commit adultery, rape, kill etc? God wants everyone to rejoice in Heaven with him, and hates to send us to Hell, right? So, why has he yet not stripped us of free will since we abuse it? God created us in his image, right? So why are will all still so sinful, and not pure like him?

[Opinion Owner]

that goes against free will if he enforced us not to steal, cheat, rape, murder etc.

if God stripped us of free will and we did everything he enforced upon us then how can be say we're actually good and deserve to join him in heaven when we don't have have minds of our own?

as far as humans abusing free will, this is where laws and social conformity plays a role. laws that punish crimes like theft and social conformity where the cheater is shamed for cheating and nobody wants to associate with them. there's consequences for every action.

the keyword here is "image". God creating us in his image is not him creating us to be exactly like him. we're not gods just humans. we're not our parents and our offspring are not us

[WindAtMyBack]

I didn't "convert". I simply came to the realization that I didn't believe that stuff.

When I was young, virtually everyone went to church. Admitting you were an atheist just didn't happen. That would darn near have gotten you shunned. It was not really something we even considered. But eventually we got old enough to think for ourselves instead of simply going along with it.

I think I had been an atheist for many many years before I admitted it to myself. When I did admit it, it was not a big deal because by that point I had already been atheist for so long it no longer mattered.

[DextroShade]

I gave it a lot of thought and deduced that, based on the nature of our existence, there are only really two possibilities:

• There is no God

or

• There is a creator, but he made us strictly for his own entertainment, just like we do when we create characters for stories, movies, and video games. He therefore has us suffer and struggle for His entertainment so I don't see why I should worship Him.

[Jackson2005]

That makes sense.

[strateguy632]

But if god made us, wouldn't he send messengers to guide us?

[RebelinSteel]

When you realise how batshit crazy religious people are, how they say they are Christian but do not follow any values. When they say they believe in being good to others, then fail to do that for anyone gay, bisexual. The hypocrisy of religion is astounding at times, not just Christianity.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

I went on the atheist track somewhere in my late teens. It was mainly a combination of putting the bible into historical context, recognizing christianity as one of the most hateful voices against the LGBT+, seeing the money and corruption that goes into the churches, and gaining a sense of independence and a desire to explore outside of that mindset.

[SweetJoyGirl]

I am still Christian and I plan to stay Christian.

[Jackson2005]

That’s cool

[strateguy632]

The answer is at a website ex- Christian dot com. (The ex muslim website was taken down because the truth if islam is not allowed on the internet anymore).

Most of the stories are "i saw someone sin or a church leader sin so not holy" as expected.

Noboy found analysis problems. people are too lazy especially agnostic.

[coxoabean]

A true saved Christian would never become an atheist. Those"Christians" who turned atheist never were saved

[strateguy632]

As liam quoted same idea here.

[call_me_scar]

I learned it wasn't the oldest religion and I could see no logical reason for that to be the case, then a few years late I learned more about the Bible and it just didn't line up with the world we live in or my own morality

[strateguy632]

But bible IS the oldest existing religion.
Sure egypt god is older but nobody believes that crap. The fancy word is extant.
Jehova is the oldest surviving religion continued by christianity via jeremia and jesus.

[strateguy632]

In fact a "genius" website puts different year numbers in big letters as click bait until you read the paragraph with boring different year numbers.

[strateguy632]

See my old mytake about the oldest extant religions.

[Anonymous]

No way never

[Jackson2005]

You’ll never convert to Atheism or Christianity?

[Opinion Owner]

I am a Christian always

[LiamJHayden]

1 John 2:19.

[Walksbehindtherows]

Nope✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️✝️