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I'm not sure if we burn out faster, but I bet our experience of leaving is much more emotional and we ended up more cynical about religion then others might be after they leave.
If you were once a fundamentalist, leaving all of that behind is a really big deal. You have a lot of questions that you need to answer, and unfortunately that's a journey most of us have to make on our own. It can really turn your life upside down for a few months.
But to be honest, the closest thing I ever had to a religious experience was when I admitted to myself that I just didn't believe all that stuff was true. Suddenly, so much more about the world made sense to me. In church we used to talk about that feeling of a sack of bricks being lifted off your back when you accept Jesus as your savior. Ironically, the only time I felt anything remotely like that was when I worked up the courage to admit to myself that the stories in the Bible just weren't true.
Absolutely. That is what happened to me when I was reading the Upanishads on the bus to work and I thought 'That makes as much sense as anything in the Bible'. It was a huge bundle of sooty rags that I felt lifted from my shoulders.
It was odd as it was a deconversion experience for sure but I was never a believer. I can only assume that I forever discarded the idea that the claims of Christianity had any validity.
I am just curious why you think you were Christian? Was it because you started going to a church or several churches, got baptized, gave tithes, attended all the functions?
What made you a Christian?
I first understood the eternal compassion of Buddha, and I later accepted Jesus's eternal compassion, or YHWH's eternal compassion through Jesus. Jesus was who I prayed to in Heaven. Me and him were very close friends. But I, like, and because of Jesus, was undisciplined. I ignored the Old Testament, and the God of terrorism that Jesus spoke on behalf of. When I kicked him out of Heaven, he was replaced with every deity from every dream, religion, book or movie that has ever been created. It was very liberating. My spiritual growth has taken off since then.
Absolutely. That is what happened to me when I was reading the Upanishads on the bus to work and I thought 'That makes as much sense as anything in the Bible'. It was a huge bundle of sooty rags that I felt lifted from my shoulders.
It was odd as it was a deconversion experience for sure but I was never a believer. I can only assume that I forever discarded the idea that the claims of Christianity had any validity.
Not having to explain away, make excuses for, and cover up for the Bible was a HUGE weight lifted off. A weight that Jesus puts on everyone's shoulders, and never lifted a finger against the doctrine that had condemned him, and so many other innocent people to death. I remember wanting so badly to know what it was like to have never read the Bible. I am still having to deprogram from it. Thank God for Buddha and his compassion. He gave me great strength. I can't imagine converting without him.
I am just curious why you think you were Christian? Was it because you started going to a church or several churches, got baptized, gave tithes, attended all the functions?
What made you a Christian?
I wasn't a Real Scottman, I was always agnostic just like every other being capable of doubt. It turns out I was also capable of and willing to begin accepting and understanding true wisdom above random, biased faith and unreliable feelings. One day I decided to accept and confess my agnosticism irrespective of attempted oppression from the desperate religionists around me.
I did believe in Jesus' hegemony (through spirits, apostles, representatives) when I was a child, but I began to like Sid's teaching on personal growth and doing things right and moderately and Socrates' teaching on epistemology and the nature of mankind better (especially both of their teachings supporting questioning everything as a way to polish surety); I respected them since they weren't about "believing in" Buddha nor Socrates to obtain grand desires, it was about the teachings themselves and their own merits, rather than having the focus be personality cults and believing through stubbornness. I did also respect Jesus (the biased little I had been told) until I learned more specifics about what Christians and their books say are his teachings and the History of the Judaism he supported, along with the Temple Judaism he wanted to correct and support above Samaritan Judaism and good Gentile religions.
Was I a real Christian when I believed in Jesus Christ as that is all I was taught? I didnt know what an Atheist was, nor had I conceived the idea. Most of the Sunday Bible school for elementary kids was about smearing polytheists. The concept that Nature might just stand without Supernature hadn't crossed my mind, since it wasn't too pertinent.
Was I a real Christian? Depends on how you want to define it. Are Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox Christians real Christians merely because they believe that Jesus is the divine rightful king of our existential monarchy (where the prince is the king himself so that the growing son cannot overtake his aging father, as usually happened in the also superstitious religions of their predecessors)?
If children can't be Christian, your God sends them all to hell. But haven't you recently stoped believing in ET and begun believing in UR within your chosen identity as an "Immortal" man? I'm guessing you believe yourself to be a real Christian, how so? Why does God always seem to agree with you, even when you change your mind?
I remember being a fundamentalist Christian evangelical (as my church taught) in middle school, telling a Jehovah's Witness girl in the school bus that I didn't believe in her "false religion." I hated the foaming atheist kids even through to high school, not understanding their bitterness against monotheism. Only now do I see how insecure monotheists are and how they try to gain power through politics and culture to oppress polytheists and atheists as their Abrahamic wrath-god of death, sacrifice, stubborn faith, half-unconditional forgiveness, testing his own children, not resisting evil, eventually destroying all enemies, money-collecting, blood contracts, inequity, insecurity and superstitious fearful intolerance, etc commands.
Last edited by LuminousTruth; 03-19-2014 at 11:22 PM..
You didn't bold it, of course. I did, to emphasize the word that made me wonder, like I said.
And now, I'm about to bold something again:
See, right there, you confirm what I thought... your question seems to have been asked with the idea that * * some * * of us would say we just thought we were Christians because we joined a church.
I didn't THINK I was a Christian. I know I was a Christian.
Amen, Pleroo. This "not a true Christian" nonsense is bigoted and aggravating!
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoCapo
You will have to pardon our sensitivity. After decades of pouring everything we had into the passionate pursuit of Christ, and ultimately coming to the conclusion that our love, devotion, prayers, pleadings, service, and sacrifice were directed to the empty air, it is honestly infuriating to be told that we never were Christian to start with.
...Which is where every other discussion like this, both online and in person I have ever had has ended up. Invariably "They went out from among us because they were not of us" is thrown out there, along with an accusation of us lying to the other party of the discussion, ourselves, and God himself.
Ultimately, if you examine all the reasons you believe you are a Christian, those are the exact same reasons that most of us in this thread believed we were Christians. We were not really any different from you...
-NoCapo
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer
There was nothing "begrudging" about it.
You have to accept the reality that people who were once even more devotedly Christian than you yourself are now found out the truth for themselves and left the religion, never to return.
Happens all the time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Boxcar Overkill
I'm not sure if we burn out faster, but I bet our experience of leaving is much more emotional and we ended up more cynical about religion then others might be after they leave.
If you were once a fundamentalist, leaving all of that behind is a really big deal. You have a lot of questions that you need to answer, and unfortunately that's a journey most of us have to make on our own. It can really turn your life upside down for a few months.
But to be honest, the closest thing I ever had to a religious experience was when I admitted to myself that I just didn't believe all that stuff was true. Suddenly, so much more about the world made sense to me. In church we used to talk about that feeling of a sack of bricks being lifted off your back when you accept Jesus as your savior. Ironically, the only time I felt anything remotely like that was when I worked up the courage to admit to myself that the stories in the Bible just weren't true.
I have no trouble whatsoever believing that you were devout fundamentalist believers. The more extreme the previous position . . . the more extreme the resultant replacement position is likely to be. In psychology it is called abreaction.
Absolutely. That is what happened to me when I was reading the Upanishads on the bus to work and I thought 'That makes as much sense as anything in the Bible'. It was a huge bundle of sooty rags that I felt lifted from my shoulders.
It was odd as it was a deconversion experience for sure but I was never a believer. I can only assume that I forever discarded the idea that the claims of Christianity had any validity.
The funny thing is, the instant I admitted to myself that Christianity wasn't true, all sorts of things suddenly became really obvious to me. Things that I had never even thought to question before. I not only understood the wider world differently, I also saw Christianity itself in a whole new light. The sociology of what was going on came right in focus.
Looking at Christianity from the outside is so different than from the inside, it's like I was blind or something.
Location: Sitting on a bar stool. Guinness in hand.
4,428 posts, read 6,517,483 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Eusebius
You left Christianity to be Atheist or Agnostic?
I am just curious why you were Christian? Was it because you started going to a church or several churches, got baptized, gave tithes, attended all the functions?
What made you a Christian?
Honestly....l think I was only a christian (at least perceived as) because I was born into it. On my personal journey I basically was finished with christianity by age 12. Granted I was not done with a believe in god. That ended for me much later. So I didn't leave christianity directly for athiesm/agnostism. It was just a begining step.
Reading all this I'm so glad I was never taken to any church, never had to unbrainwash myself or deal with the fall out from walking away from family expectations.
I actually said the sinner's prayer, went to church all the time, did all the missions, prayed every day and values voted too (to this day I regret voting for the gay marriage ban in Virginia).
I was done with religion altogether because I knew in my heart that this world cannot be the way it is if a "Good God" actively intercedes from time to time.
Hi The Dissenter,
I'm curious. What were the words to the sinners prayer you prayed?
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