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Spent around the first 40 plus years of my life as a Catholic--as I am now 65. Something started turning in my 40's. Having a child go through multiple surgeries, I realized that life just is. It is a free fall. All the prayers in the World can't change the outcome. Free will. I remember my Jewish obstetrician telling me at my first postpartum visit, "God only gives special children to special people". I looked at him and said sternly, "I don't think God would punish me for being a good person". Every time my son had surgery people would say, "I will pray for him, God will take care of him". I hated hearing that stuff. What if things didn't work out. I came to the conclusion that it wasn't fair that people would give credit to God if things worked out well, it things didn't--oh well not his fault. I got tired of people saying, "God answered my prayers, my Mother has recovered". What about the children being abused, what about the sick children in hospitals? God is not looking out for them? Life is just a free fall, we can all just hope for the best outcome.
I slowly became a non believer. My husband and I never talk about it. He stills believes.
Although my deep roots still have me praying to St Anthony when I can't find something!
Quote:
Originally Posted by mordant
Yes that is a very blatant double standard. All the benefits of the role, yet none of the responsibility. Add in all the lavish and explicit promises in the Bible to the righteous, and the equally negative ones for the unrighteous -- and then you have the maddening spectacle of other Christians suspecting you of covert sin or insufficient piety as well, when your suffering becomes inconveniently chronic for any length of time.
I have tried in the past to point out the complete arbitrariness and ludicrousness of God's supposed actions in Christians' lives, like for example saving you from getting hit by a car in a parking lot only to be smacked good by an oncoming Peterbilt when you pull out of that lot. It's like trying to reason, "Well, God didn't want me to get hit by that Audi pulling out of the space and dent my fender but he certainly didn't mind me and my auto getting totaled by a 40-ton truck. So the first one was God's fast thinking while the second one was Satan's fault because of Adam and Eve's sin in Eden?????????? In what sane and rational universe would such fractured thinking be believed? "Amen" "Yes, Lord." "Hallelujah" "Praise God".
Christians should try an experiment: count the number of times in a week God answers a prayer vs God not answering a prayer. Then put 500 ping-pong balls marked "win" and "500" marked "lose" and the put on a blindfold and draw out 100 of them and just count the win balls vs the lose balls and they will find the two results not-so-surprisingly about equal. It's called "the random, frivolous luck of the draw" and it has absolutely nothing to do with God or any visible logical order of intervention into one's life to help or not help.
GiGi I'm sure has tried to point out to her husband the senselessness of how God intervenes in one's life and I'm certain she'd say it just goes in one ear and out the other. This goes to how we are built as individuals and nothing else, certainly not to God or Jesus. Some members here catch on to the religion scam very early in life sometimes as children, and adolescents. Others go through a religious period of varying lengths but observe how the real world works and come to the conclusion at various points in their lives there is no God operating on this earth after all. Others according to their psychological makeup believe God is helping them their entire lives. For others, like the woman whose husband died, Jesus is a lifeline that one hold onto to keep their sanity. We're all individual and we'll all react to God and Jesus and religion and the supernatural in completely different ways. So things don't boil down to God, they boil down to us. We're the final arbiters of our lives.
1) "Christianity" as a institution, organization and religious system; ruled and ruined by man
2) Christianity as a spiritual and philosophical system for all, and way of the universe
You have clearly missed the boat, duped into only seeing the first flawed and jaded way. You don't go any further, and resort to bellyaching constantly based on your stopping short. Your one-sided approach is your problem, not ours. All your feeble attempts at damning Christianity fail, because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
No one cares if you reject Christianity - even the real deal. Whoopdy doo. You're just a dot on the earth, and blip in time, just like all the rest of us. You can be a cheerleader for atheism as well, and that won't impress anyone either.
The Priest is preaching from a shallow grave.........He counts his money....... Then he paints you SAVED.
GiGi I'm sure has tried to point out to her husband the senselessness of how God intervenes in one's life and I'm certain she'd say it just goes in one ear and out the other.
Actually I have never done that. We don't talk about it. I think one has to come to their own conclusion. I have never said outloud to him that I no longer believe. He does know it though.
Actually I have never done that. We don't talk about it. I think one has to come to their own conclusion. I have never said outloud to him that I no longer believe. He does know it though.
Being retired I have a lot of time to reflect. Lately I have been reflecting on the decision I made 10 years ago to leave Jesus and Christianity. It happened circa 2012 when someone in here challenged me to research Jesus and see if I could find any historical evidence for him outside the Bible. So I spent about 6 months researching Jesus and found that indeed there was no historical evidence for Jesus. That was when the foundations of my faith cracked.
,<snip>
I can assure you absolutely nothing will happen that is a clear sign you should stay with God. He doesn't care what you do, stay or leave. He simply doesn't care. You'll slowly come to the realization you've been talking to empty air all these years. I did.
That's my story. Any other ex-Christians have a story to tell?
Thrill, I feel for you, but you never did believe in God, IMO. You believed in "a fearful Genie in a Church" who grants wishes if you believe him OR ELSE!!! That Genie never did exist, Thrill! He is the composite of all the wishful thinking and imagination of our primitive ancestors.
But Jesus DOES exist because I encountered Him in my consciousness, NOT the Bible. I just found His description in the Bible. I had no expectations just a knowledge that He is pure unconditional love and acceptance and He experiences everything with us, good or bad. That is not enough for you apparently without Him "kissing every BooBoo and making it better."
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thoreau424
LOL There's a big difference between the two:
1) "Christianity" as an institution, organization, and religious system; ruled and ruined by man 2) Christianity as a spiritual and philosophical system for all, and way of the universe
You have clearly missed the boat, duped into only seeing the first flawed and jaded way. You don't go any further, and resort to bellyaching constantly based on your stopping short. Your one-sided approach is your problem, not ours. All your feeble attempts at damning Christianity fail, because you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Well, I do care that #1 seems to be the dominant mode of Christian belief. It is a shame that there has been no intelligent revision of the ancient primitive and barbaric beliefs about God for over two millennia!!!
Thrill, I feel for you, but you never did believe in God, IMO. You believed in "a fearful Genie in a Church" who grants wishes if you believe him OR ELSE!!! That Genie never did exist, Thrill! He is the composite of all the wishful thinking and imagination of our primitive ancestors.
But Jesus DOES exist because I encountered Him in my consciousness, NOT the Bible. I just found His description in the Bible. I had no expectations just a knowledge that He is pure unconditional love and acceptance and He experiences everything with us, good or bad. That is not enough for you apparently without Him "kissing every BooBoo and making it better." Well, I do care that #1 seems to be the dominant mode of Christian belief. It is a shame that there has been no intelligent revision of the ancient primitive and barbaric beliefs about God for over two millennia!!!
Well, you know, Mystic, God can step in anytime he wants and fix things. He can plant a manuscript from the 1st century in the Nag Hammadi site that shows exactly what Jesus wanted us to believe and put it exactly where archeologists would stumble across it. Why doesn't he?
Thrill, I feel for you, but you never did believe in God, IMO. You believed in "a fearful Genie in a Church" who grants wishes if you believe him OR ELSE!!! That Genie never did exist, Thrill! He is the composite of all the wishful thinking and imagination of our primitive ancestors.
But Jesus DOES exist because I encountered Him in my consciousness, NOT the Bible. I just found His description in the Bible. I had no expectations just a knowledge that He is pure unconditional love and acceptance and He experiences everything with us, good or bad. That is not enough for you apparently without Him "kissing every BooBoo and making it better." Well, I do care that #1 seems to be the dominant mode of Christian belief. It is a shame that there has been no intelligent revision of the ancient primitive and barbaric beliefs about God for over two millennia!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Well, you know, Mystic, God can step in anytime he wants and fix things. He can plant a manuscript from the 1st century in the Nag Hammadi site that shows exactly what Jesus wanted us to believe and put it exactly where archeologists would stumble across it. Why doesn't he?
Thril, you are stuck with the image and version of God from your indoctrination so I do understand your reaction to that primitive and basically childish version. But the truth of the matter is we have no clue what God can or cannot do. Most believers have just arbitrarily decided that God must be all the Omnis. There is no way to know that so it is just demanded as a definition of God. That is the part that is childish. Only children demand such things, IMO.
Whatever gave you the impression I'm bothered by the ramblings of some militant internet atheist?
Probably the MANY times you've responded to Thrillobyte in just a couple of threads.
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Well, I do care that #1 seems to be the dominant mode of Christian belief. It is a shame that there has been no intelligent revision of the ancient primitive and barbaric beliefs about God for over two millennia!!!
