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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.
Actually they had cracked earlier back circa 2000 or so. I had gotten ill and requested the church elders to come over and pray over me per James 5:14-16
14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
They did and we followed all the instructions in James. Still the illness persisted. It wasn't until I saw a doctor and took some medicine he prescribed that I was healed. God didn't heal me, the doctor and the medicine he prescribed did. Actually that was when the first cracks in the foundation of my faith started. But I put it away and didn't think about it.
It was around 2012 or so that I began noticing that my prayers NEVER got answered, not just in that instance in 2000 but I mean anytime I prayed there never was a noticeable change in my life. Things always stayed the same. I put two and two together and realized that everything about Christianity was pure hogwash. The only thing Christianity ever did was put a dent in my wallet because of tithing. So I stopped tithing. From there I lost the desire to pray. Previously I was on my knees twice a day in the morning and before going to bed arms lifted up to God to give thanks and to pray for sin to cease in my life--you know, all the things the churchmen tell you to pray about if you want to please God.
I slowly began to come to a realization. I was losing my faith despite praying to God to save me from losing my faith. I still had no desire to continue with him. I slowly came to another realization. God and Jesus simply didn't care if I left them. Nothing changed in my life. There were no visits from the Holy Spirit to save me. There were no extraordinary happenings to give me a sign. It was a complete blank. The only thing extraordinary that did happen was that I came into a lot of money via inheritance a few years ago when a wealthy relative passed away. I now have more money than I can spend in my remaining years.
Gradually I realized that all the balderdash I had been fed by other Christians was completely false. No evidence for Jesus; no prayers getting answered; no manifestations of anything supernatural in my life. I found what millions of other Christians are finding every day: God and Jesus simply do not exist.
It's been ten years since I left Jesus. I have a temper in my old age, not against other people but against myself when I do stupid things like spilling coffee on the floor. I swear up a storm using the names Jesus and God in every conceivable blasphemous combination you can imagine. Nothing happens to me. A bolt of lightning doesn't come down and strike me.
God doesn't touch me. I have no fear of retribution from God anymore because I know Jesus isn't real and never was so he has no power over me. My life continues as it always has. No repercussions from God. No nothing from God.
Those of you who want to leave Christianity but are fearful you'll get smitten by God, don't worry. I assure 10000% nothing will happen to you. Your life will continue uninterrupted and in many ways it will actually get better. Mine did.
Try saying this prayer: "God I want to leave you and Jesus behind but I don't know if I should. Please give me some sort of sign I should stay with Jesus and I will. In Jesus name I ask. Amen"
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?
Wow, well, I've never been religious in any conventional sense,or at all though it's kind of creeping up on me in more recent years, but I never had any doubt Jesus was a historical personage. 3 religions acknowledge him, or maybe that's not quite correct with respect to Judaism, but Jewish historians acknowledge he existed; I'm not clear on his role in the religion per se, but don't you think that carries some weight?
I think the people who insist there's no evidence for his existence are limiting themselves to the so-called Christian world and its holy book as their reference points, plus any relevant archaeology, rather than looking farther afield, but I could be wrong. And btw, since I've never believed Jesus was anything more than human, I've never "blasphemed" God or Jesus, because, you know, they don't have any special significance to me, so....why? Why do people do that anyway, I've never understood.
But should people's faith depend on whether their deity-of-choice manifests any goodies for them? Is that what faith is about? Is that what it's for---getting goodies? Some spiritually-oriented people are able to see miracles in the everyday facts and occurrences of life. Others see miracles in instances of people surviving accidents and disasters against all odds, seemingly in contradiction of the laws of science. You could say, that's just their projections, but they're getting confirmation of their faith, which you never did. Maybe you just didn't have the right mindset?
Last edited by Ruth4Truth; 02-23-2023 at 09:25 AM..
because science is inadequate to address divinity.
just like a cookbook doesn't tell you how to fly a plane or repair your car.
most people grasp this.
those who don't, continue to go to the hardware store looking for bread.
But why should we think that you are adequate to address divinity? I don't see that you have any special qualifications that are unique among billions of other people.
Nature of the Divinity is gained by inquiry of the Self, inner world. Nature of the world is gained by inquiry of the material world. Real scientists know the difference. They are not in the business of spirituality and never speak of god.
Einstein spoke of god. "God does not play dice with the Universe". Einstein was proven wrong. But there's at least one book, maybe more, I haven't checked in a long time, full of Einstein quotes about god.
Wow, well, I've never been religious in any conventional sense,or at all though it's kind of creeping up on me in more recent years, but I never had any doubt Jesus was a historical personage. 3 religions acknowledge him, or maybe that's not quite correct with respect to Judaism, but Jewish historians acknowledge he existed; I'm not clear on his role in the religion per se, but don't you think that carries some weight?
I think the people who insist there's no evidence for his existence are limiting themselves to the so-called Christian world and its holy book as their reference points, and any relevant archaeology, rather than looking farther afield, but I could be wrong. And btw, since I've never believed Jesus was anything more than human, I've never "blasphemed" God or Jesus, because, you know, they don't have any special significance, so....why? Why do people do that anyway, I've never understood.
But should people's faith depend on whether their deity-of-choice manifests any goodies for them? Is that what faith is about? Is that what it's for---getting goodies? Some spiritually-oriented people are able to see miracles in the everyday facts and occurrences of life. Others see miracles in instances of people surviving accidents and disasters against all odds, seemingly in contradiction of the laws of science. You could say, that's just their projections, but they're getting confirmation of their faith, which you never did. Maybe you just didn't have the right mindset?
Einstein spoke of god. "God does not play dice with the Universe". Einstein was proven wrong. But there's at least one book, maybe more, I haven't checked in a long time, full of Einstein quotes about god.
How was Einstein proven wrong? By whom?
Divinity does not play. No dice.
Because God interrupts man's rules of science and medicine and cannot be put in a box for man's examination, it makes Him illusive, not nonexistent.
When I seek God's intervention it is because I have chosen the end of my abilities, or the chain of events in my life are coming to a climax, and decisions must be made, actions must be taken, or the events are way over my head.
I need His guidance almost daily, I still must wave my own will in some cases yet having some personal preferences.
Human nature tends to operate in haste, God works on time, and this takes faith and trust in His will, knowing He has the whole picture.
God has no obligation to those that are not His, so though a man be religious yet have no relationship of Jesus Lordship in their life, His guidance in not obligatory.
Because God interrupts man's rules of science and medicine and cannot be put in a box for man's examination, it makes Him illusive, not nonexistent.
When I seek God's intervention it is because I have chosen the end of my abilities, or the chain of events in my life are coming to a climax, and decisions must be made, actions must be taken, or the events are way over my head.
I need His guidance almost daily, I still must wave my own will in some cases yet having some personal preferences.
Human nature tends to operate in haste, God works on time, and this takes faith and trust in His will, knowing He has the whole picture.
God has no obligation to those that are not His, so though a man be religious yet have no relationship of Jesus Lordship in their life, His guidance in not obligatory.
So only Christians have God. You are right. God is a loaded term, not to be used carelessly. Divinity on the other hand belongs to everyone, and is within everyone and everything. Whether one has a relationship with it or not it exists. Even in Jesus :-)
Albert Einstein himself stated "I’m not an atheist, and I don’t think I can call myself a pantheist... I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings".
In keeping with what I posted earlier, he believed, not in a god that concerns himself with providing goodies for struggling humans,
Quote:
a view which he described as naïve
, but in a god that manifests in the everyday facts and occurrences of life an nature.
Last edited by mensaguy; 02-23-2023 at 10:16 AM..
Reason: Fixing quote
Einstein explained his view on the relationship between science, philosophy and religion in his lectures of 1939 and 1941: “Science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration towards truth and understanding. This source of feeling, however, springs from the sphere of religion”, because “knowledge of what is does not open the door directly to… what should be the goal of our human aspirations.” All the aspirations “exist in a healthy society as powerful traditions” which “come into being not through demonstration but through revelation, through the medium of powerful personalities. One must not attempt to justify them, but rather to sense their nature simply and clearly. The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish-Christian religious tradition.”
Einstein came by his "scientific" insights not through experimentation and research, IOW the methods of science, but through inspiration, a type of revelation, you could say. What is "inspiration"? It originally meant "to become imbued ("in-") with Spirit. It very definitely had a religious connotation before the word became secularized.
After having his strokes of insight (whatever their mysterious source or cause), he subsequently had to figure out the math to explain (and make presentable to the scientific community) the inherent principles behind his visions of "how things worked".
These are not the words, nor is it the m.o., of someone who isn't religious in any way.
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