(January 6, 2016 at 12:00 am)*Deidre* Wrote:Sorry for late reply. It was simply the fear of Hellfire that kept me clinging onto faith and trying to square the circle of faith and the Bible that kept me for 4 years adamant in accepting the truth; that the Bible was a man-made book and some desert goat-herders had made a deity in their image.(January 5, 2016 at 4:59 pm)Sal Wrote: On my 5th re-reading of the Bible, I noticed that there were 2 versions of The Ten Commandments and asked myself, paraphrasing: Why would God need 2 versions of The Ten Commandments. Not what made me an atheist, but got the ball rolling, so-to-speak. Took me 4 grueling years to finally shed my god-belief.I'm sorry you suffered like that. Why do you think it took you four years to shed your belief? Was there anyone in your life that you were afraid of disappointing? Just wondering.
I mostly didn't want to disappoint my parents, I guess. From their POV, they are trying to save my immortal soul so it's understandable that they would try their darndest to try to "save" me, from my POV they're virtual prisoners of their own beliefs.
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman