The Reasons why "Just Following Jesus" Doesn't work

[Redbeard The Pink]

You have created a false god to deem evil. You don't even understand what evil is and have a skewed view of the world and how evil people. I say this because your statement is naive there are people out there doing evil every day and you are blind to the evil inside your own heart.  You have too high of a view of people and too low of a view of God.

Please understand that I only think your god is evil on paper, the way he and his actions are described. He's not actually evil in the same way that Lord Sauron is not actually evil (by virtue of not existing). My views about your god are rooted strictly in the same book you're preaching at me from.

In every translation, in every story, that character is completely horrible. I'm sorry you don't agree, but it's just the truth. God kills more humans and directly causes more suffering than literally any other character in that book. He is jealous, vengeful, wrathful, and demanding of the blood of humans and animals to sate his rage and lust for conquest. He is a volcano-sky-god of savages and warmongers. If you remove all the passages that simply state "God is good" or something along those lines and look strictly at what he does and says, your god is worse than any villain from any story I can think of.

If you had faith in the same God that I do then you would still have faith in Him because He isn't the kind of God that will lose His people.

If you had read your Bible as much as I have, you wouldn't believe in your god.

That is why I know it is impossible for you to have had the same faith as I do. You keep explaining your idea of God, and it shows me that you never believed in God. No one who knows Him like I do would ever call Him evil.

And this is how I know that you've done the necessary mental gymnastics to separate the warm fuzzy voice in your head from the monstrous despot that your holy book actually depicts. The God in your head wouldn't act that way because you wouldn't act that way, and your concept of God is ultimately a projection of yourself (like everyone's). This means you actually follow your own moral framework rather than following the Bible outright (thankfully), and your moral framework is vastly superior to what your Bible commands. You, yourself, are actually much, much more moral than the god of the Bible.

If you believe like I do you would enjoy Him and find comfort in His word. It would be enjoyable to be in His presence and you would be happy for the day you die because you would be with Him.

Yes, I used to be in your death cult, and yes, I used to think that death was pretty much the best thing ever because Heaven, or whatever.


Then I read the Bible enough to realize that according to its claims, most people (including most Christians) don't actually get into heaven, and that Jehovah is essentially callous toward any struggle we go through as humans, in this life or the next, and that he loves the smell of burning flesh and blood.


Then I finally allowed myself to view my own religious beliefs with the same skepticism and concern for truth that had lead me to discard most other people's religious beliefs, and I realized that my religion was founded on just as much myth, superstition, and fallacy as any other. That's when I stopped believing. It didn't really have anything to do with thinking God was evil; it was mostly about whether it was reasonable to believe in God at all. Turns out it's not. Oh well. I've been wrong about other things.

You would pray to know Him more and you would not want to do anything that would hurt Him because you loved Him. Your would seek to spend your life for Him not out of duty but because He is worth it. You would see people walking down the street wish that they would understand the beauty of God. You would enjoy being able to speak about His goodness and enjoy the presence of God when He gives you the power to do so.  So if you believed like I do you would still believe and be growing in faith and joy. You would long to stare at God and see how beautiful He is and be amazed at His faithfulness. You don't though so it isn't the same. You talk about christianity like it was a job to you and a list of dos and don'ts. You hate the very thought of God and that I would talk to you about Him. You keep giving me your resume of christian works as if that proves something about you faith in God.  You speak more about what you achieved in christianity than your love for God. It isn't the same.

Blah blah fucking blah.


"If you ever really believed, you still would! No True Christian leaves the faith!"


It's the "No True Scotsman" fallacy, and it's a lie. Talking about my actions is the only way for me to objectively demonstrate the depth of my involvement with faith and ministry; I was kicking out ghosts on my own time, not with my church. I was actively involved in spiritual warfare. I am not bragging because I'm not actually proud of any of this; I am only telling you this as a demonstration of how sincerely deluded I was. Sincere faith in storybook characters is the reason I did those things, and despite all your hemming and hawing to the contrary, I know better. I know what I believed, and I know how sincerely I believed it.


And no, I don't hate your god any more than I hate Jafar or that shitty little mustache-guy that always fights Rocky and Bullwinkle. I do sort of hate that religion indoctrinates people into believing in garbage like that, and convincing people that the Bible is a justification for hindering scientific progress and acting spiteful toward women and gays, but that has mostly to do with people and not that much to do with the book itself.