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

[drfuzzy]

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




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.




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.




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.

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You hate His word so you hate God. 

You call the God of the bible evil but you don't have a moral standard, that can stand the test of time, to actually make this claim. You worldview can't support evil. You must imagine that there is worth and that there is evil. Nothing is solid so this book can't be evil because people from another culture. It would be arrogant for you to use your own social standards to judge them. By your worldview people are just animated materials like they were and the way they choose to live is the way they choose to live. Your claim on evil only works if people have intrinsic value and there is an absolute right way and wrong way to treat a person.  It must be given and it must be given by someone who is powerful enough to uphold those standards.

You make up your own god by misreading scripture then use your own flawed and arbitrary morals to judge Him. It won't save you. You are blinded by your sin and that blindness will not save you. Just because a blind man can't see the sun doesn't make it not exist and just because you played christian for 20 years doesn't make you right and God wrong.  God isn't imaginary but loving and caring enough to warn you. 

He isn't spiteful towards women or people who are gay. He loves them fiercely enough to die for them in order to make them Holy. You have taken what societies is currently saying about God and try to indict Him for injustice, but you are only judging yourself. Do you fight for the rights of women. Do you seek their purity and holiness? Do you fight for their equality even if it would cause you to die? Do you see pass the gay person's sexul orentaion and know that trying to find worth in labels that have been made up. That they are worth more than being bound to lies. Do you see them as souls to be loved and cared for people who have worth? Not based on how people value the but something that they were born with. The are far more than who they are attracted to that you can't be completed by another person. That joy isn't found in sex or human companionship. God sees people who need saving and makes them aware of what is destroying them that will cause hurt, but you seem to just want to lie to them and say everything is ok. People are in pain and need to know that no matter what they have done or will do God loves them with a scandalous love. A love that would make Him die a humiliating death so that they can receive a love that never lets go. A love that goes beyond death and the grave and that will fill them with hope.  He doesn't care what society says, but He moves towards them with love and care. The people he resist are the proud. Those who want to play god and spread lies. Your view of God again shows me that instead of seeking what the Bible actually says you seek to look at the bible with your own social lense. You take your cues from what people say instead of trusting God.

Yep.  Another "I have my magical book that tells me all about my imaginary friend, therefore I am better than anyone who doesn't believe in my book and my friend".  Then they use that supposedly magical book of fairy tales to bash and insult anyone that disagrees with them, and strut off, thinking that they have proven their superiority.  It's nothing more than an sociopathic ego trip.  
     Threats and putdowns aren't going to win anyone over, they just prove to us that xtians are NASTY and I never, ever, want to be anything like you.  Go join the Westboro folks, you belong there.