(December 2, 2017 at 2:19 pm)Die Atheistin Wrote: My family is moderate, but I learned religion in shool the fundamentalist way. I became a moderate thanks to one of my dad's friends. I offically became an atheist at age 17.
I don't worry about any of the teachings being real, what still bothers me is the fact itself that I was brainwashed. I'm neither happy nor sad most of the time, and I feel happines more than sadness, but sometimes the religious memories haunt me. I thought about going to a specialist, but I'm afraid that my family might find out about it. I will move to another country the next year, I might seek help there.
The world is filled with a misunderstanding of God, as well as the natural tendency to resent God and hate him. So you can see that a false idea of God or a false religion will ensure that this condition is not eleviated.
Many people blame the Bible for draconian ideas, and they will misquote it or take things out of context. The Bible is actually not read by the vast majority - both in the secular and religious world.
This ignorance coupled with false doctrines has totally eclipsed the truth.
But people prefer this darkness, and will resist any attempts to free themselves of it. Why? I don't know.
To give you a prime example of persistent ignorance, both religious and non religious people have this vague sentiment that when a person dies, they have this inner component of life that goes on forever, when in fact they return to the dust.
The Bible does not teach the doctrine of an eternal soul, but it teaches that this life is the real life and that there is no consciousness after death, and that the only way that man can live after death, is if they are physically resurrected, or made new - (with all the original DNA and atoms, and personal consciousness in order).
ALL that have died will experience this resurrection in two separate events.
From this "eternal soul" fallacy, pagan and so called Christian religions have peddled the fallacy of an eternal torture called hell.
The doctrine of hell is the greatest turn off in religion, it is utterly absurd, it flies in the face of true justice and mercy, and makes God out to be a tyrant.
As I said before, people will remain ignorant and resist the truth. They will even try to enforce the idea that the Bible actually teaches eternal torture by quoting a few texts out of context, and by insisting that certain words like "hell" can only mean what they think.
There are two extremes in religion - trying to earn salvation or presuming to be saved regardless of action and choices. Both extremes do not involve being vulnerable and communicating with God.
So both false religion and atheism have a common factor - they forfeit a relationship with God.
