RE: I just confessed my Atheism to friends and family!
March 13, 2013 at 12:02 am
(This post was last modified: March 13, 2013 at 12:07 am by JDS.)
(March 3, 2013 at 2:20 am)AtcAtheist Wrote: I've been wanting to do this for a while now! No one knew my new beliefs but my wife (who is still Christian) and 2 people who I knew were atheists... Maybe I took the easy way out by posting on Facebook, but that was NOT easy to do!! This is what I posted:
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I've been wanting to say this for a while now:
I No Longer Believe in God or Jesus...!
I've been doubting and having questions for about a year now. I spoke with 3 of my former pastors, and received typical answers ("we're not supposed to understand", "it's God's will", "just have faith", etc..) After being tired of these unsatisfying 'answers', I started looking for answers myself. The more I dug into the bible, the more disturbing stuff I discovered (especially in the Old Testament), and the more I started doubting the validity of the Bible and religion in general...
Some key factors for my decision: The bible was not written by god, but by man, and for many books, we have no idea who wrote them (including the gospels- no, they were not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). The bible was written nearly 2000 years ago for a bunch of sand-dwelling people (the true nation of Israel). Most of the stories were passed along by word of mouth for generations before finally being written, so imagine the inaccuracy!! Do we as intelligent grown ups really believe in stories of talking snakes and donkeys, the Red Sea parting for an Israeli shortcut, Jonah living in a whale, people rising from the dead???
There are hundreds of 'Gods' in the world. How many of them do you believe in? Me, I just believe in one less god than you do.
I hope I am not offending anyone, and I hope I don't lose any friends over this... I'm still the same ole Marc!! Please don't judge me, don't think I'm a monster or a heathen damned to hell. I have not taken this decision lightly. I hope you all respect my beliefs, and still accept me for who I am!!
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I have gotten some positive replies, but most saying they'll pray for me...
Anyway, my wife feels betrayed that I finally 'came out', and I hope this doesn't put a strain on our marriage.. Anyway, wish me luck!
I like what you wrote and I would think that your friends and family would respect your view.
(March 3, 2013 at 2:26 am)Aractus Wrote: Actually we have a very high degree of confidence that the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts was written by Luke the Evangelist - a companion of Paul. And the Gospel of John is firmly believed to have been written by the John the Apostle because of his constant use of the phrase "the disciple whom Jesus loved" when describing himself.
Also Jonah was swallowed by a fish, not a whale.
You should have gotten those basic facts right before you posted, but you're entitled to let your family know your beliefs.
Do you really believe that Jonah was literally swallowed by a fish and lived in its stomach or was that story intended to be metaphorical symbolizing a greater point? I only ask because it seems to me that the stories in the bible would be a lot more meaningful if they weren't taken literally. When people take these tales as literal truth, I just can't believe they actually believe that and I feel sorry for them.
I could care less if the gospels were written by people who actually knew Jesus. I still don't believe in all the spiritual supernatural nonsense.