I'm afraid of being agnostic, I need help

[abaris]

I've studied the bible and I see so much hate and archaic reasoning. I've tried to force myself to believe in it, but I just can't. I'm honestly comfortable not being religious, but that fear of hell is still there. It's always in the back of my mind.

Actually fear of hell is all I ever been tought about religion. Yes, it made me afraid, but it also brought me to oppose religion at a very young age. My reasoning was this, and I'm sure our evangelical friends will come up with lofty theological explanations, but never mind them: If there's a benevolent god, hell doesn't make any sense. How does living a very limited time on this earth justify eternal punishment or reward? And if there isn't a benevolent god, why worship a being that's so contrary to my morality?

You seem to go through these same stages as far as I understand your posts. My moving away period was pretty lenghty. I started out as a catholic, went to the I don't care stage, still calling myself a catholic, then turned into a deist with some on the menu deity, then a neutral deity not caring one way or the other, to ultimately being an atheist.

The strongest argument however is, that the christian god doesn't make any sense at all. What we know for facts about the world surrounding us, makes his concept laughable. We, as a species, are only around for a couple of million years. And this god is supposed to have suddenly shown up to a nomadic desert tribe some 3000 years ago?

Doesn't compute. And again, don't be derailed by GC, Drich or the professor. They believe, earth poofed into existence some 6000 years ago, which is utter nonsense as far as the civilized world is concerned.