Couple of clingers in my de-converting

[robvalue]

The problem with religious "prophecy" is that they are incredibly vague, including exactly when they are going to happen. If you really want them to seem true, you'll find a way of convincing yourself that they are.

There have been loads of false panics about this, people giving dates when it's going to end, reading into the prophecy what they want to read. Sure, I agree, nuclear weapons are really bad and dangerous. They are a ridiculous threat. It's a different kind of threat, but yet another one for people to cling to as "it's really coming true this time".

Jesus was meant to return within the lifetime of those who saw him ressurect. He failed to do this, and now Christians try to brush this aside and pretend he overslept or something and it's happening "any time now". Unfortunately "any time now" has been going on for 2000 years.

Curse all you like, this is a relaxed forum Fucking prophecies Religion thrives on this vagueness, and the "can't prove it wrong" argument from ignorance fallacy (covered on my website). That's all this comes down to really, you can't prove it isn't happening. Also as TRJF says, bad things happening does not tell us why bad things are happening.

In my opinion, the last 50-100 years or so have been an astonishingly fast growth of civilisation, we now take for granted human rights and liberties which certain people just did not have. I'm not sure what your point was about the Internet. As far as I am concerned, the Internet has made it harder for people to insulate their followers from the outside world. Religion thrives on this insulation and control of information. Now everyone can fact check what they are being told, and even little children can find out what nonsense the bible is.

You are very brave to be facing up to a possible de conversion. If it happens it will be a process and will take a little time, so don't panic. The truth stays the same regardless of anyone's opinion of it.

One last important point: even if a certain part of the bible happens to make an "accurate" prediction, that is not evidence that anything else the bible says is true at all. All it means is they somehow got one thing right. It may be blind luck, it may be they had some way of knowing things we have now lost, it could be magic, it could be talking frogs which they are too scared to mention. Just because they got it right, it doesn't mean the way they say they got it right is also true either. That is a further claim that needs demonstrating. A book of drivel with a few true things in it doesn't suddenly become all true, especially the supernatural stuff which you'd never believe from any book other than one you've been indoctrinated to believe. For example:

In 2080 a man will become the first robot/human hybrid.
1+1=5
I am God
I got this information from my invisible friend Spiddy

That is my gospel. If my prediction comes true, does that mean we should also just accept the new version of maths, and that in fact I am God? And that I did in fact get this info from Spiddy? No. Those claims, including where I got the info from, need verifying in their own right. Of course, every religion will use the same argument as well, that their predictions are special and prove their religion. If the same sort of argument proves everything for everyone, it's a bit if a giveaway that it actually proves nothing and is entirely based on confirmation bias.