The things that finally "broke" religion for me

[vodkafan]

I have read a few of the convert stories so I thought I would, after all add a few personal thoughts in a post. I will try to make it brief.
A number of things never added up for me and my dissatisfaction grew.

1. No Christians could ever answer my questions to my satisfaction.
2. I never understood the concept of why god demanded "sacrifice".
3. I never believed in heaven and hell - privately I always thought we all went to the same "place" .
4. It seemed to me that religious people should be the most relaxed people on the planet- instead without exception the more religious they were the more uptight, narrow minded and sometimes actually nasty they were.
5. The concept of sin and us all being born sinners . How can a new born baby be sinful? Depending on his parents he /she might not have much of a chance in life but that's another matter.
6. What is so special about god having one son? If he is all powerful why can he not have as many as he wants .
7. I never believed in a Trinity. I read around and found out that some of the early Christians and Judeao-Christians didn't either.
8. God is supposed to be outside of his creation, (ie outside time) all knowing . Past Present and Future is predestined. He should know what's going to happen .Yet reading through the OT he consistently acts as if he doesn't know what's coming next . He "tries" different solutions .

But finally what put the nail in the coffin for me was the ludicrousness of the "sacrifice" of the crucifixion. If Jesus is God (ie part of the Trinity 0 then there is actually no sacrifice at all. It is God saying hey, look at me, I died and came to life again! It is a magic show. But of course, after figuring that out the whole thing collapsed for me. I can't get now why I half-believed it for so long. But I am all better now.

Thanks for reading

[Mister Agenda]

Nice list. Welcome, vodkafan!

[Raeven]

Agreed, and welcome! I was never a believer, but whenever I gave someone religious a crack at "saving my soul," usually a Xtian, I had the same problems as you list. Needless to say, I remain a happy -- and for the most part, very relaxed! -- atheist.

[theist101]

vodkafan,

you are basing all your reasoning on what Churches say and people think. You do not have to identify with anyone else's ideas to remain a theist. Please start by explaing why you think God doesn't exist as opposed to blaming his followers for their perceived shortcomings.

[Rampant.A.I.]

vodkafan,

you are basing all your reasoning on what Churches say and people think. You do not have to identify with anyone else's ideas to remain a theist. Please start by explaing why you think God doesn't exist as opposed to blaming his followers for their perceived shortcomings.

There's also the incredibly self-contradictory book written by Bronze Age primitives that doesn't match up with reality.



http://www.chrisharrison.net/index.php/V...s/BibleViz

[Chad32]

But finally what put the nail in the coffin for me was the ludicrousness of the "sacrifice" of the crucifixion. If Jesus is God (ie part of the Trinity 0 then there is actually no sacrifice at all. It is God saying hey, look at me, I died and came to life again! It is a magic show. But of course, after figuring that out the whole thing collapsed for me. I can't get now why I half-believed it for so long. But I am all better now.

Thanks for reading

That's the thing that really broke it for me too. There's so much wrong with the whole idea of Jesus getting nailed to the cross. From the immorality of killing an innocent person for the crimes of the guilty, to the ridiculous idea that Yahweh needed to have his son killed (then get brought back to rule at his side), to forgive us for something that someone else did before we were born. There is a long list of problems with this and it's the cornerstone of the christian religion.

[Whateverist]

vodkafan,

you are basing all your reasoning on what Churches say and people think. You do not have to identify with anyone else's ideas to remain a theist. Please start by explaing why you think God doesn't exist as opposed to blaming his followers for their perceived shortcomings.

Why should he explain why he doesn't believe what you do? What you believe isn't anything verifiable. You don't really mean to ask "why don't you believe in god"? Isn't it actually a question of faith? Lacking faith, what use do we have for reasons not to believe that which we have no experience of? Reasons justify belief, not disbelief. Thinking whatever you do is not the default position.

[Ravenshire]

From the immorality of killing an innocent person for the crimes of the guilty

Immorality has never been a problem for gawd or it's followers. After all, whatever it does must be moral because it is the one doing it.

to the ridiculous idea that Yahweh needed to have his son killed (then get brought back to rule at his side), to forgive us for something that someone else did before we were born.

Really, it's not much of a "sacrifice" if you don't stay dead. The lowliest, most worthless person on earth is more worthy of praise if he's killed defending another than jebus could ever be for spending a few hours in pain and (effectively) going to sleep for a couple days then waking up healed of all wounds.

[The Valkyrie]

From the immorality of killing an innocent person for the crimes of the guilty

Immorality has never been a problem for gawd or it's followers. After all, whatever it does must be moral because it is the one doing it.

---

to the ridiculous idea that Yahweh needed to have his son killed (then get brought back to rule at his side), to forgive us for something that someone else did before we were born.

Really, it's not much of a "sacrifice" if you don't stay dead. The lowliest, most worthless person on earth is more worthy of praise if he's killed defending another than jebus could ever be for spending a few hours in pain and (effectively) going to sleep for a couple days then waking up healed of all wounds.

---

[Chad32]

Yeah, I don't really understand what was sacrificed. Does Jesus suffer from massive PTSD now, for taking the burden of "sin" upon himself? I imagine that would make it hard to rule the universe, as he's supposed to be doing. He lived a lot longer than a lot of people get to, had an admittedly shitty week, then got a kickass reward for being a good messiah.