Question

[Losty]

I was a Christian until I was about 23. Long story short, I started reading the Bible and realized I didn’t believe anything in there.

Hi Losty,  There is a lot in the  Bible that seems far fetched.  Some things are really hard to wrap the brain around and understand.   Some of the versions are so hard to follow as well for me.  I use the NLT version and NASB.  It is a whole lot easier to read and understand.  So if you don't mind, is there anything in particular that made you not believe the whole?

Well there’s the obvious stuff mainly, a man living in a fish, a man building a boat big enough to fit two of every animal, the idea that homosexuality is somehow morally wrong, killing babies, forcing women to marry their rapist or even stoning a woman to death for not yelling loud enough when being raped. There’s too much in the Bible that simply cannot be true if there’s a good loving all powerful god out there. There’s too much in the world that just can’t exist simultaneously with a good loving all powerful god. I know the world is real, what I’ve witnessed myself and what many people have witnessed and documented is real. So god just doesn’t make sense with that.

Now maybe there’s a god that isn’t all powerful or isn’t all good. I don’t know. But if there is it certainly isn’t anything worth worshipping.

[G Alan]

You belong to a church, yet the religious views under your username is listed as “Do not like religion.”  Uh huh.

In any event, I grew up in a mostly non-practicing Catholic household.  I never truly believed in any god, and I’m beyond thankful that I’ve only ever been in a church 10 or fewer times in my life.

Haha!  You caught that.  Yep, I do go to church.   "Religion" and "religious" people frustrate me.  I don't like legalism that falls into religion, nor do I like the religious people who put themselves above others because they have lots of head knowledge about a particular faith.  I am a follower of Jesus and believe in Him as my Lord and savior and try to follow His commands.  Not rules of man.  I am not out to force my faith onto anyone nor do I condemn anyone for what they believe.   I share my faith/beliefs when asked or am given the opportunity to do so.   I am on here to just figure out why people "walk away" from what I believe in.  And I find it very interested to see why people do not believe in God or any God. 
So,  have you ever really searched for truth?  Or have you just not thought about it and settled into something you find comfortable?  Has something happened that you are grateful for not being in church?  Maybe with "Christians"? 
Thanks.

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Hi Losty,  There is a lot in the  Bible that seems far fetched.  Some things are really hard to wrap the brain around and understand.   Some of the versions are so hard to follow as well for me.  I use the NLT version and NASB.  It is a whole lot easier to read and understand.  So if you don't mind, is there anything in particular that made you not believe the whole?

Well there’s the obvious stuff mainly, a man living in a fish, a man building a boat big enough to fit two of every animal, the idea that homosexuality is somehow morally wrong, killing babies, forcing women to marry their rapist or even stoning a woman to death for not yelling loud enough when being raped. There’s too much in the Bible that simply cannot be true if there’s a good loving all powerful god out there. There’s too much in the world that just can’t exist simultaneously with a good loving all powerful god. I know the world is real, what I’ve witnessed myself and what many people have witnessed and documented is real. So god just doesn’t make sense with that.

Now maybe there’s a god that isn’t all powerful or isn’t all good. I don’t know. But if there is it certainly isn’t anything worth worshipping.

Wow.  Thanks so much for your honesty.  Those are definitely some tough things to wrap the head around for sure.  Those topics found in the bible are very much troubling to a lot of people, who do not believe in the God of the Bible.  
Again,  thanks for being honest!

[Fireball]

I was nominally a church going Catholic. I didn't attend after leaving home until getting married and raising my kids "in the faith"- something I only did because that's how things were done in our family. I didn't actually believe when attending catechism, because of the bullshit (I say that now, I didn't argue with adults at a young age without penalty) answers I got. I finally decided that I was really an atheist in 2001. The bible is not a book about what I believe in my life beyond some practical advice which I can take or leave, as most of it is bronze age (roughly) "wisdom", and also contains all kinds of atrocious advice and stories. That and the fact that the thing doesn't match with secular history tells me all I need to know about it. Interestingly enough, my three sons are all atheists, though I did not push it at all.

[GrandizerII]

Main reason I left the faith is simple. I just couldn't handle lying to myself any longer. Christianity is clearly based on so much nonsense, whether we're talking Bible only or Catholicism or whatever. To even think otherwise is ludicrous. That's all there is to it. There's nothing you or anyone can do to convince me to come back to the faith, short of a clear vivid remarkable vision from the Christian god himself, validated by virtually every person I know and trust to be fairly rational.

[The Valkyrie]

I have to admit that, even now, I occasionally fall back on my Catholic upbringing.

Sometimes when things go wrong I still blame the Jews.

[G Alan]

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Was that like the Catholic catechism, or something else?

Evangelical Lutheran. (watered down catholic/catholic lite) Yeah, there was catechism but it didn't stick. The final straw came from the youth pastor, that in a nutshell, said "I don't care if it does not make sense, that there is no proof, just believe".

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Thanks.  I just want to understand the reasons behind former vs. now.  Is it something that we as Christians need to be aware of and are we a part of the problem.

bold mine

Yep, that god(s) is a illusion/delusion and belief that it exists outside the mind is fantasy.

Hahaha!  I walked right into that comment! 

Wow!  How in the world do you expect someone to believe in something that has no proof?
That is sad on his part.  He had no clue as well or he could've answered your questions or dug with you to find them.  But in all honesty that is how shallow some of the "teaching" is in America.

[Losty]

I mean, I would like to hope everyone would find forcing a woman to marry her rapist troubling regardless of whether or not they believe in the god of the Bible.

[vorlon13]

If you're comfortable discussing it, does the communion bread come first before the wine, or vice versa ??

Hi vorlon13,  I don't mind answering anything.  I do not believe anywhere in the bible it gives a specific order in which communion has to be given.  However during the supper with Jesus and his disciples, Jesus did pass the bread first, then the juice.  I think that is why some do it in that order?   I am a part of a non-denominational church.  When we pass communion, both are passed at the same time.    I drink the juice first to wash down the cracker that I ate.  I left a church where there were a lot of traditions that weren't found in the bible took precedence over things that were biblical.  Religious people can get legalistic as well. 
Thanks

Luke 22 (KJV)
17 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:
18 For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.
19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

[Astreja]

G Alan, this is somewhat off topic because I was never a believer, but it may shed a bit of light on the situation.

I learned to read very young -- about 2½ -- and was reading voraciously and well above my grade level when I finally got to grade 1. Always on the lookout for something new to read, I came across The Bible In Pictures in my parents' library. I worked my way through it several times by about age seven, but without any "spiritual guidance" from any adults. (No one in my family was a regular churchgoer, and so this book was my introduction to the Judeo-Christian god and all the major characters and stories.)

It's never been any more than a storybook to me. Jesus supposedly coming back from the dead was (and still is) indistinguishable from a fictional event from a TV show. There are innumerable other reasons that I will not consider becoming a Christian, but all those reasons are secondary to the fact that it never seemed real enough to actually believe.

[KevinM1]

You belong to a church, yet the religious views under your username is listed as “Do not like religion.”  Uh huh.

In any event, I grew up in a mostly non-practicing Catholic household.  I never truly believed in any god, and I’m beyond thankful that I’ve only ever been in a church 10 or fewer times in my life.

Haha!  You caught that.  Yep, I do go to church.   "Religion" and "religious" people frustrate me.  I don't like legalism that falls into religion, nor do I like the religious people who put themselves above others because they have lots of head knowledge about a particular faith.  I am a follower of Jesus and believe in Him as my Lord and savior and try to follow His commands.  Not rules of man.  I am not out to force my faith onto anyone nor do I condemn anyone for what they believe.   I share my faith/beliefs when asked or am given the opportunity to do so.   I am on here to just figure out why people "walk away" from what I believe in.  And I find it very interested to see why people do not believe in God or any God. 
So,  have you ever really searched for truth?  Or have you just not thought about it and settled into something you find comfortable?  Has something happened that you are grateful for not being in church?  Maybe with "Christians"? 
Thanks.

Look at you not-so-subtly probing for a way to convert me.  "Have you ever really searched for the truth?"  LMAO.

I have searched for the truth.  Your god doesn't qualify, for a multitude of reasons, starting with there being no credible proof of its existence.  And, please, don't respond with bible verses.  The bible is the claim.

Regarding church, I find it dreadfully boring.  The psychological manipulation techniques are painfully obvious - the spectacle of authority, the innate peer pressure of performing the kneel/sit/stand/recite/communion/amen calisthenics, cramming as many people into the pews as possible, often with the air conditioning being 'broken', etc.  I have far better things to do with my time than listen to someone drone on and on about uninteresting fiction, and then trying to peer pressure me into paying for having my time wasted.