Question

[brewer]

G: I'm not sure why but I still curse in christian. Don't know if that does anything for you.

[robvalue]

I do too and I've never been one. It's just so pervasive.

[The Grand Nudger]

Cultural linguistics. I cuss in catholic.

[Joods]

I always cuss in English - only with deep religious undertones.

---

Wait. I take that back.

I also can cuss in Italian, but only when near holy water or a cross made of gold.

[Pat Mustard]

Hi everyone.  First of all I want to be honest and let you know that I am a Bible believing Christian.  I did not join this forum with the intentions to attack, debate, or belittle anyone. I expect the same treatment, please.  I am doing a personal study on the topic of apostasy of the Christian faith. Some believers think that a person of Christian faith can choose to not follow Jesus.  I do have my own beliefs about this subject of which i will not discuss.  I do personally know of one person who kind of turned away for a period of time , but eventually returned to the faith.  I am here to ask if there are any of people who were a bible believing, Christ following, Christian who chose to "walk away" from that belief.  If so, how long were you a follower of Jesus and why did you abandon that faith?  What is your belief now?
Thank you so much for your time.
G.

How do you reconcile that pretty much everything in the bible is a lie?

[Sal]

My parents forced their Christian charismatic-following teachings on me and I've been told I rejected it up front up until the age of 5. I became an apostate around the age of 13 but kept it to myself in a transitioning period up until the age of 17. So in total I believed for about 8 years, give or take.

I remain atheist up until this day, and most likely - unless I get a brain damage or something - I will die an atheist.

[Edwardo Piet]

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.

Need to fix my words here is strong. What I should have said that you won't convince me that your Christian god exists, unless some vivid explicit miracle happened that was clearly from that god and everyone I know and trust witnessed the same thing and couldn't arrive at any other more plausible conclusion. This does not mean that I would necessarily go back to the Christian faith, only that I would believe. It's one thing to believe a god exists; it's another to want to acknowledge it as my god.

Even if that explicit miracle happened and it fell in line exactly with what, say, most Christians believe about God. Let's say God showed up and it was clearly the Christian God.

Still not evidence of God for me: The most plausible explanation was that a highly advanced alien visited earth and talked to people thousands of years ago to tell them to write a book. And that alien is powermad and wants us to think it is God.

The way I see it, a natural explanation is always more parsimonious and always makes sense. The chances of there being a highly powerful and advanced alien, thousands upon thousands of years ahead of us in technology, and capable of producing the most grandiose of illusions, is extremely low. And extremely improbable. But it still makes more sense than some "supernatural" being "outside of the universe" showing up and talking like a human.

Any being that showed itself in nature, would have a natural explanation... and the natural explanation would always make more sense than the supernatural one.

[pocaracas]

Hi everyone.  First of all I want to be honest and let you know that I am a Bible believing Christian.

Welcome aboard, matey!
Make yourself at home and tell us... what does "Bible believing Christian" mean?

  I did not join this forum with the intentions to attack, debate, or belittle anyone. I expect the same treatment, please.

Good thing you asked please...

  I am doing a personal study on the topic of apostasy of the Christian faith.

So... just for your own personal curiosity?

Some believers think that a person of Christian faith can choose to not follow Jesus.  I do have my own beliefs about this subject of which i will not discuss.  I do personally know of one person who kind of turned away for a period of time , but eventually returned to the faith. 

It is possible to believe and follow the god and the traditions, respectively. And it is also possible to compartmentalize things so that you only follow the parts that you consider to be in line with your own sense of morality, while forgetting those unpleasant parts.

I am here to ask if there are any of people who were a bible believing, Christ following, Christian who chose to "walk away" from that belief.

So many qualifiers at once!

  If so, how long were you a follower of Jesus and why did you abandon that faith?  What is your belief now?

When I was a kid, I thought everyone believed in the existence of god and Catholicism was the only religion in the World. EVERYONE believed in the same thing... at least, judging by how things had been relayed to me... of course, no one ever said that exactly, they just said whatever in a way that made me think that way.
They also said that god is everywhere... and that miracles happen... and that god manifests himself once in a while.

So, around the year of 1990, when I was 9 or 10 years old, I hear on the radio of some event in a lost town in China that they had filmed some rather unusual event.
And I remember thinking, "Boy, they have cameras everywhere!!"
And then the click: "You know what's also everywhere?... god!... how come they never meet?"

That was the trigger.
Add a pinch of education, from History, to Sociology, Psychology, Physics and whatnot... and you can easily paint a very believable picture that accounts for all beliefs, while not considering as real any of the deities that humankind has ever believed in.

Thank you so much for your time.
G.

Gotta go to a meeting. CYA!

[Edwardo Piet]

That either indicates that there's several gods all with limited fields of influence; or else people are just believing that they are told as children, which is entirely natural.

Or there is one God that likes to fuck with people and sit with his giant God popcorn as he watches different religions kill each other lol.

Maybe God is a big troll!

[GrandizerII]

Need to fix my words here is strong. What I should have said that you won't convince me that your Christian god exists, unless some vivid explicit miracle happened that was clearly from that god and everyone I know and trust witnessed the same thing and couldn't arrive at any other more plausible conclusion. This does not mean that I would necessarily go back to the Christian faith, only that I would believe. It's one thing to believe a god exists; it's another to want to acknowledge it as my god.

Even if that explicit miracle happened and it fell in line exactly with what, say, most Christians believe about God. Let's say God showed up and it was clearly the Christian God.

Still not evidence of God for me: The most plausible explanation was that a highly advanced alien visited earth and talked to people thousands of years ago to tell them to write a book. And that alien is powermad and wants us to think it is God.

The way I see it, a natural explanation is always more parsimonious and always makes sense. The chances of there being a highly powerful and advanced alien, thousands upon thousands of years ahead of us in technology, and capable of producing the most grandiose of illusions, is extremely low. And extremely improbable. But it still makes more sense than some "supernatural" being "outside of the universe" showing up and talking like a human.

Any being that showed itself in nature, would have a natural explanation... and the natural explanation would always make more sense than the supernatural one.

You're right. It wouldn't be conclusive evidence that the Christian god exists, but it would make Christianity far more plausible than it is now. And I mean far more plausible. But again, like you said, it could be aliens playing games with us, or Descartes' demon continually deceiving us, or we are all really Boltzmann brains, or we really do live in a simulated world, or we happen to live in one of those universes where Christianity just happens to be true in a naturalistic manner (e.g., Jesus did rise from the dead, but only because particles were fascinatingly arranged in such a way as to lead to such an outcome). Only Odin knows.