I’ve read through the Bible cover to cover three times. Amplified, NIV, and New King James with a copy of Strongs.
I’m an atheist now.
What made you an atheist?
I think they are saying reading those books are the reason.
Any part in particular?
The Bible is pretty fallible when looking at it objectively IMO. But the nail in the coffin was contrasting what the Bible asks of us vs what Christianity does. The tyrannical cheeto is as close to the antichrist as we’ve seen and they’re all gaga for him as an example. But I’ve been disillusioned since Obama’s first election. The terrible and false things “the church” and soon to be former church friends said about him was next level bullshit. Yet when I highlighted that the Bible clearly says the worst relationship we have with man is our relationship with Christ landed in def ears.
Not op, but for me it was the fact that the supposedly ineffable word of God turned out to be pretty effible
It wasn’t the first step towards losing faith, or even the last, but it was pretty troubling to a young me
It bothered you that a document written over thousands of years by dozens of authors didn’t agree in every imaginable way?
I was taught and fully believed that it was the literal and inerrant word of God, guided by his hand and infallible… so yes, finding errors in it was a disturbing. The authors or it’s age shouldn’t matter if they’re being guided by an all knowing and all powerful being. It wasn’t until much later that I found out how much of it is suspected forgery. Probably could have saved a couple years of agony there
I understand the reaction. The Bible is sold by a lot of churches as “the word of God”, and if it’s the case, God is a lying asshole. But nowhere in the Bible it is written that the Bible is the word of God; according to the Bible the word of God is Jesus-Christ so… it may not be the right approach according to the Bible itself.
I love the Bible, I read it (almost) every day, I use it as a guide in my material and spiritual lives, I studied the story of its interpretation in the university, I even thought about making that my speciality. Yet I don’t understand how someone could believe in biblical inerrancy. It’s very clearly a human work, written by error-prone normal humans. I believe that God spoke to its redactors, but it’s still a human work. And ours is (according to me) to listen to the voice of God through the human form; and that’s why we have the Church, as it’s not something one can do alone.
I like your view.
Though I don’t do church anymore, either they worship the current incarnation of the antichrist or they’re lead by weak leaders who aren’t willing or capable to do what it takes to be a great leader in my experience.
We tried a few liberal / LGBTQ lead churches and I just couldn’t continue to participate. My wife kept going longer than I did but she hasn’t gone in a few years.
I have personally experienced librarians and they have helped me when in need.
I used to, because my parents did and I went to church and all that.
But then I started to actually think about it.
Now I don’t believe in anything supernatural.
There are parts of nature we don’t understand (yet) but I don’t think there’s any ‘higher power’ that created the universe, and especially not earth or humankind specifically.Because I’ve personally met Jesus Christ. He’s a 10,000 year old former cave man.
They don’t make films like they used to!
What a movie!
Starring both the Candyman and The Greatest American Hero!
Oh, hey, I’ve seen this one.
I don’t have a religion, but consider myself to be “religiously neutral.” Either smart men from all over are running the same scam — or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that. Either way, I ultimately believe in Humanism, I suppose. That humans are inherently good, or want to be, and/or enough actually are.
I do not believe in anything original myself. It’s all academic to me.
or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that.
The entire point of religion is to make important rules followed.
When a food is banned, it’s because that food was killing people when the rules were written. Abrahamic religions don’t like sex that doesn’t make babies, because they all start as persecuted cults by the main branches and the fastest way to grow is to have kids born into it.
It’s obviously all outdated, but it boils down to how you’d convince a kid not to do something when you can’t watch them 24/7: follow the rules or Santa will find out.
Like there’s always jokes about Jewish Sabbath, but honesty that was just the equivalent to modern union mandated lunch breaks. The only way to guarantee a day off back in the day, was to explicitly outlaw doing anything. Pretty much all anyone in the household could do was just relax and hang out together.
Like I said, it’s all way outdated. But every time you try something new suddenly the ATF starts hanging around…
“'Cause, in those days, a pork chop could kill ya!” - Chris Rock
The really weird one is shellfish.
Shellfish allergy is a big deal, And prior to refrigeration it wasn’t a common food unless right near da beach.
So people could not try it till they were adults, and just keel over on the spot. But since shellfish allergy is weirdly genetic, the populations most at risk for it now, are the ones who spent centuries avoiding it. Because everyone else kept losing at least some of the people who were allergic
Either smart men from all over are running the same scam — or there are common bits of wisdom in most religions and there may be something to that.
Or C: There was an original scam that not so original humans copied over and over through the years.
The scam of self-restraint, says the Western man.
Exactly what I think. Otherwise, I just attempt to follow the Scriptures (both to the left and right of Matthew), with exceptions due to geographic restrictions, political power restrictions, or divine decrees of course.
My religion isn’t really based on belief, just practice. And I do the practices because they make me feel better and more connected.
I do not really know. I was not raised in a practicing family, and my country is very secular.
Philosophically, I’m agnostic. I’m not convinced either by arguments for or against the existence of God. I think a being which could exist outside time and space is not approachable by our reason.
But I can’t stay neutral, the question is too important. And I feel the presence of God in my life. This feeling came first, and when I tried to understand it, I went to the culturally nearest place of worship, and it was Protestantism, and I felt at home. I read the Bible, not as a theology manual, but as the story of people who try to understand the presence of God; sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, but their quest is mine, and theirs inspires mine.
I feel the same way reading the Bible. Even as early as Genesis I was like damn Abraham I don’t understand why you tried to pimp out your sister-wife ONCE but also why did you KEEP DOING IT? Somebody recently commented that they find the Bible boring and I was like you need to find a modern translation because if you can even vaguely understand what’s actually going on that shit is WILD. Turns out humans have always been crazy AF and personally I actually find that kinda comforting. Another great example is the whole Onan thing because somebody decided to make it about masturbation when if you really get down to it it’s a story about a dude who thinks he’s being slick by obeying the letter of the current law to screw his widowed sister in law out of her rightful property and THAT story is TIMELESS.
I spiritually disbelieve in everyone’s religion
I believe in God and His judgement because I just do. There’s something instead of nothing, and nothing takes considerably less effort than something to exist (no need to argue this, nor any way to do so, hehe), and for me the idea of a Creator makes entire sense and completes the puzzle. I believe in His judgement probably because of that inner morality and desire for truth and justice everyone has but many deny and avoid. Finally, I do because it makes me happy, and helps me tame the animal and just be overall a person I’m proud of being, one that walks his talk and is at peace with himself and others.
Of course, none of this just came to me, or at least not as well defined and convincingly spoken, this is all thanks to the words of the prophets and the word of God as encapsulated in the Qur’an. Jesus always made sense to me even as an atheist kid (I just thought he was a pretty clever and kindhearted dude, not, you know, “God made flesh” or whatever people believe in), Solomon should make sense to any adult with enough working neurons, Muhammad’s message is basically just a reiteration and perfection of it all, a little bow that ties it all of monotheism up. 👍
I disagree with everything you’ve said, but upvoted because you answered the question.
Thanks for the positive interaction. 👍
Plus real honesty and good intentions.
username checks out
Hi! 😅👋
hi yourself there, buddy.
Do not want to find out if your username checks out.
Could you expand (or link to something that expands) on the Solomon thing?
Please read Ecclesiastes, written by Solomon, the king of Israel, one of the wisest men in recorded history and the OG panicking existentialist!
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ecclesiastes+1&version=NIV
It’s a short read, I promise. 👍
I just have a deep rooted appreciation for pasta.
His noodliness, Ramen!
The sun is real.
How can you definitively prove it, though?
Take a look at it, it’ll prove to you it’s real.
Could be an illusion, or a lamp somewhere in the sky, or a simulation
You didn’t take a look did you?
I did, and saw it. I also saw optical illusions. So?
With Solipsism.
Unless you are the Sun (in which case, cute~), it doesn’t seem to help
My point is that if universal personal experience doesn’t prove something, you may be in the philosophical weeds.
It doesn’t take philosophical weeds to consider the possibility of Sun being just a lamp in the sky, or people around you not being real
The sun can be a large lamp. That’s still real.
Is it the Sun as we know it, though? And how can we be sure the lamp is actually there, and not simulation/imagination/trick of our eyes or brain?
I rejected christianity sometime as an early teen.
I don’t remember my full reasoning but I did not like the idea of getting up early Sunday morning to do the church stuff.
It never got replaced by anything.
I find it funny that there was a time where atheists on the internet were just called edge lords (or still, idk) for not believing in god and voicing that opinion. I remember being like 8 years old and thinking: wow that is stupid, why would anyone believe that. That was pre internet, i didn’t have to be influenced by other edge lords and i didn’t read any books about it. But somehow it’s in certain parts of the world weirder to come to that conclusion than believing in the all mighty super being.
During that time period it wasn’t so much being an atheist that made someone an edge lord, but in how they went about communicating that to others.
Same. My mother actually sent me to Sunday school and I even did 1st grade at a Catholic School. I too remembering how silly it all seemed even at that age. Luckily the school closed down after that first year or she would have kept sending me there. I always wonder if the indoctrination would have taken if I’d have to keep going year after year.
You sacrifice for me, I sustain you. I sacrifice for you, you sustain me.
I believe this because nature is hungry, but expected to sustain life.
I don’t
Because I can at least see spaghetti without DMT.
Since we all have DMT in our brain already you are wrong heretic
