Those of you who are former theists, what is the part of your former faith that stood out to you as just so wrong that it caused a catastrophic failure in your religious beliefs?
For me it was the book of Job. God and his “dollar bet” with his buddy the devil.
Yeah I started to question by trying to convert an atheist. Thinking I had the truth boy did I find out I was way wrong. It took a couple years of research to mostly call myself an atheist. Even then I was worried about God being real. Funny it was having the conversation with believers and encountering their bad reasoning that got me over this fear.
When I saw fictional alternative accounts of religious “characters” and realised that the stories made more sense than the Bible (Memnoch the Devil). Compounded later by questioning the arrogance of Christianity in insisting only their version of events could possibly be true when millions of people believed other things and asking moral questions Christianity couldn’t answer if thwr was an omnipotent God.
During the times i kept on praying and i feel like a fool ?
I think mine was when I moved to the town I'm in now. Everyone wanted to know what religion I was. We have a big choice here. Baptist or Catholic. I am neither. I don't feel my religion makes me who I am. I must admit I did attend a few Catholic services and felt very uncomfortable, I helped with bake sales gave money for some kind of cause. Let people come to my house and visit. I asked a woman who is really into the church. Why is my money and food good enough for your church, but I'm not good enough for communion? She has never been back. Won't even wave at me. This was my knock knock moment.
With me it was just time and finally watching a Jerry DeWitt video on You Tube. With a similar past I understood him fully.
Today I look back and admit the book of Job is a good one. God and the devil have a bet. The best of all is also that book of Genesis with the garden, Adam and Eve, and a talking snake. (serpent.) Look at the part incest played in god's perfect plan, and if you throw all this out there is no need of Jesus at all. It is so ridiculous!
Failure of virtually all assurances that if I observed my faith / trusted god / refrained from sin, god would have my back. Yet ... my life played out just as one would expect if god were absent, indifferent, or nonexistent. I chose what was behind door #3.
there are over 4,000 religions on this planet. pick one - oh by the way, the other 3,999 are false just not yours!!!
Well said.. That is the view of any religious person but it's hard for them to see it while they still remain religious.