LINK Ex-Christian: My Faith Shifted After Seeing Ken Ham Get “Destroyed” by Bill Nye | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos
Kudos to the Christian Post: The publication just posted the first of eight (!) personal essays written by people who walked away from Christianity, even if they later returned. This one’s from Luke Douglas, the executive director of the Humanist Society of Greater Phoenix and board member for the Secular Coalition for Arizona. In other words, a legit atheist activist.
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Of course people believe what they want to especially when it comes to unverifiable crap like religion.
JackPedigo
Level 9
Oct 27, 2020
4
I think some people go back not because they necessary believe but that when they leave there is nothing to take up the void. They no longer have the network of like minded people who they feel they "belong" to/with.
Jolanta
Level 9
Oct 27, 2020
7
Jolanta, I share this belief 100 percent.
Yes, Humans are animals which evolved to instinctually gather in groups for safety. The need to belong is an instinctual drive. A residue form then gathing in groups was needed for survival. Religion fills that instinctual drive and need.
Most religions also have social events. I greew up in the Mormon religion where all social events were planned for me. When i left, it was hard because I lacked some common social skills which most take for granted. That made it really difficult for the first few years.
To be honest I wouldn't mind if these God damned Christians were what they claim to be.
Patient, kind, loving, quick to forgive, long suffering etc..
But it seems those are the qualities of humanist, regardless of belief or lack of belief.
No, American Christians are Christian Dominionist, not any better than Nazies, and just as brutal.
Willow_Wisp
Level 8
Oct 27, 2020
6
The essay itself is very good to read. [christianpost.com] The following reminds me of the time I was struggling to "try" to be a Christian, for my wife's sake:
It’s impossible to say when doubts first began creeping in. I remember spending hours on my knees in prayer, my entire emotional focus pinned on talking to God, only to hear nothing back. I would feel my stomach churn wondering if there was nobody there to hear me, then convince myself it was my fault that I didn’t believe hard enough, or that I was trying to connect with God on my own strength, or something along those lines. Then, I’d redouble my efforts to connect to God more strongly in worship, or in Bible reading. If I ever felt doubts, my focus was to study to show myself approved, a workman who need not be ashamed.
Well, apart from the hours on my knees, but the spirit of trying to hear some reply from something, anything, resonates with me.
Paul4747
Level 8
Oct 27, 2020
5
I can remember praying so much and so emotionally that at one point I had an experience of sorts that kept me convinced for a long time. But it’s just part of training yourself to be your own prison guard. Had God been a human that I thought loved me then why would I have to beg and pled for weeks on end to get a little snuggle time? That’s just not healthy or sane.
@Willow_Wisp Holy shit. You just gave me an epiphany. This
why would I have to beg and pled for weeks on end to get a little snuggle time?
was my relationship with my wife for the last many years of my marriage, and the same time I started finally getting frustrated and disenchanted with my marriage was the time I grew disenchanted with religion; partly because she seemed more interested at times in the immaterial god than in the flesh & blood husband. And since the reason I was trying so hard to be a Christian was for her, and what was I getting for it except waking up early on Sundays... I started reexamining the whole thing more critically.
The religion and the marriage both.
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