Question:
Ex-Christians: what made you finally stop believing in God?
2013-03-15 06:32:01 UTC
Was it finally a case of accepting that what science was saying was true; or you lost faith in the claims of the OT; maybe the recent scandals of the church turned you away?
Thirteen answers:
2013-03-15 07:07:48 UTC
Studying the Bible and seeing all the wrong information. For example, how Luke claims a census made Jesus' family move from Bethlehem, but Roman records show there never was a census. That's just one of many. The fact that there's nothing in the Jesus story that didn't already exist in pagan mythology. The fact that most of the New Testament is written by Paul, or one of his followers, yet Paul never met Jesus in person. Paul proudly states he receives much if his teachings through "revelation," which means it comes to him in thought. The earliest gospel was written no earlier than 40 years after Jesus. The fact that there's ample evidence of Christians trying to go back and change the historical records. The fact that there never was an Adam, yet Christians downplay Adam's critical role in Christian theology. Adam creates the sin that requires Jesus' death, and without a Fall blamed on mankind it's impossible to have a loving God--the whole theology changes. Adam is listed in Jesus' genealogy in Luke 3, so we know it was fabricated. The fact that disease, parasites, cancer, etc is blamed on Adam's Fall, but we know these have always been around. I literally could write a book on all the problems with the New Testament. That Yahweh of the OT was a typical "sky god" of that era. It's not that Christianity requires faith, no it requires shear denial and delusion to believe those stories are true.
Nous
2013-03-15 07:46:21 UTC
The only way primitive religion exists today is through the child abuse of forcing it into very, very young children but thanks to better education and growing intellects so many teens are able to discover the truth, throw off the indoctrination and step into the real world!



Research has shown atheists have a higher intelligence than people with a strong religious faith. The difference is 5.8 points according to findings in developmental psychology!



More members of the "intellectual elite" considered themselves atheists than the national average.



Only 7 percent of members of the American National Academy of Sciences believed in God. Whilst only 3.3 percent believed in God in the UK’s Royal Society.



Several Gallup poll studies of the general population have shown that those with higher IQ’s tend not to believe in God."



Neuroscientists have conducted the most comprehensive brain mapping to date of the cognitive abilities measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), the most widely used intelligence test in the world.



The results show that the various factors that comprise a high or low IQ score

depend on particular regions of the brain.



The WAIS test is composed of four indices of intelligence, each consisting of several subtests, which together produce a full-scale IQ score. The four indices are the verbal comprehension index, which represents the ability to understand and to produce speech and use language; the perceptual organization index, which involves visual and spatial processing, such as the ability to perceive complex figures; the working memory index, which represents the ability to hold information temporarily in mind (similar to short-term memory); and the processing speed index.



With the exception of processing speed, which appears scattered throughout the brain, the lesion mapping showed that the other three cognitive indices really do depend on specific brain regions.



For example, lesions in the left frontal cortex were associated with lower scores on the verbal comprehension index; lesions in the left frontal and parietal cortex (located behind the frontal lobe) were associated with lower scores on the working memory index; and lesions in the right parietal cortex were associated with lower scores on the perceptual organization index.



The study also revealed a large amount of overlap in the brain regions responsible for verbal comprehension and working memory, which suggests that these two now-separate measures of cognitive ability may actually represent the same type of intelligence, at least as assessed using the WAIS.



It matters not if they are atheist because of this new type of intelligence or get it because they are atheist – it is a totally different and far more efficient process!!
sine
2016-08-09 11:30:21 UTC
Watching back, i'm no longer sure I ever genuinely "believed." I was raised from beginning in it, it used to be all I knew, and everyone round me instructed me it was "proper." I simply went together with it. Around age 12, i began to discover that observed reality failed to match up with the claims made. I had doubts. However I normally pushed these apart, went along with the crowd, and enthusiastically participated. Finally round age 21, I determined i could not preserve the cognitive dissonance I had been working towards for the previous 9 years or so -- so I got down to in finding proof there used to be a god and magic jesus, so I might put my doubts to rest and happily follow religion. Enormous predicament, although: there used to be no proof. None of any sort. And i discovered that all of the claimed evidence was a heaping stack of stinking fallacies. I additionally found a best deal of evidence showing among the claims thoroughly false. Oops. Instead than in finding evidence for god, I found that evidence confirmed what i would been taught used to be both verified false or entirely unsupportable...That used to be it, I might no longer even attempt to "consider" it, and i bailed out. That used to be over 30 years ago. And i have nonetheless seen no aiding proof, just the equal historical tired rehashing of fallacies and lack of knowledge. It is really unhappy. Peace.
Salander
2013-03-15 06:42:17 UTC
Science? Science had no relavence in my decision, and if you think science plays a factor in whether Christians stop being Christians, you are well, ignorant.



Reason: Science still doesn't prove or explain everything. (In fact, for this reason, many people TURN CHRISTIAN, idiot).



What made me stop believing in God? Well, I never did in the first place but followed my parents to church.

1. I had no faith.

2. By having no faith, I lacked the basic foundation of a Christian's life.

3. By lacking the foundation, everything at church (though filled with great people) did not feel relavent to me, and thus was not beneficial, and a waste of time.



So I stopped going to church.





BTW, from my time at church (which is a lifetime), I was never taught that athiests are 'evil'.



As Christians, you're meant to try to live like Jesus, and Jesus loved everyone. And thus, we were taught to 'love' everyone, Christian or not... and that we should bring our friends to church to 'share the love' or something like that.
Pyriform
2013-03-15 07:01:41 UTC
I accepted what science said even when I was a Christian.



The main factor which influenced me in my atheism was probably the idea of Hell as a place of eternal torment for those who did not believe in the Christian God. Injustices in the OT and Jesus' failed predictions also played a part.
2013-03-15 06:39:14 UTC
Critical thinking and i opened my mind.



I will not lie to you i was one of those christians who was brought up thinking that atheist were mean, evil, devil worshipers and racist people.



How wrong was i? Very wrong.



Never would have thought id become an atheist myself.



Come to find out christians are the racist and evil people.



My atheist encounters...they've treated me with nothing but respect. Even when i was a believer asking questions.

Being a African American...most of my family is christian...and its a shame how they don't think about slavery as a result of what they believe.

To each their own.
CrownedOne
2013-03-15 06:35:37 UTC
The only reason there are ex-Christians is because their teacher of the word was ignorant and did not have the bibles accuracy. I personally have enough biblical knowledge to know that the bible doesn't contradict science, except in the cases of miraculous or supernatural events. Most atheists haven't even read the book or bothered to find a good teacher for it, so to claim it is against their beliefs or science is a statement of ignorance.
lhvinny
2013-03-15 06:36:57 UTC
The stupid claims made by creationists lead me to question Christian teachings. It was all down hill from there.

I always found it ironic that creationists say their purpose is to promote Christianity, when they are the ones most actively destroying it.
2013-03-15 06:34:35 UTC
Reading the Bible is guaranteed to cure any intelligent person of Christianity.
2013-03-15 06:33:15 UTC
They told me what the Bible said in Sunday School. I knew it was stupid right off.



If you want more details I wrote a blog post about it: http://www.atheistmafia.com/index.php/2010/08/why-im-an-athiest/
l
2013-03-15 06:32:45 UTC
I turned ten years old.
mt75689
2013-03-15 06:34:44 UTC
They never knew Him in the first place.
2013-03-15 06:33:31 UTC
I read the Bible.



AAA-Atheist


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