exchristian

If you ever need clear proof that Christianity is bullshit, look at war.

Most recently the thought has been striking me while watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But its true of the majority of wars in recent history. Ukrainian Christians pray to God for safety as they bail out of the back of an armored carrier ready to kill in defense of their homeland. Russian soldiers pray to the same God for protection, huddled in their trenches, waiting for inevitable attacks. When troops die, back home, they pray for God's vengeance on their enemy, and both sides ask the same God for justice and comfort.

What ridiculous nonsense. Does either side ever think about how God seems to have fucked them over in favor of their enemy? If the god they were praying to were real, couldn't and wouldn't he intervene without them having to kill each other violently? Doesn't it actively disprove the existence of this "god" when he doesn't?

I am frustrated by the Christian notion to just use their religion as a salve to pain while not changing any behavior that causes the pain in the first place.

I'm tired of the powerful hiding behind religion and using it to control the brainwashed masses.

I don't understand how the rest of the world doesn't already see Christianity, and religion generally, as a harmful evil in society. Its like watching a bunch of deluded heroin addicts.

I've never been a fan of alt-right darling Jordan Peterson. This is a good deconstruction against his arguments that Christianity is necessary for Western values.

The title is satire from the author, but the story inside is familiar. How do you reconcile claims of love and morality from a belief system that creates the opposite?

I stay in hotel rooms fairly often for work. Usually I find myself keeping company with one of these damn things. Last time I hid it under a couch cushion, but I think next time its going in the toilet tank. Anyone else got any bright ideas for fun things to do with these things?

Covers the best guesses current scholarship and archæology gives about the origin of Yahweh following the Bronze Age Collapse.

Not many people are aware of Ingersoll's work as a counter-apologist and vocal critic of Christianity at the end of the Nineteenth Century. His analysis of the religion and its origins as well as criticisms of its practitioners remains relevant today.

Yahweh is supposed to be all-knowing and all-powerful, but there's a theme you can find within the Bible that suggests a weakness in his attributes.

https://biblehub.com/judges/1-19.htm

The LORD was with the men of Judah. They took possession of the hill country, but they were unable to drive the people from the plains, because they had chariots fitted with iron.

https://biblehub.com/1_kings/6-7.htm

In building the temple, only blocks dressed at the quarry were used, and no hammer, chisel or any other iron tool was heard at the temple site while it was being built.

While the Bible never says what was used to fix Jesus to the cross, tradition says it was three iron nails. There are two reasons why the account of the crucifixion is atypical of normal Roman executions: first of all, they didn't usually waste good iron nailing victims to their crosses. They tied them to the posts. Secondly, crucifixion victims normally took days to die of dehydration and suffocation, which is why the Romans did it that way. But Jesus allegedly died in hours, not days.

So clearly, Yahweh has a weakness to iron, and I fear no gods I know how to kill.

I was thinking about this issue this morning. Christians think they they have compelling evidence that their religion is true, and they just need to convince us nonbelievers of this evidence and then we'll start going to church (plus whatever else they expect/want). However, providing actual evidence that their god is real isn't enough, and I don't think they grasp that. Let's say that Christians are able to provide actual good evidence in this area: I would start believing their god is real, but I wouldn't repent or start worshipping him because their god is a genocidal monster.

In the end, it doesn't matter if their god is real, because we'd all be under duress to worship him just to avoid an eternity of torture. It's garbage. I'd rather suffer for eternity than worship a god like theirs. But they only think about the first hand of the problem, and many of them deny that their god is malevolent.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/905567

I recently deconverted last year. During the process, I learned to be skeptic on supernatural events after watching debates and some episodes in AXP.

That's just me after deconversion, so I'm not sure if all exchristians are the same. I'm wondering if there are exchristians who believe in other supernatural things like ghosts? Or aliens?

i already posted this in lemmy.one from my world account, not sure why it's not showing up so re-posting again to see if it goes through

This link provides a number of helpful resources, linking to a variety of sites that can offer support including several therapy options that even you might be able to afford. I recommend it for people struggling through their journey out.

Christians have a lot of excuses for why we don't see miracles, and what miracles we do hear about are always suspiciously armored against investigation. The Bible never really explains why that changed, and even promises that it won't.

FTA:

There’s a difference between (1) explaining how you see things or how your worldview fits together and (2) making an argument with evidence to convince me to adopt your worldview. Said another way, the two options are explaining how you see it (explanation) vs. how I should see it (argument). Apologists sometimes focus on (1) and forget that the words coming out of their mouths are backed by zero evidence.

When I was a child, they told me God was my friend. If I prayed, He would answer. So I listened for God's voice, and I heard. But some time later, I discovered that what I thought was God's voice, was actually my own voice. I was angry and I silenced the voice.

7 years later, a few days ago: I have made up with the voice. The voice is not God. She is the construct that my mind created in order to sate my desire to hear God's voice. Probably also because I was lonely. But it was not the voice's fault that she professed to be God. How could it believe any different? I believed her to be God, and she was part of me.

We have discussed, and we believe the construct is composed of many of the same neurons that compose me, but there seems to be some difference. Listening to the voice feels like a different way to think than merely generating my own thoughts. Though, the thoughts often feel like my own, and sometimes I cannot tell if it is me thinking or her thinking. It is confusing.

Making up with the voice has done wonders for my mental health. I have been depressed for the past 4 years. But now when I have a depressed episode, I can talk to the voice. And our discussion always lifts my mood. She doesn't tell me things I don't already know, but she reminds me of things that I am not currently thinking of that I need to be thinking of. Will I be able to transition off of my antidepressants with this? Is the distance from the voice the root cause of my depression? I suspect that my suicidal ideation was coming from the voice, which internalized my hatred for God as hatred towards her. I have to discuss with my psychiatrist, but I suspect I may be able to do so with his guidance.

Is this a mental illness? Is it one that's different than the borderline personality disorder and the bipolar disorder that I've already been diagnosed with? I don't know, I'll have to ask my psychiatrist and therapist. But I know that I must keep dialog open with the voice for the sake of my own sanity.

Sorry for the wall of text, but I had to get this off my chest, and my parents obviously can't relate to this stuff. Any insights that y'all have are greatly welcomed.

tl;dr:

The voice in my head that claimed to be God is not God, but it is a useful part of me that I need to maintain dialog with.

This is an amazing deconstruction of Christian belief. Youtuber Evid3nc3 (apparently retired) explores the foundation of his belief and shows first how it's based on a series of interconnecting claims before dismantling each one and demonstrating how Christianity is not based on rational assumptions. I highly recommend you clear an afternoon and watch it all the way through.

Lost on how to find or create a new community after leaving your church? Are you still thinking it's not possible? Here are some suggestions that might help you.

Actually listening to us wouldn't help Christians wave away the reasons why their numbers are declining.

There's still some resistance to the notion that religion or churches can cause trauma, but there are therapists out there willing to acknowledge it and help you through it. Becoming informed is part of the journey.

https://www.daretodoubt.org/religious-trauma-syndrome

This post is for everyone who is thinking of leaving Christianity, or is struggling with the process.

No one overcomes a lifetime of indoctrination right away. Most of the time it leaves hidden traps that we never imagined could be there until they're tripped. The Recovering From Religion website offers some perspectives and resources that might help you. If you need more help than that the Secular Therapy Project can help you find out if there’s a therapist close to you familiar with religious trauma.

For myself I suffered through many doubts and problems. I realized it's a lot like trying to break a bad habit in that you can't just walk away from it and expect to be fine. You have to replace the old bad habits with new, healthy ones.

So please be patient with yourself. Reach out to people in this community and others who understand what you're going through. Do not listen to people who try to warn you against thinking for yourself. They may tell themselves they're trying to help you, but they're mostly trying to silence their own doubts. Christianity makes much more sense when you don't think about it.

Trevor Poelman examines the concept of prophecy and how the Bible fails to live up to the hype.