There is a god

Cyprusg
I asked that question because it has been my experience that my Christian life as been anything but a waste of time. As you pointed out, I have made a great deal of friends through my church fellowship. I have found them all to be good and gracious individuals who cherish my friendship as much as I do theirs.

The money I give to my church is obviously used to maintain the existence of the church, but also contributes a great deal to the betterment our local community. In fact, I believe that the money I give through my church contributes more directly to my community than the money I give to the federal government.

But I really shouldn't make such a blanket statement considering religion often gives people a positive direction in their lives, and in just doing that it's not a waste. But it is unfortunate that people need to believe in some fictional God to do good deeds.

I agree that there are some who never lifted a hand for another until they found God, but it has been my experience that the majority of the people in my Christian life have contributed to their community, and to their country because it was the right thing to do, not because it was some edict from God. I don?t volunteer my time and money to the Boy Scouts of America because I feel that God requires this of me. I do so because it was a program that did wonders for my young life and that of my son.

I?m sorry that I haven?t had a chance to read all of your posts, but it appear that you had a very bad experience with your time as a believer. Unfortunately, I have several friends who have had a similar experience and as a result have been turned off to the idea of exploring the spiritual aspects of their life all together. I grew up in, and was married in a church that was spiritually dead. At least that was my feeling when I finally decided to leave it. But rather than give up on that part of my life all together, I found another which focused more on the philosophy of God rather than the philosophy of man. And that works for me. And believing that there is something beyond these few years here on Earth works for me too. But I am curious about one of your statements. Why do you now cherish life a lot more since you decided to believe that there was no God waiting for you on the other side?

 

I?m sorry that I haven?t had a chance to read all of your posts, but it appear that you had a very bad experience with your time as a believer.

Nope. I went to church every Sunday, I was raised in a christian home, I read the bible, etc.. etc.. At the time I was just your everyday average christian. What turned me off from the bible was more the factual accuracy of the bible at first, and then disagreements with the very basis of christianity later.

So my transition from Christianity to Atheism was purely a matter of THINKING about it openly and not restricted by the thought process of your average christian.

 

That's well and good, but there are many of us who are deep thinkers, who toy with all possibilities so as not to shut off any options, and yet we still remain Christians.

And then there are those philosophical atheists of the more intelligent persuasion who converted to Christianity sometime in their life.

Surely you aren't so closeminded that you will look only to your own experiances and declare that you MUST be the more logical, and that everyone who disagrees with you is just stupid. Especially considering the fact that you're in the minority with your beliefs.

 

Lately I've been reading testimonials about losing faith.

If any one is interested in stories about losing one's faith, check this out:
Losing Faith in Faith by Dan Barker

 

That is the unfortunate downfall of Christianity. Christianity is consisted of so many factions, it's no wonder people are turned off by it's internal mess.

Thank the Protestant Reformation for that one.

 

The almost universal tone of the letters and conversations was that I was the one with the problem. None acknowledged that my change of mind might be an indictment of Christianity

That's a quote from the Losing Fath in Faith book. Almost 100% of the time the reaction from Christians when I tell them I'm no a longer a christian seems to be "well, you must have a had a bad experience" or "you were never a christian in the first place then" or "what happened to you to make you turn from Christianity". They just don't get it!

My transition from a Christian to an Atheist was purely a result of free thinking and coming to the only conclusion I felt was intellectually honest. I had almost no outside influence, there was no single event that happened in my life that turned me off to christianity, and my christian experience was a very good one. It was purely a result of free thinking.