My spiritual journey vlog and some more. I share here some of my process of deconstruction, some RTS (Religious Trauma Syndrome), some of my current spirituality and how is my life after having to let go of what was "normal" for me for years. Having to let go of Jesus as a companion, having to relearn and unlearn things, transforming myself one step at a time and simply sharing life stuff.
Idk why youtube tries to deconverse me, I get a lot of these videos. Jesus is king, of that I am comfortable with and I grow more comfortable with it as I follow his path
I think the algorithm is just looking for key words; religion, Christian, bible etc, so if you engage with some of that content, then you end up with anything related to those topics, whether for or against.
your other video was just suggested to me... i hope you are doing well... and i see there is no more videos... a video update would be nice... and sunday... what do you mean??... sundays are for HBO shows :P
If God were to remove all evil from this world, give us utopia, in a short time we would be right back where we started. He is dealing with this phenomenally stubborn problem called sin. His solution was extreme and is offered as a free gift to anybody that is humble enough to accept. Many will not accept, not in this age.
@@Wertbag99 There is no sin or corruption in heaven. Our sin problem needed to be dealt with before we can enter. None of the bad is allowed in the Kingdom.
The King James Version of the Bible is Holy. But look what the world does and calls Christianity. Take for example the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Bible wasn't good enough for them, They downplay the deity of Jesus Christ, hide sexual immorality, and cause families to shun one another. Look at the Catholics, they murdered millions and abused countless children as the Antichrist while calling themselves Christian. The KJV Bible doesn't support any of that debauchery. The protestants are not far behind with their Trinitarian God, they will eventually return to their murdering God in Rome. There is a real Christianity that was not born in Hell; if you can find it. Jesus said to search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they testify of Me. 2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
You separate yourself from people that don't have answers. The KJV bible has all the answers, there is a coming Judgment. God made a judgment in the Garden of Eden and condemned our race to die. We have a trial period of in most cases less than 100 years to find God. God does not willy-nilly terminate a person unless they are extremely evil and offensive. I had a cousin who was beyond reconciliation who burnt animals at the stake, consorted with ignorant teenage girls sexually, and drove his own father in the house by throwing rocks at him, not to mention many other things he did, he will forever be 17 years old in His grave. God knows that the world lies in wickedness. Before I knew God I did some terrible things, but I came to my senses and wanted to live according to the dictates of God and I repented of my life before finding God. They found a woman in adultery and said to Jesus, the Law demands that she be stoned to death. Jesus said, let the one who is without sin cast the first stone, and they all walked away. Will you throw the first stone at those you condemn? We have a short time, Peter said, that God is patient with humanity waiting for them to repent (2 Peter, 3rd chapter). Because if they have not repented, they will be destroyed by his coming. The world is scheduled to be destroyed by fire, and the Lord has set up a Spiritual Kingdom for those who repent of evil by giving them His own Spirit (The Holy Ghost). The earth is a Grandstand in the cosmos, demonstrating the Lord's wisdom and justice before heaven and earth. Don't condemn God for something someone else has done, and don't make yourself out to have figured out the shortcomings of Christianity. You figured out the shortcomings of those who may call themselves Christians. Take your Bible and talk to it and tell it how you feel, don't judge God based on Christians who don't have answers.
Editors Denis Alexander and Alister McGrath gather other intelligent minds from around the world to share their startling commonality: Richard Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists were instrumental in their conversions to Christianity. Despite a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, all are united in the fact that they were first enthusiasts for the claims and writings of the New Atheists. But each became disillusioned by the arguments and conclusions of Dawkins, causing them to look deeper and with more objectivity at religious faith. The fallacies of Christianity Dawkins warns of simply don't exist. Spending time in this fascinating and powerful book is like being invited to the most interesting dinner party you've ever attended. Listen as twelve men and women from five different countries across a variety of professions--philosophers, artists, historians, engineers, scientists, and more--explain their journeys from atheism to faith. In the end, you may come away having reached the same conclusion: authentic Christian faith is in fact more intellectually convincing and rational than New Atheism. "Lucid as well as exhilarating and wide-ranging." --Rupert Shortt, Von Hügel Institute, University of Cambridge, and author of God Is No Thing "Many people, including nonbelievers like me, have found Dawkins's strident atheism upsetting to the point of offensive. I would never have thought that--as Coming to Faith Through Dawkins shows in wonderful detail--for some, Dawkins's rantings were the spur to Christian faith." --Michael Ruse, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, University of Guelph, Ontario "This is a novel book: real-life stories of people who have actually come to faith, not in spite of but through Richard Dawkins. It must be his own worst nightmare!" --William Lane Craig, Houston Christian University
Finding atheists that returned to Christianity is not hard, but it is equally easy to find thousands of ex-Christians who were devout and yet fell away. For every Christian who says the work of Dawkins turned them back to faith there will be another who says the opposite and came to understand it was all false. Personal testimony is interesting but too subjective to the individual to be much use to anyone else to finding the truth.
@@Wertbag99yup point taken. Though if someone was a Christian yesterday they would be one today since once you become a true child of God you cannot become otherwise. You could be an unregenerated person who tried in their own strength to be “Christian”, and gave it up. Giving the appearance that a Christian could possibly walk away. Some people believe they are Christian because they were born in Texas. Others because they attended church. So it’s clear that not everyone who claims to be a Christian actually is one. 😇
@@paulfromcanada5267 It is a common claim from apologists that you can't be an ex-Christian, although that isn't universally believed. I have spoken to Christians who say men are fallible and even good people can fall to sin. From a practical view ex-Christians come from every denomination, they were pastors, priests, preachers and missionaries, they read the bible, were baptised, completely believed they had a relationship with God and were born again. These can be the most devout, most "all in" people you can meet. They were often Christians for decades and fully devoted their lives to God and the church. It does feel disingenuous to say people who were that devout never really got it. It does go to show us that "seek and you shall find" doesn't work. If God can't even convince those who are that devout, then what chance do the rest of us outsiders have? God has convinced a small minority, around 25% of the world that Christianity is the right answer (less if you believe certain denominations are wrong), and it's around 4% of all humans ever. That is pretty poor numbers for a God that is claimed wants us to know Him.
There is a difference between what many believe the bible teaches and what it actually teaches. For instance, many christian religions will teach that God made this world. Some will claim that sin and suffering were even part of his plan. Yet, the bible actually states that Satan, an angel that rebelled against God, rules this world. Jesus even acknowleged this. When Satan tempted him for the third time, he offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the Earth if he just did a single act of worship to him. Jesus never disputed that the nations were Satan's to do with as he pleased. He argued how worship belonged to God alone. Why though, would God, it he is so much more powerful than an angel, allow the devil to rule the world? Back in Genesis, most people think the story of Adam and Eve is about humans. It isn't. The human aspect is just a minor component of what heppened there. What it really is about is a war that broke out in heaven. When the serpent deceived Eve, he called God a liar and a tyrant. The bible claims this serpent was a rebellious angel refered to later as Satan, which is a translation of the phrase, the Accuser. It isn't really the angel's name it is never actually given in the bible. The bible also claims, referring to this event, that the Devil is the father of the lie. That is a fancy way of saying originator, first. As such, this was the first time any intelligent creation of God called God's honesty or leadership abilities into question. So, why did God not just kill the Devil? Because while God claimed to never lie and to be the best ruler, he had no proof to back himself up with. We've all heard our parent give the old, because I said so line before. While it would be okay at shutting a kid up, did it ever convince a kid their parent was right? So, if God killed the Devil, the questions he raised would have still been in the minds of every other intelligent being. In fact, the mere fact that the questions were left unproven while the Devil was killed would have caused even more doubt to settle in. Wait, but isn't God omniscient? Didn't he know from the beginning the end? Didn't he know before making the angel that later became the Devil that he would rebel, thus creating the rebelion himself? The idea God is omniscient is a modern teaching. Omniscience means you just know everything, flat out. While the bible says God is all knowing and knows the future, it also says he is ignorant of things. Isn't this a contradiction? No. Many who look for problems to expose about God tend to oversimplify him. Clearly, in the account of Adam and Eve, God is shown as being ignorant as to their actions and even their position. After theh ate the fruit, he cannot find them. He wanders around looking for them, calling to them. Even after finding them, he asks them why they are hiding. After finding out they know they are naked, his first question is about who told them. He didn't even guess first that they ate the fruit. They had to tell him specifically. What's more, this account also shows that he was in ignorance of the Devil's actions as well. How can God be all knowing and ignorant? Choice. Omniscience is knowing all without choice. God is all knowing, in that he can independantly know anything. Still, he has a choice in what he knows and what he chooses to stay ignorant of. It's like a computer. It can have all sorts of data on the hard drive, but a running program has no access to it unless it loads it into running memory. The bible males the case that God chooses to stay ignorant of his childrens lives, so they can tell him about themselves in their own way. It gives them privacy, to be autonomous from him. He created intelligent creatures to be in his image, and a key feature of God is autonomy. To break that would be to strip them of being in his image. Add to that, the point that God didn't creare the Devil. The bible claims that God created one being, the one that ended up being Jesus. He then had that being create everything else. So, when the bible claims God built the universe and the Earth, along with life on Earth, it isn't saying he directly built them, but commumisioned they be built. In any event. The Devil called God's goodness into question and God took the accusations seriously. As I mentioned, this started a war in heaven. Not a war of violence like we are used to. One of logic and discussion, much like a court proceeding. The book of Job is a glimpse of one such proceeding, where the Devil accued God of both bribing and sheltering humans in exchange for faithulness. As the only humans alive at the time sided with the Devil, they made him their ruler. When God made them, they were his children, but they rejected him and followed Satan, adopting him as tbeir father. This follows in line with how Jesus spoke to the Pharisees. They were leaders in the nation of Israel, but their warping of God's Laws, making them a burden on his people, pushing them away from God, was really a rejection of God. They too put their own self inportance over the assignment from God to shepard his people, thus Jesus said their father was the Devil. As such, part of God's plan to prove thr devil a liar was to allow him to try and prove his case. A fair portion of the angels were swayed. Over time, some agreement must have been made about the way the proceedings would go, where God and the Devil would prove their cases to all creation. Part of this can be seen in Deuteronomy like in chapter 32, where God speaks of the world of men being devided up and assigned and how during this process Israel became his. This shows that much the Hebrew scriptures where God had a precense on Earth through the nation of Israel was part of the trial going on in heaven. The gods of other nations were rebellious angels who were taking part in trying to prove they could be better rulers than God. One aspect of God's working with Israel was for the trial. Another aspect was to set the foundation for his kingdom, the method of his plan to finally prove the devil a liar. Another aspect was the lineage of the Messiah. For reasons I won't go into here, a perfect man needed to sacrifice his life to balance the scales Adam set askew. Short version, the wages sin pays is death. Adam sinned and created a debt of a perfect human life with death. When Jesus died sinless, it created a valie death obtained that it didn't have the right to hold. Jesus, instead of taking it back, used it's value to nullify the debt Adam created. In effect, Jesus bought Adam's offspring out from slaver to death. It's a lot more complicated, but this is long as it is. So, suffering exists in this world because God is tied up in a trial for thousands of years. Why does it need to go on so long? The angels, according to the bible, are very old compared to us. A few thousand years is very short to them. From God's perspective, he never wants this to bappen again. He has the perapective of forever stretching out beyond this one case. As such, while this trial is going on, he wants every possible variation of the Devil's claim explored and proven wrong. When judgement day happens and he finally proves beyond a shadow of any doubt that the Devil was wrong, he was such a significant legal standard to be set that no claim like this could ever be made again. Any being beyond that point who calls God's authority or ability into question will quickly be judged by the standard set and no suffering will be allowed again. Fine, but what about all the people now and through history. While we have to suffer through this trial, God has made promises. He told Abraham that his seed would one day help the whole world. One aspect most people fail to understand the most is that the bible isn't here to save this world or the people in this world. This is Satan's world, so if God helped now, it would literally be helping the Devil make his case. When people suffer, it just adds evidence Satan is a failure as a leader. God has a plan. He is going to wipe away all the governments of this world and institute his kingdom to rule over the whole world. Part of Jesus ministry was miracles like curing people and feeding them. These were promises of what the kingdom would bring. In that new world of rulership, everyone will be made healthy and be fed so there will be no hunger. More than that. Jesus also raised the dead. Unlike what many teach about the bible, pretty much every human that ever died will be brought back to life to live under God's kingdom. Those people in other parts of the world that never learned about God aren't going to be tormented in hellfire, but will live again in a better world. Those people God had the nation of Israel kill as part of his making his case, they will live again free from violence. Everybody will have a chance to live in a world free from hunger, suffering, fear, and death. There, they will be given a real chance to learn about God and his ways. That is what the bible actually teaches, in a very brief manor.
Come unto me, all ye that Labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30
Which type of evil? There is human evil, that is people taking actions that are immoral compared to societies moral standards, and there is natural evil, a philosophical term used to describe anything natural which results in bad outcomes or suffering for sentient creatures (natural disasters, diseases, parasites etc). Natural evils are part of the natural environment, so fits fine with an atheistic worldview, and human evil is people using their freewill to choose to do immoral actions. The problem of evil can point to either type of evil and suffering, and the question "why does God allow this?" still stands.
Reading through the comments of Christians here is ridiculous to me. They are making so many claims they can’t prove and/or are blatantly false. Going to your confirmation biased echo chambers to figure out the truth about history doesn’t make any sense. When you look into actual scholarship and archeological findings around the biblical narrative by accredited professionals, you can’t assert that most things in the Bible is historical; especially when compared to the historical findings of other civilizations like Egypt for example. There are virtually countless artifacts found that corroborate the legitimacy of ancient Egypt so much so that we can be detailed about their dynasties. There is almost nothing to confirm any biblical narrative from Israel. You’d think you’d at least find something to confirm the exodus, but you don't and you absolutely would if it were real.
He was still cool with slavery in the New Testament. For me something that really struck me is how god would have no problem with destroying me for simply not being born an Israelite in the Old Testament times but now somehow he’s like actually that’s not good let’s make all people worth living. Also the thing in the law about sacrificing the firstborn of every womb to god is whack of course he gives a way out for your children but he also says no one comes empty handed so if you’re unfortunate enough to not have an alternate sacrifice you’re kinda stuck sacrificing your kid. The you got all the awful stuff in judges like child sacrifice apparently being cool and genocide and all the awful stuff in the last couple chapters where a woman gets brutally raped to death then dismembered by her husband and sent to the other tribes who the proceed to kill all the benjaminites at gods command and leave only 600 men alive which they feel bad for so they go a kill an entire city except the virgin women to give to those guys as wives but there isn’t enough so they tell them to kidnap more women at a festival. Then there’s the thing in 2kings where Elisha calls gods wrath on a group of 42 young men for making fun of his baldness who apparently then get mauled by two bears. There’s also a bit in the law that says if a man rapes a virgin she has to become his wife. There is so much stuff that when you really look into it is so whack and we have all just been taught so long that it’s all justified because God says so. It’s just fucked up when you think about it.
If you start questioning it leads to that path of finding answers. The real problem is people can read now. And as I state on my own episodes to my subs---people research on their own instead of just taking a pastor's word for it now. I didn't want to deconvert. Believe me, I fought it. But the fact is if you start to research you will see that the claims don't add up. And no I didn't take the late Christopher Hitchens word for it. I researched apologists' claims. I looked at Lee Strobel's interviewees and his total lack of objectivity, not to mention he never bothered to actually fact check their claims. And what you find is nothing but speculation and poor speculation at that. Or you find an apologist taking one fact (IE the city of Ur existed in Abraham's time) so therefore Abraham existed. Total fallacies and apologists do it all the time. I always say in my episodes that I want to find evidence to reconvert. But the fact is the more I research, the more the deconstruction continues. Cheers, DCF
All religions are man made. CHRIST TAUGHT LOVE ❤️ and you won’t find that. Christ said “you will know the TRUTH AND THE TRUTH WILL MAKE YOU FREE,” congratulations on your freedom!
@jameswarren180 3 weeks ago I wrote this to you from another video. @jameswarren180 2 minutes ago Thank you first of all and I need to apologize to you also I was wrong and I am sorry for assuming. I thought you were wrong about not wanting to be a Christian and that you were confused. I think differently now and I support what you said and you are correct. If you ever see this I need you to teach me, thanks. Christians are not from God Yeshua Christianity and the word Christians are man-made. Please do research and prove me wrong, you need to find who coined the phrase Christian there in lies the enemy. I can just tell you this and prove me wrong again if you're able. Let me give you scripture: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Moses said it first okay but the Bible taught me that the word Christian did not come from Ueshua God or out of his mouth. That is there first problem with that word. Yeshua God has ruled so that Christians can fool or control you. If you learn anything about your Father is that he exposes all evil no matter where he finds it. I must say you are a son just like me which makes us brothers. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established” is a phrase from 2 Corinthians 13:1 in the King James This is another rule that the word Christian does not pass according to Scripture so if fail another test from Yeshua God. The last test and Yeshua God always has more but these three are enough to prove that Christianity does not belong in the Bible because the Bible itself says so. King James Bible Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. World English Bible Give diligence to present yourself as approved by God, a workman who doesn't need to be ashamed, properly handling the Word of Truth. You can do your own research, but find the best religious leader independent of you let them prove me wrong please sir, and thank you very much. Brother If you were a real-life human then there would not be a God Yeshua. Since you are real he has more answers than you have questions, please prove me wrong and let the best preacher pastor minister you can find prove me wrong so that I can have two or three witnesses to call me on the carpet.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame. According to the Bible you were never born again. The Bible is the source for the understanding of Christian faith. I can see you are really serious about these important things. Don't give up. Jesus is King, peace.
Jesus is the tree and true believers the branches. Jesus is the way truth and life. Same yesterday today and forever. Pray to Jesus from heart and you will have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Draw close to God and He will draw close to you. Devil and demons sin power and hell are real. Satan is father of lies and deceiver. Jesus loves you all.
Most questions become explainable when you no longer anthropomorphize God. Church is a place where we draw false comfort from a false consensus. Sant Kirpal Singh once said " God is high, but truth is higher still."
Biblical Christianity is either True or False. All Truth has 3 Immutable Properties. If Christianity is True it's true whether you believe it or not. I support the unbeliever to hold any position you want. It's your God given right to be wrong, but understand this God will honor you and give you exactly what you deserve. DEATH.
A spell has been casted over the humans of this planet for thousands of years. Conquerors would commit mass genocide, enslaved people, steal their land and natural resources. Then apply a weapon to mentally, physically and spiritually control the remaining survivors and their offspring for generations. That weapon is religion. Fortunately the evil spell is slowly but surely disintegrated. Congratulations for applying empathy, love, reason, logic and critical thinking to break that spell. Welcome to your freedom☀️
See God's perpetual memorial to the crucifixion, Look up "THE CRUCIFIX FISH - WHAT THE CRUCIFIX FISH REVEALS" Go to the domain "The Crucifix Fish Testifies"
Thank you for sharing your story. Sending love from a gay pastor's kid who was taught and raised to hate himself his whole life for being himself. Hope we all find the peace we need to rest from all the damage religion has caused on us throughout a big period of our lives. ❤️🏳️🌈
Courage it takes courage to own your own thoughts. The journey is singular and that has been lost in the group mentality that only knows to follow the middle man message,that claims to be sent to you rather than speaking directly to the person.
Why post that? The main reason non-believers don't believe is the lack of evidence of god(s), and your vid isn't evidence of a god. The more that theists _don't_ present evidence, the more ridiculous it makes their position seem.
Hope this help u. Please, take your time to finish the video and listen very carefully the claims and its explanations ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G1XJ7DeR5fc.html
What about truth, Jose? When people make big claims, do we need weak evidence or strong evidence? An internet comment is weak evidence: if I claim to be a god (a big claim), are you just going to believe me? If 4 others show up to say it, does _that_ indicate it's true? This isn't the sort of idea you take people at their word for. You should demand evidence, and the Bible isn't it. I did in fact watch your entire video, but he's just knocking down bad arguments. (And yeah, they're mostly bad arguments. He's right to knock them down as he does.) The problem is he's not providing the core reason why we should believe the Bible's claims, especially the supernatural ones. Even at face value, Jesus being said to do _human-fakeable_ things like faith-healing should be a huge red flag. After all this is said to be an all-knowing, all-powerful god, so the idea that they _chose_ to do only human-fakeable things (faith-healing, etc) is just ridiculous!
Thankyou for sharing. I left evangelical christianity in the late 1980s. Really the term "deconstruction" is the normal process of questioning, researching, doubting and making our own minds up. This normal process is quite often circumvented by an emotional conversion experience. I would say most Christians start with a conversion and then , in order to make sense of the experience, are prone to indoctrination; someone tells you what it means. After a while the healthy, rational, questioning part can reassert itself. You are no longer satisfied with clichés, easy answers and convoluted explanations. Surely, any sane God wouldn't make everything this complicated as to have the eternal state of you soul dependent upon having it all worked out as doctrines; and having the "right" beliefs as regards the convoluted rabbit hole of biblical scholarship?!
Wow, that’s so interesting that you called deconversion normal 😅 I wish it was normal but I realize it’s not because as you said, usually after conversion comes dogmatism and that’s the end of it for many since it brings them a false sense of safety. Thanks for commenting though. Feel free to subscribe, I would love to keep knowing your thoughts as I keep sharing my journey.
Your first topic is evil. But you skipped suffering. When I was a believer in god the question of suffering was always in my head. Christians will say that it’s because we live in a fallen world. But what about children of Christians that are “ covered with the blood of Jesus and are gods chosen ones? Children of Christians are born with bone cancer, brain damage, organs defects, muscular distrofia, and many condition that causes suffering in a mayor scale. They have a supposedly relation with this Jesus, but this Jesus does nothing to prevent this atrocity. Doesn’t this Jesus said that if you ask with faith you will receive? But the pray, pray and pray and the solution to stop the suffering is death. This is what made me change my view about this god. As you say, this god is not good or he simply doesn’t care.
Right, there are many dissonances in the Bible, nonetheless I think is that version of god that’s not loving. On the other hand my view of god has changed. I don’t know where you’re at in your journey but if your intererested on digging more into these topics feel free to subscribe and check out my latest video. It’s a little long but in my opinion is a good way to go about life when we navigate life without a concrete idea of god.
I was an associate pastor of a full-gospel church for about ten years. I went to college to become a Christian Apologist - long story short ~ I am now an Anti-Theist. My family disinherited me, my Church family shunned me and my community bullied me. I moved to another part of the country and started over. I never could have foreseen the freedom and courage that comes from fully letting go of GOD. Compulsory love - is not love.
Fuck yeah, and the more we evolve as a species the more experiences we’ll collect and we’ll find ourselves in need to expand and as you said evolve language
My only stumbling block is your last question. Don’t most denominations agree on core principles? They affirm the apostles’ creed. No joke, I just looked the term up, and 5 differently affiliated church websites had it on their website! 😂 Each person tries to live out Christ is his own way. The Jesuits would ramble from place to place, without food or shelter, to live life like the Christ. The proponents of liberation theology focus on the fact that God’s way for us to worship is to help the widows and orphans. Evangelical and Vineyard congregation focus on His grace, simplicity and desire to reach every nation and race. The church is the body of Christ - an infinite being - on earth, right? Doesn’t it make sense that it has different parts and different perspectives?
Exactly Christian/ religious types always lash out when you don't mirror them. Just this week I have been called Satan, stupid, lacking the ability to have discernment of seeing evil happening now because I'm an atheist. It's a very narcissistic spin they put on everything.
The people who criticize you by asserting you didn't really have criticized you by asserting you didn't really have criticized you by asserting you didn't really have Christianity are people whose identities are feeling attacked and so they have simply not crucified their own egos but they have tied up their eagles into their man made religion.... Rather than crucify it
Maria As a Christian theist, I find the issues you are raising our superb!! I just listened to a response to your video and it was very poorly done or mediocre had the best. I trust you can see through the typical evengelical hooey that would be used to respond to the very serious issues that you raise about the way God is described in the standard canonical text.
When some of my friends discovered that I do not believe in a heaven or a hell, I was asked on why I live a highly ethical life. I do not need the reward of a heaven or the concept of a god continuously watching me. I became an atheist 20 years ago.
Hi Maria, First I can't really say I'm sorry you have deconstructed nor glad you have deconstructed Christianity. It's perfectly natural for non believer not to believe what he or she have never "believed" in the first place. When I write believed I mean the full gamut of belief: mental ascent, heart acceptance and complete and total trust in God through Jesus. Belief is not a power you summon yourself to believe. it is actually a miracle to believe because the natural inclination as humans is not to believe. That is the default mode of every human in history or in the future without exceptions. Atheism is not a hard position to take. The moment we were born , we are naturally train atheist. So when some says I became an atheist, I would say "so what, big deal". Join the 99.9% of humanity. But what is amazing is when someone encounters your questions 1 to 4 , and then some AND still believe and trust God through Jesus while being persecuted and ridiculed and hunted down, that is a something unusual. That is something you don't see every day. That is a miracle , you might say, Well frankly belief and trust is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. To believe one must overcome the sin barrier, the peer pressure, the self preservation instinct, and host of reasons why not. It is an impossible barrier to breach. No human has ever breach that barrier out of their own free and sheer will power. In order to believe, you have to ask God for that miracle. You must first admit honestly you are a sinner condemn and your way to destruction (hell to be exact). The only way to stop you on your tracks is Jesus our Lord. If you "can" accept that, then you must also repent ( I mean really really really really sorry) to God. Then pray to Jesus to have the gift of believing in Him. It doesn't matter how you grew up or what you've learned. If this miracle really happened, you'll know for sure. How? things like your previous dispositions will gradually change, your very nature will change, etc. Second I would like to give you a glimpse to time tested answers to those questions of yours. But my responses will be brief and just one. The answers are in the Bible 1. Why does he permit evil? Why does He permit rapist murders, criminals? Why does He permits Satan? I will extend your questions and your doubts even further. Why did He permit Jesus to be murdered, tortured, mocked, crucified and abandoned not just by non believers, but His own disciples and ultimately God the Father himself? Consider the flip side to your question. Why does He permit you to live and breathe? Or me. or anybody else, for that matter. You might say, how is that? If your assumptions are that men are basically "good" , that would be unbiblical. A mere thought of sin play out in your mind is considered a sin. A strong emotion of sin without being actualized is already a sin.See Matthew 5:28. You see it is impossible to NOT sin. For ALL have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. There is NONE righteous , not even one. Remember penalty for sin is death , the wages of sin is death. That means you and me and Charlie, Megan, and every one in this planet. The same reason why he allows the rapist to go unpunished NOW is the same reason why He allows us , you or me and every non rapist to go unpunished. Same standard all around. And also just because He doesn't punish now, doesn't me He will never. One of His attributes is Patience. Otherwise if God doesn't have patience, there will be no living soul in this planet. Any ways I hope that clarifies some misconception about God.
In regard to why God permits evil in the world how would you suggest God end all evil? 1. He could destroy the world. 2. Or destroy all who do evil in this world, but that seems to be all so that is just another way of saying 1. 3. He could change us all into robots that can't do evil. .. or he could do what he is doing now and give us all time o see the effects of evil, decide we wish to have no part in it, and to repent for any evil we have done, and strive to do better, asking God to help us do that. Which solution do you prefer?
Maria you certainly are on the right path... Is especially regarding The Bible and the various presentations of yawa in The Bible. I loved yourGod changing his morality and say as an example we shouldn't eat pork and then we can eat pork - that is silly. Is what actually changed you know why would that be a change at all. It seems there is a much better explanation than some of the silly evangelical explanations that is that is a very human explanation. As far as the nature of God maybe that is an area where either God will reveal himself to a person and interact with a particular person as he chooses or he won't or the supernatural realm or whatever. But he is allowed to be and do whatever he chooses rather than what we choose so in that regard remain atheist but I look to God too identify himself rather than to silly evangelical fantasies and idols... Which lead to many misconceptions. And I don't try and explain what I don't know no I certainly don't know where God came from - I hardly know where I came from. I am not even get into the evangelical fascism and ugly hate mongering and fear of mongering, deceit, slander, ignorance, irrationally that is so endemic in that community.
You can side in with God,or you can oppose God. Everyone has to make the choice. Most Christians that walk away from God,are those that question God. That is not wise. Does the sheep ,question the shepherd.