25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

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psi29a
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25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by psi29a »

http://www.control-z.com/pgs/why_no_longer.html

For more information, including THE 25 reasons and explanations and resources can be found in the URL. It is VERY long and I couldn't possibly post it all here.
An armchair polymath, for thiry-odd years I've been a student of comparative religion, theology, philosophy, mythology, literature, history, and science (after a long hiatus, I've even returned to graduate school and am currently pursuing another degree in Humanities). I've read thousands of books, have over four thousand in my personal library, five hundred of which belong to the subject of Christianity and the Bible (see partial list).

Prior to earning degrees in Humanities (e.g., Philosophy, Literature, History), I attended Northwest University to prepare for a career as a pastoral minister. I studied biblical exegesis, hermeneutics, New Testament (Koine) Greek, a little Hebrew, ancient near east history, and doctrinal interpretation. During this time I was 'on fire for the Lord'. I witnessed to anyone who would listen and brought several friends to Christ. Always a voracious reader—sometimes reading three or four books a week—I immersed myself in the study of religion and took full advantage of the extensive (and expensive) scholarly volumes in the school library.

Ironically, it was during my years at the Bible college that I was inadvertantly introduced to information that would eventually lead me to question my faith. The more I researched, the more I uncovered cogent evidence and religious information typically hidden from the general church-goer (see DESCENDING BABEL for further discussion). I had no idea. Despite attending Sunday School my entire life and several years of 'confirmation' and bible classes, I knew so little, just a narrow band of teaching that supported sectarian church doctrine. Overwhelmed by what I was discovering, shocked and apprehensive, in time I could no longer embrace the belief that the Bible was the inerrant and inspired Word of God. This realization did not come easily despite the preponderance of evidence—a million pieces it seemed the more I looked—that showed the Bible was nothing more than a man-made composition, compiled to promote religious-political platforms specific to its time. I fought this knowledge every step of the way, I wept and gnashed my teeth, and prayed incessantly for guidance. I felt as if I was going through agonizing withdrawal following a long addiction, the psychoactive drugs of indoctrination and enculturation. After four years of honest soul-searching and book-searching, I conceded the realization that I was no longer a Christian. But my religious and Bible studies did not end there. For thirty years I have never ceased to research and inquire.

Throughout the years I've made several attempts to catalogue and discuss this information, but was quickly daunted by the sheer magnitude of the task. There was just too much to pull together from so many different sources—textual and source criticism, form and redaction criticism, socio-historical and rhetorical criticism, tradition, history, comparative myth and religion, language studies, linguistics, archaeology and anthropology, etc—hundreds-of--thousands of pieces of information that emphatically controvert the veracity of Judeo-Christian tradition and the Bible. I wondered how many others had attempted this before and were forced to give it up or else restrict their findings to sizeable bites. I found it remarkable that people continued to embrace the Bible as a supernatural document with so much contrary information available. To start uncovering this information all anyone had to do was commit to a couple of weekends of honest and dedicated research. In almost no time they'd have enough information to send them down a hundred different paths of inquiry, there was just so much of it, from so many different sources. The scholarly information alone numbered in the millions.

I came to realize that most people didn't want to do the research, to uncover waiting evidence or scholarly information, for fear of undermining their belief systems. Today I sincerely believe most people already suspect deep inside what they will find, so they don't bother to look. They might scratch the surface, hash out the same 'safe' arguments that have become something of a cottage industry for apologists and skeptics alike, but when it comes to digging deep, really getting their hands dirty, feeling a bit panicky and uncomfortable, fearful even, most would rather rely on what they'd like to believe, what they already think they know, what promotes encouragement and promises them hope. This is understandable given human nature, although not very commendable. Offering up 'explanations' for a few hundred bible 'difficulties' gives the appearance of honest analysis, but what about the other five-hundred--thousand? If there are over half-a-million 'difficulties' in the Bible, doesn't this undermine the basic claim that it is the inerrant and inspired Word of God?

In the end it comes down to how honest we're willing to be with ourselves, how far we're willing to go, whether or not we have the courage and stamina to do the work, stand up to what we fear the most, acknowledge it, accept it, finally admit what we've so long pretended not to know. What follows are twenty-five things I've struggled with over the years, each in their own way, one hard-fought step at a time. I did not start out determined to undermine Christianity or the Bible. To the contrary, it was because of my love of God that I wanted to know the truth, to acknowledge and accept it, even if it became the last thing I wanted to hear, even if in the end it threatened to break my heart.
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Gaiseric
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by Gaiseric »

The link gives me a file not found error.
"We must question the story logic of having an all-knowing all-powerful God, who creates faulty Humans, and then
blames them for his own mistakes." - Gene Roddenberry
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psi29a
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by psi29a »

It would seam that the page have been lost, however.. there is more here:

http://www.control-z.com/pages/

I'll check back and see what happened to it.
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BerserkerWench
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by BerserkerWench »

Maybe this is the whole reason why the Tree Of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden was considered to be a bad thing. Knowing too much would be dangerous.
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psi29a
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by psi29a »

Site is back up, yay!

Really is a good read. Summation, Bible should not be taken literally.

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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by The Herald »

No, the bible should never be taken literally. It's more of a moral story, or fable. You take it seriously, you get the Tower at Albion all over again. Stupid Mozgus.
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Fuji Nagase
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by Fuji Nagase »

in one of my jewish torah reading classes when i was a child i remember a debate, a long debate about if the torah should be taken literally or not. to me, the whole thing seemed like fables, like fairy tales, it never seemed real to me and i didnt like that. if someone DID take it as a historical document and lived by it i thought back then, that they must not be realistic at all and i wondered how they lived their life upon such stories? such far away stories. of course then i remembered how many comics i read... ( no, not a religion of course but it seemed really funny to me at the time)

i think berserk seems more real to me than those torah stories...
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RanShi
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Re: 25 reasons why I'm not a Christian

Post by RanShi »

The best reason why no one should be a Christian:

Drink his blood and eat his flesh.

Salvation.

Be weak.

Nuff said.
"And now Guts, by some alien logic, I own you."
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