Why Do You No Longer Believe in God? (page 4)

SecretSlaveClass

For the same reason an older child stops believing in Santa Claus .

LostGeneration

Already been said, but which God?

If you are referring to Jesus/Christian God/YHWH, I'm not down with his methods. Jesus himself threatens to burn me forever if I don't follow him, not cool.

When I finally googled "Jehovah's Witnesses," I was pretty sure it wasn't "the truth" but I figured from what I had read that Christianity was probably the way to truth. If a person were to follow my path on this forum, they might see that.

But just as I finally learned to question the status quo of Watchtower, I couldn't stop questioning. I questioned the source that Watchtower started with- The Bible. My study found the Bible contradictory to itself and to evidence. Certainly, the people on earth had been here longer than the Bible indicated. Certainly, it wasn't literal. And if it wasn't literal, then there wasn't an original sin in the garden. At the same time I was questioning the Bible, I was examining what science said. The abundance of available evidence of man's evolution and the age of the earth and of the universe itself were fascinating.

All that, and I was only on the fence. I didn't know. But two things did it for me. My personal story leading me to Jehovah was the first one. I thought that God prevented me from committing suicide and led me to JW's. I gave my all to God, made myself fully available to do His will whatever it was. I was fully ready to accept whatever He was and whatever He had in mind for me. So either He let me get sucked up into a lie like the Jehovah's Witnesses instead of leading me to the real "truth" or He wasn't there. The second thing was the 2004 Indonesia tsunami (and later, the 2010 Haiti earthquake could be added in). The God of Christianity or any belief system that I heard about would not let all those children just be swept away from their parents and killed.

Everyone must take their own journey of spiritual awareness and all will want to take an individually tailored path.

Sabin

So are you saying that you believe in survival of the fittest? Natural selection?

Tenacious

I remember the very first time I questioned my existence. I was 12 and I had just finished working out. The question was simple; Why did I exist? How did I come into existence? Why me and not someone else?

My questions may seem odd to you guys but the last question is the one that most intrigued me. How come I had come into existence and not the hundreds of other kids taking a shot at mom's egg

Are we truly made of vibrations and frequencies? Can our consciousness truly affect reality? How does the "two-slit" experiment fit into our reality?

I just couldn't comprehend how I came to be. Do I regret coming to know God and his righteous ways? No. Do I regret the organization that was chosen for me to come to know God's requirements or recommendations for living a good moral life? Yes!! I could have learned just the same from reading and meditating on Scripture. It's like Christ said if we were taught Scripture free, we should do just the same. And not behold someone to man-made teachings that are not Scriptural.

As far as why I choose to believe in the Christian God or the God of the Bible, is due to having witnessed, what many would consider coincidence but I would consider divine intervention. Yes, I can personally attest to prayers being answered just as asked.

Then there's the diversity of animal and plant life. There are many animal characteristics that science is unable to copy for different commercial and personal applications. Then there's the intricate and incredibly complex design of our human body.

Then there's planet Earth and it's ability to sustain life with the soil when properly cared for, can feed the entire planet. Then there's the vast universe and everything in it. I'm not trying to convince anyone I'm merely pointing why I choose to believe.

There are still many things that I do question and have not found a reasonable answer to. For example, if God wishes for no one to be destroyed, why would he depend on only 8 million members, with the majority being schmucks, to accomplish this incredibly difficult task of reaching the almost 7 1/2 billion people on the planet? What prevents God from interceding in good people's lives in order to avert pain and suffering and instead we are left with two contradicting views in the Bible? God protects those that are faithful yet time and unforeseen occurrence can befall anyone? Why is there no proof of an Earth wide flood?

While many of us may view the Bible differently, the message that Christ conveys is universal love for your fellow man. And that is something that, if practiced, without reservations, can lead to a better earth.

In the end, a measure of faith is required for me to believe humans were not purposed to just live a measly 80 years while some animals and trees live significantly longer. Then, when speaking of plants and trees, there's the question of them being alive. There are videos on YouTube where plants respond to human speech. There are also plenty of videos where water molecules are affected by the negative or positive emotions we evoke.

I find there is so much more we don't know about our reality but little by little science is revealing it. Yet, like I said, there are processes and designs that science is unable to replicate and will perhaps never be able to do. I guess time will tell and reveal what we are, what we are doing here, and where we are going, if anywhere.

cappytan

If the human body is so complex that your conclusion is that it was designed, what about God? Isn't he infinitely more complex than the human body? Since he's more complex, using your logic, he would have to be designed too. So who designed him?

LostGeneration

As far as why I choose to believe in the Christian God or the God of the Bible, is due to having witnessed, what many would consider coincidence but I would consider divine intervention. Yes, I can personally attest to prayers being answered just as asked.

So what about everyone else who doesn't get their prayer answered? Why are you so special? The Christian woman who got raped last week, and screamed out for God to save her? The 12 year old girl with the perverted stepdad that sneaks into her bedroom three times a week? The single mother who prays for enough food for her three children, but doesn't get an answer?

You were on the right road when you said coincidence. If God gets the credit for answering you, he also gets the blame for the other 98 percent of the time when he ignores prayers from people in worse circumstances.

flipper

Observing human behavior - the lies and manipulations done to control those lower on the food chain. And to put others lower on the food chain.

I was raised with the myths of Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the easter bunny and God.

The message was simple: be good (obedient) and you will be rewarded. Be bad you will experience loss (no gifts, no attention). And with God the threat of torturous punishment.

Age 6 to 7 kids figure out no Santa, fairy or bunny and adults admit it's just fun stuff for little kids.

My kid mind thinks that they wait till high school or so to tell you about God. Then realizing they believe it themselves, and how useful their belief is to keep them in line to authority.

As someone stated earlier, the whole gruesome set up of living things eating each other certainly didn't point to some loving sky entity.

To a lot of my family members "atheist" was a horrible, unthinkable thing so I learned to keep to myself about it until adulthood.

Read the bible a bit as a kid and thought it was ridiculous stuff made up to control people. I've always been blown away by the blind faith people have - to believe something with no evidence. To "just know it"

I understand the human need for magic and escape from the reality of death. My early conditioning kicks in in times of loss and grieving. I find myself wishing for some spirit message from the departed, looking around for signs.

Mrs. F

punkofnice

Because magic doesn't exist.

I've never heard a god speak. Never seen a god. Never been helped by a god. I've prayed but in the end realised I was talking to no one. I asked for help and it was people of all sorts that help, agnostics, atheists, deists, theists and uncle Tom Cobbleigh an all..........only people and not always very well................never a god.

The more I looked for obvious, provable evidence of a god ws the more I saw there was none.

things continue exactly the same way with or without belief in a god/s.

Why don't I believe? Wow. Now that would take a long time.

Why Do You No Longer Believe in God?

SecretSlaveClass

_Morpheus

LostGeneration

OnTheWayOut

Sabin

Tenacious

cappytan

LostGeneration

flipper

punkofnice

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