10 Reasons I am No Longer a Christian – EXPLAINED
Yesterday I posted 10 reasons why I am no longer a Christian. From some of the comments I received apparently there was some confusion — doesn’t god love everyone unconditionally? And God doesn’t hate! Well…allow me to explain:
First, the number one answer I provided for not being a Christian is “Because I’ve read the Bible.”
Allow me to provide just a thimble of information to demonstrate my points – details can be found in my book: Doubt after Doubt: Doubting the Christian Faith.
1. I’ve read the Bible and researched the faith
I encourage everyone to read the Bible, cover-to-cover, and ask themselves as they read if the God portrayed in the Bible is truly the God they believe in. I especially encourage readers to read the Book of Joshua which is loaded with the anger and vengeance of a violent, prejudiced and hateful God. And don’t skip Lamentations — once finished with that book ask yourself if it describes the God you believe in or the afterlife you believe in.
2. I believe God unconditionally loves everyone
The love of God comes with conditions. God is presented in Christianity as an all-forgiving, all-loving God. But this isn’t Biblically accurate. It is not true love when the God of the Bible says, I will love you unconditionally and for all eternity if you have no other gods before me, I will love you if you do not make any graven images, I will love you if you do not use my name in vain, I will love you if you honor the Sabbath day, I will love you if you honor your mother and father, I will love you if you do not murder or commit adultery or steal or lie or covet, and I will love you if you accept my son as your personal Lord and savior.
3. I believe God will not punish anyone
I do not believe God sends anyone to hell. The concept of a God that will punish people for essentially being human and using their free will is perposterous. Why would God create a universe in which his very creation could offend him, could disobey him or could betray him in some way? How is this even possible?
4. I believe God has no adversaries
I do not believe in the devil or Satan (or that the serpent was an adversary to God). A close look at these characters in the Bible and you will see that the serpent never deceived Eve (read his words carefully and what happened to Eve), that Satan is a servant and aide to God and the the devil (with his supposed acts of atrocity) pales in comparison to the malevolent nature of God himself who is accredited with all sorts of wicked things like sending plagues and famine, murdering men, women and children in countless ways and commanding stonings, genocide and other wicked acts.
5. I believe God has no favorites
The Bible states countless times that the Hebrews are God’s “chosen” people — his favorites. I do not believe in a God that favors any culture or religion or race or way-of-life over any other.
6. I beleive in a God who does not require a book to convey eternal messages to us
Why would God use a book to convey his eternal message? For thousands of years there was no printing press and the populace was largely illiterate. Only the wealthy and the priestly classes were literate for centuries upon centuries. If God had a message for us all — one that our eternal soul would depend upon –then I must say utilizing a book to convey that message was a very poor choice for the omnipotent creator of the entire universe.
7. I believe that God does not hate
I’ve been told by Christians that God hates the devil, God hates homosexuals, God hates pagans, God hates those who behave immorally etc., etc., etc. The Bible also documents several things that “God hates.” I do not believe in a God capable of hating anything.
8. I recognize evolution as a fact
Christians who take the Bible literally see evolution as an enemy that must be defeated. They will pose it this way — “You cannot beleive in God and believe in evolution.” These concepts are presented as though they are diametrically opposed. They are presented this way because accepting evolution demonstrates that the Creation Story in Genesis is just a myth. If the story in Genesis is just a myth then the Bible must not be the word of god.
I believe in God and I believe in evolution (I just don’t believe in the Christian conception of God)
9. I recognize Jesus as one of many gods/goddesses who conform to the archeytpe of the “dying-god.”
The archetype of the dying god is the god who is typically born at Christmas time, has deciples, is worshipped as the “son of god,” dies or is crucified, resurrects from the grave and judges the dead in the afterlife. Dionysus, Osiris, Mithras and many others all fufill this archetype. Jesus was not unique.
10. I believe that God fears nothing
Jealousy, hatred, apprehension and other negative emotions are founded in insecurity and fear. God demonstrates all of these attributes in the Bible. For jealousy simply read the 10 Commandments. For apprehension read the Tower of Babel, for hatred just open the Old Testament and start reading.
The God I believe in fears nothing.
For more details please see my intriguing and controversial book: Doubt after Doubt: Doubting the Christian Faith.
I will answer your statements by the number that you gave them:
1. The object of your belief is conditioned by your standards of acceptable behavior–you are your god.
2. Your god’s existence is conditioned by your own belief–you are your god.
3. You yield to no accountability–you are your god.
4. You deny the existence of evil or personified evil which was you reason for rejecting God in the first place. That is illogical and hypocritical–you are your god.
5. You do not believe in a God who shows favoritism and yet you show favoritism to your concept of god– you are your god.
6. You believe God requires no objective record of truth (the Bible) yet you lean on your subjective capabilities for your belief system–you are your god.
7. You believe that God does not hate and yet you are motivated by such hatred for Someone bigger than you–you are your god.
8. You recognize evolution as a fact and yet you were not there to observe the world’s beginnings…your statement is hypocracy because, by your absence at the beginning of things, you must take evolution by faith–you are your god.
9. You recognize Jesus as “one of many..not unique but no other personality rosefrom the grave to never die again (and by the way this claim has never been refuted or christianity would have passed off the scene shortly after its refutation)–you are your god.
10. You believe the true God fears nothing–that is true but then again–you are your god!
You say you are no longer a christian. I say you were never one to begin with–you are your god!
tonydye,
Did you actually have a point to make in your comment? If you did, it is definitely not evident. Nothing you said makes sense. You did not provide counter evidence.
You are walking a very dangerous territory if you believe that you understand what God wants of you.
2 jmjorat,
Have someone read my comment to you. It is obvious that you are not a visual learner. Hopefully, you are a auditory learner. My whole point is clear. Rob is not a christian–he is his own god. His expressions are the height of humanistic theology and reasoning.
tonydye,
You sure do like to type are you some sort of “poet”, or could you not find your god and have nothing better to do. Maybe he’s lost, everyone seems to have found him but with no proof. Wake up tell your reverend that you can think for yourself and observe the obvious truth of life around you and come to the conclusion your god doesn’t exist. Visual proof of any of the beliefs of any of you, one day you will wake up and you will realize your alone there is no Divine being…