JesusFollower

Your right, some have the hope of Christ taken away from them by the trials of this life. Some have experienced terrible things (sexual abuse) and other things within the church that caused them to leave. Your right, the list goes on and on why some lose thier belief. I personally choose to go all the way because of what He is doing and has done in my life. I could say I stick with Jesus for selfish reasons.

Mageth

And many, like me, after a long and critical look at the actual evidence, and at the purported reasons to believe, simply decide those reasons and evidences are simply insufficient to support belief.

No trauma induced me to unbelief. Thought did.

FatherMithras

Well, we don't know who he said he was. We only know what third hand sources wrote about wat they were told he said he was. So your statement is untrue.

This isn't unusual and many people do it with many different gods. In fact, the psychological explanation is you used a mental scapegoat to elevate your own willpower. That's right, you did it yourself with a psychological trick! Good job!

As I said before, you don't know what Jesus said. And personal revalation happens in every religion and has been shown to be an explainable psychological phenomena. I don't need your "hope" since I'm in control of my life and doing just great. I've become a much better person since I dropped my old faith in Jesus. Imagine that!

FatherMithras

People lose their faith for a bunch of reasons. My life has been terrible, and my life has been great. Neither of these effected my faith. What did effect my faith, was intelligent inquiry, though, research, and facts.

JesusFollower

:banghead: I hear that. My so-called intelligence gets in the way often. Every time I think I got it down, I don't.

Got to go...wife says, "Dinner on the table." Wash up kids!

Mageth

Umm, then you didn't really hear. You heard something else.

I did not say, and would never say, something like "my so-called intelligence gets in the way."

FatherMithras

Umm... Maybe if you mean gets in the way of being objective and finding the truth. His reply wasn't what you seem to think. It was more along the lines of "I looked at the facts and found out Xianity was false". Odd you took it the wrong way!

Susannah

You missed a major reason. I, and many others like me, coped with the problems in the church, accepted the trials of this life as ordained by God, held it as our main goal to please God in every aspect of our lives, but no longer believe because we have studied the Bible in depth and found it to be false.

Queen of Swords

Well, let's start with the first one.

You claim that your god holds atoms together. Firstly, that's an unproven assertion, so if you want it to be taken at all seriously, you might wish to look into supplying evidence for it.

Secondly, even if we assume that you are right, does this mean that god holds atoms together, but whenever scientists wish atoms to be split, He considerately stops holding them together?

Wouldn't this mean that your god deliberately stopped holding atoms together in the bombs detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, resulting in the deaths of millions of people?

JesusFollower

FatherMithras,

I am happy to hear your in control of your life. I was out of control.