Jove

Hi.

Of course, I'm new here. The only person I know here is Denshuu.

And now the question.

I recently converted from Christianity to Agnosticism because I couldn't reconcile some of the more contradictory aspects of Jehovah i.e. the Christian God.

If you have converted from one belief structure to another, what caused you to?

Koyaanisqatsi

Technical note: Most around here are atheist.

Atheism is the lack of beliefs in a god or gods.

Applied critical analysis lead to my deprogramming from the christian cult.

My first question (one of many) that no one could ever answer was: "If Heaven is so great and this place so shitty, then why don't we just kill ourselves and be done with it?"

The "life is God's greatest gift" crap being immediately trumped by God's infinite forgiveness for all things, of course.

Welcome to freedom!

[ August 13, 2002: Message edited by: Koyaanisqatsi ]</p>

Hans

This link may have an abundance of what you seek:

<a href="http://iidb.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=55&t=000020" target="_blank">Atheist "testimony"</a>

And a welcome from a relative newcomer as well.

Jamie_L

For starters, I was never a devout believer. I grew up taking on faith the stories I heard from "authority".

The two big questions that startedme down the path to atheism were:

1) Why are there so many religions in the world?
2) Why do we so easily dismiss "mythology" as a fabrication of the human mind, but not modern religion?

Once I started down that road, ditto what Koy said. Critical analysis of the world yielded no compelling reason to believe there is anything other than the natural world. It was a complex journey with lots of stops along the way.

Jamie

sir drinks-a-lot

I can't really say I've converted too much. However, I used to call myself an agnostic, and now I also call myself an atheist. I define an athiest as "someone who is not a theist".

Welcome to the Forum! Post away!

WinAce

Err, sorry to thread-hijack, but do you mind if I include a paraphrased version of both those questions in my <a href="http://iidb.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=50&t=000533" target="_blank">'questionnaire for Christians and other theists'?</a>

Regarding the OP, most of my reasons for deconverting are in that questionnaire. There were TONS of them. I could clearly see the Christian God was a contradiction from an early age, but the other concepts required invoking the problems of evil, apparent naturalism of the universe, reason and human psychology to break down.

[ August 13, 2002: Message edited by: WinAce ]</p>

Ojuice5001

Welcome to Internet Infidels, Jove. That is a great name you chose for yourself, but you must be sure to be worthy of it. If the name "Jove" is attached to someone who is pleasant, virtuous, and intelligent, that is pleasing to Jupiter, but if it is attached to a troll or anti-Religio bigot, that is an insult to Jupiter. You're an agnostic rather than a Religio Romana anyway, but it's great that there is a "Jove" on this board. What would make it even better is if the real Jupiter were registered on this board, but hey, Jupiter would probably have to own a computer for that to happen.

I was raised Christian. I abandoned Christianity because I couldn't think of a way to reconcile God's justice with hell. I considered atheism, but decided the world just seems to ordered and purposeful to be nothing but itself. So I ended up believing in the most sublime form of religion in existence: the Religio Romana (Roman paganism). As Jamie_L pointed out, there is not a good reason to take modern religion seriously while dismissing ancient mythology out of hand.

May your namesake smile upon you, and convince you that he and his cohorts exist.

Autonemesis

And may your namesake smile upon you, and convince you that he and his cohorts were not guilty.

Jove

Exactly.

And I have a much stupider screen name somewhere else, which I just shortened to "Jove" partly because it refers to Jupiter, King of the Gods.

Corgan Sow

Hi there. I'm from Gamefaqs too, and I think you know me as MACHINA. You know me as actually a Christian, and now I yet renounced my faith, but I believe we share the same conflict; the hypocritical and tyrannical aspect of Jehovah.

I still have not renounce my faith as a Christian, but that doesn't mean I take my religion as of blind faith. There is still much analysis to do on my religion before deciding an anathema or absolute confidence on my faith. Because of Christian miracles I experienced, it is very difficult for me to proclaim that the Bible is bull or whatever, nor I am submitting to the stereotypical fundie idea of "His ways are Higher than mine" trash.

It seems to me Jehovah is not perfect; He sent His son to die not only for redeem us, but to make amends for His weakness; His ego as a Creator. maybe He has a human weakness; quick to anger and comndemnation, easily provoked, and even lying (like proclaiming He is perfect). I'm more of a Gnostic type, but I still need to do research on Gnosticism.

My advice; please continue analysing the Bible, and do not just be brainwashed by biased or "fundie" atheist articles, and do ask a lot about your doubts on Christianity. Is this "contradiction" you felt the justification for renouncing Jesus as your Lord and saviour? If it is, it is sad to say this excuse is not justified enough.

There is one person whom I know you can ask a lot about Christian faith; Helen SL from rants, raves and preaching board. She believes that one does not necessary need to believe Jesus to go to Heaven. Alternatively too, you can mail Polemos or The Apologist of Gamefaqs.

Anyway end of rant. Oh, does your family knows of your conversion of faith?