How could you go from Evangelical to atheist?

Question

How do you explain the love you used to have for God?

Answer 1

Having a knowledge about God and the works He did for us is a lot different than holding Christ in your heart (making Him part of your being).. Jim

Answer 2

I once heard an apathetic atheist gave up being a dedicated Minister simply because he couldn't make sense of God sending the Ignorant to Hell. (I don't think its that simple, but that's another post.)
You have asked a deep question. The easy answers are dissatisfaction, lack of knowledge, insecurity, and so on. But there is more to that. While I believe in the battle between God and Satan for souls, I also believe in the human choice. Such answers can only be found within each individual. Every one has a reason.
But if I was to choose one answer to focus on, it would be the choice of loving yourself then God. I am convinced that Humanity will be evangelical about something, if not God. While so many may claim that Life on Earth is better without religion, they will proceed to follow their own ways, and rarely are such paths peaceful (more power to the good independants.) The point to such thinking; it does seem to make more sense, does it not? Follow something invisible, intangible, and no one agrees about? Or just do what you want?
I don't think so.

Answer 3

Actually, I imagine it would be rather easy. Unlike other forms of Christianity, such as mainstream protestantism or Catholicism, the evangelical camp seems to coexist uncomfortably with the sciences, the arts, or even contemporary culture.

Evangelicalism does not try to engage the modern world, it seems to my humble eyes - rather it attempts to shy away from it, and "hide it from the kids" as though religious truths really were kind of a Santa Claus tale that can't be reconciled with what Johnny in the classroom's Dad told him.

As a result, a person catechized in this evangelical tradition probably feels betrayed when they come to understand how incontrovertibly things like evolution and the big bang have been proven. They've been left with a shallow faith based not on the essential truths of Christianity, but based on literal interpretations of Genesis that aren't core to the faith. And a house built on such sand is swept away easily, as Jesus himself said.

The traditional churches have a much more vigorous intellectual life - they may be staid in some ways, lacking in some of the vitality of tent revivals and altar calls, etc. But they offer a kind of Christianity that's not a Santa Claus fantasy - something tangible and compatible with a person's intellectual life, with the grand teachings of St. Augustine, or Thomas Aquinas. The "love of God" traditional Christianity offers may take a bit more work, since there's not as much tent revival emotionalism involved, and more emphasis on sacraments. But it is a more solid and unshakable love, in my opinion.

That's why ex-evangelical atheists seem (to me at least) to be much more common than ex-Catholic ones, or ex-Episcopalian ones.

Answer 4

Perhaps this person had an "ah ha" moment? I was a devout Catholic and began reading books such as "The Vatican in World Politics" and also stopped accepting the physical beatings and abuse doled out to me and other children by the nuns as just being strict. Many times what we are brought up with we outgrow as we begin to think on our own and experience other's points of view. Many of us can not accept things on faith. People change and grow.

Answer 5

There are chinks in Christian armor. It is natural, because the logic of the faith is highly flawed. However, through social support and partial isolation from non-Christians, those chinks are not tested.

BUT, if someone begins to examine the logic of the faith: God condemns us because some progenitors sinned, he demands sacrifices, he eventually sends his "son" to be the ultimate sacrifice to meet his own demands, and then that son rises from the dead, but unless humans believe he rose from the dead they're still condemned.

This on its own merits is rickety. When placed under the light of day, it quickly becomes hard to fathom. The chinks start to buckle.

So guard your armor, live your life as you choose, and perhaps with social support and partial isolation, the chinks will never give way. You'll never get the insight that all the deities ever described have feet more crumbly than clay.

And that will be okay with me. But I prefer life unconstrained by someone else's chainmail.


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Answer 6

Evangelical to atheist? The Bible says, "Do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?" Corinthians 6:14

It is written, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins" (Rev. 18:4). Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.

Let them be. Blind guides is what they are. If then, a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit. Matthew 15:14

Answer 7

get arrested. If this act does not spin your faith 180 degrees then I dont know what will.
I mean, if you are evangelical and go to jail, then our whole faith is down the drain. Certainly GOD knew you would go to jail, but he did nothing to stop it.
If it were murder, he would be considered an accessory.

Answer 8

Its called waking up. I loved Cheryl Tiegs as a teenager, and even if she didn't know it the love was there...it still existed...its not like its a finite resource after all.

To Lady B below. Yeah that Lot guy was awesome, offering up his daughters to be gangraped in order to protect the angels.

Give me that 'ol time religion.

Answer 9

I realized that it was just wilhful thinking. And as I grew older I began to be aware of the suffering and injustice in the world and
realized that an all knowing and just God could not be in charge.

Answer 10

Read the chapter called "The Grand Inquisitor" by Fydor Doestoevsky in his book, "The Brothers Karamazov".

It is a brilliant dramatic explanation of that between the two brothers, one a revolutionary, the other a priest.

Answer 11

I was raised that way, and believed my elders until I outgrew it.

It's really no different from the love I used to have for Santa Claus.