To me, it's the whole design, this self-righteous 'save them, they are sinners' mentality, you would never enjoy the company of other perspectives because you would constantly be angling on how to convert them. You wouldn't listen, you be waiting for your turn to talk and tell them YOUR views.
Plus the whole concept 'heave or hell, God is perfect, jesus died for you, LOVE LOVE LOVE yet I can be a hypocrite' view just kind of creeps me out.
2007-01-15 10:28:51 · 24 answers · asked by ryana_bulldog 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Their "believe or burn forever" threats.
2007-01-15 10:31:24 · answer #1 · answered by Cold Fart 6 · 4⤊ 1⤋
All of what you said, and more.
I used to be a Christian, or really, just believed in God and considered myself Christian because that seemed like the only choice in this culture. But when I decided to deepen my spirituality and go methodically through the whole Bible, I could not reconcile the Biblical God with what I know* to be true in my heart. Even excusing much of what the Bible says as metaphor, there's still a lot in there to disagree with. In particular:
1. God as a masculine deity and in fact the treatment of women in the Bible in general. I don't mean as a sign of that culture and time period. I mean, like, the Mother of God is a lesser being than God himself? Sorry, no.
2. The rejection of nature and the material. These things are equally sacred to the spiritual.
3. The concepts of absolute good and absolute evil, as well as sin, which do not exist.
4. The idea that I need an intermediary between myself and my deity.
5. The idea that there is only one deity, which to me seems a ridiculous limit on the divine.
6. Concepts like hell, heaven, original sin, the need or even desire to dictate the spiritualities of others, etc., have no place in my world view.
I don't have anything against peaceful Christians who mind their own business.
*Know from a personal gnosis POV, of course. No one truly "knows" if there is even a god at all.
2007-01-15 18:57:27 · answer #2 · answered by Huddy 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Judgments & lables. I believe in the Father, The Son & The Holy Ghost. I dont apprecite christians verbaly condemining me to Hell, simply because I dont do things the way they believe I should. We are all unique why would God create us all diffrent, if he wanted us all to believe the same? I believe the Bible as Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I personaly have never met a christian. The meaning of christian is to be Christ like. People are born sinners, therefore it is impossible for humans to be Christ like. I am Spiritual not religous. The money spent on fancy churches could be better spent on the homeless.
2007-01-15 18:38:37 · answer #3 · answered by lil bit 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
im a believer, and i have been disfellowshipped by many christian groups for what i preach and teach.
i am turned off by secret societies. I have never believed that the christian world kept the faith by going underground to save their lives!
apostacy
and yet the catholics say they still have the truth because it was Peter that founded their church. I dont believe it. there is no direct connection to peter, just their say so. Protestants run around saying they have their authority to preach from the bible. This cant be any further from the truth. Being called and Being "chosen" is a different act altogether. I was called but never chosen. I was ordained and confirmed, but never separated. for this fact i am a failure as a preacher and prophet.
but i still have the witness i received, and the calling came from the lips of jesus personally.
i have seen the pride of baptists, i have seen the unrighteous dominion of false church leaders, i have seen people glaze their eyes over as they declared "their own faith" (chhurch) to be perfectly organized, and yet they could not HEAR sound doctrine to be reprooved or corrected in any way. This happens in every religion and in every church. I saw myself walking the same path of illusions.
2007-01-15 18:39:00 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The Old Testament God has to many human Character defects.I don't like the idea of having a God that is a jealous,vengeful, love me or else kind of a God. Oh yeah, the main turn-off to Christianity is the Christians
2007-01-15 18:38:39 · answer #5 · answered by boatworker 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am a christian, but when I wasn't...
there were certain things that my flesh craved to do that the christian church would never permit
It never makes a good impression. Say you were on a date and you had to explain to him that you had certain beliefs and wanted to practice abstinence...in this generation it never makes a good impression. Sometimes it's hard to "fit in" or make new friends with my new attitude.
That's pretty much it, but keep in mind that that was from a non-believer's perspective. However I am a strong christian and even though my beliefs contrast from others I can still shine and show my kindness towards others and actually...people just can't resist me:)
2007-01-15 18:40:09 · answer #6 · answered by cookie789123 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's a lot of thing, honestly. What really did it for me was seeing my mother, a devout Christian, say and do things in the name of God that were wrong and hurtful. There's a lot of Christians like her, too, and I got to meet a lot of them in the church we attended. Generally, a back-stabbing, hypocritical bunch (I'm sure there are exceptions - I just haven't met them yet). I also had a hard time believing the world was so black-and-white. The whole heaven-or-hell-God-or-Devil thing sounds too much like early man's attempt to understand what he could not comprehend. Also, if you really read the Bible, it doesn't make sense. It's an incredibly anti-feminism book that condones senseless violence. I just couldn't believe that was the way things are susposed to be.
2007-01-15 18:35:01 · answer #7 · answered by rita_alabama 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
For one thing, "He" made Adam and Eve, the first sinners. Why didn't "He" just start the whole world with two perfect people? Then he woudn't have had to make Jesus, and we wouldn't have wars and death and famine. So God practically screwed us all over.
2007-01-15 18:41:16 · answer #8 · answered by aaylasecura 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christians that think they are better than everyone else and talk about other people and especially when they go to church and then they go out to eat after services and they act like jerks to the people waiting on them. A bunch of hypocrites if you ask me.
2007-01-15 18:34:30 · answer #9 · answered by ? 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
according to unbelievers, all christians are hypocrites which is not true. but i do believe that people should stop telling you about christ. once a person has heard the word of God and has chosen to not believe, it is out of the christians hands. no one can make it without the belief in christ and one day you will find out. by the time you have real proof, it will be too late.
2007-01-15 18:53:19 · answer #10 · answered by Annie Rod 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The number one thing is hypocrisy of those involved in organized religion. They worship Christ, but are not Christ-like. They judge others and sin, yet hold themselves out as leaders in faith. I judge others and sin, but I am not claiming to be religious.
I also cannot return to the church for its failure to prosecute priests who molested children and for its treatment of homosexuals and homosexual activities. In addition, I strongly disagree with the views of the church, the catholic church in particular, about women. Many Christians preach that women should be subordinate to men and stay at home. Yes, I realize that many do not, but I am talking here about ones that do.
2007-01-15 18:35:46 · answer #11 · answered by Tara P 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋