Ex-Christians, what was the first thing that made you question Christianity?

Question

I mean, the first seed of doubt that was ever planted in your mind.

For me, it was when I was about six or seven, and I decided I didn't like the Adam and Eve story. I thought getting more knowledge was a *good* thing. I didn't think this meant that all women were bad. I didn't think we all needed to be punished just because someone long ago ate a piece of fruit. And when I told all this to my mom, she was horrified!

I always liked to find stories with "girls doing cool things." There were few in my kids' Bible. I discovered Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology. There were more "girls" doing cooler things in it. And I wondered whether the Bible was another book of myths, too.

So how about the rest of y'all?

Well, of course I didn't like what I read. But I doubted the creation story. I doubted whether the Bible stories were any truer than other ancient stories. I was a little kid, not a seminary student.

Yes, westdyk1, you did get a thumbs-down from me, and so did Preacher's Wife. You knew you were being insensitive. I tried it. It didn't work out. Why can't you accept that?

Answer 1

It might sound odd but it was thinking about the nature of eternity and the Christian God's alleged omnipotence.

If God knows everything, he knows what he will do in the "future" (in any dimension, not necessary the time dimension). He must have known that from the very start of his own existence. Thus God's actions are predestined. God is tied by faith, he has no free will. If God has no free will god is not omnipotent. Another way to put it is that to be able to make plans and decisions one must act over time. If God stands above time he can not do that and has no free will. Indeed, if God stands above all dimensions god is dimensionless - a singularity, nothing, void! Besides there can exist no free wills at all if God is almighty. If you had a free will, God wouldn't know what you would do tomorrow and wouldn't be omnipotent.

If everything must have been created, then God must have been created as well. If God is not created, then everything mustn't have a creator, so why should life or cosmos have one?

What happens after you have learned everything there is to learn and have had experienced all there is to experience? Then what? There is only a finite amount of those things and eternity is infinite. No meaningful form of consciousness could exist forever under these conditions. Eventually, if we don't have a continually challenging and diverse environment, we will die, yet if you were immortal cannot die. This of course applies to Gods. One episode of Star Trek Voyager addressed this dilemma when it had a member of the Q Continuum (a group of eternal, god-like beings) who had grown tired of the endless eternities because he had experienced all there was to experience and just wanted to commit suicide and not exist any longer.

Answer 2

All the people who claim to be christians but are the totally opposite and the fact that i just didn't agree with almost anything in the religion, and why should i follow a religion where the book they follow was not even written by the founder (jesus) of the religion?
I don't have a problem with jesus at all but i don't think that the bible is truley what jesus preached.

Answer 3

Mine was original sin. I mean it really doesn't make sense that we should be punished for something a long time ago. I also asked, if Adam and Eve didn't know the difference between good and evil before they ate the fruit, how could God punish them for it?

Answer 4

I was 4 when I decided it wasn't right for me. It was the stories about women having to obey their husbands, and the Adam and Eve story about being punished if you want to know more.

Answer 5

The first time I read the Bible from cover to cover. I was like, "Oh wow. THIS is what I'm supposed to believe? This makes NO sense." I had always been taught that God was supposed to love us, and yet here in the Bible (Old Testament) I saw nothing but a cruel, wrathful, violent, racist, sexist being who did nothing but destroy everyone and everything in His path. He was cruel even to those who worshiped Him EXACTLY as He told them to. And none of the stories made sense, and the whole book contradicted itself on every other page. The New Testament was a LITTLE better, but even Jesus wasn't exactly the nicest guy. What capped it off, though, is the story of the crucifixion. Since God can do whatever He wants, if He loves us and wants to forgive our sins...why not just say, "I love you and I want to forgive your sins, so I will." What's with the torture and execution? And what on Earth is the average person doing that's so horrible that it takes THAT MUCH drama in order to forgive us? "I'm going to torture and execute my son/myself because you played 'Hide the sugar cube' with your girlfriend/boyfriend." ??? It just dawned on me that none of these stories made any more sense than the old Greek myths.

Answer 6

First thing was original sin.

Also was disturbed by the immoral behavior reported in the Bible and attributed to prophets - supposed to be the best of men.

Answer 7

i think the two clearest things that hit me were:

1) the bible has such pityfull self-serving arguments against skepticism that basically say "don't look at the man behind the curtains"

2) the way people claim to "feel" Jesus in their heart. they don't. It is a sad game of "the emperors clothes" if your preacher and everyone in your congregation (or youth group) says they "feel" jesus, you make make yourself believe that you do too.

Answer 8

I don't think it was any one thing. It was just a general growing awareness of the impossibility of the story told by the whole Bible when read cover-to-cover.

Answer 9

Going to church, I didn't think that's what god would want me doing with my time, The story of Jericho, leviticus, and many, many other things

Answer 10

Jayelle, please understand this comment is not meant to be personally critical or otherwise, but your statement does not seem to be a general doubting of Christianity and more of a personal choice to go elsewhere because you didn't like what you read.

Perhaps I am wrong in my thinking but that is what you seem to be implying

JB