Atheists/Agnostics etc: Did you ever believe in the Scriptures and then turned away from it?

Question

Why?

Hypocrites are everywhere so please don't use this as an answer. Thanks

Thank you all for your very thought-provoking answers. Thanks for sharing.

I guess I am a dunce but I will continue to follow Jesus.

Answer 1

Yes.

Among other things, I have been ordained a ruling elder in the Presbyterian church and have been a youth delegate to the Presbyterian national convention. I have attended classes at Virginia Theological Seminary. I have read and studied the scriptures.

It is not the hypocrisy of man that turned me away, it is the actions and inactions of god. It was easy enough to discard as figurative things which were obviously not factual such as Genesis. It was easy enough to overlook the actions of people who called themselves christian. What it was not easy to overlook was god.

Why would a loving god create terrible diseases? Why would he ignore the pleas of his faithful for relief from these diseases? The same questions apply to earthquakes and volcanos; to hurricanes and tornadoes.

Then there is the question of religious wars. Why does god seem to delight in bloody conflicts in his name? While free will is one thing, god's words in his scriptures too often seem to urge men to fight for their faith.

The worst thing, though, was the idea that an omni-everything god was going to divide up humanity and give some an eternity of worshiping him and others and eternity of torment and that he was going to do this based on what people happened to believe during their infinitesimally brief time on Earth.

Such a god is not a god I wish to worship.

I would prefer to believe that there is no god.

Answer 2

I have read the Bible and it is when I did that the illogicalities, contradictions and paradoxes became obvious. How could I believe something to be true when I knew it was not? I then considered the whole god question and after careful thought on the matter decided that gods were also illogical, contradictory and paradoxical. In all my years since then, I have found no evidence whatsoever to change that view and I have approached the subject with an open mind. Now in my later years I am happy with my life and am pleased I did not waste most of it crying Hallelujah to a mythical sky pixie.

Answer 3

Yes, and I'm sorry but hypocrisy is a huge part of it. Yes, hypocrites ARE everywhere, but GOD isn't supposed to be one of them. If I'm to believe that something is the WORD OF GOD, then it had better be PERFECT.

Of course, there's a lot more to it than that. For instance, there's the fact that the hypocrisy of the Word is translated into the hypocricy of believers' actions. And, of couse, the is the total lack of evidence to support any of the scripture's claims.

However, I think the most compelling reason is that there are so many other sources of "truth" out there that are so much more convincing! The concept of the Big Bang and an inflationary universe, supported by mathematical and astonomical evidence, seems a lot more credible to me than stories about an invisible man who lives in the sky who watches everything I do and is very interested in my sex life.

Answer 4

Yes. For years I was pretty much a theologian. But the more I learned, and the more my faith and understanding grew, the more I was forced to create apologetic rationalizations in order to hold my faith in God together.

This continued until one day I realized that my faith in God and the Bible was held together with so much apologetic "glue", so to speak, that if I removed the glue, there was nothing left but absurdity. That was the day that I realized I no longer believed and could no longer be tricked into believing the lie that had dominated most of the my life.

Answer 5

Sure, very devout in my early years, around 15 or 16 I finally recognized all of the contradictions and fallacies in the bible, and the misguided, personally predjudiced teachings I was receiving from religious leaders. I cast off the burden of religion as an unnecessary human-created concept, and have never looked back.

Answer 6

My hubby is an Agnostic, and the answer for him is Yes. He was raised a Baptist, and up untill he was about 22, followed it to the letter.

Now, at 31, he is Agnostic, and no longer believes the Bible is accurate, and is unsure of any kind of God, but allows for the possibility.

Just my, well, his 2 cents.

Answer 7

Yes, I did. But I was too young to think for myself. I became agnostic and rejected the "Scripture" after I found out that all the scriptures about Santa Claus were lies.

That's a true story.

Answer 8

i grew up catholic, and then actually started studying the bible, and learned that it was full of contradictions and it just didn't make sense, nor did it explain the things that i actually needed to know the answers to. So now after researching many religions, i think that everyone may have valid points, and there isn't one right answer and i believe a hodgepodge of different religions.

Answer 9

Why is it that religious people ask this question? Are you not aware that most of the population of this planet has been Christian at some point or another? ESPECIALLY in first world western nations?

Think about it. Most Atheists come from a Christian bakground.

Answer 10

i can tell you that i used to be catholic, i was even baptised catholic and i wen't to CCD (like a school to learn about jesus and god and stuff). then one day, i just decided not to belive in that crap anymore. i was not influenced by a death or wrongdoing, i just finally reached an age where i could say, "BULLCRAP". there is as much corruption in the church as there is in politics. live your life, be kind to oneanother, be happy. all the rest is politics. besides, religion has not done ANY society any good anyway. enjoy.