What are the top 5 reasons you why you left the christian church?

Question

And what religion are you now?

1) Questions that no one could answer
2) Dad preached when I left his religion but was still christian
3) Male leadership, sexism, etc.
4) Uptight, I was unhappy and blind to what was really going on.
5) I've looked at alot of religions and Wicca is the one that I'm most comfortable with. It fits.

Wicca

Can I get some serious unpreachy answers please?

BERT did you miss where I asked for no preaching? Don't do it. There's a reason(as you can see) why people leave christianity. Knock it off. Respect me and I'll respect you.

Answer 1

Things just didn't add up:

1. If God is willing to prevent evil but is not able to prevent evil, then he is not omnipotent.

If God is able to prevent evil but is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not benevolent.
Evil is either in accordance with God’s intention or contrary to it.

Thus, either God cannot prevent evil or he does not want to prevent evil.

Therefore, it follows that God is either not omnipotent or he is not benevolent. He cannot be both omnipotent and benevolent.

2. Christian dogma expects people to believe the fairy tale of Noah’s ark, although it is patently impossible to squeeze even samples of billions of the world’s animals into one small ark. Rational persons consider such stories ludicrous. And yet, such is the brainwashing power of religion, that the majority of the people on earth accept such fairytales as facts.

3.The bible account of the creation of man and the universe, as set forth in the Book of Genesis, is in such contradiction to irrefutable facts that a rational person cannot help but laugh about such fantasies.

4. Another absurdity is imbedded in the fact that every religion claims to pray to the one and only true god. How can such contradiction be rationalized? Who is the true god? Allah, or Jesus, or Jehovah, or Buddha, or Krishna?

5.Where was the Jewish God Jehovah, when Hitler incinerated five million of his chosen people; where was the Buddha when Truman vaporized 250,000 Japanese women and children; where was the Christian God when Stalin killed thirty million Christians?

I could go on, but you only gave me 5 choices....the main reason is there's no proof and it defies scientific or logical reasoning and common sense.

Answer 2

I left the Christian church because the bible doesn't make much sense to me. I have many questions that no religious leader has been able to answer to my satisfaction. I was too young to worry about sexism. I am currently looking at other religions including Wicca. I have not made a decision yet. I believe that my spiritual path will probably be an independant one and not exactly the path of any one religion.

Answer 3

1) Got tired of being told I was going to hell if I didn't accept Jesus. Even accepting Jesus wasn't enough because they'd always find other things to tell me I was going to hell for.
2) Was chastised or ignored when I asked questions no one could answer.
3) Morally objected to the Christian perception of deity because it seemed to me a real God wouldn't need servants and would not have petty jealousy and anger issues.
4) The people were FAKE. Some acted like martyrs and looked down their nose at everyone else. Everyone was catty and judged you. They weren't spreading love, that's for sure.
5) When I began studying ancient religion I could see that Christianity was merely a more modern corrupt, far removed, interpretation of ancient religions (which actually made more sense).

I found Pagan religions (in general) seemed more realistic and plausible. I looked into other beliefs, too. But found myself aligned with Paganism. Then it was just a matter of choosing the tradition right for me.

Daemonolatry

Answer 4

1 - Questions that I was told I was not allowed to ask.

2 - The certainty by each and every Christian sect that THEY are the ONE TRUE PATH and the rest of them are wrong.

3 - Not really into the whole concept of eternal hellfire if I'm basically a good person, but...

4 - Inconsistencies in the Bible, and the picking and choosing of which passages we were going to follow at any given time.

5 - The complete lack of tolerance for any other people, whether they were another religion, another race, another sexual orientation, etc. I too found Wicca

Answer 5

1) Found out that there was no historical evidence for the existence of a biblical Jesus.

2) In really reflecting upon the bible, I found that god to be a horrendous creature with whom I could have no allegiance.

3) In reflecting upon the attitudes and actions of the christians I've known over the 20 years I was one, I began to see it as a disease which infects the mind and behavior of the infected.

4) Too many god-man myths that match up to the Jesus myth.

5) The disparity between the Old and New Testaments. In studying Judaism, I found that they do not believe ANYTHING like what is portrayed in the New Testament, and if Jesus were a Jew, he would not have said and done the things he is alleged to have done.

Answer 6

1. It made me seek suicide from trying in to reconcile my being gay to the Christian god who supposedly inspired Leviticus 20:13. In spite of what the Metropolitan Community Church says if one doesn't contrive an alternative meaning it's very clearly an edict against being gay. There is no valid evidence to suggest it doesn't mean what it clearly says.

2. In the end I realized I knew myself better than some idiot men who wrote the Bible so it didn't matter what the Bible said about anything.

3. Christian hypocrisy.

4. No valid evidence for the existence of any 'soul' that is separate from the brain. When the brain dies who you are as a person is gone. Brain damaged people are evidence of that. Terry Schiavo comes to mind. No soul means no afterlife. No afterlife means religious dogma is a lie.

5. Religion is dangerous and it is not a relief from suffering but the greatest cause of it. My own experience and what I view of the experience of others is evidence that this is true. Any perceived benefit that religion is said to supply does not stand up to close inspection. They are an illusion. Religion is an escape from reality not a path to it.

I have no religion now. I'm atheist.

Answer 7

My top 5:

5. Christian rock bands don't use Les Paul guitars.
4. Lost a finger after being bitten by a rattle snake doing the snake charmer thing.
3. Found out the 'blood of Christ' wasn't real blood.
2. Couldn't find a suction cup Jesus that matched the interior of my pickup.

And finally, the number one reason I left the church was...

It turned out my preacher was buying drugs from a gay prostitute... and wasn't sharing with the whole congregation!

Answer 8

1) Watching my mother rolling on the floor and speaking in tongues was horribly embarrassing when I was nine years old.
2) The Pentecostal church my parents belonged to started using rattlesnakes to tell if people were "real" Christians.
3) I never believed any of those stupid Sunday School Bible stories.
4) The history of organized Christianity, both ancient and modern, is so utterly despicable that I want nothing to do with it.
5) I just cannot force myself to believe in imaginary deities and no amount of pretending makes it any easier.

I am a lifelong atheist.

Answer 9

1) Trying to come to grips with the idea of fearing a God who supposedly loved me.
2) The ways God shows His love.
3) The superiority complex most Christians have.
4) The way Christians meddle in the affairs of others.
5) The constant pressure to recruit non-Christians.
6) Confusion: Is God a God of love, or is He all-powerful? He's not both: visit a children's cancer ward sometime with this thought in mind, and you'll see what I mean.
7) Biblical redundancies.
8) The obsession with death, and what happens afterward.
9) Trying to maintain a sense of self-esteem while also believing that I am never worthy of God's love.
10) The hatred launched against the homosexual community.
11) The multiple attempts to insert Christianity into laws, media, and schools.
12) The feeling that no one else truly believes their own bullshit, when push turns to shove.
13) Constantly having to deny that I didn't believe it, either.

...Oh! Wait! You only wanted FIVE reasons! My bad.

Answer 10

Many years ago, I used to leave churches because I thought that certain people in the congregation were ating like hypocrites. I also used to leave churches because I would hear things said that I didn't agree with. I have since modified my reaction to both situations.

I now realize that we are all humans and imperfect and that we are not impervious to sin just because we call ourselves Christians. I decided I was no longer going to let someone else's behavior dictate my behavior and that I might have had a pride problem if I thought I was any better than the next person. We all sin and fall short of the will of God, according to Romans.

I have also had to check my pride in regards the second issue and realize that sometimes people base interpretations of things on their own experience or on their varied levels of understanding. I no longer get tied up worrying about majoring in minors. If it's not a salvation issue, why be dogmatic about it.

Which leads me to the only reason I would still leave a church. . . . . I do not intend to deal with a dogmatic or legalistic ideology. It may be because of growing up in the legalistic Watchtower Society, or it might be because it violates my belief that our lives in Christ are based on grace which is diametrically opposed to legalism. Whatever the reason, I do not wish to join myself to groups like that.

It may also be the reason that I don't get into the whole denominational thing. I consider myself to be simply a non-denominational Christian, who takes God at His word and not man's word.