orthodox jewish rabbis. they're the only ones who ever made me doubt anything since i've been christian, but probably only because they were raised jewish and know their own doctrine extraordinarily well, and i wasn't raised to belong to any religion whatsoever. also, modern judaism was impacted greatly by the pharisaic movement that opposed Jesus in His day. that's 2000 years+ of doctrine that denies that Jesus is the Messiah, compared to my one year of accepting Him. a rabbi gave me a lot of doubt once (to this day i don't know why he did it... i wasn't witnessing to him, or anything like that.), and to be honest, it made me absolutely miserable for weeks. it was devastating. one of his claims was that Jesus being the Son of God was taken from the greek pagan religions of the day. i finally got over that by remembering the nephilim (you'll have to look that one up if you don't know what i'm talking about), and by checking into the doctrine of the essenes of qumran (the order of jews that john the baptist belonged to- they were even more strict than the pharisees).
i hope this isn't taken as me being anti-semitic. i'm not at all. i'm simply stating that an orthodox rabbi was the only person to ever cause me doubt since becoming a christian. no atheist philosophies will ever work on me- i was agnostic for 27 years, and i know many of the arguments against the existence of God. like i said though, i had some doubt that one time.
2007-08-03 14:26:02
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answer #1
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answered by That Guy Drew 6
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I am an atheist. This is why I stopped believing:
I was raised Catholic, and when I was about 11 I realized I am gay; and I completely disagreed with the church's teaching that I am inherently disordered. So I began to think, "Well, if they are wrong about that, what else are they wrong about?" and I questioned other social teachings that I disagreed with, like that contraception and abortion are bad, or that you have to be abstainent until marriage.
And then in high school, I had to read the bible all the way through for my theology class (I went to catholic schools for 13 years)and I realized that it was full of inconsistencies and cruelty and that it was absolutely unscientific. It was then that it occurred to me that the church could be wrong about theological matters, too, and I started wondering if they really could be right about things that contradicted what I knew about science, like the virgin birth and resurrection and transubstantiation. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my religion contradicted almost everything I thought was morally right, and everything I knew to be scientifically true. So at that point, I said goodbye to the RCC.
After leaving the RCC, I didn't totally leave the realm of religion. Though I felt certain that there was no god, I didn't have any real reasons to think that. I just knew that I didn't believe in god either. So I read about every religion I could, and did tons of thinking on my own, too. I read theist books and atheist books, and critiqued the reasons that each side offered as proof. But the more I continued to learn about science and religion, the poorer the reasons for theism got, and the better the reasons for atheism got. Then it finally came to the point where it was just undisputable: there was absolutely no way that god could possibly exist.
That is why I don't believe.
2007-08-03 21:27:19
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answer #2
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answered by Rat 7
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The only thing that would cause me to stop believing, is IF the Jewish interpretation of the Tanakh, turns out to be true and Jesus was not the Christ. I would give up Christ in a heartbeat, but this is a stretch of my imagination.
2007-08-03 21:23:21
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answer #3
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answered by yahweh_is_the_lord 3
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I assume you refer to if I stopped having faith in God. The question of His existence is not in question, correct? That is a fact which I have obtained objectively. If I stopped believing in God, it would mean that I have stopped believing in His ability to make me happy, I would stop believing is His perfection, I would stop believing in His good character, basically.
2007-08-03 21:18:28
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answer #4
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answered by Chris B 4
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I am an atheist and I tried answering the opposite and it would be hard to imagine what would cause me to suddenly believe. I mean other than the obvious that the creature appears before me turns the sun off and on and such.
2007-08-03 21:07:40
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answer #5
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answered by meissen97 6
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What Criket said.......But I'm experienced the presence and power of God enough to know that wont happen.
2007-08-03 21:08:28
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answer #6
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answered by Maurice H 6
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Given the parameters that you've set, your question isn't for "believers."
2007-08-03 21:13:32
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answer #7
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answered by Anonymous
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If it was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is absolutely no God. That would do it for me.
2007-08-03 21:07:18
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answer #8
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answered by The_Cricket: Thinking Pink! 7
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Sin
2007-08-03 21:08:19
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answer #9
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answered by George 4
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in my church, it is the last dispinsation, so nothing that would change my faith would happen.
2007-08-03 21:13:52
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answer #10
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answered by NatNat 4
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