The Last Straw - When Christianity Failed You

[MontagK505]

I lost all faith when I realized at a very young age that people who are good with no hope of reward and no threat of eternal damnation must be more moral, implicitly, than a person who is only moral because of threats or promises of reward. So I chose the higher path - righteous atheism.

Does behaving in a civilized manner and encouraging others to do so, count as moral if you expect to benefit from the civilized behavior of others?

 

[dafydd]

I don't usually talk about this.Are any of you old enough to recall the Aberfan disaster in 1966? It was world news at the time.A coal tip slid onto a school and killed more than 100 children,all under 11 years old.I lived there,my 6 year old sister was killed,along with her entire class. I was 14 years old and due to be baptized into the Methodist church.I asked the preacher,I asked the local vicar and the Catholic priest why God had done this,and got the usual "It is not for us to question God" or "God works in mysterious ways". I decided that there were é scenarios.
1. God could have slid the tip on a weekend when the school was empty,but did it in the week for reasons of his own,in which case I wanted nothing to do with the bastard.
2. The tip slid because the tip slid and God does not exist.I choose the latter.

It may sound simplistic,but I was only 14. I'm 58 now and even more convinced that religion is a foul blot on the face of mankind.

 

[truethat]

I must admit I never had any "crisis of faith". I just lost interest. After a rather brief period of looking at other belief systems, I realized they were all equally dogmatic and devoid of evidence.

that's about it for me as well. I gave it the old college try last year, not so much for conviction but just to really try to understand believers, I went to seminary as an atheist. I dropped out and haven't looked back. I think that the conviction of people can really be compelling and make you wonder. But they are just caught up in their delusion. And to them it is mighty and real and fantastic and yup yessir etc. But it's no different than reading a horoscope.

 

[skullerello]

When I was like 4, or 5, and I sat on the "big toilet"';
I asked my mother if I "pooped" or "peed", and, is that what "GOD" wanted me to do, and she had no answer. I then wondered if I was some kind of puppet for this "god character" or if I had any say-so in this whole "pooping", "peeing" deal.
I later learned, that he lets you "poop" if you've eaten enough fibre, and he allows you to "pee" if you drank sufficient liquids.
Having watched 'Davey & Golieth' shorts, I believed "God" was some sort of freak, or a control nut, ' and I wanted nothing to do with the freak who either controlled my puppet strings, nor decided when I had to evacuate my bowels;
I get to laugh while I type this, cause it's funny. The Big Bearded SKy Daddy id turns out to be my mum.
How do I explain all this to my wife?!