Tribo created a post titled “How Many”. He wanted to know how many were once involved in Christianity and now no longer believe or practice Christianity.

My question is…

Why did you leave?
Was there a defining moment?
Was there a straw that broke the camels back?
If so, what was it?
Did you read something other than the Bible that gave you an epiphany?

hey im not budging i believe in God and i always will.yep HES DE MAN YIPPY

AMEN !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not budging either but some of the threads here facinate me. I am very curious to hear why people who once believed so strongly, no longer believe.

I'm not necessarily talking to those who were raised in the church, left home, grew up and once out of the influence of their parents researched and toyed with other religious beliefs. I personally think that researching opposing perspectives is very important in developing ones convictions. I am interested in hearing from those who never RETURNED to Christianity.

hi cherub, i already posted my reason's for that n the post you mentioned - i was laying that out for feralcatlady - i'll try to find it and post it here ok?

Turning point?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOWx5G76pkU&feature=related

Mon 06/09/08 12:15 PM
feralcatlady quote:

I also find it rather interesting that all the people that were Christians, and who fell away....did so because of selfish reasons...or that God didn't do things on their terms....I say this also alot...why is it that when peoples lives are all hunky dory that they don't thank God, but when life is hell or hard they blame God first..."


TRIBO:
i
I can't answer the last part of your question feral - but no - i did not fall away because my life was good or miserable - in fact i didn't "fall away". I quit believing in the source as outlined in the bible - the god of the bible is based (in my opinion) on a higher being that has emotion's, and i donot believe a "higher being" would have or need emotion's nor would he bestow upon a lower creation these thing's and think that they would not use them in a selfish way. That sound's to me like a set up for failure.If a higher spiritual being does have human like emotion's then i deduced it was not a being i wanted any part of - no lasting good was going to come from a tempermental, jealous,angry,self centered god, nor would it be possible.
I believe that there is a creative force whom i choose to call god for sake of ease of conversation. A god that does not interfere with the daily lives of that which it created.in that sense and that sense only i believe in diesm, no other diest thoughts or teachings apply, first and formost i am a truist - as seen by those who look for truth or search for truth - not from outside sources but from within - all my truth's may not be found to be universal truth's - but you can know no one but yourself first and when you do it is fairly easy to see mankind as a whole from what you know to be true about yourself - fact is i / we are the onlything we can know for sure - we are the only thing we have any - " inside " information on period - everything else is just science, conjecture, theory, etc.. thus my comment's in the book of truth's - my original posting's here wetre done because i see and continue to see all kinds of misuse or biblical verses spewn forth out of context without knowledge and used to uphold a belief that they themselves i believe have not delved into studying themselves. you can neither confirm or reject something you have not thuroughly studied as being "the Truth" if you do your just taking education as the belief, you also cannot take emotional expieriences as any proof of your belief, that is not proof of anything but the fact that you have emotional things takeing place which could and do change in a split second.how many times have you seen someone crying and laughing one right after another?? my point! you cannot depend on "faith" in a being that cannot be proved in a way that makes sense to you - And the bible god makes no sense to me and many other's here or elsewhere.
pauls plea to belivers is - to me - no more than asking one to suspend the given created power to reason and think and use common sense and accept for a fact that "faith is all you need - it is also the same mistake luther use's in his writing's in stating faith without works is dead, we all have faith in something and i do take things that claim to be less than perfect or to be deemed a god on faith every day - but when it comes to an almighty all powerful entity, with emotions and forgrtfulness, and repenting of "mistakes", changing his mind about things, acting like a human would??? NO!
your god is to small for me or anyone else with a correctly functioning brain. "he hides these things from the proud and arrogant and reveals them to humble" no - man does that not god - this is not about pride or ego - as i said i have seqrched myself more than most and for a longer time - i donot speak from pride or ego - i speak from knowing myself and who and what mankind is at his core - and he has invented a god in his own image to worship. i could come up with a better more powerful god that people would believe in than that one you hold so dear and close to your heart, but that would be just another folly not worth my or anyonme elses time accept those who practice deceit as a life style.

sincerely - tribo

Thanks Tribo! I started to read it yesterday but I pop on and off these threads while I am at work (naughty me) so I didn't have time to read it entirely.

I left very early when i aw they could not even get the 10 commandments right Miles

I did have one straw that almost broke it...

I already had questions about the reality of the Bible. Then one Sunday I had read the morning paper and on the front page they talked about this man that had passed away. He was a civic leader. Had been a tireless advocate for the poor and sick. He was virtually everywhere helping people and making our state a better place to live. He was also Gay.
I go to Church and as the preacher starts his sermon he mentions this guy and then says the man is in HELL now because he was Gay. Man was I mad. I felt like standing up in front of those 400 people and giving that man a piece of my mind. Telling him what a disgrace he was to talk that way about someone.

Instead I just stood up. Turned my back on him. Walked out of the Church and did not return.

How can anyone look at the life of the man that did so much for society and then look at the preacher so sure in his righteousness and say that the first man is the sinner and the second man is the saint. In my world the truth is easy to see.

Thanks for sharing Tribo. Couple of questions...

You said that you didn't "fall away" you just quit believing the Bible. That implies that you believed at one time. What made you STOP believing?

And just to make sure I understand your beliefs...
Do you believe that..
Emotion is purely a human thing?
"God" is just creative "energy"? (Big Bang Theroy kind of thing?)
Truth is realitive? (my truth isn't your truth and vice versa)

OOOHHH!!!!! That makes me furious!!!
I hear WAY to many of these kinds of stories. It would have taken every bit of restaint in my body to stop myself from thumping that preacher over the head with his own Bible. His Bible clearly instructs him that he is NOT to judge. He has NO clue if that man went to heaven or hell! One of my favorite verses is

John 8:7
But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

Sorry to quote scripture but it was directed toward that idiotic preacher and he had it coming.

? What isn't right about the 10 commandments?

You said that you didn't "fall away" you just quit believing the Bible. That implies that you believed at one time. What made you STOP believing?


the conclusion that the monotheistic god of the hebrew's,muslim's and christian's was not something extra-ordinary, but "to" ordinary! he/it is to human like in qualities - so much so that it became obvious to me that it was "man behind the curtain" - like in the wizard of oz - pretending to be the all powerful "OZ" - before the bible man had always put forth "god's" i saw this as no more than another more sound attempt to do the same again. man taking all that was available as to haw he would want a god to act like and be like and formed the best god he could and touted it to first - the isrealites/hebrews/jews/ and the muslims/then the christian's, it's what i call a set up, man is full of ways to get other's to believe in thing's that he can gain power and control and earthly goods and money from.

from that point it is easy to tell them that are influenced by who ever is in charge - to do what the "god" commands them to do, much like any cultish leaders even today - a good story - but nothing more. "to me"

And just to make sure I understand your beliefs...
Do you believe that..
Emotion is purely a human thing?


no i dont but here's why - i believe that within my life time we will have "proof" that life exsist in some form or other on other planets, and if that's true - then the whole scenario for belief in a monotheistic god will be shattered. the bible will be proven wrong - there is life on other planet's - therefore - we are "not" the only lifeforms possible out there, and if were not then where did they come from? do they believe in a monotheistic being? do they have "jesus" as their savior also? does he have 6 arms and 4 legs as they may have - hahaha, is he a worm or lizard there? what satan tempted their adam and eve?
did he have a monkey moses lead the chimps out of the land of gyzmos? would it be the case if we find eventually that other sentient being's more advanced than we are have never even pondered a ""religious"" man made god - and would find that illogical to even conceive of doing it? etc.etc.etc.

you cannot have an emotional creative force in my opinion, emotion's are way to frail for a creative bieng to even contemplate ahving or endowing his/her creation's with, that would be (in my opinion) a very unwise thing to do - something an all knowing omnicient god would not do if he were truly that.

no big bang theory - no

no my truth's better than your - no

you have to look at truth's through the eyes of truth and you cannot even begin to do that till you know the truth about yourself - then you will make head way as to finding real truths about all else.

Why wouldn't God have emotions? Emotions are how we feel about a thing. God couldn't have an opinion on any subject? If God created humans to worship him, wouldn't he feel angry or happy or disappointed based on our behavior? If someone claimed to worship God, but worked to force people away from God, wouldn't that make God angry? If someone worshipped God, but quickly fell into immorality, wouldn't God be disappointed?

And if God created us in his image, why wouldn't God give us emotions? Animals have emotions, everything that thinks has emotions.

The whole "God doesn't have emotions" thing doesn't work for me, it doesn't make sense. God has thoughts and desires, therefore God must have emotions.

So how would YOU describe the creative force?



I wasn't trying to get at who's truth is better than who's. I was trying to find out if you believe truth to be relitive. You have your truth, I have my truth, Susie Q. has her truth and Little Johnny has his. All of them differ.

Do you believe that they are ALL "TRUTH"?

I tend to believe that they are all different perspectives of ONE "TRUTH". I have my own perspective of truth because I see the world through my eyes and experiences. You have a different perspecitive because you have your own eyes and have lived your own life. However, I believe that the TRUTH is sigular and remains the same. One or both of our perspectives could be completely wrong but that does not change the TRUTH. What do you think?



TOTALLY AGREE!! Most people spend a LIFETIME trying to learn who they really are. I must admit, just when I think I have myself figured out, I surprise myself. If I can't figure myself out, how can I expect anyone else too?

Its a smoke screen!

That's what Tribo does. He creates a smoke screen and then hides his true fears, intentions, and lack of conviction behind it.
His real objectives and motivations are shortly obvious to anyone who reads two or three of his Christian hating threads.

I thought you left for the joke section.
What happened? Did you find out you aren't funny?

Is this true Tribo?

I am a Christian. (Designer Christian as Abra would call me)

Do you hate me?

Spider - emotion's are how we feel about thing's i don't deny that, human's or other life have emotions! But that is no proof of a creative force having emotion's - all you can state is that "you believe" that your god "you believe" in has these same qualities. Again - if "your" god, being human like in action's and emotions god - wants to "feel" thing's he will sure, but that does not mean or prove anything except that you believe in a being that is emotional and has HUMAN aspects - not omniscient aspects. Where in my god's exsistence - he had or has no need to do anything but bring forth creation without getting emotionally involved with anything he created, he simply put forth that which would become what it was intended for it to become, he has no human like needs that have to be met - or animalistic needs either.

Judge for yourself!

Every thread he ever started is right here in the religion forum! Kinda strange for someone with no religion, aye?
Read a couple of the OP's!