Well just a little bit about my religious journey.
I am a son, granson and nephew of ordained independent Christian Church (protestant Restoration movement independent "non-denominational" churches akin to the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ churches) ministers. My grandfather was an ordained Christian Church minister in Georgia up until he passed away in 1982. My father was ordained before he served 21 years in the Air Force. He also served as an elder and as a part-time interim pastor at several different churches while I was growing up. Nearly all my family both immediate and extended (except my little brother), including myself, attended Bible colleges i.e. Atlanta Bible College, Ozark Bible College, Cincinatti Bible College, Roanoke Bible College, Kentucky Christian College and Milligan College.
I was baptised at the age of 8 by my grandfather and again when I was 22. I attended a Christian Liberal Arts college where I was taking pre-med in preperation for becoming a doctor. Ever since I was baptized at 8, I had wanted to become a missionary doctor to either South America or Africa. My heroes in life were (and some still are) Dr. Albert Schweitzer, theologian-philosopher-doctor-missionary in western Africa and Jim Elliot, missionary to the Quichua and Huaorani Indians in South America who was killed by some of those same Indians in 1956.
My parents worked as dorm parents at a "Christian" children's home when I was going to college in Tennessee and my dad was going back to Bible Seminary. However, due to the rampant immorality and lack of oversite I felt stressed out and had to get away from that situation, so I enlisted in the Navy. My parents left the children's home within a year after me joining the Navy.
I got stationed on a ship in Hawaii and soon after got recruited into a Christian cult-like church movement called the International Churches of Christ (ICC). I was baptized in the movement and was involved for nearly 5 years. I became a Bible study leader, invited people to church on a daily basis and even witnessed to and baptized several friends on the ship I was stationed on in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. I prayed, had quite time with "God" and read my Bible on a daily basis. I was through and through a devout Christian.
However, the more deeply I got involved with the Church the more hypocricy, lying, deception, self-righteous bigotry, greed and other immoral behavior I saw in much of the leadership of the church, not just the local church but the church leadership around the world. This was not a small movement, it was actually the fastest growing Christian movement in the world at the time. Needless to say after much research I confronted some of the leadership, many who were my personal friends who I loved dearly, and layed out the evidence before them of the corruption in the church. Unfortunately they were brainwashed into thinking that I was decieved by Satan and I left the ICC movement that very same day. I also lost my girlfriend who was also a member of the Church. If you want to know details of the deceipt, lying and other hypocritical behavior in the church I can give you details. I was a Christian and attended Church for the next 6 years after I left the ICC including independent Christian Churchs, Churches of Christ, Southern Baptist, Independent Baptist and Methodist churches and had seen much of the same type of behavior in many other churchs in my 25+ years as a Christian. It is not isolated to 1 church or 1 movement but is endemic to the Christian belief system as a whole. I am not bitter about my experiences, I am just saddened about the hypocricy and fabrications that are both adopted and distrubted by many people (like I once was) of this religion (and many other religions as well).
After much soul searching and research in both history and science in the last 5 years, I have resigned myself to the fact that the Christian religion is not any different than the tens of thousands of other religious faiths out there. IMHO, it is only through critical thinking and education that humanity can improve our condition not through blind faith and adherance to a failed religious belief.
BTW, please do not comment and say I was never a TRUE Christian or didn't really know "God". Look at yourself and ask why do I believe what I believe, do I have evidence to back up this belief.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.Dr. Carl Sagan
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