Deconversion experiences

There are probably many different ways of going through this.For me, it was several decades ago. I never thought there was a conflict between science and religion. I thought it obvious that the Bible was not a science text book, and that the Adam and Eve story was a fable, that the Noah's Ark story was either a fable or about a local flood and farmyard animals.There was always the problem that prayer seemed to be like talking to a brick wall. But I managed to put that to one side.What really bothered me were:

• the miracles; why did the age of miracles seem to end at about the time there were skeptical scientists to check on those them;
• the resurrection; the description in the Bible is kind of vague, so how can we be so sure of it;
• the claim that Jesus was son of God, when he mostly described himself as "son of man". It seemed a bit forced.
• the contradictory genealogies for Jesus;
• the emphasis on the teachings of Paul, over the teachings of Jesus;
• Mormonism; nothing seemed more obvious than that it was a made up religion. And if it can have that many followers as a made up religion, then Christianity could just as easily be a made up religion.

In my case, the transition was relatively painless. I was at graduate school, away from my Church friends, so personal ties did not get in the way.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

It is not the agnostic position as you defined that in Message 24. For you defined it as a question on evidence, while Meldinoor is saying that it is a conceptual question, a question of meaning.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

That makes a lot of sense to me.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

That's my take on it, too. And the more I study it, the clearer it becomes that it is not designed.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

I think that understates the problem.As I see it, the problem is this:

• Christian theology asserts that the Bible is infallibly true;
• even those denominations that do not assert infallibility of the Bible still assert that the Bible is the source of their theology;
• the Bible text does not actually support a lot of core Christian theology.

It takes a really strained way of interpreting the Bible to find it consistent with Christian theology. There's a thread here on Is there Biblical support for the concept of "Original Sin"? that well illustrates part of the problem.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

I was fine with the teachings of Jesus. But too much of Christian theology seemed inconsistent those teachings.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

That's part of what sustains religion. It is really just group psychology. We evolved as social creatures, and our way of life is dependent on some degree of social cooperation. So, quite naturally, we are influenced by others in the group. Your discomfort is because you have moved in a direction that is inconsistent with the expectations of the group. That "not meant to understand" doesn't work very well with people who have an interest in science and in asking the hard questions. I don't consider that cowardly. It is part of our responsibility, as social beings, that we should not unduly burden others with facts that are mostly personal in nature. That's a situation that calls for thoughtful judgment, and you do seem to have thought it through.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

I have sometimes said, "I prefer to keep my religious views to myself, and I would prefer that others do the same." This turns out to work well with those who come knocking on the door in their evangelism attempts. They usually don't come back.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

If I understand him correctly, jar is just saying that we should behave better, and not concern ourselves about whether someone is watching over us.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

Just post your own deconversion experience here.What's that? You haven't deconverted yet? Then this is not the thread for you.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

What he is rejecting, is 2,000 years of made up bullshit, held together by only the glue of tradition and by group psychology.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie

There was no personal insult in my post. I actually have a lot of respect for GDR.I don't doubt that GDR disagrees with my characterization of religion, but that does not make my post a personal insult.

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Jesus was a liberal hippie