Losing God
The author of this deconversion series had been a closet atheist for some time and only a handful of people knew about this. He still attended church; he clapped and sang during worship along with everyone else. Outwardly nothing had changed but behind the mask he was frustrated. When the pastor asked if his words made sense what he really wanted to do was scream: "No they made absolutely no sense. I'm standing here in full-blown apostasy and your God doesn't have a clue."
Instead of receiving discipline what he got were bland pep talks from a deity who was as much in the dark concerning his true spiritual condition. Those events sum up his experience with the supernatural - a lot of good intentions with very disappointing results.
Mary was a member of his Christian fellowship group and she had muscular dystrophy and almost overnight she became completely blind. It shocked all of them... how could this happen? They were determined that this attack of the "enemy" would not stand since God worked everything for the good to those who loved him. The author firmly believed that Mary's suffering would be temporary. He believe God had given her this burden for a time so that her eventual healing would spark a revival on campus. Hundreds of souls would be saved as a result of this miracle.
What Satan meant for evil God would use for good. And so when Mary returned to school it was not by chance that one of the visiting speakers was hailed from a charismatic church. In fact he was the very first charismatic speaker invited to their group in years. Everything was aligning perfectly. After the service he prayed for Mary, they all did and incredibly enough she was healed.
Well okay she was still blind but the speaker insisted God was healing her at that very moment. It was now up to the Lord when he would complete his work. It could take a couple of days, weeks, months... but God is good right? How could God be healing Mary if she couldn't see? It's been 18 years since Mary was "healed" and her sight is no better than it was in 1996.
Is nobody else upset he burned Hysteria!!! Like fK guys. Who cares about the the god part... That tape was perfect on both sides from begining to end!!
there is no proof of gods existence , and aslong as there is no proof, no point in believing God is real
Proof positive that God exists, is the true mission of Jesus, which cannot be found in the Bible. I found this when I was 12. With my soul I asked for help: "Jesus, Help me." Immediately, I was given God's Love. If you ask sincerely for God's Love, he will give it to you. These 2 websites I recently found, verify it. "divinetruth.com" and "new-birth.net" This last site Jesus, through a medium, Dr. Samuels, corrects. Bible errors.
i love God ....NUFF SAID !!!! LOL!!!
this was the most boring thing i have ever seen, your life is completely average and common Most people go through this as they grow up and grow out of religion. why you would make a doco about it is beyond me......
.....understanding. with a teeny tiny "u".
Be, yourself, a part of the great cooling? The durably predicted apostasy and falling away that you were taught was a birth pang of the End? Might you be living out an important part of prophesy and be blind to it? In fact, you might be inspiring believers in Christ to be vigalent less this loss of faith happen to them.as they fall to relying on their own
Just by looking thru history and the claims of Jesus Christ tells a person He was just what He claimed. Just by deductive reason it tells me the Bible has to be true.Because someone thinks He should be like Santa Claus and give him everything he wants is no reason to believe he is no more special than a rock is a lie of the devil himself. Ask yourself why there is such things as good and evil. What is the need of morals and where did they come from. They are ingrained from day one.
WOW. People still expect freebies from the big boss and thus have missed the entire point of it all. Then if not that, they focus upon their religion and its rituals rather than God.
Such people pray for others, and thus fail the test again. They pray for others rather than actually help the others.
However, if they were in a hospital and were dying of a cancer that can be cured, but the doctor said that he will do the same as they do and thus will just pray for this patient rather than actually do the operation that will save them, they would become violently upset. To them, it is OK to just pray for someone else rather than do something, but they believe that the very same rule should clearly not be applied to their very selves ???
Btw, It's not "Julian Bare" Syndrome. Its Guillan Barre Syndrome (hard g...geeyahn baray). My recovery from religion was not born from a self-focus of what I didn't get, but the abuse of rational thought, and also the realization that what people believe is based largely on where they are born. I also spent years being spiritually abused. But thanks for YOUR story.
I just found a great show on Hulu that took 6 episodes before introducing a fantastic loving homosexual couple and then introduced Christians as hateful. With Hollywood setting the modern compass of societies, it is amazing that anyone is still a Christian because Hollywood hates them - not to mention colleges filled with anti-God rhetoric. It turns out that God has never proven himself to someone without faith.....instead, He rewards faithfulness with supernatural events. So while the world confuses the media with science, several of us are seeing supernatural intervention that our pragmatism cannot write-off as coincidence.
On behalf of myself and the other 1.5 Billion Atheists Globally, I must say we find it unbelievable that the religious will allow themselves to be led around like sheep by delusional creationist who believe the universe is 6000 years old and claim to be speaking on behalf of their "imaginary friend". They're indoctrinated from preschool age children through adulthood with this piffle about a nonexistent deity in the clouds and end up going through life brainwashed into believing in this man made mythological nonsense. Some of these delusional "believers" end up going off the deep end and are they're ones who end up flying planes into buildings and exploding bombs at marathons.
Hi, I hear what you're saying and can relate completely. But do you really know the Lord and have a relationship with him? There are many who proclaim to know his will but don't. I',m not passing judgment because I have struggled with my faith so much But Jesus is true and if we call Upon him he does respond
So satisfying to read so many sensible contributions on this thread like uraniophobiac, Maxine and coryn to name a few. Organised religion is entirely man made. It has caused and continues to cause suffering and discrimination based on a raft of fairy stories written about an imaginary person with superpowers much like todays spiderman, which is also the invention of man.
If you are religious, keep it to yourself. You have no right to inflict it on others.
Would almost be funny, if this poor guy hadnt wasted so much time being lied to, and putting his trust into those slimy faith salesmen. I can, however, identify and it makes me think what would my life have been like if I didnt have the right friends growing up, that encouraged keeping open minds and thinking for yourself.
It is not God that causes me to question His existence. It's His followers, or more specifically, the "Christian" conservatives, or the Christian "right". They spew such vile hatred , They don't follow Christ at all, but their own hateful translation of Paul . Christ has been wiped completely out of Christianity in favor of Paul. It's not a church of love, It's the church of Hate. It's so pervasive, so evil. When I see the hate increase exponentially daily, I believe less and less. I hope God intervenes very soon.
*This guy gives up on God because God neglected to heal the girl. Most people know that God can only heal all of the people some of the time or some of the people all of the time but not most of the people in the morning or something, I don't know, it's talks about it in the book of Genesis I think. God gives blessings to people that He wants to, not to who you or I think he should.
If there was an event where I would have to risk my own life to save another from tragedy, (Now, I'm not saying that I am more charitable and more loving than God, but,) I hope that I would show courage and help. Unfair suffering is difficult to understand. How a child can ache with the retching pains of starvation, begging the heavens for some relief, while God watches on with inaction, but then He blesses Tim Tebow with a great pass and enough wealth that could have eased the suffering of thousands of children. It almost doesn't make any sense. God is very mysterious. (*sarcasm used to highlight irony.)
He did not lose God; He never had Him to begin with. Every argument he makes is based on his lack of understanding of the Scriptures, because he does not posses the spiritual discernment to understand them:
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Cor. 2:14
Furthermore, his rationale for rejecting Christianity is based on a series of disappointments not actual evidence. LIfe is full injustice and suffering. We live in a fallen world and are fallen beings.
His biggest obstacle, besides not possessing saving faith in Christ, is that he fails to see his own sinfulness. Therefore, he has a very high view of himself and a low view of God. He doesn't fully understand the Gospel: God is good, we are not. We deserve his wrath. BUT He chose to make the ultimate sacrifice: Sending the perfect sacrifice for an undeserving, ungrateful world, Jesus. Jesus took our punishment and died on a cross. He defeated death and is now in heaven as our Mediator. Now it is by Grace through Faith that we can by forgiven and cleansed from our sin, and thus have hope in eternal life with God. This is good news!
He doesn't believe in God, because he chose to believe a lie instead. He sees God as evil and himself as good. The complete opposite of what God's Word reveals. This is very sad. He will get the shock of his life when he stands before his Creator and realizes that he was deceived the whole time. I do not wish this on him, nor does God. The reality is that God is simply allowing him what he wants: Freedom from the loving protection of God. How tragic.
I feel as if this person has not gotten the healing he wanted so he uses this as an excuse to bash God. He is basically throwing a temper tantrum. He misquotes, selectively quotes and dissects the bible so that it seems like a senseless doctrine. Christianity has not been a perfect religion, but it has helped very many people. God doesn't condemn us, we condemn ourselves! God sent his Son to save us and show us the way. His hair splitting of doctrine and lack of insight suggests to me his faith was not really very deep at the onset.
The audacity of someone thinking that God should be at an individual's beacon to perform a magic trick of burning rubbish in the middle of a floor. What does this have to do with faith at all? But it was his pivotal sign that God wasn't present. It seems he is looking for a magician, not a God who suffers with real suffering.
So much of what is in the bible is symbolic. This isn't even mentioned. How juvenile!
This guy can't stop complaining! Okay, fine. Don't believe in God. Next subject. On second thought nevermind, he'd probably complained endlessly again.
I am an agnostic and have spent much of my life in search of answers. Everyone's journey (figuring out what and who God is) varies in scope and depth. My advise is to not accept any answer someone may give you. Do your own research. Be open minded enough to seek out knowledge. One of your keys will be to look within yourself. When you find peace within yourself you will begin to find the answers to your questions. The internet has a plethora of information, use it. Above all become conscious. Most, if not all, ancient religions and modern religions' scriptures have very similar stories. If you are interested in finding "your" truth, researching these stories and their similarities would be a good place to start. The rabbit hole is very deep and time consuming to traverse. But well worth the effort to do so. I wish you well on your journey.
I do not believe in god. There is just to much that does not make sense.
This man never judge thru Holy Spirit, because he puts his thoughts above the word of God, when this is logic. The desease reapeare because of sin. The diference betwen churchs is because of freedom of christians. And eternity of hell is becauze of infinity majesty of God (when attack the president is different then attack a dog)
There is an answer...just don't confuse reason with circumstance.
There is a great deal about this 'de-conversion' experience that echoes my own and rings true with me. I do however think it is sad that this individual's loss of faith has completely detached him from the concept of spirituality and the supernatural. At no point through my gradual loss of faith and disillusionment with organised religion have I felt like rejecting the idea of a universal power that is beyond absolute human comprehension. Call it what you will, but what all religion, however primitive- along with many other uniquely human constructs serves as evidence for, is that hardwired into our being is the assumption of something that operates on a higher plane to that which we normally have access to and control over.
This is the great mystery, and to switch off to this is to accept a blissfully ignorant existence, where nothing can have meaning beyond its physical form. This is a convenient ideology for the privileged, but for those who have been given the worst hand in life it removes any motivation to live.
The very fact that we ask 'why?' is evidence of there being an answer. Perhaps just not one that our waking mind is capable of comprehending.