I used to be a Christian. In another thread Papa Zoom asked why I am now an atheist. Re-posting here to continue discussion:
Basically in 20 years or so as a Christian I never saw any evidence of the supernatural or of a benevolent and interventionist deity:
Later, the enthusiasm with which the majority of Christians embraced anti-gay views made me re-examine my assumption that Christianity was having a net-positive influence on society:
The view I reached was that Christianity is now more often than not, a barrier to social progress, and its medieval (im)morality does more harm than good in the modern world.
Basically in 20 years or so as a Christian I never saw any evidence of the supernatural or of a benevolent and interventionist deity:
Over time I gradually stopped believing in the supernatural for a variety of reasons including:
- having never witnessed any supernatural occurrences, nor ever encountered convincing evidence that one had occurred
- being unconvinced that people who claimed God had 'told' them something had actually heard from God since they regularly contradicted each other or reality about what God had told them
- being disturbed by the amount of evil and suffering in the world, and subsequently considering it highly unlikely that a benevolent and interventionist deity existed
- being unimpressed by the extent to which different Christian groups could not agree with each other on doctrine or on what the bible said, and thinking that if God existed he'd done a pretty terrible job at informing humans on theology and morality
- having never witnessed any supernatural occurrences, nor ever encountered convincing evidence that one had occurred
- being unconvinced that people who claimed God had 'told' them something had actually heard from God since they regularly contradicted each other or reality about what God had told them
- being disturbed by the amount of evil and suffering in the world, and subsequently considering it highly unlikely that a benevolent and interventionist deity existed
- being unimpressed by the extent to which different Christian groups could not agree with each other on doctrine or on what the bible said, and thinking that if God existed he'd done a pretty terrible job at informing humans on theology and morality
When the gay rights debates blew up... That inspired a very rapid reappraisal of my view that Christianity was a morally positive force in society, and inspired me to take a more thoughtful look at history and morality and Christianity's influence on society.
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