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  • I am an atheist and a former Christian.

  • As a former Christian I look back to what I used to believe

  • and I wonder

  • how I could have been so naive

  • As a Christian I had very little knowledge about evolutionary biology

  • physics

  • geology

  • and chemistry

  • Yet I argued about evolution,

  • fossils

  • and radioactive dating.

  • I claimed to know problems that scientists just happen to miss when developing these thoroughly tested methods.

  • These supposed flaws were pointed out to me by other Christians.

  • Now I have read several books on each of these subjects

  • and understand more than I thought I ever would.

  • I know now that scientist have accounted for each of these supposed flaws.

  • As a Christian I vigorously denied the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions

  • but I was irritated when someone denied the existence of my God.

  • I had an emotional attachment to my belief.

  • My beliefs are now based on logic and reasoning and not emotional feelings.

  • As a Christian I felt insulted and "dehumanized"

  • when scientists said that humans evolved from other life forms

  • but I had no problem with the Biblical claim that people were created from dirt.

  • I ignored the evidence from millions of scientific tests that pointed to a different theory.

  • Now I study these scientific findings with an open mind.

  • As a Christian I laughed at polytheists

  • but I had no problem believing in the father

  • son

  • and Holy Spirit

  • that are separate

  • yet the same

  • To me a trinity made more sense that multiple gods.

  • Now I don't believe in any gods.

  • As a Christian I got upset when I heard of the violence attributed to Islam, or any other religion

  • but not when the bloodshed was committed by my God.

  • I made excuses for my God.

  • For Example: the slaughtering all the Egyptian babies in Exodus

  • and the genocide performed in "Joshua"

  • including women

  • children

  • animals

  • and trees.

  • I also claimed that my God was loving and kind.

  • As a Christian I thought Hindu beliefs that deify humans were just silly.

  • I believed Greek claims about gods sleeping with women were absurd.

  • Yet I had no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary

  • who then gave birth to a man-god

  • who got killed

  • came back to life

  • and then flew up into the sky.

  • I realize now that the difference between these beliefs is minuscule.

  • One is just as silly as the next.

  • As a Christian I was willing to spend my life

  • looking for loopholes in the scientifically established age of the Earth

  • which is a few billion years old

  • but I found nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen

  • sitting in their tents and guessing the age of the Earth.

  • As a Christian I believed that the entire population of this planet

  • with the exception of those who shared my beliefs

  • would spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering.

  • And I considered my religion "tolerant" and "loving".

  • I am free of the fear of hell now.

  • As a Christian I ignored the textual scholars

  • that showed evidence that the Bible was not a reliable source.

  • However

  • an emotional person

  • rolling around on the floor

  • screaming gibberish

  • was all the evidence I needed.

  • I know now it was just plain nonsense.

  • As a Christian

  • I thought that the double blind studies

  • showing prayer completely ineffective

  • were diversions from Satan.

  • I believed the unanswered prayers were simply God saying "No".

  • I ignored the fact that praying to any god produced the same results.

  • I also ignored the fact that if my god was the one true god,

  • my prayers would be answered more often than other religions

  • which would cause a statistical anomaly that could be measured.

  • I don't waste my time praying now.

  • As a Christian I actually knew little more about my religion than what I heard in church.

  • I did not study the history of Christianity

  • the early church

  • how the bible was written

  • what books were left out of the bible

  • the mistranslations from the original Hebrew

  • and the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity.

  • This knowledge was not needed to be a Christian.

  • Studying all of these items and actually reading the bible

  • the entire bible

  • helped me see the truth.

  • I am happy I do not believe in superstitions anymore.

  • I believe actions are more important than beliefs.

I am an atheist and a former Christian.

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