They Lied to Me — 4 Reasons I Left Christianity
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When I say, “they lied” to me, I mean it.
People I looked up to in my youth told me that God existed. Eventually, I started to question these things and I realized the enormous extent we all owe to our intuitions on these issues.
The people I looked up to in my youth knew that many of the tenets of Christianity require deep faith. But they didn’t care to explain the ambiguity.
So, yes, they lied.
When teaching religion or atheism to impressionable young minds, it is always good to express it in uncertainty. That said, here are four reasons I gave up Christianity. These apply to myself and mysef alone. I am sure you have your own reasons for accepting the faith and I believe in your right to have them.
Please keep your faith. I believe it can do so much in the world. In my case, I had to abandon it.
Let me explain.
1. The Evidence
Evidence is very difficult to talk about.
Really, I think very few — if any — people are persuaded by evidence when it comes to religion.
Atheists are not persuaded by it nor are those with religious or spiritual beliefs.
That said, it is not even remotely possible that the Bible is the “inerrant” word of God, as 2. Timothy 3:16 claims. There are too many discrepancies in the Bible itself and, more importantly, just poorly argued passages. What persuaded Paul and Jesus, not to mention Old Testament prophets, is far from what we consider good reasoning today.
The moral shaming and selective focus of the writers of the Bible should reveal this to most readers (I’ll get to this in a second). Instead, we have become familiar with the text and excuse these blunders.
When we remove ourselves from the context, it becomes clear that the Bible really is a poorly selected bundle of thoughts.
2. Scientific Reasons
It’s also true that scientific explanations for creation are infinitely better than any “God of the gaps” argument.
Of course, very few intelligent Christians I meet would dispute this.
