I grew up as an evangelical baptist and truly believed in all the religious dogma presented in this thread (ie jesus loves you, faith is above reason, god has a plan that may be unfathomable). I accepted jesus into my heart at a youngish age, got baptised around 11 and in my teens was active in the church youth groups and I even taught sunday school up until I was 19.

When I was 17 I had a number of “encounters” with the “holy spirit” while worshiping with a charismatic youth group I became involved with - associated with the “vineyard” church movement. These were somewhat in the vein that “Mic” describes above, although I didn’t speak in tongues.

I now (in my early 30’s) would call myself perhaps a “Deist” as Sid described above, but in no way shape or form do I still believe in Christianity.

Why?

1) There are just too many contradictions in the Bible and yes there are quite a few, and yes I’ve read it all multiple times and know all the “apologetics” that “explain” these contradictions

2) Although I allow for the fallabilty of “sinful” humans and the sincere desire to live with christ within, the overwhelming evidence suggests that most christians (including myself at the time) are COMPLETE HYPOCRITES. The percentage that truly live like jesus is pretty damned small. Not a good track record for the whole religion.

3)I sincerely and wholly opened my heart up and welcomed jesus into my heart, to lead my life the way he wanted yadda yadda and you know what happened? Not much. Aside from feeling guilty for violating the moral code imposed on me I generally felt like most everyone at that age, lost and jaded. God never answered any prayer that wasn’t to “change my heart” to accept whatever the circumstances already were. Mostly I felt incredibly incomprehensibly awful for my impure thoughts and actions (primarily masturbation).

4)Although I felt “loved” by the community of my church, it seemed to be somewhat obligatory. I totally and completely understand why some people convert to christianity, or stay within it - you have a built in community of people who HAVE to love you. They will go out of their way to welcome you and will gladly fill your calendar with things to do and people to be around. Who love you. Because they have to. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily, but it’s not for me. I have since found my own community (of secular artists and musicians) who provide me with the same feelings of love and community without the guilt! Because…

5)Guilt is an overwhelming motivator when you think of things in terms of “sinning” and being righteous or good or holy or whatever. It’s a sin to have “impure” thoughts. Oh sure, that’s why I went and accepted jesus into my heart, because that means I get into heaven even if those thoughts occur, but the fact of the matter is you have impure thoughts and then you have to pray about it, ask for forgiveness and then actively try and avoid the situation in the future. That gets difficult when the situation is your body going through puberty. If having the holy spirit in me didn’t get rid of those thoughts then really god is a bit sadistic!

6)The “church” has hardly set a good example throughout the ages.

7)Living for jesus is kind of lame. You are storing up all these “treasures” in heaven but you don’t get to do anything you “want” here on earth, it’s a lot of delayed gratification that will never be fulfilled. I prefer to live the life I am guaranteed instead of waiting around to die. Or be raptured in the last days (a whole other ball of wax!)

This video is frightening because these children are “brainwashed” and have no control over how they see the world. Wait until they are around 22 and go back and see how they are doing. My guess is 80% will have left the church.

I think it’s easier to convert to christianity as an adult because people have screwed up lives and the church offers them a loving community who will support and help them. When you are born into it you don’t really get the chance to convert. Once you realize that your church denomination thinks differently than another denomination of the same religion - sometimes drastically and on pretty major points - if you are at all a “thinker” you will start to see the whole thing unravel like a poorly knitted sweater.

If the god of the bible truly existed,(ie ominpotent and omniscient and “loving”) the world would look completely different in every possible way.

And I have intentionally left certain words (like god etc) uncapitalised - it really grinds my gears when people talking about god or jesus capitalize words like “Him”.

wow

those who are freaked out by this video,
i understand.
those who aren’t
i understand.
i’ve been on both sides.

i’m a christian,
i’m not ashamed of my faith.
it’s what saved my life,
please don’t misunderstand
it’s not my crutch.
it’s a relationship i found.
i can’t explain this remarkable video
or prove to you God exists
i can’t reason how other religion’s seem real to the follower.
but i can tell you the change that happened in my life came through a work of God, not man.
it can’t be taught.

this isn’t about preaching.
at all.
you can tear me apart,
but please don’t.
just hear these words: i love you.
maybe you haven’t heard them enough.
i know Christians sure don’t say them enough.
i truly know why people are so turned off to religion,
i just want to ask for a second please don’t label me.
i’m sorry, okay?
really.
on behalf of every “believer” (of God) I’m sorry. christians have not represented Christ.
We have failed.
That’s what humans do, we fail. God’s not like that.
thank you for those who have given me a better perspective on my faith, you’re criticism shows that Christianity as a whole is not as it should be.
If you have felt judged by a Christian,
I’m sorry.
again, God’s not like that.

I’m open to questions. I promise to respect you.
give my words a chance.
not as an attempt for conversion :)
i just wanted to apologize.

And further off topic note, I heard about Christians praying for cheaper gas prices at the pump? Ain’t that some nutty shit? How do their prayers go, something like this…

“Thank you lord, for my extended cab diesel F-350 that I use to bring glory to you god. But lord, there must be something you can do to help me pay for fuel I need, so that I can better serve you lord, thanks be to god, amen.”