Freedom from Dogma - Testimonies of Ex-Christians

Amazon.com Widgets

Freedom from Dogma

.: posted 6/17/2005 ::: by webmdave :::

sent in by Richard Moore

My name is Richard Moore and I am thankfully an ex Christian. I was raised in the very fundamentalist Southern Baptist Church. When I was too young to walk to Church, I was carried. There followed many years of Sunday School, worship service, vacation Bible schools, and summer youth camps. The pressure to believe is intense, and I was baptized at about the age of twelve. Christians must believe blindly and have faith without proof and doubts must be suppressed. Of course a single doubt or the wrong question can destroy the Christian programming.

About the age of sixteen I started asking the hard questions. For example, Adam and Eve had two children, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel and was banished to another country where he took himself a wife. Since the Bible says that only Adam, Eve, and Cain were alive, how could there be another country from which he could take a wife? I found out that my church leaders didn’t like being asked the hard questions. I was told to shut up, just believe, and stop asking those pesky questions. I was naïve, but I really expected to have my questions answered. Since the Church didn’t have the answers, I had to look elsewhere for the truth.

For me, the question that finally destroyed the Christian meme was this. What kind of a god would sentence even one of His children to eternal punishment; not just for the sins of one short human lifetime, but for not believing the correct dogma? If true, He is the ultimate enemy of Mankind. If false, there is nothing to save us from, and the sacrifice on the cross is unnecessary. I could no longer accept such a god and the Christian dogma collapsed like a house of cards. I was free and had never been so happy in my life. It was like a heavy weight had been lifted from my mind.

My de-conversion occurred in 1970 and the last thirty five years have been spent as a seeker after truth and knowledge. I am a member of no Religion, although Buddhism may be closest to the truth. At least I am not aware of a Buddhist ever persecuting anyone.

Best wishes to all you ex-Christians. Prove all things and believe only that which is good, honest, and true. Remember that when Christians make it to exchristians.net, they obviously have doubts and need help and encouragement. Hate the dogma, yes, but not the poor deluded Christian.

Texas
USA
I was a Southern Baptist
Now I am a Seeker, Mystic
I converted because my mind was programmed through constant repetition
I de-converted because I could not accept a cruel vengeful god
email: qadeshet at yahoo dot com

Add this page to:

4 Comments:

Anonymous wrote:

I am the way the truth and the life.No one comes to the Father but through Me.For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who so ever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

posted: December 04, 2005 EST

Dave8 wrote:

I guess god just was just too busy to make the trip on his own. Talk about the "killing the messenger" story.

posted: December 04, 2005 EST

I_StanD wrote:

Hello to you,

This site, ex-Christians, I must say that you can't be a ex-Christian because you never were a Christian! Christians don't walk away from their faith, they persevere in it-- you are either in Adam, or in Christ. Dead or alive; condemn or set free from the condemnation of sin.

You may have a free will which I can grant it for you if you want, but you don't have good will-- now you are in trouble.

I hope one day, you'll know the real truth that you yourself can't have it right now-- just hope and pray.

posted: March 12, 2008 EST

boomSLANG wrote:

Dear "i_stand",

Thank you for the logical fallacies; the presuppositions; the false dichotomies; the threats; the patronizing; the condescention.....but mostly, thank you for illustrating, perfectly, what religion does to the human brain.

'Mean time, I will rub my lucky horseshoe in the hopes that you will one day find reason...that is, hopefully sometime before the inevitable and complete annihilation of your existence. Because then, you'll be cured---whether you like it, or not.

Sincerely, 'boom.

posted: March 12, 2008 EST

The first 200 comments appear here under the article. If over 200 comments are posted, click on the "newer" and "newest" links on the Post a Comment page to continue reading the latest comments.

Post a Comment | Create a Link | Post in the Forums | Permalink

Subscribe to this post's Comments (Atom).
Subscribe to every post's Comments (RSS).
Quickly catch up on all recent comments posted on ExChristian.Net on the Recent Comments page. Or, keep track of comments on individual topics by using .