The Problem With Christianity - How I Lost My Faith

The Problem With Christianity - How I Lost My Faith

So I was raised as a Christian. I grew up believing the Bible was the perfect word of God, the Earth was created in 6 days and the “Second Coming of Christ” was imminent. I was told that after death I would spend eternity either in Heaven, which was better than I could possibly imagine, or in Hell, where I would be burned alive, in excruciating agony forever. Which one I ended up in seemed to depend not on how I acted towards others, but on my continued attendance to church, memorising of Bible verses, and my willingness to stand up and say “Yes, I am a Christian!” no matter what persecution I may face.

As a result of these beliefs I lived in constant fear that I would end up in Hell, and was plagued by guilt because I didn’t want Jesus to come back tomorrow – I wanted to grow up, to live my life! Disgraceful, I know.

It wasn’t too long, however, before I started to wonder about certain things. I was always being urged to “live as a Christian” but I couldn’t quite get my head around what this meant. There seemed to be an implication that “living as a Christian” was to be a “good person,” but the things it entailed: going to church, reading the Bible, praying, and so on, seemed to have little to do with morality. Of course, there were the “ten commandments” we were expected to follow, but these all seemed either arbitrary or obvious. And then of course there was the main doctrine of the Christian faith – that none of us can meet God’s expectations anyway, so in order to save us from his own wrath, God came to Earth as his own son in order to be tortured to death so that he could forgive us. Aside from absurdity of this idea, it seemed to make moral actions somewhat optional for Christians, as all that really mattered was accepting this “gift” absolving us from responsibility for our “sins.”

At around the age of sixteen I stopped going to church. I felt I wasn’t learning anything new in these services, and they were a waste of a perfectly good morning that could be spent sleeping. Besides, wasn’t the Sabbath supposed to be a “day of rest”? I still considered myself a Christian at this point, but I had decided that the most important thing was to live according to the teachings of Christ, treating others how I would wish to be treated and so on. This didn’t stop certain people repeatedly informing me that I would be going to Hell unless I returned to the church, however.

Over the last few years I have been searching all avenues of Science, Philosophy and Religion, trying to find the answers. I have now come to the conclusion that there is almost certainly no God, and certainly not the one of the Bible. My next few blog entries will discuss how I came to these conclusions. The main topics include:

·         Genesis vs. Science

·         The“goodness” of God

·        Heaven, Hell and the immortal soul

And more....