To Christians turned Atheist - a?

Yeah, I listened well.

I also taught and played in the worship band- I was very involved and loved the Lord with all my heart.

What turned me away from Christianity?

Well, for starters I got an education and became more open minded- the class that I took on classical logic was especially enlightening.

When I applied my new critical thinking skills to reading the bible, I just found so many contradictions that it couldn't be true.

I initially chose to believe in god but accept that the bible was flawed, but it didn't take me long to realize that still clinging to god was a silly crutch that had carried over from my upbringing. Everything I have ever come across since becoming an atheist has reinforced my position.

edit: Sure thing on the specifics.

One of the first problems I discovered was the root of calvanism versus armenian philosophy. Are only those who are saved called to christ? WHY DOESN'T HE CALL THE OTHERS? There is biblical 'evidence' for armenianism and calvanism, and it can be argued forever. In the end, it just doesn't make any sense for a loving god to burn people in hell for eternity. ETERNITY.

Anyways, I could go on forever: The logical incoherence of omnipotence, the contradiction of being just and mercifull, the existence of evil, rife contradiction throughout the bible.

In the end, it comes down to the following though: It is utterly ridiculous to think that the Christian god is in some way exempt from the ancient cycle of man creating gods to describe things that they don't understand.

You do know that if you were born in india, you'd be a hindu, right? If you were born in afghanistan, you'd be a muslim. Religion is pure chance and social myth- there is absolutely no reason to favor your god over the millions of others which have persisted throughout human history(with followers just as ardent and certain as you are.)

At some point, humanity just has to grow up and stop perpetuating that cycle. It shouldn't last much longer- god as an explanation for the things we don't understand is by definition an ever receding and increasingly insignificant notion.

"I'm a youth leader at my church, and I got to wondering, how many of these kids are going to leave the church because they didn't listen."

Condescending much? I frequented the church, Christian bookstores, and annoyed the hell out of my peers with my proclamations of my faith. But what enlightened me was the search for evidence (spoiler alert: there is none).

I also asked a lot of questions. What never failed to happen during my line of questioning was for the final answer to be "you have to have faith". Answers like that didn't help with my cognitive dissonance. And besides, common sense says that EVERY theological belief operates on faith. It just got to the point that "you gotta have faith" just wasn't sufficient answer. Concerning objective truths, this made me realize that my religion was no different than any other.

Hope this helps!

This is a good question. I wish I could give you a better answer, but I'm short on time.

I might post again if I get the chance.

Essentially, the more I learned about Christianity, the less I liked it.

I was probably the only kid who listened in Sunday school! Everyone else texted.

My teacher gave me the nickname "little Catholic school girl" because I used to attend Catholic school and knew a lot about the religion.

Now I am an atheist.

I listened. I listened hard. I was intent on being the Christian atheists don't seem to think exists, the one who knows more about his religion than they do.

I acknowledged that the Bible wasn't inerrant and had been changed by humans over the years.

I began to look at what I knew about God, deepening my understanding and refining my conception of God to approach something internally consistent and believable while still definitely the same God described in the Bible.

After several years of intensive study and refinement, I had a conception of God that was robust, internally consistent, and logically sound. Unfortunately, I had to excise his divine personhood, most of his interventionism, and basically anything that made him someone who would desire or benefit from human worship.

Then I was a deist.

Then I was an agnostic.

Then I was an atheist.

Then I decided, **** it, I'm gonna worship Satan.

My father always told me, "Church has kids and old people, the people in the middle are the ones they have a hard time holding on to. Because the young adults that are going to school are working weekends. The people raising families have a million reasons to skip church. A sick child or one that is too young to keep quiet. Good Christians are going to go no matter what, but ones that are a bit lazy will be too busy to stop trying to catch up and attend services.

It's not a case of lost faith. It's a case of lost control. Their lives control them. They don't control their lives

I listened to well, which raised to many questions for which i found better answers for elsewhere. Then i grew up a little more and the whole thing just stopped being plausible, presto i am now an Atheist