To all the ex-theists in this community. What drove you to leave your religion? (midwest.social)

submitted 8 months ago by Lanky_Pomegranate530@midwest.social to c/atheism@lemmy.world

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[-] lady_maria@lemmy.world 11 points 8 months ago

So our (Lutheran) church would bring all of the kids in the congregation up to the front to discuss a theme or passage during each service. We initially had a pretty cool female pastor (who—I later found out—was bullied into leaving because she was a woman 🙃); she at one point told us that to get into heaven, we only needed to ask God to let us in. It made sense to my naive little brain.

When I was 15, some asshole temp pastor called us up and asked if we know how to get in, and I replied with what I was told; he very condescendingly said "uh, no, you need to believe in God".

I was irritated by his tone, yes, but I also hadn't heard that before, strangely. His response really disturbed me. I thought, what about people across the world who have other faiths? Or children who die before they even have a chance to believe?? You mean my amazingly kind, Buddhist Vietnamese friend is going to HELL?? What the fuck???

So I began to research alternate viewpoints online, and discovered the ways in which Christianity doesn't make sense and how it's often used as an excuse to spread hate and suffering. I just couldn't justify believing anymore.

this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024

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