Ex-Christians: What was your turning point? How long did your “deconversion” take?
Biblical mistranslations? Christian hypocrisy? Education in science, philosophies, or humanities?
Did this happen gradually, fairly quickly, or instantaneously?
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Tagged with: christians • Deconversion • education • humanities • hypocrisy • mistranslations • philosophies • science • Turning Point
Filed under: Ways To Get An Ex Back
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It happened fairly quickly, but in a couple stages. I’ll spare you the long story and just say I started studying philosophy right after I got out of the Marines, especially a lot of eastern philosophies, and found my Catholic upbringing fairly inadequate to the task. Then I read Ayn Rand (the atheistic antipode of Buddhism) and the conversion was complete. It took a few years and for me to figure out most of her "logic" was just as full of holes as Christianity, nevertheless it gave me a swift kick in the right direction (as swift of a kick as a couple 1000+ page tomes can give…). It wasn’t till after I fully deconverted that I started reading the Bible for what it is and *seeing* its amazing level of inconsistency and hypocrisy.
Just a short snippet out of the "long story": I am the youngest of 6 from a German Catholic father and a Mexican Catholic mother, I have one sister who, to this day, believes that if it isn’t in Latin, it isn’t Catholic, and a brother who is in Iraq as a fundamentalist pastor trying to convert the Kurds (while lying about why he is there, claiming to be there to teach English and business…isn’t the hypocrisy deliciously ironic?!??).
All of the above. And it was gradually, approximately 5 years to be exact.
I was raised Christian but never seemed to fit in or understand (or believe.) I prayed, I asked, I begged, I tried for 15 years to get some kind of answer in Christianity, to make it fit. I only felt lonely and out of place. The doubts and questions weren’t answered logically and I never felt "saved". I never reached the level of belief. I became an adult and kept trying with no success.
I reread the Bible, listened to preachers condemning me and saying AIDS was God’s punishment on homosexuals. I studied the bible, that did it finally. I decided that wasn’t for me. I couldn’t worship the deity in Christianity. I never found the “loving” god so I stopped trying and looked elsewhere. At this point I was alcoholic, a cutter and very depressed. Six months later I found paganism. I was Wiccan for 10 years and that was MUCH closer to what I was looking for but not quite it. Having gods and goddesses made perfect sense to me. Eclectic paganism had been close but not exactly what I was looking for.
I began exploring my ethnic roots (going through Native American traditions, Celtic paganism and then I found Heathenism. From the moment that I picked up a book on Heathenism I knew what I had been missing. I continued reading what little was available (two good ones, a couple of miserable ones) and it was like a lightbulb going on in my head and life. Heathenism sang to my very nature. Everything is questioned until verified or it remains in a nebulous state in the religion.
The Northern deities want followers to live honorably and always question, seeking knowledge and honor the gods, one’s family, one’s friends, one’s ancestors and one’s self. Finding one’s path in life and spirituality is half the task for some these days and mine taken me away from Heathenism and paganism after twenty-seven years.
After 13 years in Heathenism I was in something of a spiritual crisis and felt no connection at all no matter how hard I tried and that lasted for 3 years. The lack of connection and doubts became a physical ache. I wanted the spirituality I had once found back. I wanted my gods back. A lot of the turmoil was the feeling of pushing rocks uphill in trying to get people active in the Kindred or take the initiative.
A year and some months ago I began talking with some of the Jewish members of the forum and discovered that Judaism is a very separate religion from Christianity or Islam. I’ve lightly studied some denominations and religions over the years, but I hadn’t ever studied anything about Judaism. I guess, like most people raised Christian, I thought Judaism was simply “Christianity without Jesus and the NT.” I discovered I was wrong and became curious. The more I studied the more intrigued I became.
It was as if a search-light hit me, not a lightbulb turning on, but a search-light. The more I learned the more it clicked. I read a couple of books and then began a class down in the valley 50 miles away once a week for 16 weeks, plus 4 for a winter break. I did some rune readings and had very strong readings that I should explore Judaism further.
My deconversion happened over a several-year period. I was a Christian for about 25 years, but never critically analyzed any of it. When I really began educating myself on science and facing all the inconsistencies, the scales fell from my eyes (ha!).
I’ve been happily atheist for about 6 years now!
I was built up philosophies from what I knew true rahter than what I was told to be true, which I later found that some of conflicted with Christianity – am I to go with what I know to be true, or what I’m told to be true? I shan’t deny that Christianity has a lot of scienitific evidence, and I’ll even go so far as saying proof… but I believe it false, now.
ALSo once I became open to leaving Christianity, I started seeing a few…. one hypocrisy.
It happened over an unknown period of time. I could say four years and I could say about four weeks… depending on how one wants ot look at it.
Gradually, over a period of years. The first crack in my certainty came when I realized how similar the Bible stories were to ancient myths and legends of surrounding cultures. The real turning point was reading the whole Bible. I simply couldn’t continue to believe after I had read it with an open mind.
My parents are both Christians and are taken by the sneakiness of the church. Christianity has evolved into something that it was never meant to become. That is why I am a proud Buddhist!
When I was young (infant to age 7) I attended a small Presbyterian church near my house. When it closed down, we stopped attending church at all, and I gradually stopped believing in (and disliking) Christianity.
I don’t think I ever really believed it.. I thought the whole Jesus thing was a nice story, but I didn’t believe it at all.
I became more and more irreligious over the years, and eventually became an atheist from ages 11-13 (I’ve always been mature for my age, lol, so just accept it
), and then became more agnostic.
I started looking into different religions, looked over neo-paganism and wicca, but neither really connected to me. Then I started looking into Judaism about a year and a few months ago, and it was like instantaneous.
I plan on starting the conversion process at 18, when I move away to university. I plan on being chassidic.
The thing that really gets me about xtianity, is that it just doesn’t make sense.
Gradually……….I questioned everything and no one gave me a good enough answer.
Always the same dribble and "just believe,believe"It hit me that it was human man made BS.
and I decided to go my own way.
Fairly quickly. I was always scared I would burn in hell forever just because of some ignorant action. I tried to pray to god but nothing happened. I remained scared. Then I read about polytheism. The ancients had gods that didn’t care who you were or about every aspect of your life. You could enjoy life without being afraid of burning. That was when I was ten. I’m now fourteen and can feel the presence of the gods in my blood, in the air, in the water, in the trees, in the stones, in the night. I am now truly happy and am slowly finding the old gods. May you be blessed with good fortune and be happy on your path.
I’d say a good few months, really…starting when I was about 16.
The thing that put me off at first was the constant hypocrisy coming from christianity. I then read about mistranslations from non (ex) christians, which really annoyed me, so I looked further into them and was amazed to see that these non-christians were actually telling the truth. I also didn’t like how Protestants were claiming to be the ‘right path’ and that the Catholics ‘are evil’. We never really learned about evolution, so I don’t really have much of an opinion on that…I’d say I’m neutral on it all.
But, gee, am I glad that I’m know longer duping myself. Life is good.