In my case, it was a lack of evidence, and the cult-like veneration, er, “respect” accorded to the clerisy of the branch of Christianity that I was raised in.
In my case, it was a lack of evidence, and the cult-like veneration, er, “respect” accorded to the clerisy of the branch of Christianity that I was raised in.
I am not a Christian because my parents raised me Christian. They didn’t. And my three daughters were all raised Assembly of God and were even members of the Junior Bible Quiz Team. They knew their bible and were very involved in the church. That didn’t save them. Only the blood of Jesus can save them.
Their mother divorced me (no fault. She was just tired of being married) in the late 90’s when my oldest was 16. Now one is a Bhudist and the other two are agnostic. So far...
Does it bother me? Yes and no. I love them and would like to see them in heaven, but Jesus is very clear on the matter when he describes who his “mother and brothers” are.
To the “perfect” Christian, blood is NOT thicker than water. I’m not “perfect”, but I am being perfected.
There are plenty of people I can share the gospel with beyond just my blood relatives. All of them are equal in God’s eyes.
I lost my faith after my dad fell into the cult of Armstrongism (Worldwide Church of God) which utterly destroyed all non-church activities, and as a bonus estranged us from our non member friends and family. As another benefit, we kids were pulled from the top performing school system in the province and dropped into the public schol system, but NO extracurricular activities that happened on Wednesdays or weekends were permitted
The actual realization of and rejection of faith didn’t occur until HE realized how he had been defrauded.
I have reasoned it out and have returned to the Catholic church, but I regret to say that civility to proselytizing protestants is in short supply in my life.
Proselytizing atheists, I wouldn’t p155 on if I saw them burning on my sidewalk.
I can not do that. I look at the stories in the holy books and understand that primitive people looked to the supernatural to explain things they could not understand. There is no need for that today.
People who do today, who literally believe a 2000 year old dead Jew is coming back for them are ill. That is just my opinion.