Akdegreat:
...Gradually, I had stopped going to my church as frequently as before. They had nothing new to teach me. I also began to form my opinions using empathy, rational enquiry, logic and reason rather than religious dogma. I dropped all my superstitions in favour of evidence about the natural world and things in it. I sought to understand the cause of things rather than stare at them in awe and ascribe them to unseen forces. I accepted reality, made informed decisions about my life and took responsibility for outcome of these decisions.
I suddenly developed this 'strange' love for all of humanity irrespective of religion, culture and race, as much, I try to make it enjoyable for everyone around me. Afterall, what's the point in hoping for a blissful afterlife while living a miserable life. I never felt so happy with so much satisfaction. Unfortunately, I tend to disagree severally with religious people on some issues, especially family. It's quite disheartening that they perceive me as 'bad' & 'lost'. All these happened within the space of 3 years, just before my graduation.

I joined Nairaland earlier but recently stumbled on a post and to my amazement, I wasn't alone after all. I'd love to met some people here in person e.g Johnny, winner, sharon and Seun. You guys are great. Though the atheists make such sarcastic arguments, their points are valid most of the time, while many Christians know so little about religion. These arguments really did a good job in further weakening my belief in the Bible God. If He is there, he'd understand my reasons for doubting the Bible account of him. He should be a just judge.

- Akdegreat

jonbellion:
...Abrahamic God can't be the God that created the universe. His attributes sound like he was made by man and not the other way round...

Akdegreat:
With an honest aim of understanding the nature of God and his wonder displayed in nature, I had set out on a quest for 'truth'. As a very inquisitive person, a sound background in scientific methods further fueled my already curious and inquisitive nature beyond normal.

As a kid, I asked several questions;
"Since God created everything that exist, what if God never existed, and hence nothing whatsoever exists? I often tried to picture a dark and void space remaining that way for all of eternity!! Whenever I did, I got lost in my wild imaginations"
"How did God come to be? Who created him?"
"What if God never created life? How would the earth be then? I often repeated same imaginations again but this time with planets, asteroids and other heavenly bodies. Of course I got lost again, severally"
"What if I was never born? So I would never have experienced the beauty of life? Scary!"
"Why did Lucifer ruin the Paradise? For Christ sakes we all would have been there now. Why didn't God even kill Lucifer at once earlier to prevent it? He knew the future!"

I grew up into a devote Christian with different questions;
"With the so many religions on earth could we possibly be worshipping the same God in different ways?"
"If the God I worship in the bible is the one true God and creator of the universe, would he destroy non-christians in hell simply because they worshipped him wrongly?"
"Would God really condemn a devote Christian to hell after years of righteous living simply because he erred one time and dies without repentance? Would he now allow a person who has done heinous things into paradise simply because he finally accepts the salvation story in the end?". I had many more questions that bothered my mind but I'd stop there.

These questions didn't matter so much as I still upheld the Bible as truth and lived by its doctrines. On a second thought they must have sown the seed of doubt in my mind; a seed that came to germinate later on.
A lot of things happened during my undergraduate study that shook my belief but for the sake of brevity, I'd mention a few..
I held the opinion that "compared to clerics, scientists better understood the awesomeness and magnificence of God". Come to think of it this way, with every scientific discovery, scientists reveal God's wonder in nature while clerics keep 'recycling' doctrines written in our ancient Holy Bible. The beautiful works of God in nature were unreconcilable with the barbarisms attributed to him in the bible. When some Bible claims corroborate with scientific findings we're good, but when 'outrageous' claims are found in the Bible, we are convinced that they're metaphorical with deeper meaning. Gradually, it became obvious that science had more credence compared to religion. My religiosity reduced drastically as well as my total trust in the bible as ultimate truth. Not sure anymore, I wondered if there's a creator (God) or not. I mean, 'the Bible must have so poorly described God' I thought.

Aside from bible, I sought knowledge of God from various books on religion, spirituality and nature. I read the Qur'an and it bored me. I came across "Earth's Chronicles, The 12th Planet, and other controversial books by Zecharia Sitchin. They were indeed controversial, and I asked myself 'how did he know all those things?' The works of Thomas Paine is worthy of mention. I agreed with him largely, especially his 'Age of Reason'. I discussed my thoughts with another 'thinker' (I choose not to mention his name) and he introduced me to the 'Sumerian Texts', the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' among other amazing books. Wow! What have I been doing. They shared similarities with the Bible so I couldn't help but wonder and ask more questions. 'Did I believe in a big lie all these while?' ...

hopefulLandlord:
OP, your case isn't strange

people are dumping the delusion of gods and religion and embracing atheism

just go through the below links

https://www.nairaland.com/3078223/pastor-atheist-why-never-christian

https://www.nairaland.com/3085047/part-2-pastor-atheist-why

https://www.nairaland.com/3084510/faith-facts-collection-thoughts-experience/

https://www.nairaland.com/2045070/thoughts-questions-religion

https://www.nairaland.com/3292061/christian-atheist

https://www.nairaland.com/3353173/losing-fear-death-unbeliever-christianity

those are some of the many Nairaland accounts that have extricated themselves from those archaic tales written by drunk cavemen who had no idea about how the world works

Atheism is spreading all over the Nigeria, people are finally seeing through the veil of religion used to cover their eyes

felixomor1:


No , u may have never have had a belief.

My opinion though.

Raydos:
i want to ask three questions!


(1) how often do you fast?


(2) do you pray at least 10times a day?


(3) do you distance yourself from sin?


you don't do all these things and you expect GOD to show itself to you! - scientists have tried their best to find where GOD is really is but all to no avail so they conclude that there's no GOD!


just because people Don't see GOD Face to face so they have a mere intuition that GOD Doesn't exist - but funny enough you people have never seen devil in person yet you believe he exist, every bad thing that happen to you, you believe its always the handiwork of devil.

try to do all those 3 aforementioned list up there, and i asure you that GOD will see you in spirit and he will make you understand everything.

i am a living testimony

Akdegreat:


Must I fast everyday and pray 10 times a day before God reveals himself to me? That sounds ridiculous though.

However, I studied the Bible diligently. In fact I could spend hours on it. I was a worshipper, like David. I was a pianist and I worshipped in songs. I stayed clear of sin too.

felixomor1:


No , u may have never have had a belief.

My opinion though.

Scholar8200:
You said you were a devoted christian. Would you mind telling us briefly how you became one?

Lennycool:

Why always this. Anytime a Christian converts. Some theist brings up the No true Scotsman fallacy

Akdegreat:

I don't mind

Akdegreat:

I don't mind

Scholar8200:
Alright bro, let's hear it.

TheSixthSense:
Akdegreat, if you don't mind me asking, What denomination did you belong to? Protestant/Pentecostal?

Akdegreat:
With an honest aim of understanding the nature of God and his wonder displayed in nature, I had set out on a quest for 'truth'. As a very inquisitive person, a sound background in scientific methods further fueled my already curious and inquisitive nature beyond normal.

As a kid, I asked several questions;
"Since God created everything that exist, what if God never existed, and hence nothing whatsoever exists? I often tried to picture a dark and void space remaining that way for all of eternity!! Whenever I did, I got lost in my wild imaginations"
"How did God come to be? Who created him?"
"What if God never created life? How would the earth be then? I often repeated same imaginations again but this time with planets, asteroids and other heavenly bodies. Of course I got lost again, severally"
"What if I was never born? So I would never have experienced the beauty of life? Scary!"
"Why did Lucifer ruin the Paradise? For Christ sakes we all would have been there now. Why didn't God even kill Lucifer at once earlier to prevent it? He knew the future!"

I grew up into a devote Christian with different questions;
"With the so many religions on earth could we possibly be worshipping the same God in different ways?"
"If the God I worship in the bible is the one true God and creator of the universe, would he destroy non-christians in hell simply because they worshipped him wrongly?"
"Would God really condemn a devote Christian to hell after years of righteous living simply because he erred one time and dies without repentance? Would he now allow a person who has done heinous things into paradise simply because he finally accepts the salvation story in the end?". I had many more questions that bothered my mind but I'd stop there.

These questions didn't matter so much as I still upheld the Bible as truth and lived by its doctrines. On a second thought they must have sown the seed of doubt in my mind; a seed that came to germinate later on.
A lot of things happened during my undergraduate study that shook my belief but for the sake of brevity, I'd mention a few..
I held the opinion that "compared to clerics, scientists better understood the awesomeness and magnificence of God". Come to think of it this way, with every scientific discovery, scientists reveal God's wonder in nature while clerics keep 'recycling' doctrines written in our ancient Holy Bible. The beautiful works of God in nature were unreconcilable with the barbarisms attributed to him in the bible. When some Bible claims corroborate with scientific findings we're good, but when 'outrageous' claims are found in the Bible, we are convinced that they're metaphorical with deeper meaning. Gradually, it became obvious that science had more credence compared to religion. My religiosity reduced drastically as well as my total trust in the bible as ultimate truth. Not sure anymore, I wondered if there's a creator (God) or not. I mean, 'the Bible must have so poorly described God' I thought.

Aside from bible, I sought knowledge of God from various books on religion, spirituality and nature. I read the Qur'an and it bored me. I came across "Earth's Chronicles, The 12th Planet, and other controversial books by Zecharia Sitchin. They were indeed controversial, and I asked myself 'how did he know all those things?' The works of Thomas Paine is worthy of mention. I agreed with him largely, especially his 'Age of Reason'. I discussed my thoughts with another 'thinker' (I choose not to mention his name) and he introduced me to the 'Sumerian Texts', the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' among other amazing books. Wow! What have I been doing. They shared similarities with the Bible so I couldn't help but wonder and ask more questions. 'Did I believe in a big lie all these while?' ...

Akdegreat:

I suddenly developed this 'strange' love for all of humanity irrespective of religion, culture and race, as much, I try to make it enjoyable for everyone around me. Afterall, what's the point in hoping for a blissful afterlife while living a miserable life. I never felt so happy with so much satisfaction.

felixomor1:


No , u may have never have had a belief.

My opinion though.

felixomor1:


If u have a different opinion, state it.
I simply stated mine.
And obviously, u dont know what it takes to be a Christian.
Fo u, It's just a title in ur dictionary.
Real christians know its more than that.

Akdegreat:


Sorry, I had a belief, a strong one just like every other Christian born in a Christian home.

Lennycool:

And who are the real Christians?

simplex2:
Welcome dear, you are at the right path of self-discovery. Only the truth shall set you free.
Pls stop answering their questions: they are looking for holes in your story so that they will start blabbing about how you were never a christian in the first place. Thats what they did to Hardmirror: its their usual style.

TheSixthSense:

Atheism isn't a club you simpleton. Stop acting like a spoilt class captain. People drop religion everyday likewise people that find one but everyone has their reasons for making such decisions. My question has nothing to do with you. Also, to burst your bubble because it seems you just started, NOT EVERY ATHEIST WOULD LIKE YOU TO BECOME FRIENDS.

felixomor1:


Ur continuous insistence on "Christian home" makes me say such.
Being born into a Christian home doesnt make u a Christian, hope u know that?