>>305804Long read.
I was a devout christian most of my life, about roughly two decades. To give you an idea I prayed every single time I went to eat just about anything, including drinking water, every single time. Avoided temptations, etc, etc.
Then I became a gnostic for what lasted unironically one week, before i reverted to some weird mix between protestantism and catholicism as it always was (minus clergy and pope bullshit, then, which in themselves are aberrations according to the bible, none should represent God, even less promote degeneracy if you catch my drift, as well as pedo stuff etc).
Then, I realized not too long ago that, being someone who value objectivity, rationality, and critical-thinking and seek truth no matter the cost, maybe i'd need to actually reflect on my 'beliefs'.
So I thought, what's the origin of christianity. The Bible, so let's study it, let's find if there are any pitfalls, inconsistencies. Turns out there's only that, after all it was written by men. There's a PDF online which lists a lot of them, but i'll refrain from posting it since you can find it yourself if that's something you're willing to study.
Although the PDF is indeed in a sardonic/slightly condescendant tone, a lot of the counter-arguments from it are actually very right.
>fug.jpgSo, here I am, thinking 'Well bible is useless then. What about god?'. So I thought, let's review why do we believe christianity. Because of generational faith transmission, because of natural selection (faith provided a survival advantage because it improved group cohesion, moreso because heretics and non-believers were killed, meaning genes that would diverge from religious beliefs would be far less spread and less common than the ones who cause people to be more religious, inherently).
Okay, so it means that people believe faith mainly because their parents teached them to (excluding NDEs, drug trips because while important they're way less common, debatable, and because i need something widespread for my example). They didn't really 'see' anything, they just believe what they grew in.
Alright, then it means we must go to the origin of that generational faith. Hell, let's not limit it to christianity, but to all religions.
So, the first person who likely sparked religions must have 'seen', things, right? Otherwise how would he make something so elaborate, and so boastful as to say that such a grand thing has been revealed to him and that he 'knows'?
Well, philosophically, very improbable. If he did 'see' it, other than cognitive biases, a need to alleviate the fear of death, of observing simple pareidolia (i.e seeing faces in clouds, objectively there's nothing it's just the way our brain perceives things), then, surely, all religions would agree on the same thing, right? Everyone's god would be completely the same, same for the laws, and if that first man saw what he saw, why aren't we able to replicate that despite light-years technology of improvement compared to that guy? If he saw something that was real, we'd be able to see it, right. No? Then it means it's purely imaginative, and speculative.
And if it's speculative/imaginative, is it real? No, not quite. Even if you're persuaded that the color you see in front of you is green, if you're daltonian (having a perception different than others) and everyone else isn't and sees blue instead, then your perception is wrong because the consensus on what they see brings us closer to a more objective way of perceiving that same color. And that applies for anything. A single perception is always subjective.
And the problem is that this original faith person was alone, and that includes prophets, so it's subjective, what they saw, we cannot see it with science, hell, even religions all disagree on what would actually be god, or the after-life, if it had any reality to it, there wouldn't be a difference of interpretation, because we'd see the same thing. And then if we add the 'need' for religion, to alleviate the fear of death, of meaninglessness, of the lack of objective justice (because if no punishments exist, what stops people from murdering everyone without consequence), lack of guidance and evolution, and because it helps cope a lot with hardships of life. And drugs don't help either, they're mostly perceptions made INSIDE the brain, because that's precisely what drugs do, they rewire the brain more or less temporarily, creating those perceptions, but it doesn't make them real, no matter how real it 'feels'.
So, those are all of the reasons that led me to believe that there is no God. And possibly not an after-life either.
Do know i'm not trying to convert anyone to atheism, or spark a heated debate - although i have no problems with a calm and rational one -, but just sharing what became of christianity with me. However I do think that faith is indeed a core part of a functioning society, even though I do not believe in it (anymore).
>inb4 tl;drUnderstandable, but you're missing on an interesting train of thought, in my opinion.