Christianity? Why? ?

Question

I'm an athiest, mostly because I see flaws in the church. I wanted to know why you are whatever you are. Were you raised that way? Or was it a choice?

Answer 1

Well, of course you see flaws in the church. The church is a human organization - anyone telling you anything different is probably trying to convert you.

The teachings of Christianity are a different matter.  I myself am a Buddhist, but I like to think that I've learned a good bit about things from the things that Rabbi Jesus taught.  He seems to have been an okay guy with a lot of good ideas about human kindness.

I was not raised Buddhist, I was raised atheist by parents who had both been raised catholic and went to catholic school.

The thing about Buddhism that appeals to me is essentially in the humility and honesty of the whole idea.  Buddhism encourages us to question everything we hear, even Buddhism.  If, for any reason, we do not feel satisfied, we are free to change what we believe.   In Buddhism, the idea of faith is non-existent.  There is nothing taught that is not ultimately explainable, we are not asked to believe anything with no rational basis.

Buddhism isn't a religion, per se, in that there is no idea of faith.  The Buddha was very explicit that there should be neither doctrine nor dogma.  Convincing people to believe isn't what it's about, the closest we get is making sure we're accessible and present to discuss life with other people with as little prejudice as possible.  

Buddhism was never forced upon me.  It never had to.  Everything I have learned about the world in years of traveling the world, discussing with others, and experiencing various things has vindicated the teachings of the Buddha.  No convincing needed - even when I questioned things I was told about Buddhism, I found that I ended up drawing the same conclusions that the Buddha did.  I'm not saying that I believe anything a Buddhist tells me, either.  A zen master I met once told me that I should not allow myself to be constrained by things like sects, groups, or individuals.  She was perfectly fine with that being the only teaching I received from her.  If I left without hearing another word, it was fine.  If I stayed, it was fine.

Long story short, the Buddhist teachers I have had were the first spiritual people that I encountered that encouraged me to do my thinking for my own sake, and to test the foundations of my belief to be sure they were strong, rather than telling me I wouldn't be happy if I didn't believe as they did.

Answer 2

I am of Christian faith.It was around me as a child and in a sense it was both.But ultimately all things are your choice I would think.I was never forced to believe in it and when I got old enough to make my own decisions I still kept my choice.I have many reasons as I'm sure you do yours as to why I believe the way I do,so I wont go into details unless that topic arises.Remember the churches are not the real flaw,but anything people touch can become flawed.When you focus on something like a church or preacher etc,you may tend to take your eyes off the prize.

Answer 3

I was raised this way, but never forced into it. My brother was raised the same way, but after a disagreememnt with our minister, he never went back to church. I have made my choice, and he has made his. He knows of God, but chooses not to believe (although I think he still does :))

Answer 4

Some have no choice. Or they will burnt in h**l.

Answer 5

It was pure choice. The more research I did on Christianity the more I started seeing the accuracy within it. Also my life experiences were rather dull before I came into Christianity, I felt empty for a long time. I have never felt empty since I turned to God.

Answer 6

I am a christian of the Baptist denomination.  I was introduced to God at a young age.  When I was 3 my Grandmother use to take me to church.  Then her health began to fail and she couldnt attend anymore.  When I was 12 I started riding the bus to church on sundays.  I knew it was something I should do.  I felt the need for God in my life.  The bible says: train up a child in the way, and when he gets old he will not depart from it.  My Grandmother laid the foundation that drove me back to seek God.  I believe in my religion because it just makes sense to me.  Yes there are flaws in church thats because no man is perfect.  Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God"  No man is perfect.  And if you use the excuse of flaws in the church to remove yourself from God then you will never find him. You're never going to find a perfect church.  But you shouldnt worry about being in a perfect church.  Man (people) will let you down every time.  Dont put your faith in man, put it in Jesus.  He will show you the way.  Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen"  MY FAITH keeps me going for God.  I pray you will find him too.

Answer 7

my mom raised me in church but later i decided to go my own way. i wasn't feeling the "God" junk. Then after an accident and heavy laden heart I set outside on my porch one day and kinda talked to myself or to God whatever, whoever. And literally, there was a grey film removed from vision it was like the sky became beautiful. I had never seen that before. the grass was green. It was an indescribable feeling.

I had been recovering at my mom's house because i couldn't climb the stairs at home. All she did was christian music and t.v so because i was hurting both physically and emotionally and bored, I decided to start reading the bible. then suddenly i didn't want to smoke a cigarette, my homegirl came over with an ounce of weed just for ME! And I didn't want it. I just wanted her to leave so I could get bak to my bible. ........ I wish God would open up everything for everybody so they could see and hear. but he doesn't you have to seek him first.

Up until that time my life had been so miserable in every imaginable way. But since that time I have never been the same. It is my decision to trust God now. Many are called but few are chosen thank God he chose me!

Answer 8

I was not "raised" in an actively christian household. Yes, my family claimed Christianity, but didn't necissarily practice it. I am a Christian mostly based on personal experiance. I say this because I do not have enough personal knowledge of the bible and biblical history to answer the questions about Christianity that I have. If I were to actively seek the knowledge for only the purpose of glorifying God, I would either have the truth I seek or the peace of not knowing.

The bible says ask, seek, knock; Matthew 7:7

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

And also, in Jeremiah 29:11-14 it says: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity: I will gather youfrom all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carred away captive.

As for my personal experiances, there are many. One day God blessed me with an abundance of faith, and showed how he has had a hand all throughout my life. I embrased this faith and marked this moment as a life changing experiance for me. I thought it was unique to only me, until I read my exact experiance in a book call "The Excellent Wife", by Martha Peace. And what I experianced I found has also been given a name! It is called positional sanctification. According to this book there are three stages of sanctification; positional, progressive, and future.

           Positional sanctification occurs at the moment of a person's salvation. It is all the work of God. God draws the sinner to Himself, gives the sinner a desire to seek Him, convicts him of his sin, cleanses him of his sin, and saves his soul. (Peace,1999, pg 37)

The next stage of sanctification is progressive, which takes the active participation of the sinner. This is where I am now. I must admit that there have been times when I had no questions, and the closer I get to God and the more knowledge I obtain, the more my faith is tested and the deeper my question get. God wants us to have questions and he wants us to seek his word for the answers. We need to have a foundation for our faith in order to draw others to Him.

These statements are very generic and simple explainations. In know way do they sum up my entire faith, but I thought I would share a glimpse of my experiance, in hopes that it will in some way provide insight into the experiance of someone actively seeking Christ.

(also, please kindly forgive me of any gramatical errors :)) Best wishes.

Answer 9

I was raised a Roman Catholic but like you I saw flaws in the church and decided to quit. Now I'm an Atheist.

Answer 10

Seeing flaws in the church isn't the greatest argument for atheism, as one does not have to ascribe to organized religion to believe in god(s).

I'm an atheist because I see absolutely no evidence for the existence of god(s).

Answer 11

I was raised to be Christian. It wasn't so much about flaws in the church for me as the implausibility of the whole idea and lack of real evidence to hold such beliefs for myself. It also wasn't really a choice for me anymore than when I lost my belief in Santa. It wasn't really like I could just choose to keep believing in Santa once I realized he wasn't real. I mean I guess I could deny that part of me that had reached a logical conclusion and keep insisting to myself he was real and crediting him with my Christmas gifts, etc... but that to me would be very psychologically unhealthy.

Answer 12

I was brought up a Catholic Christian. I stopped going to Church in 1970 because i felt the Church was not needed. In 1993  i was admitted to hospital for Benzodiazepene addiction. It was then i decided to go back to my faith.

Only the Church established by Christ is the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. The Church is the Body of Christ. Through the Spirit and action in the sacraments, above all the Eucharist, Christ, who once was dead and is now risen, establishes the community of believers as his own Body. Although the Church is sinless, she is made up of sinners, (faithful and clergy.)

In this one and only Church of God, from its very beginning, there arose certain rifts, which the Apostles strongly centure as damnable. But in subsequent centuries much more serious dissensions appeared and large communities became separated from full communion with the Catholic Church - for which, often enough, men of both sides were to blame. The ruptures that wound the unity of Christ's Body - here we must distinguish heresy, apostasy, and schism - do not occur without human sin.

Concern for achieving unity involes the whole Church, faithful and clergy alike. But we must realise that this holy objective- the reconciliation of all Christians in the unity of the one and only Church of Christ - transcends human powers and gifts. That is why we place all our hope in the prayer of Christ for the Church, in the love of the Father for us, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Many "Catholics" are leaving the Church for the wrong reasons. Satan is having an extented control over the world at the moment and his favourite menu is "suger coated" Christians.

Answer 13

The 'church' can be full of flaws and 'christians' can be a barrier to others understanding God.  Just make sure you have tasted the real church and understood the real Christ before completely giving up on God.  Remember, you are full of flaws, too.  God isn't giving up on you.

Answer 14

I was Born as Muslim, an will Die as Muslim!

Answer 15

Most people reject Christianity because God would be an authority over them, telling them how to live their lives.  It would be like inviting their parents to watch what they do.  It has almost nothing to do with finding flaws.

Just how old were you when you discovered these flaws?

Answer 16

Yes there are many flaws with the modern church. That is why I look to God and not the people, yes i still go to church, a Pentecostal, and we know that all these "flaws" are signs of the end. It's my choice whether to believe Christ is real and after all i have been through, there's no way i'm going back!    

Answer 17

If I based my Christianity on other Christians, I probably would be an atheist too. I am a Christian, because I believe the gospel of Christ. It is all based on the Bible. I know that the Bible is the Word of God, not just because it is sound in doctrine, but also because it has been so well preserved that only the hand of God could have been the reason for its preservation. There were over 5,000 manuscripts found of the N.T. alone throughout the entire world. These 5,000 had very little differences. Most of them were in spelling of names and places. There is not another ancient script that has been even close to being this preserved. Most scripts that have over 100 copies have radically different story lines, and it is almost impossible to make out what the original script said, but the Bible is the exception.

Answer 18

I'm an atheist. I wasn't raised with any particular religion, but I just said I believed in God because all my classmates did (when I was little, like up until 10 or 11).

Then I started wondering what religion the rest of my family was. My mom and dad said they were agnostic, and my grandparents were Christians. So I, of course, just said I was agnostic just because my parents were. Then I read up on it and finally decided that I don't believe in God at all. I've been to church countless times with friends, read the bible at least 3 times, and still don't believe.

I still respect other peoples' beliefs...but not if they try to convert me, lol. My grandma has tried that a million times...I just tune her out now.