How I Lost My Christian Faith in 1992 - Sad Story but Perhaps Blessing in Disguise?

[Winston]

If anyone is interested, here is the story of how I deconverted from Christianity back in 1992. I wrote a story about it long ago here: https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Christian_Story.htm. However there were some parts I didn't include, because they were kind of sad and pathetic. I'll include them now below.

Back in 1992, after taking a year off from high school to go to Taiwan and teach English and recover from my OCD and bullying/persecution at school, I returned to Fremont, CA and went to a different high school so I could have a fresh start and less homework load. It was a nicer school without any bullying since the teens there were lower class compared to the the upper middle class high school I went to before, which was far meaner. So it was more peaceful than my previous high school, but it was very lonely too since no social cliques invited me in so I had no clique or friends. So rather than look alone, I went to the library during lunch time or to some club meetings. I tried to revitalize my Christian faith and went to a Christian club on campus and tried to convert people too, which I felt was my duty, including teachers, which felt awkward, but in my mind, their eternal destiny was at stake, so I didn't care about the awkwardness.

The breaking point came one day when I sat next to this cute Cantonese girl in computer class. She was the only girl I had to talk to, since I was friendless at this school. So she was my only company and solace. Halfway through the year, the teacher suddenly changed everyone's seating for no reason at all. So I couldn't even talk to her anymore. I tried to get the teacher to reverse it but she refused. I prayed to God to reverse it but he did nothing, unlike a few years prior when such prayers were usually answered. I was shocked. Being friendless and lonely, even my sole companion during class was taken away from me. How could God be that cruel, I thought. If he's so cruel, that he would allow my only social companion here to be taken away, leaving me nothing at all, then he must be a really mean bastard, I thought. So I decided I had it. I was very mad and furious. My blood boiled every time I thought about it. Out of anger and revenge, I ignored God and stopped praying, to give him the silent treatment for allowing this to happen. It was all I could do to vent my frustration. So in a sense I decided to "break up" with God for what he had allowed to happen. Many Christians have done this I heard.

To make things worse, near the end of the school year, I confronted that Cantonese girl and told her how I felt about her. She got creeped out. When I found her phone number in the phone book and called, she got mad and told me never to call her again. I felt hurt.

The thing is, in my mind I was taking a break from God and my Christian faith. I expected to return to it later. However, I didn't, for the following reasons:

1. The more I learned about Christianity and the Bible during my break from it, the more I began to see that it wasn't true after all and that I was brainwashed. During my break I was able to examine it all from a freethinking mindset.

2. During my break, I felt freer and enjoyed the intellectual freedom I had where I could read any book about astrology or ESP and not feel guilty about violating my Christian faith, since I was told those things were Satanic or demonic. I didn't want to lose that freedom. But I was still in fear of God, hell, and damnation, which was ingrained within me. So I had to slowly learn more and more about the Bible and its errors and fallacies in order to have the courage to not be afraid anymore. My motto was "knowledge is power" so the more I learned, the less afraid I was of the God of the Bible.

3. When I graduated from the last year of high school, I was no longer in an oppressive persecutory environment like high school. The junior college I went to was very lax and the homework was lax and no one bothered you or judged you. People pretty much minded their own business. So I no longer needed Christianity as a crutch to hang onto to save me from a hellish and toxic environment and from descending into madness and chaos. I was an adult now and no longer had to go to school, except for the junior college I went to, which was a much more positive and lax environment without pressure. Since I no longer needed a crutch like Christianity anymore. As such, I could examine Christianity more objectively.

4. I could not reconcile certain things that were too terrible to accept. For example, with the Christian doctrine that my parents and relatives were all going to hell to suffer for all eternity, even though they are good and kind people, simply because they didn't "accept Christ as their savior" and preferred Buddhism instead. It was very hard to accept this literally, but the Evangelical Christians I was aligned with were serious about this. It wasn't a joke or metaphor. They literally believed that and that it was God's law, which must be true since God is the boss. I could not accept this of course and grappled with it for a long time. It was too horrible beyond words to truly accept. Imagining my loved ones in hell suffering over and over again without end for all eternity was too terrible to imagine. I could not believe that a God could do that to anyone, especially good and kind people. Probably most if not all Christians grapple with this to some extent, I'd imagine.

So subconsciously, I began fishing for reasons not to believe it. I began reading anti-Christian books to find good arguments to make me feel confident that my Christian beliefs were not true after all. I began looking for excuses that Christianity wasn't true. It was the only way I could resolve this terrible dilemma that I could not accept. It felt dangerous though, because I knew that what I was doing was blasphemous and if I was wrong, I could invite damnation and judgment from God. But being a truth seeker, I had to find out the truth, so I began researching everything on both sides. It was a slow process to lose my fear of Christianity. But eventually I did find what I was looking for. I found many good strong logical arguments why the tenets of the Christian gospel and its doctrines weren't true. When I was a Christian I never knew they existed, but they did, which I found out as I gained the courage to find more and more of them. The many arguments I found that slowly liberated me from Christianity are documented in my Debunking Christians treatise here: https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Debun ... ntents.htm

The final breaking point came when I was on the plane to Florida for a family vacation. During the flight as I was looking out the night window, I suddenly realized that Christianity could not be true as I was taught, so I no longer feared it. It hit me like a light bulb and sense of enlightenment and awakening. I felt totally confident that I was right so I no longer felt anymore fear for thinking blasphemous thoughts. I was finally liberated from fear of Christianity at last. It felt so good, like a huge burden was lifted off me. (which is ironic since many Christian converts say that when they accepted Jesus they felt a huge burden lifted off them, which is the reverse of my experience). I felt so relieved, like my mind and soul were finally released from prison.

Several months later, a Chinese American guy that introduced me to a Chinese American church in my area, called me to ask why I wasn't attending that church anymore. I didn't have the guts yet to tell him that I no longer believed in the Christian faith, so I lazily told him that I just wasn't feeling good and didn't feel like going. I didn't know what else to say. Also I didn't want to offend him or make him think that he should try to convert me back to the faith, if he knew that I had "backslid". Better to say nothing, I thought. It was kind of awkward, especially since the year before I was fervent in my faith.

So that's how it happened.

Come to think of it, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise. Perhaps the universe wanted me to break out of being a religious fundamentalist, and so arranged all these bad circumstances to shake me out of it? Maybe it was time for me to evolve in my spiritual path, so I had to transcend my dogmatic Christian beliefs and go to higher truths? After all, it's a fallacy to assume that God wants everyone to be a Christian and remain one, just because YOU believe that your God is the only God, and that God only has one singular face and message, when clearly the infinite plurality and variety we see in creation shows that God must also be one of infinite plurality and variety too, since creation is a reflection of the creator. So on basic logic alone, Christianity cannot be the only way to the divine, or the only message of God, as if God was so narrow minded to have only one face and one message and one holy text, which is inconsistent with what we see in creation and with the infinite variety of life on Earth.

So I began going toward New Age spirituality, which fit me far better since it was more electic, inclusive, open minded, and allowed for free and open exploration of consciousness and spirituality, including the occult, which Christianity condemns. The New Age stuff I learned definitely made more sense and gave me more intellectual freedom than Christianity ever did. So I loved it and felt it was the right path and the start of a wonderful new beginning. Like in the end scene of the movie "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" when the words read "The adventure is just beginning", the same motto fit how I felt about my new path, which made me feel much happier and freer than the highly restrictive, narrow, and judgmental Christian faith I had before.

Since then I've learned a lot about different religions, spiritual beliefs, metaphysics, occult, philosophy, esoteric knowledge of mystery schools, alternate theories like ancient aliens, etc. A whole plethora of stuff. Everything I've learned has assured me that I went the right path and that Christianity was NOT the only way to God and was not literally true either. So I see no reason to go back to that, even though I occasionally meet Christians and missionaries during my travels who try to get me to return to my former faith. (and some Christians on my forum too) There simply is no reason to, especially since I've learned so much since 1992 that has convinced me that Christianity and the Bible are only metaphorically true at best, not literally, for many reasons which I've written about in my essays, articles, and books, all of which are free to read online. See here: https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm

Thanks for reading. What do you all think? Feel free to post any comments below. But please keep them civil please. No trolling or flaming or bashing please.

[Gali]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

[Winston]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

What do you mean? Clean up which ideology? And how? Can you be more specific from now on and less vague?

@MrMan and @Neo and @Jester, what do you think of my story?

[MrMan]

It sounds like you decided not to be a Christian because you were mad at God for not answering your prayer, not because you did not believe in Him.

What were some of the prayers that were answered before?

I've experienced shockingly detailed prayers answered before.

[Gali]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

What do you mean? Clean up which ideology? And how? Can you be more specific from now on and less vague?

@MrMan and @Neo and @Jester, what do you think of my story?

Christian ideology, in your head, with logic.

[Winston]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

What do you mean? Clean up which ideology? And how? Can you be more specific from now on and less vague?

@MrMan and @Neo and @Jester, what do you think of my story?

Christian ideology, in your head, with logic.

What do you mean? I have debunked a lot of Christian ideology and theology. Didn't you see my articles and ebooks? See here:

https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm

I've been doing it since the 1990s. I haven't had time to update my ebook or publish it in paperback form. That's on my to do list, along with a hundred other things. I don't get where people find the time to do everything in life.

[Winston]

It sounds like you decided not to be a Christian because you were mad at God for not answering your prayer, not because you did not believe in Him.

What were some of the prayers that were answered before?

I've experienced shockingly detailed prayers answered before.

Yes that was the catalyst. However after that I found many reasons to leave Christianity. Another reason of course was the irreconcilable belief that God would send people to hell for all eternity to suffer without end, just for not being a Christian, even if they are good people. Didn't you read that? Those kind of issues cause many Christians to abandon their faith, not just me. I listed about 4 reasons above why I didn't return to Christianity. Did you read all of them?

Some of the prayers that were answered before were like when I asked God to move bullies away from me in class, which the teacher did the next day after the prayer, for seemingly no reason. Or when I asked for help in softball and then the next day no one could get me out even if it was an easy throw to the baseman, because the baseman kept dropping the ball from his mit even after he caught it. It happened several times that day which was unusual. I also asked God to find me a church and the next day an old friend called me out of nowhere and our conversation led to an invitation to his church in 1987. One time I asked God to bring out my neighbor to play while I stood outside. Suddenly I saw his garage door open and he came out to play. Etc.

These are not miracles that involve bending the laws of physics of course. They merely involve putting thoughts in people to answer my prayer. I'm sure you can relate. My examples are mundane but I'm sure there are many more amazing stories of answered prayer than mine. Do you want to share your examples?

Keep in mind though that answered prayers do not prove that everything in Christianity and the Bible must be true. I've explained why before in other posts.

[Gali]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

What do you mean? Clean up which ideology? And how? Can you be more specific from now on and less vague?

@MrMan and @Neo and @Jester, what do you think of my story?

Christian ideology, in your head, with logic.

What do you mean? I have debunked a lot of Christian ideology and theology. Didn't you see my articles and ebooks? See here:

https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm

I've been doing it since the 1990s. I haven't had time to update my ebook or publish it in paperback form. That's on my to do list, along with a hundred other things. I don't get where people find the time to do everything in life.

Half of your life you gave attention to that stupid ideology now you are still spending your time with that stupid ideology. It is stupid to spend time with stupid ideologies.

[Winston]

You have still a long way to go to clean up the mess created by that stupid ideology

What do you mean? Clean up which ideology? And how? Can you be more specific from now on and less vague?

@MrMan and @Neo and @Jester, what do you think of my story?

Christian ideology, in your head, with logic.

What do you mean? I have debunked a lot of Christian ideology and theology. Didn't you see my articles and ebooks? See here:

https://www.debunkingskeptics.com/Articles.htm

I've been doing it since the 1990s. I haven't had time to update my ebook or publish it in paperback form. That's on my to do list, along with a hundred other things. I don't get where people find the time to do everything in life.

Half of your life you gave attention to that stupid ideology now you are still spending your time with that stupid ideology. It is stupid to spend time with stupid ideologies.

Not really. Many people still read about Christianity online. So it still has an audience. And Christian churches still exist. I also run into Christian missionaries from time to time. So I like to have material to give them. It's also an exercise in logic and critical thinking. So it's exercise for the mind in a sense. If you keep your brain active, like playing piano or chess or something, it keeps your brain active and healthy, studies show. That keeps your brain young so you don't slow down as you age.

[MrMan]

It sounds like you decided not to be a Christian because you were mad at God for not answering your prayer, not because you did not believe in Him.

What were some of the prayers that were answered before?

I've experienced shockingly detailed prayers answered before.

Yes that was the catalyst. However after that I found many reasons to leave Christianity. Another reason of course was the irreconcilable belief that God would send people to hell for all eternity to suffer without end, just for not being a Christian, even if they are good people. Didn't you read that? Those kind of issues cause many Christians to abandon their faith, not just me. I listed about 4 reasons above why I didn't return to Christianity. Did you read all of them?

Some of the prayers that were answered before were like when I asked God to move bullies away from me in class, which the teacher did the next day after the prayer, for seemingly no reason. Or when I asked for help in softball and then the next day no one could get me out even if it was an easy throw to the baseman, because the baseman kept dropping the ball from his mit even after he caught it. It happened several times that day which was unusual. I also asked God to find me a church and the next day an old friend called me out of nowhere and our conversation led to an invitation to his church in 1987. One time I asked God to bring out my neighbor to play while I stood outside. Suddenly I saw his garage door open and he came out to play. Etc.

These are not miracles that involve bending the laws of physics of course. They merely involve putting thoughts in people to answer my prayer. I'm sure you can relate. My examples are mundane but I'm sure there are many more amazing stories of answered prayer than mine. Do you want to share your examples?

Keep in mind though that answered prayers do not prove that everything in Christianity and the Bible must be true. I've explained why before in other posts.

The most detailed one I can think of is when I asked God to speak to my wife about a bunch of things, maybe 7 or so, and prayed a detailed prayer. A few days later, she told me the Lord spoke to her about some things and started going through my list, much more detailed than I'd prayed or thought about even. She told me the Lord spoke to her about the other two within the several weeks that followed.

Another time I was out with my brother and a friend street witnessing. Our friend wanted to go home. I sensed it wasn't time to leave yet, and so I prayed, based on some promptings I would get, that if the Lord wanted us to stay to send someone around the corner with a green hat, red shirt, and blue shoes. It might have been red hat and green shirt. The shoes were blue. My friend said we could wait all night for that. I continued praying, "In the next two minutes" and set the stop watch on my watch. He said if that happened, he'd pass out.

At about 1 minute and fifty seconds, around the corner came that guy. I don't think I'd seen him before. My friend and my brother had. They asked him what color shoes he was wearing because they looked black under the yellow street light. We told him the story and he went under the white light of the restaurant to confirm he was wearing 'blue suede shoes.' He'd been thinking about becoming a Christian. We prayed for him that night.

I've had a lot of other answered prayers but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. I've heard probably hundreds of words of knowledge shared or prophecies, also. Many, many of them were 'obviously supernatural', for example containing information that the speaker could not naturally know. I've also gotten what I consider words of knowledge, sometimes impressions or topics to pray about, like when I prayed for one young man about God putting him in a Christian home. He said, "How did you know I was adopted?" I experienced a lot of that sort of thing, hitting on details like that. Or I get a word of knowledge about someone that I don't know well, and someone else prophesies that same thing. I have known a few people who get the same interpretation of tongues as someone else, but someone else gives it first. My college roommate experienced that. A friend I have known about 30 years has experienced the same thing. I've heard of the same thing happening with prophecies. And I've experienced going one place and someone prophesies something over me, and go somewhere else, and someone else prophesies the same thing over me, and that happens to other people. And people can tell me my spiritual gift sometimes when they meet me. Expressions of spiritual gifts can 'seem mundane' at times, but sometimes prophecies, etc. contain bits of knowledge the speaker couldn't know through natural means.

I think you might have posted some years ago about how some people being abducted by aliens and told them to stop in the name of Jesus and the whole thing stopped. Do you acknowledge that there is power in the name of Jesus?

I also wonder if eternal Hell bothers you that much, why go to being a non-Christian. Why not look into anihilationism. There are some Christians who believe that the rebellious or destroyed in a fire that burns for ever, but they don't burn forever as conscious beings. I can see how some passages could be interpreted that way, and I am planning on studying out that perspective a bit more. But through Christ believers can have eternal life.

[Tsar]

It sounds like you decided not to be a Christian because you were mad at God for not answering your prayer, not because you did not believe in Him.

What were some of the prayers that were answered before?

I've experienced shockingly detailed prayers answered before.

Yes that was the catalyst. However after that I found many reasons to leave Christianity. Another reason of course was the irreconcilable belief that God would send people to hell for all eternity to suffer without end, just for not being a Christian, even if they are good people. Didn't you read that? Those kind of issues cause many Christians to abandon their faith, not just me. I listed about 4 reasons above why I didn't return to Christianity. Did you read all of them?

Some of the prayers that were answered before were like when I asked God to move bullies away from me in class, which the teacher did the next day after the prayer, for seemingly no reason. Or when I asked for help in softball and then the next day no one could get me out even if it was an easy throw to the baseman, because the baseman kept dropping the ball from his mit even after he caught it. It happened several times that day which was unusual. I also asked God to find me a church and the next day an old friend called me out of nowhere and our conversation led to an invitation to his church in 1987. One time I asked God to bring out my neighbor to play while I stood outside. Suddenly I saw his garage door open and he came out to play. Etc.

These are not miracles that involve bending the laws of physics of course. They merely involve putting thoughts in people to answer my prayer. I'm sure you can relate. My examples are mundane but I'm sure there are many more amazing stories of answered prayer than mine. Do you want to share your examples?

Keep in mind though that answered prayers do not prove that everything in Christianity and the Bible must be true. I've explained why before in other posts.

The most detailed one I can think of is when I asked God to speak to my wife about a bunch of things, maybe 7 or so, and prayed a detailed prayer. A few days later, she told me the Lord spoke to her about some things and started going through my list, much more detailed than I'd prayed or thought about even. She told me the Lord spoke to her about the other two within the several weeks that followed.

Another time I was out with my brother and a friend street witnessing. Our friend wanted to go home. I sensed it wasn't time to leave yet, and so I prayed, based on some promptings I would get, that if the Lord wanted us to stay to send someone around the corner with a green hat, red shirt, and blue shoes. It might have been red hat and green shirt. The shoes were blue. My friend said we could wait all night for that. I continued praying, "In the next two minutes" and set the stop watch on my watch. He said if that happened, he'd pass out.

At about 1 minute and fifty seconds, around the corner came that guy. I don't think I'd seen him before. My friend and my brother had. They asked him what color shoes he was wearing because they looked black under the yellow street light. We told him the story and he went under the white light of the restaurant to confirm he was wearing 'blue suede shoes.' He'd been thinking about becoming a Christian. We prayed for him that night.

I've had a lot of other answered prayers but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. I've heard probably hundreds of words of knowledge shared or prophecies, also. Many, many of them were 'obviously supernatural', for example containing information that the speaker could not naturally know. I've also gotten what I consider words of knowledge, sometimes impressions or topics to pray about, like when I prayed for one young man about God putting him in a Christian home. He said, "How did you know I was adopted?" I experienced a lot of that sort of thing, hitting on details like that. Or I get a word of knowledge about someone that I don't know well, and someone else prophesies that same thing. I have known a few people who get the same interpretation of tongues as someone else, but someone else gives it first. My college roommate experienced that. A friend I have known about 30 years has experienced the same thing. I've heard of the same thing happening with prophecies. And I've experienced going one place and someone prophesies something over me, and go somewhere else, and someone else prophesies the same thing over me, and that happens to other people. And people can tell me my spiritual gift sometimes when they meet me. Expressions of spiritual gifts can 'seem mundane' at times, but sometimes prophecies, etc. contain bits of knowledge the speaker couldn't know through natural means.

I think you might have posted some years ago about how some people being abducted by aliens and told them to stop in the name of Jesus and the whole thing stopped. Do you acknowledge that there is power in the name of Jesus?

I also wonder if eternal Hell bothers you that much, why go to being a non-Christian. Why not look into anihilationism. There are some Christians who believe that the rebellious or destroyed in a fire that burns for ever, but they don't burn forever as conscious beings. I can see how some passages could be interpreted that way, and I am planning on studying out that perspective a bit more. But through Christ believers can have eternal life.

It seems like you and even Winston have had a lot of prayers answered. I never had any prophetic ability. Maybe I have had prophetic abilities several times but not about me or my life.

[jerryrigged]

I'll just say this, America was a far better place when people were in church.

[Winston]

I'll just say this, America was a far better place when people were in church.

I agree. Christian values are good for America. Better than the degenerate MTV culture. However, I don't like fundamentalism or the teaching that the Bible is literal and the only way and that all non-Christians go to hell even if they are good people who did nothing wrong, etc. That's ridiculous. My friend Alex has the most reasonable explanation, which is that yes the Bible is corrupted obviously and Jesus is not the only way to God, nor do all non-believers go to hell. However, what's important are Jesus' core teachings, if you can grab the essence of them, you have the true message of God, which is not in books or dogma.

Jesus was not a fundamentalist either, he did not like literal interpretations of the OT and the law of Moses, and always rebuked them and preferred esoteric interpretations. This means he would not agree with the Christian fundamentalist interpretation of his teachings today. That's what Christians don't get.

[Winston]

The most detailed one I can think of is when I asked God to speak to my wife about a bunch of things, maybe 7 or so, and prayed a detailed prayer. A few days later, she told me the Lord spoke to her about some things and started going through my list, much more detailed than I'd prayed or thought about even. She told me the Lord spoke to her about the other two within the several weeks that followed.

Another time I was out with my brother and a friend street witnessing. Our friend wanted to go home. I sensed it wasn't time to leave yet, and so I prayed, based on some promptings I would get, that if the Lord wanted us to stay to send someone around the corner with a green hat, red shirt, and blue shoes. It might have been red hat and green shirt. The shoes were blue. My friend said we could wait all night for that. I continued praying, "In the next two minutes" and set the stop watch on my watch. He said if that happened, he'd pass out.

At about 1 minute and fifty seconds, around the corner came that guy. I don't think I'd seen him before. My friend and my brother had. They asked him what color shoes he was wearing because they looked black under the yellow street light. We told him the story and he went under the white light of the restaurant to confirm he was wearing 'blue suede shoes.' He'd been thinking about becoming a Christian. We prayed for him that night.

I've had a lot of other answered prayers but I can't remember everything off the top of my head. I've heard probably hundreds of words of knowledge shared or prophecies, also. Many, many of them were 'obviously supernatural', for example containing information that the speaker could not naturally know. I've also gotten what I consider words of knowledge, sometimes impressions or topics to pray about, like when I prayed for one young man about God putting him in a Christian home. He said, "How did you know I was adopted?" I experienced a lot of that sort of thing, hitting on details like that. Or I get a word of knowledge about someone that I don't know well, and someone else prophesies that same thing. I have known a few people who get the same interpretation of tongues as someone else, but someone else gives it first. My college roommate experienced that. A friend I have known about 30 years has experienced the same thing. I've heard of the same thing happening with prophecies. And I've experienced going one place and someone prophesies something over me, and go somewhere else, and someone else prophesies the same thing over me, and that happens to other people. And people can tell me my spiritual gift sometimes when they meet me. Expressions of spiritual gifts can 'seem mundane' at times, but sometimes prophecies, etc. contain bits of knowledge the speaker couldn't know through natural means.

I think you might have posted some years ago about how some people being abducted by aliens and told them to stop in the name of Jesus and the whole thing stopped. Do you acknowledge that there is power in the name of Jesus?

I also wonder if eternal Hell bothers you that much, why go to being a non-Christian. Why not look into anihilationism. There are some Christians who believe that the rebellious or destroyed in a fire that burns for ever, but they don't burn forever as conscious beings. I can see how some passages could be interpreted that way, and I am planning on studying out that perspective a bit more. But through Christ believers can have eternal life.

Wow MrMan. Those are very detailed examples of answered prayers. Very amazing. Too much to be coincidence. Keep in mind that New Agers have explanations for such answered prayers too. But atheists like Gali have none. That's why atheism is the WEAKEST model because it explains nothing and has NO answers to stuff like answered prayers, miracles, ghosts, consciousness, etc. Hence it's the weakest model and the worst model. I can't understand why any rational person would adopt it. At least New Age has some explanations for those things.

About abductions, yes some people have halted them by uttering the name of Jesus. But some have tried it and it didn't work. Aliens are not all the same. Some respond to Jesus name, others don't. Look up serious researchers of ET abductions such as Dr. Karla Turner, Bud Hopkins, and John Mack. They address this and say that no, not all abductions stop in the name of Jesus. It's not that simple. It could be that uttering the name of Jesus activates some powerful aspect of you within, which halts the abduction too. If that's the case, then uttering Buddha or Krishna would work too.

Yes there's power in the name of Jesus for some, but not for everyone. Depends on whether it resonates with your inner self and inner archetypes or not.

Well I only knew evangelical Christianity at the time, and didn't know that some Christians groups believed that hell meant annihilation until later. I found out that some groups like Jehovah Witnesses believed in that and their interpretation of hell was different. But by then, I was already liberated from Christianity and felt great about the mental freedom I had to pick up any book on ESP or Astrology and not feel guilty or fearful about it. I didn't want to lose that freedom. Especially since I realized I was brainwashed and that there were many good arguments against Christianity being literally true. As they say, once your mind is open or once you see the light, you cannot unsee it or close your mind.

[TruthSeeker]

However, what's important are Jesus' core teachings, if you can grab the essence of them, you have the true message of God, which is not in books or dogma.

Jesus was not a fundamentalist either, he did not like literal interpretations of the OT and the law of Moses, and always rebuked them and preferred esoteric interpretations. This means he would not agree with the Christian fundamentalist interpretation of his teachings today. That's what Christians don't get.

You are contradictory. In your posts you say that God isn't perfect or doesn't have to be perfect. Yet Jesus said, Be you therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48).

Jesus also said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. (John 14:6).

Yet in your other posts you've said Jesus can't be the only way.

So you are saying He's a great teacher and is good, yet you contradict His statements. You can't have it both ways.