For Christians who do not like churches

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I was raised in a family that attended a typical mainstream church in the 1950s. In the 1960s I stopped attending and was not very much interested in religion until the 1980s. Cable TV brought a whole slew of tel-evangelists for my perusal. This made religion even more confusing for me.

I found a web site that seems oriented to people that are interested in Jesus but not churches. In case anyone is interested, here is the link;

christianpioneer.com

I think Aspergers made me less likely to accept religious propositions at face value. I suspect that I may not be alone in not feeling comfortable with denominational homogenization.

The problem for me is that the churches have abandoned anything remotely resembling the teachings in the Bible for the sake of a silly fast food Christianity no better than New Age rubbish. Feel good without having to DO anything or make any sacrifices.

I quit liking churches when I realized that the vast majority of Christians are very hateful people with no real compassion. I really don't see the "love" and "forgiveness" in that religion that everybody praises because they are quick to judge and they always fail to realize when they themselves are sinning. Or if they do realize it they simply don't give a s**t because they think Jesus will save them.

Instead of judging me harshly for feeling that way why don't some of the Christians try to prove me wrong for once?

A church is a building where communal worship happens. All attendance at a church means is that you are present at the church.

Many of them happen to be architecturally splendid.

One doesn't have to go to church to believe in Christianity...

or go to synagogue/shul in order to believe in Judaism,

or mosque to believe in Islam,

Etc...

It's how the religion is practiced, and how the holy books are interpreted.

Belief in Christ, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, necessarily. I don't believe in Him, though.

I've been labelled an Atheist for speaking out against church practices (or the lack thereof).

I am not an Atheist.

I just hate religion.

But if you want to get to the heart of Jesus' ministry, read chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel according to Matthew. It is also called his "Sermon On The Mount". Nowhere in this sermon does Jesus condemn LGBTQ people and call for their deaths; nowhere in this sermon does he declare that Christians are better than non-Christians; nowhere in this sermon does he declare that non-whites and women are slaves; and nowhere in this sermon does he show any preference for wealthy white American males, either.

Jesus was actually a good person -- it's the people who bastardize his teachings for their own personal gain that should be ridiculed.

The funny thing is that part of me does want to believe in that stuff. For example I do like the idea that anybody can be forgiven for doing some wrong, but I think it should only be true if they are genuinenly sorry for what they did and promise to do better.

It's like those gangsters who go around murdering people and then go to church and pray to god expecting instant forgiveness and then they commit the exact same crimes over and over again. Those kind of people disgust me. They're not even the least bit sorry for what they do they just see Jesus as a Get Out of Hell Free card.

But I just don't understand how some atheists can feel comfortable accepting that there is no afterlife and that life itself is just utterly pointless and that there is no hope for better things. If I truly believed that or if I found out that was actually true I would get a gun and blow my brains out and I would take out anybody who tried to stop me from doing it.

I'm an atheist. I don't want to die. I don't want life to end. I wish there was an afterlife.

I don't even believe I have a "mission," or a "purpose" in life.

I just do the best I can. I don't see life as being "useless" just because there's no apparent "purpose" to it.

All I do is live day to day, and follow what I see are common-sense and "correct/right" moral precepts.

I believe what is right and wrong is for each person to decide for themselves, but if there really is no afterlife I wouldn't be able to go on. I would completely give up on life knowing that there's no chance I'll ever get to see the people I love when we are all dead. And I really don't want my concious to stop existing.

You're here already. Just make the best of it. That's all I can say.

God shouldn't be judged by those who claim to follow him, because people suck but God doesn't.
A Christian that misrepresents God, driving people from the church is committing a FAR graver sin than you guys.

^
I hope you have read the book of lamentations.
An entire book of the bible devoted to complaining about God. He does let people do it sometimes.

A truly omnipotent, omniscient being without "ego" should never mind it if someone complains about "Him."

This truly omnipotent, omniscient being should have enough confidence in "Himself" to slough all the criticism off.

It's tough noogies for anyone who doesn't follow "His" advice on things.