To former Christians: Why do you no longer believe?

[Ghel]

EDIT: And in the words of Zappa:

"The whole foundation of Christianity is based on the idea that intellectualism is the work of the Devil. Remember the apple on the tree? Okay, it was the Tree of Knowledge. "You eat this apple, you're going to be as smart as God. We can't have that.""

Actually, it was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Which puts an interesting twist on the arguments that all morality comes from God.

[HYHYBT]

The biggest problem, for me, is still the one that led me away from the Christian God in the first place: the Problem of Evil.

Funny; that one's always seemed pretty weak to me. I understand it, but not why those who use it think the usual explanations are nonsense. But we've already HAD threads about that...

Actually, it was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Which puts an interesting twist on the arguments that all morality comes from God.

See if I can remember this rightly... "Knowledge of Good and Evil" can only exist once you have both to compare.

[Ghel]

But we've already HAD threads about that...

Really? Can you link me to them? Because I did a few searches and couldn't find anything about it.

And just for clarification, let me explain the Problem of Evil:
God is defined as being omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. Yet evil exists in the world. Therefore, at least one of the defining characteristics of God must be wrong.

I'll happily take take this to a new thread if it hasn't been covered before.

[HYHYBT]

You're right, come to think of it. It wasn't precisely that, but since the argument I'm familiar with is, basically, that one of the good things God made is free will, and that free will logically must include the freedom to do wrong. And a couple of months ago there was a long thread claiming to prove that, more or less, it doesn't count as free will if God *lets* you have it.

[jackfaire]

Can God create a rock that he cannot lift?

The answer is yes because then he can create a creature who can lift the rock.

[Ghel]

I don't want this thread to get too far off track, so I've started a new thread on the Problem of Evil.

Now to return to our original topic, users' deconversion stories!