Christian experiencer testimony

[NagaMorningstar]

Well, that sucks and seems to become more common lately, maybe somewhat because of the social media overload. Have you tried a hobby where you actually learn about real things? Perhaps building electronics or learning about science? Going down religious experience rabbit holes will just frustrate you because it's fake nonsense and people can never keep their lies straight. Thats why there are 1000s of religions. I mean here you are chatting with atheists who you know will never take you "testimony" as real, right? But we will encourage you to dive into the real wonders of the natural world. Here is a gift. it's my favorite video.

I lost my faith during my science classes in college. I learned a lot of science during those years after I became an atheist, mainly interested in physics and math so I read a bunch of pop science books like krauss, Sagan, Dawkins that also effectively talked about atheism and also read purely physics books like Deutsch on multiverse theory or Seth Lloyd on quantum computing or Stephen hawkings books and others and read a lot online about quantum physics and relativity. Also read books on geometry and math and watched a bunch of lecture series from the teaching company great courses on physics and math.

Learning electronics would be cool, I did want to be a penetration tester and ethical hacker or a programmer as I was a script kiddy when I was like 13-14 on AOL and built my own gaming computer but couldn't follow through with the career change as I was already getting old and it is hard while working full time. I did go to some makerspaces where they demo'd how to build stuff and I built my own palm sized display from from a raspberry kit and went to coding camps and meetups but again didn't follow through, it is a big commitment to do that while working full time and no guarantee of a job anyway.

I've been only reading about spiritual texts since I had all these experiences. One of my favorite books that you might like that contributed to my loss of faith was Joseph Campbell hero with 1000 faces that is about comparative mythology that is based son Carl Jung's work among others. George Lucas cited it as inspiration for making star wars.

For a hobby beyond reading about spiritual stuff, I'd rather get back into Brazilian jiu jitsu or judo and weightlifting as I was a bjj blue belt before I got injured and stopped. I don't know why reading about spiritual stuff would be considered lesser than reading about electronics.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"I've been only reading about spiritual texts since I had all these experiences. "  There's your problem.

[NagaMorningstar]

"I've been only reading about spiritual texts since I had all these experiences. "  There's your problem.

Why is that a problem though compared to if I was reading about electronics? Just because I couldn't be working toward a career change? Electronics is actually a really expensive hobby too

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Reading about electronics can be shocking.

But do you recall who had the biggest kill count when the Hebrews (who were never there) left Egypt?

[NagaMorningstar]

Reading about electronics can be shocking.

But do you recall who had the biggest kill count when the Hebrews (who were never there) left Egypt?

No idea

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not much for reading I see. God killed all the first born of Egyptian families. According to that book you read.

[Mr.Obvious]

I'm not crazy but I understand while you might think that. I would've thought that when I was an atheist. King James of KJV Bible wrote a book about demonology including witches, demons, vamps, werewolves, etc and in his witchcraft trials it was noted gnomes were working for Satan so a Christian should believe this stuff as that is what witchcraft is about.

Many non-atheists, including christians, would deem you crazy, for this. Just saying.

A lack of a belief in a god isn't the reason here.

[NagaMorningstar]

Many non-atheists, including christians, would deem you crazy, for this. Just saying.

A lack of a belief in a god isn't the reason here.

I know it. I would've thought same thing when I was an atheist and maybe even when I was a believer, before I experienced all this stuff.

[Blackleaf]

Actually during that time, 15-20 years ago,  I had severe depression so some might call that not sane by this standard.

So you were trying to fill a void in your life with religion? I had depression when I was a Christian. My response was to dig deeper, becoming even more devout. Praying constantly, spending more time at church. None of that worked.

Religion can make you feel special, like you have hidden knowledge the world needs to hear, and that the god who created the entire universe loves you, and religion provides a social structure (which can be good or bad). None of those things will cure you of depression, and God will certainly not come down and heal you, when there are countless cancer patients asking him for healing and being ignored.

[NagaMorningstar]

No that's after I b

So you were trying to fill a void in your life with religion? I had depression when I was a Christian. My response was to dig deeper, becoming even more devout. Praying constantly, spending more time at church. None of that worked.

Religion can make you feel special, like you have hidden knowledge the world needs to hear, and that the god who created the entire universe loves you, and religion provides a social structure (which can be good or bad). None of those things will cure you of depression, and God will certainly not come down and heal you, when there are countless cancer patients asking him for healing and being ignored.

No that is after I lost my faith and could only think about figuring out that issue whether god existed or not because I had always taken it for granted to be true until then.  It caused severe depression that I couldn't even focus so I had to drop out of my school. 15 years later I started believing again then had religious experiences which healed my depression and since then Ive wanted to figure out what I experienced and continue learning more.

I do think God can heal something like cancer but I think depression is different as it is from the mind and I know God can heal that from experience. Jesus mentioned the "renewing of the mind" which is what I experienced. It was the first thing that happened during the mystical overcoming experience where I could feel my brain heating up  and I felt healed afterward but that isn't the only thing that happens.

[the_antithesis]

I do think God can heal something like cancer

Fuck you.

[Hydra009]

I think KJV is pretty good and actually adds some benefit with poetic translation that only someone initiated by God would truly understand unless maybe someone that was initiated told them.

"Poetic translation" seems suspiciously like a way to describe a poor/improper translation while making it appear to not be bad.

that only someone initiated by God would truly understand unless maybe someone that was initiated told them.

If you have to be "initiated" before you can read a book, you might be in a destructive cult.

I don't agree I'm that gullible but definitely way moreso than when I was an atheist. I've just seen and experienced a lot of supernatural stuff to know amazing things are possible.

If both of these sentences are true, I'm surprised you haven't jumped out of an airplane while flapping your arms.

I used to be an atheist for 15 years so I know what it is like to not believe in anything

but what scientists say as I would've dismissed all my claims as impossible without even entertaining them or just say they're only anecdotes of hallucinations.

...hmmm...

It is always "show me the empirical evidence" but with anything involving the mind that is very hard to do.

Yeah, that "show me the empirical evidence" stuff can get pretty tricky for some reason...

[aitm]

The wheels on the short bus go round and round.....

[Shiranu]

"Poetic translation" seems suspiciously like a way to describe a poor/improper translation while making it appear to not be bad.

I despise the KJV with a passion largely for a variety of reasons, that being one amongst them.

Also, it's just frankly unpleasantly fancy for the sake of being fancy, which seems odd given some of the key concepts in Christianity are "be modest, be poor".

[Cassia]

I despise the KJV with a passion largely for a variety of reasons, that being one amongst them.

Also, it's just frankly unpleasantly fancy for the sake of being fancy, which seems odd given some of the key concepts in Christianity are "be modest, be poor".

I don't matter the version; It's the same story with every religion...right.

god is great, can't seem to accurately describe the natural world he created but he kills sea dragons and shit. god is always pissed, his chosen sheep have let him down, broken covenant, he murders them all, they try again, they fail again, bring on the wars and plagues, let's try again, oops no good, the temple gets destroyed, we need a new scapegoat and covenant, yes, a human sacrifice should do the trick, let's wait decades and jot this down, oops, we now have gays, Muslims, and liberals. Oh shit, god is pissed again, the end is near, repent.

It's fucking bronze age bullshit and people just are that fucking dumb as black holes are literally reinventing space and time.