I still can't believe that in 30 years I had never put my critical thinking hat at church to see that it was all myth. Damn you child indoctrination.

Having had the veil lifted from my eyes for a couple weeks now I'm thinking about Jesus. Should I believe in the Bible? Should I take it as fables and not literally, just forget about the atonement and resurrection? My critical thinking hat is telling me that is all myth too.

Specifically I'm wondering what I should teach my kids about it. My kids are 6,4 and 2 and Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam has been a bedtime song for the past few years, but now I'm thinking that I don't want to indoctrinate my kids like I was.

I know I definitely can't attend organized religion again or believe that a man could have any kind of spiritual authority over me.

My parents didn't raise us with religion. They let us decide for ourselves when we grew up.

As for yourself, keep studying. Study everything and you will eventually find what feels right for you. You may change your mind several times before you do, depending on what you have been reading.

In fact, that may be a good thing to teach your children. Teach them to never stop learning and not to lock their thinking into a box.

+1
You have spent 30 years of people telling you what to believe. It is your turn.

I consider him to be one of our planet's greatest spiritual teachers and what the Buddhists would think of as an enlightened human being. You don't have to buy into the mythic aspects to respect him as a teacher.

years after it's been out, but my old cell phone is beyond repair. Till now I used the phone just for phone calls, though last year I discovered the camera function. With the iPhone, though, the other features are always in my face, and they're exponentially greater than what I was used to.

An analogy? Do you consider yourself, or the other people you know or see on the media, to be functioning at your full evolutionary capacity? I see us as sort of like my old cell phone, which even when used was pathetically below its possibilities. Jesus, Buddha, and other great spiritual beings represent for me the fuller functional capacities of the human being, not only laterally (on this flatland personal level) but vertically (being aware of and able to synchronize with subtler levels of being, with apparently "miraculous" results).

It doesn't matter whether "Jesus" was the historical figure of church imagery--he almost certainly wasn't. I believe in his existence as the further possibility of human functioning beyond ego, and if I didn't, I would be denying myself that same possibility.

The way that I see it, if Joesph Smith could get simple-minded people to follow him and believe his words, then carry on his work after his death... Why couldn't Jesus be able to do the same thing?

That he existed, yes, there seems to be no serious dispute about that.

But walked on water? No.

First read Age of Reason by Thomas Paine. It's short. It's a classic. Paine gives his critique of the Bible.

Next read Demon Haunted World by Sagan. This will help you detect bologna a mile away.

If you do decide to believe in Jesus, you will have to come to terms with the fact that the same reasoning you use to have "faith" in Jesus applies to any other unfounded belief. You will have to somehow compartmentalize that you buy the Jesus story and don't buy the Zeus story.

Understanding world mythology (try Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey) will put it in perspective. We create mythology. If Jesus existed, maybe there was a seed character. Maybe not. There is no doubt that the story was mythologized.

The myths that somehow become protected with a sacred cloak are often the least obvious for people to see though. Religion has a vested interest in keeping religion from scrutiny and the light of reason.

I was there too.

After Morgism fell apart, I decided I needed to figure out which one was true. I decided to set aside the fringe groups (SDA, JW, Snake Handlers, Mennonites, Amish & Quakers et al) and I went to the oldest one. The RCC. A cursory review of the Spanish Inquisition and I decided that I could just attend a non-denominational church.

But then I kept coming back to "authority".

So I decided that I would just believe in God & Jesus of the Bible and worship as I saw fit.

So I picked up the Bible and started reading. I got less than a page in before I thought "who wrote this?" So I delved into the origins of the Bible and within a short period of time, I wasn't believing it as a literal thing.

Then one day I realized that if Adam & Eve weren't literal exactly as the Bible reads, then there was no fall. If there was no fall, there is no need for a so-called "atonement". If there is no need for an "atonement", there is no need for a so-called "savior", if there is no need for a savior, there is no need for this nut-job we call "jesus".

After years of this, I have decided that I like what has been attributed to Ghandi. "I like your Christ. I dislike your Christians" or some such.

NO...

But immediately after leaving TSCC I thought I believed in Jesus.
I wanted to be a Christian...........went to several different churches.....the last one was a Calvary Community Church.....there was a believers class....all about the bible. I stopped believing when I saw how judgmental it was. The Calvary members were as self righteous as the mormons. When the pastor started in on life style choices......unmarried living together, same sex partners etc......and condemning all of those.. I decided, "I can't believe in this either".......walked away and never went back.

I see it as a process........I led my DH away too. He was sure he was a Christian for a longer time.....
Luckily our children were not raised in any church....and they don't have all the guilt.....they believe in love & family & friends......

KJ/AnonyMs

http://jesusneverexisted.com

You'll enjoy the read.

If any real Jesus existed there's no record of him. The only existing account is of a mythical being.

I believe in his twin

When the stories get more complex and amazing with each telling over the decades after a thing, it is a strong indication of mythology. This was what I observed with Joseph Smith's stories. After I decided he and his religion was a fraud, I began to investigate Jesus. By golly! Same stuff! The story of Jesus became more an more complex and miraculous as time passed. Jesus himself never wrote anything. His fisherman buddies probably couldn't even read or write their own language, let alone the low greek of the gospels. Someone else wrote those. The gospel of John was then totally a fabrication centuries later, designed to solidify a Christianity that served the purposes of clergy and regency. The whole thing strongly smells of total fabrication. I personally don't think Jesus ever existed. It's a fabricated mythology pieced together over centuries.

I don't see what you would teach your kids about him. At least with Santa Clause you can give them the facts about Saint Nicolas. Jesus on the other hand had no known historic figure as his basis. There are no Jesus facts to teach, only Jesus stories.

The story about Jesus is the same story the ancient Egyptians believed. Their god did the same stuff Jesus did for the same reasons. The Romans took the old Egyptian religion mingled it with the Christian religion and the pagan religion and the Catholic religion was created.

There may have been a Jesus that started a religion but he was not the Jesus of the bible. The Jesus of the bible is the Egyptian god with a new name.

It is all fake.

The one true god is Q from Star Trek. Face 22 degrees east of the North Star, bow down and pray to Q for your sins to be forgiven. Leave $5 in the bucket.

It's like the cartoon where the family is praying over their dinner, thanking Jesus. The next frame shows a Mexican worker in the field saying, "You're welcome."

Yes, but not the same way as LDS does.

Thanks for the other posts on this thread. It's a lot more important, IMO, to be honest than pretend to believe in something/one you can't believe in.

The story of Jesus being your saviour makes no sense:

He died to save you from eternal torture for something minor your earliest ancestor did in order to 'forgive' you of that ... and who was imposing that eternal torture on you? God, who is also Jesus...

And who was God sacrificing Jesus (himself) to? Who insisted on this being necessary? God must have been appeasing someone...

Sorry, its just crazy. It's like worshipping a gangster for deciding not to burn you alive, only infinitely worse.

Then if you read the Book of Revelation you'll see that Jesus is coming back as some kind of avenging angel to eradicate all those who dare to disbelieve in him, which is most people on Earth.

NO, these are not valuable moral lessons.

Yes I do.
After the lies and slavery of mormonism, I have found nothing truer and more freeing than Jesus.

Explain that Jesus us like Santa. His existence may be a wee bit embellished, but you believe in what he stands for. You might know that Santa is a myth, but on Christmas morning there are presents under the tree "From Santa". Because you made Santa real.

Christ is real because we make him real. That's what counts. People should stop being a Christ groupie and start being the Christ.

Bradley Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Explain that Jesus us like Santa. His existence
> may be a wee bit embellished, but you believe in
> what he stands for.


I'm interested - what DOES Jesus stand for?

Love your enemies? (Luke 6:29)

Slaughter your enemies? (Luke 19:26)

Hate your family? (Luke 14:27)

Obey authority without question in trembling fear?

(Ephisians 6:5-6)

I'm no longer into mythology other than for entertainment/interesting stories.

Are there enlightened beings? Probably not. Find some universal truths that work.

We are get the same thing; we live, we die, we do stuff in between.

Do it your way!

he he he...woo woo

Which Jesus? Please define.

I am ambivalent towards there being a deity(s) in general. I would n't describe myself as an atheist or an agnostic but someone who doesn't care if there is a supreme being or not.

Ron Burr

I believe in this Jesus, they actually took a picture!
https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/3710018560/h40E52CBE/

YES I do ....but in a different way. Please read " God is not a Christian,nor a Jew, Muslim, Hindu...." by Carlton Pearson.It Opened my eyes to the bigger picture.Never felt closer to God.

I mean no offense to anyone who still believes in God, Jesus and specifically any religion. But I personally do not understand how anyone who was once a TBM and realized it was all a fraud could possibly believe in anything anymore.

If God did exist and he wanted me to follow him, I can only believe he wouldn't leave me with a clusterf*ck of conflicting, confusing, and contradicting beliefs on earth and cross his fingers hoping I'd find the right way. I can't buy the whole "God's ways aren't our ways" logic because then I'm basically going through life blindfolded and I have too much respect for myself to do that.

To be quite frank, if there is a God, I certainly don't think he gives one bit about me personally and I certainly don't want to follow whoever it is that's not openly leveling with me about the truth.

Gullible converts.

I'm non-religious now too, but the reason why some ex-mormons can go onto a different religion is because not everybody has the same idea as God as you.

You say that with your idea of God, he would not leave a clusterfuck of conflicting beliefs on Earth. That's your idea of God, and that's fine, but that's not everybody else's idea of God. Some people have no issue with the concept of a God that does that, and therefore have no problem continuing to believe in one.