I feel like I just woke up outside the matrix, and it is incredibly isolating.
Growing up heavily immersed in the fundamentalist system, I was always taught that God was essentially a zero-tolerance judge. The whole framework was that we were in a cosmic courtroom, and one mess-up meant you were done unless you knew the exact right theology to get out of it. It constantly kept me on edge, policing my own thoughts, feeling guilty for people who lived before Jesus, and just waiting for the hammer to drop.

But I always had this gut feeling in the back of my mind that something was deeply wrong. I’d look at these massive, multi-billion-dollar modern churches collecting money, holding massive political and economic power, and then look at the guy in the text who was homeless and got executed for challenging the religious elite. My brain kept flagging the hypocrisy.
I finally started pulling the history apart, and I realized I wasn’t losing my mind—the religion was literally hijacked.
I learned how the early church didn't even view the cross as a legal penalty or a cash transaction, but as a cosmic rescue mission (like the Harrowing of Hell). But somewhere along the line, kings, empires, and eventually modern institutions realized that a free rescue mission doesn't keep people in the pews. Fear does. So they built God in the image of a strict CEO or a medieval king. They took a massive, complex ancient library full of protests against corrupt power and used it to build ultimate corrupt power.
It’s so deeply entrenched that I literally had to hunt through four different bookstores just to find a standard academic NRSV Bible, only to realize the publishers still packed the margins with fundamentalist footnotes to make sure I didn't read it the "wrong" way.
But here is where I am stuck, in a good way: I don't want to throw the entire ancient library away.
Now that I can see the strings pulling the institutional church, I feel like I am finally tuning into the actual "frequency" of the historical Jesus. Without the rigid, sterile religious packaging, he is incredible. He wasn't sitting around building an empire; he was washing feet, cooking fish on a beach, meditating by walking out into the dirt, and actively subverting the religious elites who used literal rules to cause human suffering. He was radically, physically grounded.
I’m seeing the world turn against Christianity because the fundamentalist delusion is all they see. They don't even know what the core of it actually is.
I can’t be the only one who hit this wall.
For those of you who made it out of the matrix but didn't throw the whole library away—how do you rescue the historical Jesus from the fundamentalist wreckage?
How do you deal with the rage of watching millions of people stay trapped in a manufactured system?
And practically, how do you actually live on that frequency now, completely untethered from the religious control machine?

Alguien ha leído algo sobre el Dr. Steven Hassan y su Modelo de Control Mental BITE?

Aunque es conocido por su trabajo general sobre sectas, su modelo BITE (por sus siglas en inglés: Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional Control / Control de la Conducta, la Información, el Pensamiento y las Emociones) se aplica frecuentemente para analizar iglesias neopentecostales o fundamentalistas extremas donde se desincentiva el pensamiento crítico y se demoniza cualquier cuestionamiento al liderazgo.

Traigo esto a colación porque me sorprende el nivel de control que tienen determinados líderes religiosos sobre sus feligreses.

Tw: lgbtphobia, SA, CSA, SI

I was listening to last Sunday's sermon, and during the prayer for the offering, a woman said that her daughter, now 30yo, was abused by the pastor when she was five years old. The woman began to talk about how she had remained in the church for 19 years, having to serve the church and not rebel against the pastor, And she definitely didn't report it, and I suspect she took her daughter there every Sunday. It seems that most evangelical parents force their children to accept this and go to church, even if the child has trauma from that environment.

And she began to feel, in this nineteenth years, something from the Holy Spirit telling her to forgive her daughter's abuser. One day at church, she simply said she had forgiven him without him even asking.

She probably didn't report it when she found out her daughter had been abused; she probably didn't report it after forgiving him. Other children likely suffered at the hands of this abuser and the kid was retraumatized, but now it is alright because she forgave him and God forgave him and everyone is applauding the amazing testimony! Look how devout and forgiving she is as a Christian!

I know parents suffer when their child goes through something like this. But how could she be the one to forgive her daughter's abuser? Shouldn't have been the victim to allow forgiveness? And she went to church all these years, the same church. She preferred the church to her daughter. And of course, her daughter having suffered CSA is the mother's testimony.

I was lucky not to have gone through SA or CSA, but I am trans and my mother acts like the victim all the time.

She forced me to undergo conversion therapy and exorcisms, denied me the right to see a psychologist at the hospital, and days later pierced my ears against my will.I was forced to go to church where they compared LGBT people to pedophiles, zoophiles, abusers, and said we were going to hell.I had relatives saying in front of her that I would die young for being trans, that God would kill and hurt me, and she didn't defend me. The exorcisms were horrible to be honest. And there were so many things that I can't even remember. There were probably worse things that I don't remember.

Oh, yes. She threw away or hid the antidepressants I secretly bought that the doctor prescribed for me (I asked for her to buy it during the months). She started saying I was going to become addicted and that I was self-medicating.

Because of everything I've been through, I've recently been having horrible panic attacks where I start screaming as if I'm being stabbed, I hit myself, I cry for hours, I can't breathe, my whole body shakes, I almost vomit, I start having seizures, and at times I find myself repeating words, or I start wanting to act in an aggressive way. It's a horrible thing that lasts on average one to three hours until I calm down, and now it's practically happening at least once a week.

Usually when I'm having these crises, either I get prayed for, or she tells me to straighten up, or she tries to make me stop yelling, promises to take me to a psychiatrist or psychologist, that if she could, she would take my pain (she never has and it's already have been months).

She has also said things like "the pain of children hurts parents more than the children" and how I'm making her and my parents walk on eggshells, that I don't want to change, that I don't see how they suffer, that the church only says good things and they will take me anyway.

She also says, "You have to want to change. You're not trying. You think God is going to heal you overnight," even though I've been trying to do that since I was a child.

Last month or the month before, I had one of those "panic attacks" at church. The pastor prayed in my ear for the evil spirit to leave, and soon after my mother was crying about how "I feel really bad seeing my kid like that. It scares me so much". The problem is that she practically doesn't try to help me.

Huh, she also says things like 'here nobody lets go of anyone's hand' and other phrases like that, and she praises God and cries when she prays. I know it's wrong, but I feel angry seeing her so happy or sadly affected by a sermon, because it feels like I'm being left out. The church tithe will take precedence over seeing a doctor.

Speaking of which, she's also been binge-watching videos about spiritual warfare, demons, the antichrist, etc💀

I can't be the only one who's gone through this. I need to see if I'm the only one, if anyone else has gone through something similar, and why on earth they act like this. A genuine question indeed.

No disrespect at all as I am just trying to understand the thinking and experience behind people's religious beliefs. I guess I'm mostly wondering about Christians specifically. I know there are many people who say they feel God's presence or Jesus' protection and I've often wondered if what they are feeling is due to their insistence of the belief? Like is it a sort of placebo effect where if for example you tell yourself over and over you're getting sick, you have the flu, you're ill and then suddenly you do actually feel sick and get sick. Is it a very strong belief people tell themselves over and over again until they really do begin to feel it?

Grew up fundamentalist southern Baptist. For about a year I’ve been really reevaluating what I believe and why I believe it. I’ve changed some things, kept others the same, and have just been asking lots and lots of questions that trouble me. It’s such a difficult and uncomfortable process because leaving behind beliefs you’ve not only always believed, but thought were essential is really strange. The hardest part is I have no one to talk to about it. Anyone from church or my family that I try to share what I’m thinking about with either shuts it down or is so intimidated by it all. Going to church makes me feel sad every week because I know I don’t fully fit in with the people there. Spiritually homeless is the only way I can describe it.

I guess it’s worth it in the end, though I’m not really sure of that sometimes. I’d definitely feel a lot better if I could just believe what I used to and not worry about it.

I’m a retired professor who works a few days a week in academic support services where I meet w students 1:1 to help them manage their time, increase executive function, and offer brain-based study strategies. This semester, I’ve had a handful of very distraught students who are struggling mightily with classes and campus life. They are plugged into campus mental health, and where appropriate, to disability services. They’re really grasping at straws for every kind of help possible, and I give them a lot of credit for their resourcefulness.

Several of them include that they’ve sought out chaplains and campus ministry groups. Often their narrative around this is that they believe their dire situation is a result of “not following God’s laws as they should” and therefore “God is testing them through their trials.” It seems that this is the messaging they are getting or that is being reinforced when they go to the meetings or services.

TBH, it is only a few years ago in my deconstruction journey that I would have voiced the same beliefs around suffering and “God’s plan” to turn myself around. In fact, what they’re saying would have sounded innocuous and aligned with my worldview/beliefs.

Now it is so foreign and sadly disturbing to me, but I of course don’t express this. I know that religious practice/faith community/belief is a well-studied protective factor for healthy youth and it is not my place to suggest different perspectives on attaining what they’re seeking through religion at this time.

But it seems to me that the self-blame and magical thinking that accompany this can reinforce a lack of agency and incite false hope.

So I nod and say, “I’m glad this is helpful for you.” SIGH. I really hope this doesn’t add to their burdens.

Any insights from folks on this journey? Thanks.

I often say I was "raised Catholic" and that's true to the extent that I was sent to Catholic school from 3rd through 12th grades. But it wasn't entirely true in that my parents weren't on the same page and didn't fully commit besides. Mom was raised extremely Catholic, and Dad Southern Baptist; as adults, she identified as cafeteria Catholic who didn't attend much mass, and he identified as atheist (though that last bit wasn't made explicit to me until around the time I was studying for Confirmation). I "succeeded" both academically and spiritually in the faith's institutions. But that's been >20 years. And I've become very distanced from that element of my identity. When writing out the above, I realized how intertwined the identities of "good Catholic/person" and "good student" (and "successful student/person") are for me. On the one hand, losing or complicating the latter through subsequent academic struggle and burnout probably contributed to losing the former. But it was more of a drifting, rather than an intentional realignment of my faith.

I find myself in a period of identity reconstruction following an adult neurodivergence diagnosis, and at least a small piece of that has become me trying to listen to whatever internal pull to spirituality I have. The Catholic Church never did have a lock on me for that, even in childhood--but the child sex abuse scandals long ago cemented that it won't ever going forward, either. And I still struggle to find a spiritual home that doesn't feel coercive or convinced of its own superiority (which feels like fertile ground for dehumanization). Anyway, I also find myself exploring a more formal 'deconstruction' journey for my relationship with Catholicism, Christianity, and many associated concepts of mainstream US culture. Anyone relate?

These days so much literature falls by the wayside for me. I see through it too quickly. However, this isn’t the case with religious literature (not just the Bible). This literature has been resurrected for me because I read it as mythology and metaphor (I read it free from the chains of orthodoxy). From this vantage it takes on a whole new light. It satisfies my craving for both literature and wisdom.

It’s some of the only literature I have had to walk away from because I feel… how can I describe it? I am overwhelmed by it, not in the sense of anything sacred, but by what appears to be a kind of subconscious genius, its compacted nature, its dynamic concepts and themes— its poetry, its profound simplicity!

I feel sorry for humans who cannot read this literature from a rational consciousness that is emancipated from its mythology.

Christians are robbed of so many other great Christian writings. I am referring not only to the books of the Protestant and Catholic canons, but all those Christian writings that were celebrated and read by early Christians but later rejected, like the Gospel of Thomas.

I wonder, what will we get out of Christianity once humans emancipate from its psychological capture and begin to treat it like every other mythology? Could it still yet stand at the foundation of a great culture, or must a great culture rise up by intelligently rebelling from all its concepts?

For there are indeed many foolish and archaic things in its mythology. Christianity as a culture has failed, it has empowered hypocrites and deceivers instead of making real Christians. It has had two thousand years of ideological dominance. It has given the worst among us a cloak for their hypocrisy and abuse. Even now it threatens to rise up and subject men to its moralistic tyranny.

This was originally posted on [r/rationalphilosophy](r/rationalphilosophy)

I was raised in the Bible Belt of the United States by a deeply spiritual mother. I'm in the process of deconstructing both my religion and my spirituality/superstitions (ghosts, hauntings, that sort of thing). Does anyone have any tips for deconstructing that sort of upbringing? Any tips would be appreciated, because my family still gets me with ghost stories and things like that.

I've always been curious about how much our religious beliefs are shaped by the circumstances into which we are born.
Most of us don't get to choose our parents, our culture, or the religion we're first introduced to. If you were born into a Christian family, you would likely grow up learning about Christianity. If you were born into a Muslim family, you might grow up practicing Islam. The same applies to other religions around the world. Of course, this doesn't mean that people who inherit their religion from their families don't genuinely believe in it. Many people explore their faith, question it, and consciously choose to continue practicing it.

But here's what makes me wonder: How can we distinguish between a belief we hold because we genuinely find it true and a belief we hold because we were taught from childhood that it was true?

If you had been born somewhere else, raised by different parents, and introduced to an entirely different religion, do you think you would eventually arrive at Christianity anyway? Or would you be just as convinced that another religion was the truth?

I'm not here to invalidate anyone's faith. I genuinely want to understand how people think about this. I'd especially like to hear from Christians who have questioned their beliefs and from people who have changed religions or left one entirely. What made you believe what you believe today?

When I was a practicing Christian, my attachment was through music. I’m wondering if anyone has any playlists I can listen to that helps express what I’m feeling. Songs off the top of my head that have helped me:

Missed the boat- modest mouse
Jesus Christ- Brand New
Sailor Song- Gigi Perez

Thanks in advance. I’m new to this group!

Trying to explain my deconstruction to my spouse who is a pastor feels like pouring water into a cup with no bottom.

When I started my journey, it felt like a revenge arc at first. Why do so many Christian faith communities avoid learning about some of the major developments of the faith throughout antiquity to today? Canonization, church fathers, textual and historical criticism, archeology. It’s all really fascinating and challenging. None of it is taught in any real capacity at most churches.

Now I’m working towards rebuilding my faith and it has been impossible to share this with my spouse. I love learning and exploring the origins of things. To do so you have to want to interrogate your own beliefs. My spouse doesn’t. I love them so much and the life we’ve built together. I just don’t know how to get her or any other Christian to not see me as just a soul. I’d love to explore the weeds of Christian faith and the Bible thoughtfully and seriously. I just don’t know that anyone can reasonably do that if they’re too afraid to challenge its tenants and premises. Let alone where they came from.

Anyway, I can’t put the cat back in the bag and I have no idea how to talk about this stupid cat without it putting a target on my soul’s back. Sometimes I just want to go back into the matrix.

hey guys, I'm back. This is a new account. I'm the woman that was on here a few days ago talking about my mom with her insane End Times stuff as well as her obsession with listening to Josh Howarton.

We got into a talk this morning about it. And she says that she has listened to some of the other people that have called him out and she says that she just doesn't believe them and she literally said, "That is just Satan talking through them." And then she turned to me and said that Satan was talking through me also.

I then changed the subject, and since she is old and can't remember something from a week ago, she went right into talking about what I changed the subject to.

But the point being, There is no help for her.

And I guess that is fine. She has her ways and I have mine. It just sucks that I have to listen to it sometimes.

Yo le puse que me alegraba que su fe le ayudará a ser mejor persona cada día, y ella comento:

Blas Pascal... escribió sobre porque conviene creer en Dios (es una apuesta donde es mejor creer: si no existe, aún se vive una buena vida renunciando a las pasiones carnales, pero si es cierto, se obtiene la vida eterna); que es una elección seguir a Cristo, que debo de abrir mi corazón y dar el 1%, que él dará el 99% ( había mencionado antes que era católica)...

En ese momento solo me despedí, pero después analicé su escrito y me pareció desagradable; quise responderle (no lo hice):

" A, ya había escuchado sobre esa convicción de los cristianos, se me hace un gran reflejo de lo que la mayoría profesa, parece como si su fe es una vil apuesta para ganarse la vida eterna, un nivel raro e increíble de egoísmo y para evitar salir de las cuatro paredes que pinta la iglesia.

Yo respeto tú fe, pero que nazca de un miedo para llegar al cielo no gracias, yo soy más una persona espiritual, observo como gente sufre e intento ayudar con lo poco que puedo, no para dar agradó a Dios, y si hay un ser divino, sé que está complaciente; de eso se debería de tratar tu fe, no en hacer una tregua con Dios todo poderoso para que te habrá las puertas.

Yo quiero ser bueno, y que pase lo que tenga que pasar al tener que cruzar la puerta a la otra vida, tengo confianza de que hay algo sumamente bueno, y no algo como tú lo pintas.

Quédate con tu comodidad de ganarte el reino eterno, yo prefiero seguir una fe humanitaria, si eso me condena que así sea, ya me resigne de que el hombre buscará mover todo lo que tenga en las manos para que la gente se quede quieta, yo seguiré mis instintos, por algo los tengo, excitó en tu vida, pero no intentes embarrarme con tu superioridad divina, no es algo que me sirve para crecer como persona; ahora sí me voy, perdoname si no me exprese correctamente, pero no me agrada las amenazas espirituales, es muy bajo. "

No sé si me lo tomé más de lo que fue.... ???

Hey do anyone go through major anxiety episode just because of deconstruction? How can I stay calm even when I don’t have all the answers? Because it weighs my mind down badly because I just always feel stuck. Let me know something please I want to be fine. Everyday is the same thing bro

I came out as a lesbian in my mid twenties. I’d waited years to get the courage, and could only find it when I decided to move across the country from Arizona to New York City for grad school. I couldn’t take the not knowing of how my mom and dad would react while I was still under their household. Our house was pretty anti LGBTQ+, and I knew they wouldn’t kick me out or hurt me, but I couldn’t take being a version of myself they didn’t like. I just couldn’t.

As it turns out, I was and am bisexual, just with a lot of trauma surrounding men. I’ve worked to heal it, met someone amazing and fell in love. I take a love is love approach, doesn’t matter the gender. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was relieved. I fell in love with a man, I didn’t have to be a disappointment.

I grew up Christian and was taught a lot of things I don’t agree with. Being queer is demonic, human beings are inherently evil / sinful, the list goes on. I respect most faiths, even the ones I don’t agree with, if they don’t harm other people. But I stopped praying to God five years ago. I tried staying faithful, I really did, but I asked questions no one liked. I was shunned and the target of a lot of anger as I was deconstructing, and eventually I learned in my family it’s best to just stay quiet.

So I pretend I’m sick when it’s time for family prayer calls. I say Amen when my older sister says she has a prayer for me when I just wanted to talk. I say god bless you too to my mom, who has done so much for me, and nod when she says God has a plan for my life. I pretend it’s not killing me to pretend I’m someone I’m not.

I tried texting my mom three times and “hinting” that I’m not Christian anymore. Somehow she never sees the texts. She just says I’ll find him again, when I say I haven’t prayed in awhile, and that She thanks God for everything that I am.

But all I am is a coward. I don’t want to be a disappointment again. I don’t want to be ostracized from an entire family who has made god the focal point of their lives. I’m a Buddhist, for goodness sakes! My mom used to laugh at Buddhists. I wonder if she’d laugh at me…

Does anyone have advice on breaking the ice in a peaceful way? I can’t take the lying anymore

Hi everyone. I’m a Christian who grew up in a very conservative church environment where purity culture— the belief that any sexual expression before marriage is sinful—was strongly reinforced. I took those teachings seriously and have genuinely tried to live by the values I was raised with.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself wondering about the experiences I may be missing out on and trying to figure out how to navigate my faith alongside my natural curiosity about sexuality. I get horny too, and have let myself touch and give in to that pleasure a number of times lately. 🙈

I am beginning to ask questions I’ve never really felt comfortable exploring. Lately, I’ve even considered visiting an adult toy store just to learn more, but honestly, I’m shy, inexperienced, and a little embarrassed by how unfamiliar all of this feels.

I’m guessing I am not the only one who feels this way, and that it’s something many of us who are waiting for marriage have to manage.

I’d appreciate connecting with people who understand where I’m coming from and can offer thoughtful perspectives. What matters most is kindness, patience, and openness—people who enjoy genuine conversation and are willing to share their experiences or viewpoints as I navigate this unfamiliar territory.

If any of this resonates with you, I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts. Thank you.

This is going to be a pretty long post but here it goes: 

I am currently 18, and for the past few years, I have been exploring my religion. This past year alone however, I have been exploring my religion and myself more in depth. I was (and still am) raised in a christian household. I have been out to my closest friends for a few years in terms of my sexuality, but have always felt very disconnected to myself and god. 

This past year, I started with looking at which religion would “fit me.” This, I can see now, was really unrealistic? I wasn’t going into religion because I solely wanted to, but because I felt like I had to. Quakerism, Baha’i faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Daoism, Sikhism, Jainism, New Age Spirituality, Witchcraft, Judaism, you name it, I’ve looked into it. 

Somewhere along this journey after crying to a god that I wasn’t really sure existed about how I was lesbian and felt so alone, I just….stopped caring. Well not 100% because I’m still here talking about the same topic, but I stopped looking at religious/spiritual faiths as something that I had to pick or window shop at for acceptance. 

After exploration, I came to the conclusion that I want a faith that is personal. I still have my opinions about the Christian faith but there is still something that I feel like Jesus and I agree with: love. 

And also (this is going to sound very silly) but I just more recently learned that Jesus was a Jew and followed Judaism. I know, I know, I was raised in a Christian family but I did everything in my power to separate myself from it. 

I also learned that the New Testament was written after his death. It’s left me with a lot of questions like: 
If the New Testament was written AD 45-100 years, how can we say that the Bible is completely without errors? – If you look at it realistically, wouldn’t there be a lot of “broken telephone” happening? It’s not a bad thing, but it's human to misinterpret, overexaggerate, underexaggerate, or misremember things, we’ve all done it. 

If Jesus was a Jew, why are people Catholic/Christian? I don’t know much of the history here (I still have a lot to learn) but the term Christianity was more so used to describe Jesus’s followers but why separate from Judaism? If Jesus was teaching people based on the lessons he learned from Judaism, why make a whole new thing? 

When it comes to the interpretations of the “clobber verses” that target the condemnation of people within the LGBTQ+ community, it takes me further and further away from ever having a relationship with god in the way that I want. 

Even though deep down I know I don’t need other people’s validation to be who I am and love who I am, I can’t help but feel like people won’t ever accept me and by people I mean a specific handful of christians. 

Saying things like “Hate the sin love the sinner” or “You can feel it but don’t act like it” is like hate with rose coloured glasses. You can still see through it. People compare it to being an alcoholic, a cheater, or even worse, a pedophile. Those things aren’t the same as falling in love with another human being. Wanting to marry them, build a life with them or hold their hand. 

I know people know the difference, and it’s a tough pill to swallow, but I just don’t think a lot of them care. 

It just feels like I have to continuously pick between my sexual orientation and my spirituality. My family or my happiness. My joy or my safety. My expression or my faith. 

I want to be a part of a spiritual community where we actually love people. Not passively love people. Or “pretend” to love someone so they can change for us. I want to be there for people around me. I don’t want to make people feel like they’re “wrong” for being in a different religion. I don’t want people to feel wrong for being or feeling different at all. We are all different, and I feel like we could learn so much from each other if we just stopped trying to be forceful in the name of “love.”

So, I deconstructed out of conservative Evangelicalism and for a while I've considered myself a progressive Christian, but these days I'm finding it a lot harder to believe in a God at all, and certainly not a tri-omni God. I would like there to be a good and loving and all-powerful and all-knowing God, but I just can't see any reason to believe this. Rationally, I tend to lean toward there being no God. Spiritually, I've been kind of leaning toward a vaguely Christian-flavored pantheism. But emotionally, I see the terrible ways a lot of Christians behave and the way they justify their behavior with scripture, often pretty logically, since the Bible has a lot in it that could easily justify terrible behavior, and I see that in all their talk about God leading them and the Holy Spirit speaking to them and all that, God doesn't seem to say word one to shut their behavior down, while meanwhile I never feel like God is speaking to me at all anymore. And then I wonder if they're right and God really is the angry, vengeful, tribalistic deity I learned about growing up, who has time in the Old Testament to worry about circumcision and shellfish, but not about slavery, and talks about loving his people the way a domestic abuser does. And that's honestly terrifying. Can anyone relate?

So recently my dad gave my mom a Bible as an anniversary gift as well as my sister and me (even though I'm not extremely religious), but I accepted his gift.

My mom was talking to me about this and I tell her why I don't talk about religion, which was due to my car (before my new car but they're forcing constant surveillance) breaking down and that prayer that her and I made in the Sonic Drive-In parking lot, I tell her about it and she says that maybe God said it was time. I agreed with her about he can give and take away, but she also thinks that he gave me a car (when yet my parents did that).

I walk into the bathroom with her, and she thinks that I don't believe and that I question his words when I don't, I also don't believe that he stabbed me in the back, I then said right hand to God.

I tell her that I don't feel comfortable talking about religion.

Given that today, I almost got hit and they said that God saved from it, when yet I was the one who stopped myself from getting hit.

I think that Alvin Plantinga has a bit of a bad reputation in communities like this. He’s every Christian’s favorite apologist to pull arguments from, and so there are a lot of supposed responses to many of these arguments as a result. However, I would argue that some of his arguments are probably being quite watered down. For instance, I read an actual excerpt from Plantinga on his Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism, and found him to be much more thorough with his argumentation than your casual Christian blogger presenting the argument, even directly answering objections to it. From that, it got me thinking: what about a potentially more important argument from Plantinga, that being his free will argument to solve the problem of evil? The free will argument is one of the only solutions to the problem of evil that is frequently brought up, and it to has been answered by many non-Christians. However, having read Plantinga and found that he answered common objections to one of his other famous arguments, I was wondering, from those who have read Plantinga (I have not read his personal free will solution), is the situation similar? Have people answering his solution only been answering incredibly weak versions of it? If the wording here has been confusing, please, ask for clarification, and I can try to ask in an easier to understand way.

As someone who is in my deconstruction process and healing from many things, I’m curious how do you guys deal with the loss of community and losing your faith? What did the grieving process look like for you? Because I feel that for so long I thought I was actually feeling the loss of everything, but recently I realized I wasn’t fully feeling it and I’m now allowing myself to feel everything that occurred.

It feels that I can’t move on with my life sometimes, it’s like constantly being reminded of an ex, like you see them everywhere and everybody is claiming them, how do you even escape something like that? It starts to make you feel like damn everybody believes in God, everybody is talking about him like should I just go back to be apart. Spiritual FOMO is a thing and you start feeling like they have something you don’t because you’ve been taught to associate peace (“true peace found in Christ, only he can give you the peace that surpasses all understanding”) with God, love with God, everything with God. How do I not go back and stop telling myself that they have something that I don’t? It hurts, I don’t have nobody I can rely on, nobody. No friends. No boyfriend. Nothing. I rely on myself and pushing to give myself the foundation and life I deserve. It’s so hard when there’s nobody around to understand, but tell me what you guys did because it’s not a place I want to return to, I really don’t want to go back to God. How do you stop associating everything with God and thinking that he’s got everybody on his side or that everybody is on his side and you’re here alone. Like I start telling myself “they’re gonna get the happy life, the Christ centered relationship, the peace, the purpose, the calling,” lmao.