Why I Became An Atheist | John W. Loftus

amzn.to/3V1LqLc
For about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees--in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith. In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, the author carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The original edition of this book was published in 2006 and reissued in 2008. Since that time, Loftus has received a good deal of critical feedback from Christians and skeptics alike. In this revised and expanded edition, the author addresses criticisms of the original, adds new argumentation and references, and refines his presentation. For every issue he succinctly summarizes the various points of view and provides references for further reading. In conclusion, he describes the implications of life without belief in God, some liberating, some sobering. This frank critique of Christian belief from a former insider will interest freethinkers as well as anyone with doubts about the claims of religion.
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[@History-Valley]

Get his book! amzn.to/3V1LqLc

[@LiShuBen]

Great video! The comment section is also good for showing the negative effects religion has on the brain 😅

[@bobgreenfield9158]

To get along with religious people you need to put your brain in neutral.

[@jimiberman3464]

i was looking forward to the testimonium flavianum stream... sad you've abandoned it.

[@mh4zd]

I'm not as offended by the "you were never a real Christian" line as some people are. It's obviously an ad hoc assumption, and one with great purpose for the accuser, but from their predicament they can't help but to seriously suspect it. The way to counter it is to simply say, "Well if I wasn't, but thought I was, maybe you aren't either. If a foreign nation came and took over the United States and ended democracy and disproportionally taxed and granted rights to people of different classes, religions or races, would you join in an armed rebellion?" If they answer yes, you can tell them, "You're not a Christain" and let them figure it out. Similarly, with the line, "You just wanted to sin..." You can say, "Maybe. And maybe you just want to live forever." These are not the same thing, of course, one leading to ostensibly irrational non-belief, the other ostensibly irrational belief, but the retort cancels the allegation because the motive for the latter is at least as hefty as the motive for the former.

[@mikeygarcia8271]

He is fulfilling the prophecy in Matthew 24:12-13 about the last days. It's prophesied that in the last days, people's hearts once burned passion for God will grow cold. Here is the verse: "There will be such an increase of the sin of lawlessness that those whose hearts once burned with passion for God and others will grow cold. But hold your hope firmly to the end and you will experience life and deliverance."

[@RebeccaRaven]

As an ex-charismatic and ex-lay catechist, I can only say good riddance to all that foolishness. Once you start seeing one piece of foolishness, you just realize it's all just a story. Happy see Pigpen over your shoulder. There's someone worthy of a shrine!

[@sharonlee7111]

Well, he says that God is not a mathematician.How would he then explain the preciseness of the universe?

[@fagica]

You clearly do not read Quanta and know very little about physics and math. There is no precision in the universe, nooooosssssir, not at all.

[@joelmouton9365]

Christianity teaches tolerance and love??? Are you serious? Says the individual that has never read the Bible or just cherry picks the Hell out of it.

[@joelmouton9365]

The comment section. Full of logical fallacies and appealing to biblical “prophecies that can be easily disproven if you actually know anything about textual criticism. No hate like Christian love huh??

[@timotundy]

I love this channel! However, this guy is kind of insufferable . I mean people believe in fake entities all the time, I think the overall theme that christianity and other religions really should focus on his tolerance and love. I have no problem with people believing in God or Jesus. But this guy diminishes people of what they believe. People believe in a God because they need comfort in their life. They need hope. We have very little of that in this world. Let them believe what they want just as long as it promotes acceptance, compassion, and love. If this guy doesn’t get it then fine but don’t insult other people because of it.

[@RandyAndy7373]

I do agree. I also missed these agnostic aspects. We all arent certain, are we. I show much more respect for many of these honestly seeking believers🎉🎉 Not for the dogmatic ideologists and the harm they cause. I had a friend whose grand father fought in the Second World War. He said many atheists praid sitting in their trenches and they needed it. I do understand and I think its important for many who need comfort 😂🎉. It's Not a shame at all. It's human.

[@secretgoldfish931]

From what you’ve written here, it appears to me that you haven’t had much to do with people that have had de-conversion experiences. This gentleman appears to have had a similar journey to me. It wasn’t easy and it takes years to deal with: the disconcerting feeling that much of what you’ve been lead to believe your whole life is wrong, the loss of your social community, the feeling that much of your education was wasted and the continued difficult conversations with friends and family. The problem with letting people believe what they want is that they then force other people to believe it, and can get very angry with vulnerable minds when their ideas are challenged.

[@JimmyTuxTv]

Think of John Loftus push back on religion like when you watch a documentary on a romantic Ponzi scheme-phishing scam much like Manti Téo. Folks like John and myself see a world under the same illusion an invisible girlfriend presents trouble for a football star cept the invisible scam is spiritual on humanity. If you wouldn’t want a family member scammed famous or not, imagine trying to fix the whole world with an invisible fake father... that’s a bad scam.

[@mikeygarcia8271]

God said that He also uses prophecy to prove to unbelievers that He is who He said He is. Why don't you give God the benefit of the doubt: Here is one prophecy that's being fulfilled: The reemergence of Israel as a nation in the last days. Don't you know that Israel ceased to exist as a nation for more than two thousands of years..and God even gave clues on what will bring about it reemergence: Here is the Prophecy: "Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They indeed say, ‘Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, and we ourselves are cut off!’ Therefore prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord" Ezekiel 37

[@Darisiabgal7573]

It’s a rather weak dismissive argument. I’m a mystic, I don’t hide this fact, I don’t hide behind gods. I am within the left hand sphere though I am neither eastern or western. We avoid god titles, magic and ritual that are associated with other forms of religion and mysticism. So right off the bat I debunked several of his arguments. Why am I a mystic? Because I could not stop the mystical experiences, which lead me to explore mysticism, which lead me to deidentify with Christianity. What I found instead was a tradition of sagecraft that extends back into the prehistory of Mesopotamia which is best represented in modern religion by Judaism, excepting the messianic expectations. I do not believe in a Jewish god, I believe that there is a multi millennium stream of sagecraft behind a significant traditions. These traditions are not god or divine but are conversations about practices that follow traditions more advanced than other forms. Judaism still has magical symbols that they don’t recognize as idolatrous, just as Christianity has. This is typical when a cult tries to package religion for the mass consumption. Since the time of my disease I have gained complete control of the mystical and I understand the delusion of intense practice and the need for esotericism regarding such practices. However one truth I could not dissolve, there are certain voices that are not delusions, they speak of things that are not random like “thinking of Autie Em” and she’s is found dead. This is the thing he misunderstands, when people die, they make themselves known, even if you don’t know they are dead, it’s not “Oh I was day dreaming”, it like that person appears in a mystical landscape where you encounter the dead, and only the dead. Moreover if the dead have something to say you are “Jonah and the Whale” (or the Oannes, the sage, the prophet who avoids his duty), you better act in accord with their warnings or they will not let you rest. And the problem is their warnings almost always prove to be true. A natural mystic understands these things, everyone else should avoid mysticism, it’s delusion. I do not seek mystical experiences like most mystics, I modulate them when they occur, the realm of the dead is for the dead, but I cannot stop the dead who seek out the living. It is very fortunate that they do not do this with any great frequency. As for the rest of his arguments, mysticism is not tied to creation or its creation myth. There is no particular god to be searched for. There is no foundation or secret doorway, as the Jews point out the voyage to heaven is a descent, the place of the “passed ones” is heaven and hell, not separated but muddled together, Sheol. This ideas follows many milllenia of near eastern sages and this was corrupted by Greco-Roman idealism. It is through the muddle and confusion that the inner light is found, it is a very esoteric place which should be avoided and is the source of delusions. Within this context the left hand path tries to reflect on his notions of divinity in order to eliminate falseness. Divinity comes from within and only from within, gods are projections of the self, the ego, in order to convince oneself and others. They are a sheepskin hiding the wolf, they have been used to subjugate people and indoctrinate them with servitude toward power structures. You will find that the ancient sages left this. They saw the rise of Eridu, of gods, replacing gods, replacing gods with more powerful gods. There came a time when the new-all powerful god was not a new drink, but of a painful hangover. They went to the wilderness in order to find wisdom. It did not come, it evolved. It is still evolving. The guest says he experiences nothing. I am happy for him, he should be an atheist. I have no problem with people leaving belief to sort themselves out, particularly after toxic religious experiences. But there is a difference from saying “I don’t have the spark” and saying “the spark does not exist” or “I am just not going to believe that they say there is a spark, but it’s not real it’s not something to them”. Reality, all of it, is interpretative, you have 5 senses, though those five senses you receive action potentials in which the brain segregates and creates abstractions for you to respond to, mystics have the same level of reality. Just to give an example, I could be working at a terminal of Microsoft Excel about 2/3rds of the grid lines melt away and are surrounded by a gigantic neon flashing dragon snake, eyes wide open the Excel spreadsheet ceases being a reality and the Dragon becomes the reality. The brain was interpreting something one way and suddenly started interpreting it another way. There are people who suffer from gluten Ataxia who claim to see the face of a wise man, they interpret as God. So the issue is why are experiences whispers or a in dream. The opposite is true, I order to quell the experience one needs rather focused meditation practice, you need to trick the mind from trying to properly interpret anything. He should not speak of things he knows nothing about.

[@mikeygarcia8271]

God said that He also uses prophecy to prove to unbelievers that He is who He said He is. Why don't you give God the benefit of the doubt: Here is one prophecy that's being fulfilled: The reemergence of Israel as a nation in the last days. Don't you know that Israel ceased to exist as a nation for more than two thousands of years..and God even gave clues on what will bring about it reemergence: Here is the Prophecy: God said that Israel will never cease to be a nation in His sight even when they were scattered for thousands of years all over the globe..He promised to bring them back in the land and it did happen in 1948 when Israel became a nation again, making its presence again after thousands of years of exile all over the globe...Isn't that a miracle? Here's the promise: The descendants of Israel will never stop being a nation. That would happen only if I lost control of the sun, moon, stars, and sea.” Jeremiah 31:36-40

[@LiShuBen]

lol goddamn you are insufferable.

[@Darisiabgal7573]

@@mikeygarcia8271 What you see as god I see as a brain-fart. You don’t seem to understand how deeply I got thrown into the mystical. God is essentially the brains attempt to manifest something using abstractions it can’t otherwise make sense of. The Unitarians see it as a manifestation of the Nous. This is not coincidental as the early writers of Christian theology were middle and Neoplatonist. Augustine brought with him Manichaeistic ideas from The eastern religions. But in the depths there is no Nous, god is not a perfect form or sense, this is all I can say on this matter. Beyond this is esoteric. Moreover as I began to understand this god I discovered the assemblage you call god and that the Jews call Adonai was a collection of gods with similar properties ‘El

[@mikeygarcia8271]

He is fulfilling the prophecy in Matthew 24:12-13 about the last days. It's prophesied that in the last days, people's hearts once burned passion for God will grow cold. Here is the verse: "There will be such an increase of the sin of lawlessness that those whose hearts once burned with passion for God and others will grow cold. But hold your hope firmly to the end and you will experience life and deliverance."

[@richardzwama5138]

BS. Which increase of sin of lawlessness do you find with this man?