Q & A, Answering Reddit: Why Did I Leave My Religion?

A recent popular thread on Reddit asks: Why did you leave your religion?
This was featured by Microsoft on their START page and includes many
interesting questions.
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Does religion oppose science? Was the world really created in seven
twenty-four-hour days? Why are my questions not answered?
Why does the church cover up for child molesters?
Why does the church condone abuse, and urge wives to stay married to
abusive husbands?
Why does the church have so many rules? Can Christians be
compassionate and progressive? Can Christians be Democrats? Are
Christians hypocrites?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/15q6o6w/why_did_you_leave_your_religion/

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
Please feel free to follow along in the PowerPoint
script we uploaded to SlideShare.

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My Internet persona is purposely vague as to which Christian denomination I
ascribe to. I do believe that all believers should join a local church, so we can
encourage one another, as Hebrews exhorts. My preference is to study all mainline
Judaeo-Christian traditions, including all Christian traditions that adhere to the basic
creeds, whether they say they are credal churches or not, for guidance on how to
lead a godly life, as well as Stoic and moral philosophy.
We have a channel philosophy video which is basically my personal testimonial on
my beliefs and philosophy. The title my channel is Reflections on Morality,
Philosophy, and History, I do not include Theology in the title because I strive to
avoid polemics, I do not wish to argue why one branch of Christianity is truer than
all the others. There are many other channels that do this respectfully. In person, I
would readily reveal this, as it is no secret.

The probing questions we ask today are not new questions, they have been
discussed for centuries and millennia, some are discussed in the Scriptures
themselves, if we know where to look.
One harmful prejudice is that we should not read the teachings of the Church
Fathers because somehow they are Catholic or Orthodox and must be ignored
because they are not biblically correct. This is categorically false, most of the
writings by the Church Fathers are biblical commentary! The Church Fathers
originally coined the words and phrases we use to discuss grace and redemption
and justification. If Protestants have no problem reading Billy Graham, they should
have no problem reading the Church Fathers, as they are the Billy Grahams of the
early church. Just because you read the Church Fathers does not mean you need to
convert to Catholicism or Orthodoxy. Many Protestants read the early Church
Fathers; it was Protestant ministers who translated many of their writings into
English in the late 1800’s. If we deny the credibility of the early Church Fathers, we
are denying ourselves the wisdom of the ages.

We like to reflect on the Vatican II decrees, and the
Catholic Catechism that summarizes these decrees,
as well as the writings of the medieval Jewish rabbis,
because these are some of the most well thought out
positions in the Judaeo-Christian tradition. Bishops
around the world provided input on the Vatican II
decrees and the Catholic Catechism.

We have many future videos we refer to, and many
are topics people would benefit from hearing, they
are on our front burner, so you should see them
either in late 2023 or maybe early 2024. If there are
any you are particularly interested in, please let us
know in the comments.

“A really traumatic thing happened to my family, who had been raised me as a
Christian, a few years back. My mom and dad randomly told me they no longer
consider themselves Christian, but it’s totally okay if I do. I told my mom that I, too,
felt like I had lost my religion.
It all came down to the same basic question: Why would an omniscient,
omnipotent, loving God allow such horrible things to happen in the world he
created? I REALLY resent the notion, which people say all the time, that nothing is
an accident and God has a plan for everyone. I find it really offensive, actually.”
Another thread: “I’m sorry, but cancer in children should not be a part of Gods’
plan, or anyone’s plan. I would rather believe in nothing than believe in something
that promotes pain in one of their most beloved creations.”
Why do bad things happen to good people?

This question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” has a
technical term, biblical scholars refer to it as theodicy. Personally, this
word and concept tells us more about ourselves than truths about God.
How did the ancient Jews and Christians respond to this question? One
answer is that this is the theme of the Book of Job in the Old Testament.
This is both a very simple and a very challenging question to ponder. The
Book of Job has drawn much interest from philosophers as well as
theologians. What does God reveal to Job from the whirlwind? God just
basically announces his sovereignty and his Almighty power. So what is
the answer to the question: Why do bad things happen to good people?
Simply put: Because they do.

We forget that the ancient world of the Bible was a much less
friendly place than the modern world, and yet they still believed
and hoped in God, and were willing to become martyrs for their
faith. The ancient Greek and Jewish cultures were warrior
cultures out of necessity. Ordinary people in the ancient world
didn’t look forward to collecting Social Security and having a
secure retirement. No, their worries were much more basic: they
worried that one day a very hostile city state would defeat and
rape and plunder their city-state, execute all the military age
men, and enslave the women and children.

https://youtu.be/7QAZ_s6zw4E https://youtu.be/9xKxqAbJ2qY
https://youtu.be/vl8KGL5Yx2w

Indeed, slaves were the employees of the ancient world. Slaves
were either born into slavery, or they were captured during war,
or by pirates, or were abandoned as infants in the marketplace by
those too poor to raise then.
People suffered more and died younger in the ancient world.
There was no aspirin, many people died from fever or
indigestion. The infant mortality rate in the ancient world was
incredibly high: between a quarter and a third of infants died in
their first year of life. So many women died in childbirth that
Roman wives often updated their wills when they learned they
were pregnant. Most people died before fifty.

To ancients who lived in a warrior culture, Stoic philosophy is very
appealing. The Stoics don't ask the question: Why do bad things happen
to good people? Instead, they admit that good and bad things happen to
everyone, that the rain falls on both the bad and the good. Bad things
happen to good people, that is part of life. The real question is: How can
God help us endure and prevail over our suffering?
Why does an Almighty God permit suffering in this world? Since most
suffering is caused by bad people, this question is about whether free will
should be permitted to bad people. But since we are all imperfect, the
question is really this: Do we want to be God’s puppets, so we always do
what is right?

https://youtu.be/Dhd543kov-E https://youtu.be/zAAal5p8AX8
https://youtu.be/-uQxq1O9xSY https://youtu.be/wgD8skYi3I0

Early Christianity was deeply influenced by both
rabbinical Judaism and secondarily, by Roman Stoic
philosophy. Close study of the New Testament
reveals this heritage, but it is especially evident in the
writings of the early monastic writings. Platonism
itself was also deeply influenced by the stoic thought
in Greek culture. This is stoicism with a small-S, see
our Channel Philosophy video for more explanation.

We plan to reflect on a book of essays by scholars on
the tie between stoicism and Christianity in the near
future.

“Because I learned too much. This led to asking too many
questions. Science provided answers or at least an honest
‘We don’t know. Yet.’ Religion provided lies, half-truths,
and curses for asking the questions.”
BELIEVED IN EVOLUTION: “Everyone kept telling me that I
wasn’t a real Christian if I believed in evolution. Because
when I was asking hard questions, the only answer I would
get is ‘It’s part of his plan.’”
Religion Provided Half-Truths, & Evolution

Does Jesus expect you to check in your brain in at the church door? Historically, the
Church was not opposed to scientific inquiry. Among the early Church Fathers, St
Augustine is particularly intellectually curious about scientific matters. The best
example is St Augustine’s Confessions, which are both confessions of sin as well as
confessions of faith, and also a confession of his scientific inquiries.
In his youth, St Augustine also doubted the logic of the Christian faith and Church
teachings. The Latin Bible of his day was not the Vulgate, which was later translated
by St Jerome, his contemporary, but was rather a more primitive Latin translation
that had many problems. Many intellectuals of his day did not respect Christianity
because of the backwardness of this translation, it affected the credibility of the
church itself. St Augustine initially left the Christian Church and spent a full decade
in a heretical sect which is analogous to many of the new age sects today.

https://youtu.be/gdK1a3AbI9w https://youtu.be/ydskqlgZSrE
https://youtu.be/AjGbBozIReY https://youtu.be/Vijtjxm3Ta0

Many people only read the first nine books of this
autobiography, his Confessions, and ignore the last four
books, but these are key to understanding the
Confessions. Book Ten reflects on the spiritual lessons he
learned when he converted back to Christianity. The last
three books are the most interesting because he reflects
on the spiritual aspect of the Genesis Creation story and
his scientific inquiries. These inquiries and his approach
lead many scholars to declare that he is also the father
of psychology.

https://youtu.be/sIpx5qJMGvw https://youtu.be/uQCnAJMPoos
https://youtu.be/Ff-XsE5CuSo
https://youtu.be/xTHmGhGG6Bk

St Augustine ponders the question of TIME. He points
out that while God creates night and day on the first
day of creation, he does not separate the night from
the day, and create the sun and the moon and the
stars until the fourth day. What is time? How could
the days of Creation be twenty-four-hour days when
the heavenly bodies were created on the fourth day?

"Through Time", by Vasilisa Lebedeva
https://artsandculture.google.com/story/YAWBuPx8YCSBLQ
Fond Memories, by Raimundo de Madrazo y
Garreta, around 1900

St Augustine ponders the question of MEMORY. Even
the ancients observed that memory is imperfect, and
that it fades with age. But the soul is everlasting.
How is our memory bound up in our soul? How can
an imperfect memory co-exist with an immortal soul?
To St Augustine, memory is an unresolved puzzle.

We are also planning to reflect on the theory of
evolution and its social impacts, including the famous
Scopes monkey trial in the early twentieth century.

In addition, St Augustine, in his book on Christian Teaching, or on Christian Doctrine,
answers this question: Why do so many Old Testament verses appear to be so brutal
and un-Christian? The most famous example is that passage in the Psalms where
the Jews declare that they wish to bash the bash the heads of the Babylonian babies
on the stone steps? How can a loving God approve of this violence?
St Augustine teaches us that each section of the Bible should be interpreted as
affirming the core Christian teaching of the two-fold Love of God and love of
neighbor, that is: You should Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and
with all of your mind and with all of your strength, and you should love your
neighbor as yourself. Any verse that seems, on its face, to violate this principle,
MUST be interpreted allegorically. As a matter of fact, the Babylonian babies verse is
a favorite of the eastern monastic Church Fathers. The allegorical meaning is that
we should eliminate all the sins in our life, both large and small, there's no sin so
small that we should not repent of it and seek to eradicate it from our soul.

By the Waters of Babylon, by Arthur Hacker, 1888
Psalm 137, Verse 1:
By the waters of Babylon,
there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
Verse 4:
How shall we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
Verse 8:
O daughter of Babylon, you devastator.
Happy shall he be who requites you
with what you have done to us!
Verse 9:
Happy shall he be
who takes your little ones
and dashes them against the rock!

“Experimented with atheism, and when I told my
classmates, they bullied me, decided there that god
is not real and just a way of manipulating people (in
my opinion).”
Experimented With Atheism

We will be reflecting on the key work by Ludwig Feuerbach, the
late nineteenth century German philosopher who inspired not
only Charles Darwin, Sigmund Freud, Frederick Nietzsche, and
many modern atheists, but also Karl Barth the theologian. In his
introduction to his Commentary on Romans, Barth listed
Feuerbach as an inspiration in ensuring his beliefs were genuine.
Feuerbach observed that when many pray to God, they are
actually praying not to God himself, but to the vision of God that
they have constructed in their own minds. This is indeed a trap
that we can all fall into.

“My parents raised us Catholic; I did my first communion and
then started CCD classes once a week.” CCD mean Cofraternity of
Christian Doctrine and is Catholic Catechetical instruction.
“I became skeptical because a lot of what they said just didn’t
make sense to me, so I began asking questions. I would just ask,
‘Why?’ several times a night, and it began to aggravate our group
leader. Finally, he told me, ‘If you have so many questions, maybe
you’re not in the right place.’ I could not agree more! I got up and
walked home.”
Felt Detached, No Answers to Questions

For some reason, in some Catholic dioceses and parishes, the CCD classes
are not taught by the priest, but are rather taught by a devout layman.
Unfortunately, many devout laymen are not deeply educated in theology,
they are just basically taught the party Catholic line as it is commonly
understood on the internet and in the pews, and often they are not
conversant with the teachings of the Church Fathers, ancient or modern,
and sometimes oppose Pope Francis and the Vatican II decrees. They are
frustrated and offended when people dare to question them.
As a practical matter, if you wish to take CCD class from a priest rather
than a layman, a good tactic to try is to attend the cathedral. Cathedrals
have so many priests attached to them that priests usually perform all
the tasks themselves, including CCD classes, and in many dioceses, they
tend to be more progressive than devout laymen.

This leads to other important questions: Should you
attend church? What church should you attend?
Most simply select their church out of convenience,
or because their spouse has attended the church all
their lives, or some other some other criteria. But
realistically, and this is especially true for Catholic or
Orthodox Churches with Confession, you need to
select a church where you respect the spiritual
direction of the priest or pastor.

But we should consider the advice of St John Climacus in the first chapter of his
Ladder of Divine Ascent. Although we should follow the advice of our spiritual
fathers, we should, in the beginning, select as our spiritual fathers someone whose
spiritual advice we trust. This is because if he advises you, in a matter of morals, to
do something you don’t want to do, you should be very reluctant to ignore his
advice.
This last caveat is not in the Ladder of Divine Ascent, our saint advises us to follow
ALL advice of our spiritual father. But the reality is that the monastic writings are
intended for monks whose spiritual fathers are accessible all day, every day, and
who are connected to their daily spiritual struggles, but this is never true for laymen
who may see their priest or pastor or rabbi only once or twice a week. Sometimes in
small devout parishes or synagogues, the priest, pastor, or rabbi tries to spiritually
control his flock, but this can be spiritually dangerous and harmful.

“Corruption. The last straw was finding out how they
protected child molesters. The last vestige of my
Catholicism is rooting for Notre Dame football.”
Corruption, Covering Up for Child Molesters

Indeed, the issue of child molesters is a very valid concern.
Christianity is based on the concept that when we repent
of our sins we can be healed and changed. Also, in the
seventies, the cultural assumption was that psychologists
could counsel you and heal you and make you normal. The
unfortunate reality is that many people with addictions,
particularly sexual addictions, are expert liars. Doubly
unfortunate, many child molesters choose professions
where they can be in close contact with children, including
teachers, youth pastors, and priests.

We must remember the Catholic Church is unique among many
institutions in that it has centralized diocesan personnel files,
whereas many Protestant churches are congregational, which
means that the personnel files are only maintained in the local
churches. It is much easier for opposing attorneys to get access
to the centralized Catholic databases.
The Catholic Church founded the Virtus program in 1988, many
dioceses require all who volunteer for ministries to attend. This
program teaches how you can detect molesters and how you can
prevent abuse. They may permit non-Catholic congregations to
participate, you can inquire.

From website: What are
the VIRTUS® programs?
VIRTUS is the brand
name that identifies best
practices programs
designed to help prevent
wrongdoing and
promote "rightdoing"
within religious
organizations. The
VIRTUS programs
empower organizations
and people to better
control risk and improve
the lives of all those who
interact with the
Catholic Church.

“Abuse disguised as the word of God felt and witnessed over and over. In church, at
school, at home, on the playground.”
First, let me answer another question posed: “When my ex-husband was mentally
and emotionally abusive, I was told I needed to stay with him and be a witness to
him. When I decided to leave him, the church told me I would ruin my children’s
lives and my mom said I needed to really pray and make sure it’s what god wanted
me to do. When I was a single mom to five kids, the church I grew up in treated me
like a social pariah until they needed a volunteer.
All I ever got from church was guilt, shame and fear. I have never ever been happier
and had more joy, true, felt down to my bones joy, not the fake joy they claim at
church, than I have since leaving three years ago. I’m never going back.”
Ignoring or Condoning Abuse

There is growing realization among all denominations, Catholic,
Orthodox, and Protestant, of the seriousness of this problem. The
need to protect women and children from abuse far outweighs
any concern of outward propriety or the state of the abusing
husband’s soul. Also, based on my experiences as a facilitator in
divorce support ministry, you must assume if your husband is
abusing you, he is capable of using of abusing your children, and
if he is abusing your children, he is capable of abusing you.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2022/march-web-only/russell-moore-divorce-marriage-domestic-violence-abuse.html

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/06/26/how-church-can-help-or-hurt-women-abusive-marriages

The Bible may counsel against divorcing your husband, but the overriding
concern of Jesus and all the church officials should be your safety, and
more importantly, the safety of your children. Separation is not divorce. If
you are in an abusive situation, you need to separate and be in a safe
place. Once that happens, then you can pray and ponder what you
should do in your situation. Though you should not rush into it, divorce
can be advisable, particularly if it compels your ex-husband to pay child
support.
There is a non-denominational national divorce ministry available called
DivorceCare, and also a Catholic divorce ministry called Catholic Surviving
Divorce. You do not need to be officially married, and you can either be
divorced or separated to participate in these ministries. If properly run,
they are not going to bug you about converting.

https://www.divorcecare.org/
Please, if you anyone who is facing divorce, let them know support is available.

https://www.catholicsdivorce.com/
Please, if you anyone who is facing divorce, let them know support is available.

“A rule for this. A rule for that. A rule for everything.
Rules, rules, rules. They are useful guidelines. But if
we blindly follow them, is it really a good thing?
Retain your ability to think for yourself, and weigh
each decision carefully because you have to live with
them.”
Why So Many Rules?

This concern about rules-based Christianity is found most distinctly in the Catholic
Church, although it is found in all churches. Why do we have rules? Simply put, if we
desire to live a godly life, we need instruction on how to do it.
Even in the Catholic tradition, the Vatican II decrees also decry the overemphasis of
rules. As St Augustine once famously quipped, if you Love God and love your
neighbor, you can do whatever you wish. This is intended for mature Christians.
However, one reason why I enjoy reading the Jewish medieval rabbis is they take to
heart that blessings in the first Psalm, “Blessed is the man whose delight is in the
Law of the Lord, on his Law he meditates day and night.” The is Law as Gospel.
Likewise, the modern Catholic Catechism summarizes both the moral law and also
most of the questions priests are asked by the devout in Confession and elsewhere.

Why are Catholics culturally so concerned about rules? Historically, in the
Middle Ages the Catholic canon law governed family law in Europe, until
the modern states assumed this responsibility.
Legalism is not all bad. As populations are converted to Christianity,
historically they first become literate so they can read the Word and sing
the psalms in the Mass. Next, the formerly barbarian nations, when
Christianized, adopted a rational legal system.
And indeed, many Christians are okay with God as long as he doesn’t tell
them what to do. That is demonstrated by how our Ten Commandment
videos have the fewest views of any of our videos.

ARE CHRISTIANS PROGRESSIVE? ARE CHRISTIANS COMPASSIONATE? “For
me it was a combination of the anti-LGBTQ attitude, the racism, the
misogyny and the general political attitude of many members. I felt
stifled by the idea that my purpose in life as a woman was to be a wife
and mother. That is a perfectly acceptable life goal/plan, but it wasn’t
what I wanted out of life at all.”
CAN CHRISTIANS BE DEMOCRATS? “My parents are both Democrats and I
heard a lot of crap about it from other members of my ward even as a
young kid and I hated the idea that the people I vote for determined my
worth as a person and as a Christian.”
Can Christians Be Compassionate?

We have a video on why you can be both a Christian and a
Democrat. We must remember Protestant Christians deeply
influenced the abolitionist movement in the 1830s which led to
the abolition of slavery after the Civil War. Today an evangelical
Christian ministry, Promise Keepers, is centered around racial
reconciliation. Also, the social justice movement of both the
Catholic and Protestants deeply influenced the New Deal of FDR
and seeks to reduce poverty in our society not just by helping
individual poor people, but by improving their lives through
governmental action, providing them the education and
assistance needed to land a good job with a living wage so they
can feed, clothe, and house their families with dignity.

Freedom of Speech
Freedom of Worship Freedom From Fear
Freedom From Want
The Four Freedoms

Many churches are wrestling with the LGBTQ issue. In the Catholic Church there
have been disparate approaches to this issue by Pope Benedict XVI and Pope
Francis, working through Father Martin, who is currently the editor of the leading
Catholic magazine, America, and is a leader in the LGBTQ ministry in America.
Before he was pope, Benedict witnessed the worst cases of child molestation by
priests, and he compelled the Catholic Church to face up to the problem of child
molesters among the clergy. His view was based on his experience as the Vatican
policeman on this issue, and at one time was advocating not permitting anyone with
homosexual tendencies into the Catholic seminaries.
Father Martin has a different perspective and a different life experience: he heard
confessions from many priests. His experience is that many Catholic men who have
homosexual tendencies are drawn to the priesthood because they can serve the
church without the culture expecting them to get married. His experience is that
very few of these men become molesters.

HYPOCRISY: “I was raised Christian, and for a
long time, I became agnostic due to the
hypocrisy of organized religion. I’ve actually
come back into my faith over the past few years
because I’ve realized my issue isn’t with God; it’s
with the people who claim to speak for him.”
Are Christians Hypocrites?

Religion is not about them, about what they believe, about how
hypocritical they are. Religion is about you, whether you want to live a
godly life, and whether you are willing to accept God’s grace and
assistance to live a godly life.
If you are dissatisfied with your current religious tradition, IMHO, you
should first study the other religious tradition, read the early Church
Fathers, read the works of the founders of the religious tradition that
appeals to you. But before you convert, you should then study your own
religious tradition, so you can share what you have learned. Perhaps your
dissatisfaction is from your inaccurate perceptions of your own religious
tradition.

One message of the Vatican II decrees is that the Catholic Church has
much to learn from their separated brothers, and the reverse is also true,
that Protestants and Orthodox have much to learn from their Catholic
brothers. Indeed, the Catholic Church before and after Vatican II are two
very different churches, not theologically, but in how the Catholic Church
confronts the modern world.
Vatican II is unimaginable without the Church’s experiences under the
fascist regimes of World War II. The Catholic Church was burned when
the friendly fascist regime of Mussolini went full Nazi just before the start
of the war, initiating the persecution of Jews to please Hitler. Vatican II
embraces democracy as the safest political regime for the church to
thrive under, as totalitarian regimes can flip from friends to deadly foes in
a heartbeat.

https://youtu.be/yYpNrhpmsYw
https://youtu.be/QP9UR8fqfvs
https://youtu.be/LvNynEdZFuM
https://youtu.be/ozEioe6yyY8

St Augustine’s Confessions is like a modern testimonial, he shares his spiritual
journey, these are both confessions of sins and beliefs. He answers many questions
modern seekers ask about Christianity in a very readable and inspiring book.
Father O’Malley has written many captivating books on the history of Trent, Vatican
I, Vatican, the Jesuits, and many other histories. IMHO, you do not understand
Catholicism until you have read the Confessions and O’Malley’s book on Vatican II.
The writings of the early eastern monastic Church Fathers, including St John
Climacus in the Ladder of Divine Ascent and the Philokalia collection, influenced the
Western monastic movement. Since these were written in the first millennium, they
are within both the Orthodox and Catholic traditions.
There are many misconceptions about the 1619 project, this is simply a collection of
essays on the injustices blacks endured during the Reconstruction and Jim Crow
segregationist eras in America.

We discuss the Greek and Roman historians in depth
in our Book Reviews on Greek History and
Philosophy.

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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