Have you stop going to Church?

i stopped going when i 8 after i seen the pastors daughter having sex in the kitchen area at the church

The church I was going to was full of a bunch of egotistical, money is everything hypocrites.

I work weekends and my wife has class on Wednesday nites so we had to stop going.

I think I stopped going to church for myself around 1984.

Now.. I've gone to church since then, with friends, out of respect for their wishes, but I pretty much just sat there waiting for the service to end so we could move on.

Even before I stepped away from religion, I didn't go to church on a regular basis. In fact, I haven't been to church on a regular basis since I was a little kid.

Looooong time ago

Getting back actually?

I've been to church a few times in my life. However, I find that I totally hate church. It's boring as hell. It's always the same old crap. About the only thing I like in church is the music. The preaching is usually dry, and it's the same old story every time. The story goes like this: if you don't love Jesus, you're going to burn in hell for all eternity; if you don't pray the sinner's prayer (i.e. accept Jesus as your savior) you're going to be frying forever and ever. It's pretty depressing if you ask me. Not only that, but the sinner's prayer isn't even Biblical and neither are altar calls. Once I learned what that Bible truly teaches, I came to the realization that most churches today don't even preach the truth. They just sell a "feel good" message to draw in more congregants. Actually, it's pretty outrageous when you think about it. It's all about the money.

"Do things our way or we'll make sure you're punished for eternity"

And they wonder why church attendance is slipping away.

Plus you just described the most common route of deconversion aside from "asking too many questions preachers just don't like to answer"

Isn't that the truth? There are some questions preachers just don't like to answer. Most of the time, it's because they themselves don't have an answer. Like for instance, why does the Bible tell us that angels mated with human females and birthed baby giants? lol

Sumerian myths, mostly.

Heck, the original Yahweh cult was a sub-sect of the old Marduk mythology.

That could very well be the case. It was very fishy when I read "Sun of righteousness" mentioned in Malachi 4:2, because it brings to mind sun-god worship in the time of Constantine when Christians were given more freedom to worship. I even read they had a chariot to the sun god, and the cross of Calvary was mixed in there somewhere.

Genesis 1 wasn't even in the original Bible. It started with Genesis 2 with Marduk being the deity doing the creating along with all the other deities of the pantheon, including Yahweh.

Genesis 1 was a separate myth added in later.

That's interesting. I've never read about that before.

It's really amazing what they uncovered about the real history of the area. Wikipedia's a good place to start researching it.

What area?

search "Yahweh" to get started.

Okay. Thanks. :)

I stopped going to "religion". It was just like smoking. I tried it, never could see the point, so I stopped.

Quit going for many years fir the same reason that "classic" states. My granddaughter wanted to start going to Sunday School, so we checked out many churches where we live and found a wonderful non denominational church that only teaches the Bible, no cares what the next person is wearing or what kind of car they drive. Oh yeah, no one falls asleep where I attend.

Church is where the hypocrites gather, to pat each other on the back, and tell each other just how wonderful they are... OH! Mabel! that dress looks so good on you, Musta cost a fortune" And then you have to set there for a couple hours letting some guy spout of stuff that you have heard a thousand times over... No wonder they fall asleep...

I didn't really lose interest since I have never been interested.

Have never ever been a church goer..was christened in one but that was it..

Me too, I was Christened in a "Friends Church", (Quaker). It didn't take, I guess. Still like Oatmeal though.

To many contradictions and fake believers. Mt currant spiritual beliefs serve me well.

waste of time
but i still believe in god

You are right,, on the waste of time... If everyperson that wasted 3 hours a week in church would actually go out and do something good for someone else, just think of the man hours that could be used for humanity, instead of paying lip service to some god....If out of 400 million people if 1/4th of them went to church that would bee 100,000,000 times 3 hours each,,, 300,000,000 man hours.. stagering figure...Now put those hours to good use..

Never went. It was just something apparently my parents, nor any other family members appeared to be to interested in.

It's just too judgmental for me. I have fat ppl pointing at me, and telling me it's wrong to smoke, but they eat too much !

there are many fake churches out there when you find a real one, there will be a huge difference

That's called conviction, not judgement. And I don't mean from the congregation. :-)

I never went growing up. For a few months I started going to my friend's youth group and attended church a couple Sundays because I wanted to learn about the religion but I decided it's not for me. Besides, even if I were religious, I don't think the whole church thing is necessary. Faith is personal, why do we need people to oversee it?

Doest the bible say When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

I used to pray when I was a kid, then decided I was just talking to myself.

This always tickled me..

Child: Mommy leave the night light on, I am afraid of the boogey man in my closet,,,

Mommy: there is no such thing as an invisible boogy man,, so dont worry..

Child: are you sure? I cant see him but he is still there:

Mommy,, dont be rediculous,,, it is all in your mind,,, Now go to bed and say your prayers of God is gonna get you..... LMAO

Lol, I don't know but it makes more sense to me to keep it personal.

because i wake up late

It's a waste of time.

I personally find religion to have no real functional purpose. There's a famous little bit about a man asking a preacher about how God will judge people that haven't learned of the faith. The preacher would reply that the benevolent Christian God could never simply send someone to Hell for not knowing about him. The man then asks with finality, "then why did you tell me of Him?"

Faulty logic. Being a non-Christian and never hearing about God isn't automatic grounds for going to hell -- but it's not a free ticket to heaven either. It depends on how one lives his/her life.

In contrast, being a Christian by faith isn't sufficient for getting to heaven -- but there are certain advantages to it. Namely, your chances of getting to heaven are better.

And that's why the preacher told the man about God. Knowing God greatly increases your chances of eventually spending eternity with Him.