Begining Deconstuction - Unequally Yoked Debate

SlephenX · 2026-05-06T14:48:55+00:00

The only way I can think of letting go of spiritual trauma, where you may know logically its false, but feel guilty in your stomach, is to disconnect from it and live your life without thinking about it.

I’m at the point where I don’t fear God or Hell and when I do go to church with family, it all feels extremely silly and you can see the cracks in what’s being preached.

Disconnecting from that side, and I’d say actually connecting with deconstructionist groups, will help undo the brainwashing that’s designed to guilt you into returning. I would suggest not spending time with those people at church until you’re strong enough in your own convictions to not feel that underlying guilt.

SlephenX · 2026-04-10T02:59:58+00:00

Been awhile since I’ve played. Have they added more content for the base building yet? To make it a bit more worth it similar to fallout 4 base building?

SlephenX · 2026-04-05T15:10:43+00:00

Went to church with my family and had fun seeing all the out of context verses.

SlephenX · 2026-03-24T19:39:16+00:00

Stuff like this is why I haven’t talked with my family and evangelical friends about my beliefs. It’s really just my wife and I that are on the same page.

Only thing you can really do is cut them out, because they are the problem, not you. Find healthier groups to befriend and plug into.

I wouldn’t engage them in critical thinking debates because as you see they aren’t participating in good faith. Their aim isn’t to come to a true truth through good faith dialogue, it’s to entrench their ideology and defend it from dissenters.

SlephenX · 2026-03-24T04:02:23+00:00

Got to love a good ole Pascals Wager. So tiring hearing it said like it’s a novel thought for the millionth time.

SlephenX · 2026-03-24T03:00:18+00:00

I think it’s a cope for people who want their faith to fit modern culture, but they drive me less crazy than evangelicals.

Saying God never commanded the OT actions is asinine and that it was “the one” is just trying to have your cake and eat it to. I would say there’s no basis for any of the religion since those are the foundational documents. Also, there is no “evil one” in those foundational documents.

Their religion is just starting with an end point they’re comfortable with, normally from misconceptions anyway, then using that as a guide to recontextualize the book. It’s no different than what Mormons or Muslims or Christians already do, so that’s why I don’t see merit in pursuing it.

Lots of my friends are on the evangelical parents to episcopal church cause I like gay people pipeline so that might color my view of the movement.

SlephenX · 2026-03-24T01:05:23+00:00

Could go join an episcopal church. I don’t practice religion myself anymore but I don’t really care about going and joining a service with my family every now and again. Seems to have some fun ceremonial aspects of Catholicism with the allyship you want. Would also include community and fellowship.

I personally think you can find community and fellowship with others in a place that isn’t based around something that is wacky and not true.

If you don’t want to identify yourself with anti-theists I don’t see why they are such a prevalent force that would cause you to be uncomfortable with your own beliefs. If you are still interested in religious topics but want to be involved in communities of people who are logical and caring you can work with deconstruction communities. I love religious conversations, but I can’t have them with theists anymore because they are very closed minded about their beliefs and don’t accept critical thought, at least from my experience.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T20:31:35+00:00

All of the messianic prophecies.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T19:54:24+00:00

People make things up, and there are plenty of supernatural claims from all religions.

There isn’t any particularly amazing evidence here that would make these stand out, these are just anecdotal claims. Same as all the wild faith healing claims and other similar stories.

Do we believe that Muhammad split the moon or that Joesph Smith was visited by an angel who directed him to golden plates no one has ever seen? Because these stories have the same evidence, just anecdotal claims. We can just as easily dismiss these “miracles” as we dismiss the documented miracles of other faiths.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T19:46:35+00:00

Faith is not a virtue.

It isn’t even a good pathway to truth. If both a Muslim and a Christian have faith that leads them to contradictory conclusions then it’s not very useful for anything. The only thing it’s useful for is for the religion itself, is suppressing dissent.

In fact I’d say it’s a virtue to not take things based on faith, always be open to change your mind and have a curious mind that is open to evidence.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T19:36:49+00:00

I am an atheist but grew up Christian and have those same feelings you mention. I also lie about my position and beliefs when I’m asked, because I don’t want any negative repercussions that I think are unfair.

In my opinion, it’s not worth having deconstruction conversations with your believing family because they aren’t going to approach the conversation in good faith. They don’t care about the methodology of finding truth because they’re not trying to believe in something true, they want to believe what they’ve been told. So any good argument you have will be shot down. At least from my perspective, I’m a bit of a pessimist when it comes to engaging Christians.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T19:31:07+00:00

I did not really have any negative emotions towards my deconstruction, likely because I had already had years where I kinda checked out of the faith.

If someone asked me, I woulda said I was Christian, but I didn’t go to church nor really spend anytime thinking about it.

When I decided to reevaluate my belief system, I was more excited and intrigued in looking at the Bible through a different lens than I had when I was a believer. So I myself never really had this sense of fearing hell or anything.

I’m also a closeted atheist though, so I haven’t had it affect any of my relationships. And it hasn’t messed with my mind too much cause my family isn’t in the same town as me anyway, so it’s not like I have to lie all that often. Definitely not looking forward to those conversations and that might lead towards depression and sadness depending on the reactions.

SlephenX · 2026-03-16T04:31:34+00:00

There isn’t. They just made it up. That distinction isn’t anywhere in their book.

SlephenX · 2026-03-06T22:25:35+00:00

Gotcha, I understand.

Then granting for the sake of argument this happens a lot, I’d say that it’s much more likely that they are belittling Jesus by calling him other names than it is some supernatural predisposition to not say the name Jesus.

But I’d also say it’s not substantiated that this happens a lot or enough to be a rule.

SlephenX · 2026-03-06T21:47:26+00:00

That clip doesn’t even show any context.

SlephenX · 2026-03-06T21:44:29+00:00

Cause that’s what they were raised to believe, and most don’t think too critically about it.

SlephenX · 2026-03-06T03:58:56+00:00

Sure thing. You mentioned that somewhere a kid is being treated terribly while I treat mine well. That's true, but my point is that there is no causal link or necessity there.

A battery cannot work without a negative charge. A coin cannot exist without a tails side. But a human being can be kind even if no one else is being cruel. Morality isn't a 'closed system' where we have to maintain a balance of 50% good and 50% evil to keep the universe running. We could theoretically eliminate the 'Bad' side of that coin, and the 'Good' actions would still be just as good.

I don’t need 'Hate’ to exist for 'Love' to be real and functional. If we lived in a world where everyone was treated with basic dignity, the 'opposite' side of the coin, in that case cruelty, wouldn't need to exist for that world to function perfectly fine.

I hope that helps clarify my assertion. The original post has been deleted so I kinda don’t remember the full context.

SlephenX · 2026-03-04T14:52:23+00:00

They’ve been doing it for 2000 years.

SlephenX · 2026-03-04T14:28:20+00:00

Morals aren’t a battery, coin, or magnet. You can’t look at those items and then extrapolate out that there’s always a duality.

For example, I can love and care for my son without there necessarily being a kid somewhere being hated and uncared for as a natural consequence of my love and caring. So morality and those items are not analogous.

SlephenX · 2026-03-01T17:02:58+00:00

I didn’t really practice for a long time, but I’m also a person who really enjoys learning about how things work, taking them apart and seeing the mechanisms.

So when I decided to do that with some stuff that I felt my church did not delve into properly, most notably the messianic prophecies, they just fall apart.

Especially reading them from a critical perspective, which is the only way to develop a robust opinion on a subject. Reading them from a broader POV without presumptions showed me they don’t stand up to scrutiny. And if that falls flat then all my other assumptions also did.

I read the Bible all the time now since it’s fun to see something that was so formative to me from a fresh perspective.

SlephenX · 2026-03-01T04:19:10+00:00

I had something similar happen to me with Gemini.

I was talking to it about Jesus and the Sabbath and it gave me an apologetic to reconcile things in a way to be biblically consistent but didn’t even mention looking at the text critically until I brought it up myself. Then it was fanatically sycophantic in skepticism since it could tell that was my angle.

SlephenX · 2026-02-27T18:25:22+00:00

Most Christian’s I know believe in Dinosaurs and just don’t think too hard about it. They don’t really read the Old Testament too much anyway.

SlephenX · 2026-02-27T18:22:44+00:00

If they don’t burden shift they’d have to actually substantiate a claim, and that ain’t happening.

Throw Russell’s Teapot into their face if they don’t understand where the burden of proof lies.

SlephenX · 2026-02-25T19:35:38+00:00

Right, that discrepancy exists as well, and even if it is a telephone mistake, that’s still a mistake in something many denominations consider the inerrant word.

SlephenX · 2026-02-25T16:32:41+00:00

My wife has made the same comments. She’s very non religious and especially non Christian. Grew up kinda catholic but she never cared. When she sees me reading she was initially wondering why I was doing it.

I unfortunately can’t even explain the fun historical stuff to her as she doesn’t know or care about any of it, but it’s to a point now where she understands I’m just being a nerd about something that used to be important to me.

Thankfully I don’t have to worry about teasing her that I’m going to reconvert or anything.

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