Christianity is mythology ... and I no longer believe - Patrick Jones

Today I spoke with Patrick Jones, who grew up as a Southern Baptist and focused on missions, but ultimately deconverted as he seriously examined the claims and origins of Christianity.

We discussed many topics, including:

• Being told that the Bible was completely inerrant and that the Earth was young.
• Being taught that Catholics were bad, but then attending a Catholic school and realizing they were good people.
• Realizing that the Bible had been interpreted very differently in other Christian traditions, and that some of those other traditions had encouraged their congregations to analyze all sides of a topic, think deeply, and possibly come to different conclusions.
• Being set up with an "Us versus Them" mentality regarding both non-Christians as well as other Christians who had a different theology.
• Enjoying leadership roles in the church, especially in light of his passion for educating others.
• Growing up feeling crushed by sin and completely guilty.
• How music has evolved in the evangelical church to bring about strong emotional responses, especially in light of the contrast of the intense personal guilt versus the invitation to connect with and be forgiven by the Yahweh character.
• Slowly dismantling Christianity over 20 years, so that the admission of full deconversion at the very end was not as painful as it is for others.
• Sensing that most Christians were not really concerned about those around them regarding the Gospel or about social issues like poverty and racism.
• Moving toward a progressive Christianity perspective that included the possibility of universal salvation.
• Learning about how the church and its dogmatic theology suppressed sexuality over the centuries.
• How purity culture was woven into Christian culture, including a body vs. spirit dualistic mentality, the critical need to preserve virginity until marriage, being in discipleship for accountability, confessing sinful thoughts, fighting masturbation and pornography, and seeing any sexual thought as wicked.
• Hearing women refer to Yahweh as their "Daddy" and Jesus as their "Husband."
• The season of deconversion when it truly hits you that "this is all made up."
• How a serious study of comparative mythology and folklore helps us see where Christian mythology evolved from, including how similar it is to other stories and practices from other ancient cults.
• Admitting that there are massive gaps in our understanding of how the various streams of Judaism and Christianity started and evolved.
• Realizing that through various flukes of history, we could easily have seen Pythagoreanism or Mithraism taking over the world instead of Christianity.

Thanks to Patrick for sharing his story!


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Ending music by Eyal Raz, "Friends"

   • Friends  

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