Why I am no longer a Christian

Here are some reasons for why I am no longer a Christian:

1. Contradictions in the Bible - Christianity is centered around the Bible and it's divine message, the inconsistencies and contradictions within the Bible are evidence of it being uninspired. It is passed as a single, unified book from God, but it is just a collection of religious texts from ancient writers and should be treated as such.
2. Science disconfirms the Bible - Science has shown us that the universe is much older than 6000 years old. Being able to see galaxies that are millions of light years away is one example.
3. Archaeology disconfirms the Bible - After much searching no one has found any trace of the mass exodus, the ten plagues in Egypt, a large-scale Canaanite conquest or a world wide flood. 
4. Insufficient evidence - The miraculous events in the gospels are not mentioned in any contemporary writings and the gospels are written anonymously 40-80 years after the events may have happened. The gospels are not written in the first person, they are written like a story.
5. Failed prophecy - The most prominent failed prophecy in the Bible is Jesus' own prediction that his second coming would occur within the lifetimes of his generation.
6. God is not involved - Good and bad things happen to both good and bad people. Terrible and horrific things occur and God does not intervene. There does not appear to be any supernatural beings meddling with us at all.
7. Hell is unjust - Infinite punishment for finite crimes is unjust and the concept of eternal torment is  inconsistent with the concept of a loving God.
8. The trinity is illogical - Not only is the trinity logically impossible, but it is a later explanation given to cover the problems created by the New Testament authors.
9. Yahweh's commanding of genocide - By modern standards of human rights it is immoral to command the killing of women, children and infants. It makes more sense to interpret the Canaanite conquest narratives as man-made justifications rather than a divinely inspired message.
10. Transformation is not supernatural - The ability to behave properly, treat others kindly and abstain from non-healthy addictions is not something only Christians can do (not that they all do). The moral "transformation" that occurs for a new believer is something anyone can do if they want to, but for some people they get a boost from a community of caring people to keep them accountable.
11. No unity of the "Spirit" -  Despite claims that the Holy Spirit is indwelling Christians and helps them discern the truth from scripture, Christians do not agree on many important doctrines and Christianity has been fractured into scores of different denominations.
12. Out-of-context prophecies - The claim that Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies in the old testament falls flat. It is clear that anyone can go back and find texts that can be interpreted to meet their needs. The gospel writers (especially whoever wrote Matthew) appear to have gone out of their way to make their stories fulfill a "prophecy".
13. Christianity's bloody history - The crusades, witch hunts and the inquisitions. One should only read about these if they have a strong stomach. Heretics (people with different views - gasp!) were burned at the stake. All of this was justified by select passages from the Bible such as Deuteronomy 13:7-12.
14. Faith should not be esteemed - Faith in the sense that you need to believe in something rather than seeking evidence or proof does not appeal to me at all. Without being skeptical you will end up believing all kinds of things regardless of whether they are true.
15. Unethical beliefs - I've been told that I should believe just to be on the safe side (Pascal's Wager). This is selfish thinking. If I don't have enough proof to convince honest skeptics or even myself then why should I believe just to save myself while believing that everyone else goes to hell? Beliefs should come from evidence, not from our desires.
16. Nothing unique - I have yet to see a claim made by Christians that is not paralleled by other religions. All religions claim things about personal experiences, fulfilled prophecies, miracle stories, scientific insight and superior moral values. Christian's who claim they are superior to other religions often rely on stereotypes. 
17. Outdated - The Bible is outdated and needs to be replaced. It is not a good book to base your life on. It says hardly anything about parenting. It says to stone your disobedient children or anyone who breaks the sabbath. It is not tolerant of other cultures and beliefs. It sanctions slavery. It tells you to do good things because you will get a reward. It does not treat women equally. Etc, etc.
18. Based on fear - Fear of Yahweh, fear of Satan, fear of demons, fear of punishment and most of all... fear of hell. Vain threats have been used down through the ages by cowardly men who unfortunately know how to prey on human weaknesses.
19. Birthed in superstition - The time period of the gospel writers was overflowing with superstitions. Miracle workers were commonplace along with divine prophets, martyrs and gullible believers.
20. Unfair - The idea that the creator of all men would only reveal himself to one group of people, but leave everyone else in the dark is unfair. The ancient Chinese, Egyptians, Aztecs, Native Americans and many other people groups are left out and only the tribe of Israelites were chosen to interact with the creator of the universe.

In response to all of this a Christian might ask, "What about the possibility that you are wrong and on your way to hell?". First of all, I would ask them how much time they spend worrying about going to Islam's hell for not being a Muslim. Probably not much. That's about how much time I spend worrying about going to Christianity's hell because I just don't believe in it. "But it could still exist!" they might say. In that case, I would rather go there if that's where God thinks I belong. To me it would be better than forever worshiping a deity that has no problem torturing human souls for all eternity.

All you need to do is accept it

Something that I am now fascinated with since leaving Christianity is looking back and reading things that I used to believe - hook, line and sinker. It's kind of entertaining in hindsight to realize how naive I was all those years. Today I was reading some Christian apologetic material on Carm.org and came across this page on a possible contradiction in the Bible. Actually it is a contradiction if you're willing to be honest with yourself. The Bible clearly says that no one can see God and live. The Bible also clearly says that both Abraham and Moses saw God and they did not die. This is a pretty clear contradiction, right? Well, there is still a way to wiggle out of this:

"The solution is simple. All you need to do is accept what the Bible says. If the people of the OT were seeing God, the Almighty God, and Jesus said that no one has ever seen the Father, then they were seeing God Almighty, but not the Father. It was someone else in the Godhead. I suggest that they were seeing the Word before He became incarnate. In other words, they were seeing Jesus." - [excerpt from Carm.org]

All you need to do is accept what the Bible says. Close your eyes. Turn off your brain. Open wide. Simple solution, right? So it was really Jesus that appeared to Abraham and Moses, o.k?

In the book I'm reading by Thom Stark (The Human Faces of God), I've learned the different ways that inerrantists will interpret a Bible passage. They usually will try to take the plain meaning first while looking at the context of the passage. This seems reasonable, but the problem is that they are not consistent with it. Whenever using that method leads them into a Biblical contradiction, they will abandon that method and jump to other methods. They will continue looking for alternative meanings until they find something that "explains away" the contradiction. No matter how many hoops they have to jump through to explain a passage - if the explanation can solve the contradiction - then that MUST be the right explanation! This kind of thinking is mind-boggling.

So how did I handle this sort of thing when I was a Christian? Easy. I never went looking for contradictions. There is a trust system within Christianity that is based on relying on others more qualified than yourself. If you are a lay-person then you trust in your pastor. If you are a pastor then you trust in the scholars. As long as someone has done their homework then everything is o.k. I remember once in a Sunday School class the question was asked, "What should we say (when we are witnessing) when someone protests that there are contradictions in the Bible?" The answer: You hand them the Bible and arrogantly look down your nose at them (o.k, I added that part) and say, "Show me one." Then everyone in the class laughed and we moved on to the next question. So basically you take the chance that the person making the claim does not actually know of any off hand. When in doubt, brush past it and start showing them Bible verses. They are sinners, they need a Sav...... You get the idea.

Leaving superstitions behind me

I was marveling today at how I used to analyze everything from a Christian perspective. Everything that happened to me or to others could somehow be traced to God or the devil. Looking back it all seems so strange. I used to think, "Could this be God testing me?" or "Satan must have quite a hold on that person!" Looking at what the Bible says it certainly is reasonable to think this way. Just look at the story of Job. Behind the scenes of the terrible events in Job's life we see a dialogue between God and Satan in which they are both responsible for causing Job misery. God was proud of Job, Satan had the great idea to "test" Job, and God gave Satan permission to do everything except kill Job. So it is no stretch of the imagination for a Christian to wonder what is going on behind the scenes in the day-to-day events that they come upon.

I can now recognize this as superstitious thinking and I am glad to put it behind me. So in the future if I get a flat tire, it is not a test of patience from God, it is simply a nail that was left in the road. No more Christian mind games. No more trying to figure out what God is "telling" me.

To be honest, shortly after I "left the faith" I thought that if there was a God who was keeping track of my belief status I would surely start to have some trials. It also seemed like some Christians that I spoke with were waiting and expecting that my life would start to fall apart. But nothing happened. My health is fine, my marriage is great, my job is fine, and I'm not "drowning in sins". The world has not changed, only my view of it has. There are no longer any spirits, demons or angels floating around, invisibly controlling or watching us. I am glad to put that behind me.