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What's the most surprising fact you learned about the religion you were born into, that wasn't discussed in church?

This question is for those of us who were indoctrinated at a young age. Once you got older and began researching about the religion on your own, what were you surprised to find? How did it affect your view on the religion?

JoseyF 4 Oct 29
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16 comments

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1

The thing that has always puzzled me the most about Christianity is that GOD was not to be questioned. I always found that to be odd considering that he is the creator of all things.People would give GOD attributes of flesh and blood yet deny that he is mortal. If everything thing on this planet belongs to this deity there isn't any reason for the punishment of so called sins. In fact the very sin is simply a quest to orientate your being in this universe. I'm just saying.

0

The Pericope Adulterae John 7:53-8:11 is a recent addition.
The world is waaaaay fxxcing older than 7k years.
Poor satan gets a bad rep when Jehovah is the real villain.
The whole fucking thing is ridiculous.

0

That most of the writings of the "great prophet" Ellen G. White were plagiarized--outright stolen.

1

I think the most surprising thing that I learned after realising that the basis of the religion was a myth, was that the whole religion was a hugely profitable business, and that the tentacles were widely spread or in business parlance the risks were spread.

2

First off, I learned it late and in the book Age Of Reason (by Thomas Paine). It was that God used one of his forbidden 10 Commandments as a way of cleansing man's sin. Murder (and suicide) of his own son (himself). That seemed stupid.

2

The homosexual acts of King David. The lesbian leanings of the Book of Ruth. The phrase of "whether thou goest" was not said between a man and woman, but two women. Liberal teachings of Jesus.

3

I was lucky, I was baptized Methodist with a preacher who spoke about global love....He may have been an Atheist.

1

What wasn't discussed in The United Church in Canada was that it was all bull shit. The joke was so big that it was far beyond unbelievable. And from there they embraced the secular lies- there was no end to the lies.
And my extra-crazy mother used to beat the shit out of me if I even moved on the first day of the week, because it was the seventh, and the day of rest. Thanks Constantine!

3

I was in grade school when I first heard my father say, "I will not bet my life on the Bible" , "Religion is the biggest stumbling block to human progress" and "Man created God" and I asked, "What god, God Almighty?" and his quick answer was a big "YES!"

3

well my parent really did push religion it all the stuff i learned afterward that no one else apparently didnt know about. Like slavery, murder, raps, etc

2

The papacy was a political office that could be bought and sold. Wealthy families could buy high offices leading eventually to the papacy.

SamL Level 7 Oct 29, 2017
2

I was surprised at how much of it was poached from older religions and traditions - christmas and easter being prime examples.

4

The catalyst was the book “1984.” I was a Jehovah’s Witness in about 1982 and finally realized how they had over and over rewrote history. They call their religion “The Truth” and they, just like the Ministry of Truth in the book, constantly rewrote history to explain the “new light” they were receiving from God. One of the writers at their headquarters had also become acquainted with the actual truth and was disfellowshipped. He, then, wrote a book called “Crisis of Conscience.” His evidence made it crystal clear how they had manipulated and distorted their own history to make themselves look good and cover up the numerous failed prophecies and nonsense they teach. Sad to say I now see the same technique in other religious and political books. People just write their own version of history, not critically but just what they want it to have been like.

gearl Level 8 Oct 29, 2017

Crisis of Conscience is a biographical book by Raymond Franz, a former member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses, written in 1983 . . . there are pdf downloads but requires some clicking and installing that I don’t have time for and my antiquated computer couldn’t handle the alien apps

3

I was raised in the Mormon church, and they taught us that the founder of the church, Joseph Smith, who had many wives, got approval from his first wife before marrying any others. That was not at all true. His first wife was not awre of any of hte other marriages and was shocked after his death to find over two dozen woman showing up claiming they were also married to him.

They also talked about Brigham Young being a great businessman and having great foresight. It was claimed that he foresaw the need for very wide streets and the coming age of automobiles and heavy traffic, when he actually designed the streets of Salt Lake City to be wide enough for an ox cart to be able to turn around. His business success was due in part from his leveraging his position as 2nd leader of hte Mormon church, to get others to do his bidding, often to their own financial ruin, but to Brigham YHoung's benefit.

The Book of Mormon claims that Native Americans are actually a lost tribe of Israel. DNA shows Native Americans are not related to the Jews, but are most closely linked to Tibetans. The religion of the Thunder god of Native Americans in the SW of the United States, are virtually identical to the religions of per-Buddhist Tibet. What is amazing to me is that the integrity of the religion which was passed down by word of mouth for over 10,000 years remained in tact.

The book of Mormon also makes many factual error splacing animals in the Americas that never appears there, giving ancient native Americans swords and metal weapons, which they did nto ever have or develop metal weapons, and then there is the story of how the book of Mormon came to be.

Supposedly, it was a record of those who still folloeed the teachings brought from Israel. It was carved into thin plates of gold, which supposedly Joseph Smith translated using "seer stones". The book of Mormon is several hundred pages long, when put into 10 point type. In order for the entire book to have been carved into plates made of gold, the plates would have had to have equal volume to at least couple xerox boxes, but according to reports of supposed witnesses who saw them, they were only the Lrgth and width of a 6"X8" tablet and no thinker than a large phone book. Way too small, when carved by hand to contain all the information, even if manging to use goth sides of the plates.

Probably the most shocking, and disappointing, thing was that my parents and most of my older sibling believed this stuff.

I was also, as a child, shocked to learn that the books of the Bible were not actually written by those to whom they were accredited. That there were originally over 40 gospels, mos tof which were left out.

5

It was many years ago of course, but how the Roman Catholic church worked hand in hand with the Nazis and that Hitler himself was Catholic.

4

I will get the ball rolling with my own experience. I was raised to be a Christian. When I turned 17 I started studying the religion on my own and I was very surprised to learn that the stories in the bible were not original! For instance, the story of Noah's ark was heavily influenced by a flood story written almost 500 years prior in the Epics of Gilgamesh(a Sumerian mythology). That blew my teenage mind! I have more examples too if anyone's interested.

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