Honestly, I'm not going to base my whole life off of a book (The Bible). I really can't trust a book 100% that has no scientific backing and could just be a myth.
And thus does the divergence become particularly evident.
In what is basically opposite to what you seem to be saying, I don't trust science. That sounds bad, but what I mean is that modern-day science is a paradigm, and when anomalies bunch up paradigms shift, and it's obvious that we don't have everything figured out yet. Something will change, and who knows how many theories it could upset? It's a good thing that the Bible isn't a scientific textbook.
The bible was passed on through oral tradition before they decided to write it down and after playing telephone in my classes I know how that works. Who knows who even wrote the bible? Couldn't it have been a tool to control people like religion has been used over time (I'm refering to such things as Divine Right)? What's the difference between the Ancient Greek Gods and the current Gods we have today, why are they anymore real then the greek ones?
It was oral tradition for a while, yes. But I have evidence that what is said is true, and as such I believe that it was handed down with God watching over it.
The Greek gods and other pantheons were too tied to the material world. They were disproved. And Jehova God was not, because of His nature and because His real goal isn't material.
Plenty of awful and manipulative things have been done in God's name. But you can read it nowadays, and you can see how wrong they were to do so.
The majority of children that live in religous areas such as America and the Middle East, are taught to believe in their religon since day one. In North Koreans kids are told that us from the US are terrible people from day one, they tell their that North Korea is the greatest and strongest nation even though they aren't, I'm not saying religion is a lie because usually the people who tell you that their God exists actually believe in them. I was taught to believe in the Christian God from day one as well, never even questioned if God didn't exist, such an idea couldn't take place in my head. But one day I realized that I don't feel a connection to some kind of divine being and that I never have. This is my view on religion and how I became a nonbeliever, so no hate plox.
And the other difference. You didn't feel the connection. That's something of a fault of your environment, I'd say. It's true that your upbringing has an enormous effect on your mind, and I don't deny that one of the reasons I believe in God is because of how I was raised. But beyond Sunday school as a kid, the wise, selfless, genuine examples of some of the people I knew me showed me that they had something real. And upon realizing that I didn't feel anything, I followed their examples, and things started to change.
So now you're saying I'm wrong? I choose of my own will not to believe in a God that condones violence slavery and rape. I do what I believe to be best.
Slavery was primarily cultural and didn't carry half the negative connotations that it does now. I don't believe He has ever condoned rape. And a God with mastery over life also has the right to end it. He's definitely not all fuzzy warmness and squishy angel babies, but if He was His promises wouldn't mean as much.
