You know if you would just rightly divide the word of truth as stated in 2 Timothy 2:15 you would get a better understanding of the bible and most likely as a result you wouldn't be making these videos against it because then you would actually see your incorrectness when it comes to the videos you are making. I'm a true born again Chirstian and I clearly see the mistakes that you are making in your understanding of the bible which is NOT the correct understanding of the bible at all.
Seems to me people spend their lives in fear, dread, and confusion regardless of any religious affiliation. Christianity may expose psychological anxiety, but it is not the cause of it. You are falsely suggesting that, absent religion, people would not become anxious about meaning, purpose, direction, personal growth, intrusive thoughts, guilt, and mortality, etc.
Religions may certainly disagree, but so do psychologists, historians, and every individual life experienced subjectively. You seem to suggest that by jettisoning hope in ultimate Goodness, that you will somehow alleviate this uncertainty and stress of being human. Hope points us toward Goodness. In hope, we trust that Goodness is and cannot not be, is manifest, makes demands upon us, and is that to whom we are all accountable--- All people of sincere faith and goodwill throughout the world share this hope. Goodness Himself will determine who those people are. That is not our job. All people have the capacity for hope. Let us encourage one another toward hope in Goodness, not away from hope--- whatever our disagreements may be.
"in a way that the God of the Bible never cared to"---- That is just unfair, or based on a very superficial reading of scripture and an adolescent understanding of Goodness. Surely you cannot be so cynical. "Everyday, Jesus naked and bleeding on the cross, unveils God and destroys every false image of what it means to be powerful, let us look to him and thus find the courage to look at ourselves, to follow the path of confident trust and intercession, and to make servants of ourselves, in order to reign with him.” (Pope Francis, November 2022)
I remember asking all these questions and getting the answer "You'll have to ask Jesus when you get to heaven" as if I wasn't asking how to get to heaven 😂
@@MindShift-Brandon Exactly. I always picture it as a scenario: Why bother about the details of all the people that are still on board, as long as yourself already have a place on a lifeboat. And don't forget to shout out Hallelujah to the wise captain who made it possible for you to be saved! Hasn't he found the ideal solution to a situation he himself created?
Well, that is sad they answered you that way. The Word of God is clear on all these subjects covered. But the un-regenerated mind can not understand the wisdom and Sovereignty of God. "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, (void of the Spirit)." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
Pay your tithe you good little religious idiot. You would think at least atheist pastors would not earn money off of the bible and His Word, but nope all the same. You cant think for yourself, so you found yourself a nice little atheist pastor to spoon feed you bullshit. Are you kneeling with the other idiots at the front of the church. Kinda, your at the tippity top of the comment section oh such a good little antichwistian. You even got a comment from your little idol, oh and heart!!! Adorable did he pat your head too? Grow some balls, and be your own man. Fuckin straight trash up in here you cant help but blow the horn when you think you did something good or nice. You got your pay in full, along with some truth well deserved and ridicule.
My neighbor 😮 support the work of Jesus as revealed in the holy scriptures. Do not support the works of those opposed to Jesus' Holy Scriptures it's not healthy 😢 God is not happy yet doesn't want anyone to perish and I'm scared 😨 for the many God and I have to Jude on judgement day God and I do not want this. Please reconsider your decision and join #teamJesus #teamHolyBible
I have a non-Christian friend who first moved to a majority Christian country 4 years ago. She said she thought Christians a uniform faith and has been shocked at the number of denominations, the discrepancies and the infighting within the faith! The "Truth" can look almost comical to an outsider!
Truth is like that. You argue what you believe to be true. People Love either One God or the other, and some are straight spies and evil pieces of shit who knowingly or unknowingly work for satan. They sneak into churches and always do what satan does use the bible in a twisted and distorted way. Do you remember when a a group of ArAb men who were caught shortly after the 9/11 attacks for videoing the twin towers all morning before the supposed attacks and then celebrating and when the towers crumbled? Or how a man from the same middle eastern country had purchased the deed for the towers with a very meager down payment of a few million, but fully ensured the towers a month before, and bragged on television that he took the insurance company to court to pay him in full. He made billions If that doesn't count as something considered an act of God I don't know what is? Oh yeah except they weren't arabs. Yeah cant quite remeber where they were from. Oh yeah it's not a real country it's actually desolate because of the leaders. Look it up and you will they are actually a supposed ally to the US. Yeah then tell me it's not all a setup to get the whole world to hate these people and destroy them like it's already been told to us would happen. Dude it's called not having power and having to do shady and stupid shit to destroy your enemy.
@@Charlotte_Martel The Christian religion has divided up more than any other religion that I know of... probably because it has the most _holy books._ Islam has two main divisions Sunni and Shia, with Sunni having about 4 sects and Shia having about 3 sects. I would consider Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Latter Day Saints as divisions of Christianity as well, but even if you categorized them as separate religions, SDA has about 4 sects and LDS has maybe 5 or 6 main sects depending on how you measure it. I hardly know anything about Eastern religions so there very well maybe many divisions in Buddhism and Hinduism, etc.
@@icypirate11 In some ways, the Quran having a single author who did not officially allow for translations was its greatest benefit and detriment. The Quran is compiled to the length of the ayah(verses), not chronologically. This is incredibly important to note because Muhammad explicitly denounces some earlier ayahs and replaces them, but the novice reader would not know this if he read it simply like the Bible. But this insistence on a single book (the Hadiths not withstanding) by a single author in a single accepted translation has maintained a much stronger unity within Islam as opposed to Christianity. However, it has also prevented Islam from reforming many practices like child marriage because, given that Muhammad received this command from Allah himself, who are you to question it? Reforming the Quran to align with a more modern understanding of morality is almost impossible for this reason. But back to Christianity: this was EXACTLY why the Catholic Church crushed various reformation movements swiftly until Luther had his hands on the printing press and could petition the people directly. It is not a coincidence that the Reformation occurred in the same land and immediate time period as the invention of the press. Luther, to his "delight," quickly discovered that once you remove the authority of the Pope, any barely literate fool could pick up a Bible and start his own church, leading to the explosion of denominations. If you read Luther's writings, this was absolutely the last thing he wanted. He truly thought that he was giving the world the true Gospel and faith and that all would convert. Oddly, this did not occur. But had the Catholic Church retained control, Christians would likely have had only 2 branches: Catholic and Orthodox. As for the Mormons and JWs, no, I don't personally consider them to be Christians. The Mormons added an entirely new scripture to their canon, which is explicitly denounced by Paul as being of the devil. The JW have too many doctrinal points that directly contradict orthodox Christianity that they should be seen as their own religion. Seventh Day Adventists push the envelope, but they hold enough core doctrines that I think they should be considered Christians. As for Buddhism, I know a bit about the various schools of Buddhism but not enough to speak knowledgeably about the topic so I will leave that to someone else.
I clearly remember the moment my grandfather, who was a preacher in our church, explained to the assembled family that I had now reached the age of accountability. It was my sixth birthday. It was horrible. I was immediately terrified of dying. Looking back, it all seems so surreal. How can you put such a burden on a child?
Having grown up mormon (I'm an atheist now) I really hate the 8 year old age of baptism and accountability. But you make a good point - when it comes to the matters of god, NO age is sufficient really. I mean how many times have christians said "we can't comprehend god and his ways" (usually as a cop out when faced with hard questions)? If no one can understand god, no human of any age is truly at the "age of accountability."
@@MindShift-Brandon Very true! It's one of those weird contradictions imo. Like on one hand christians say they _know_ so much including even how the universe itself was created. But then if you press them on any of what they "know" suddenly it's all "no one can know the ways of god." But I thought they _did_ know the ways of god, that's how they know where the universe came from isn't it? lmao XD Definite moving of the goalpost.
You don't have to fully understand God to be saved. If we could fully understand God, he wouldn't be God. The salvation message is extraordinarily simple. God has revealed himself to all men, and wants all to come to him. Don't let false religion bury God, or some atheist moral objection (with no objective moral foundation) convince you to reject Christ. Seek what is actually true. Satan is good at using religion to camoflauge God.
@@elkhuntr2816 Oh my bad, I failed to fully illustrate the extent of the problem. Christians claim to fully understand god, to not be able to understand god at all, AND to only sort of understand god. You can see all three examples in this person's preachy comment. "You don't have to understand god to be saved" = I only sorta understand. "If we could understand god he wouldn't be god" = I understand nothing. "The salvation message is extraordinarily simple" = I fully understand.
@@elkhuntr2816 Why do you think atheists have no objective moral foundations? I'm an atheist and my moral foundations, based on objective facts, are better than Christian morals by a long shot. For example, Christians agree on pretty much nothing, some now agree that there is nothing wrong with smoking marijuana, as a current example, while some still believe it's a sin. Some believe tattoos are wrong, some don't. How is Christian morality objective? It's totally objective, which I've just proven with two examples (there's thousands more, women's dress, men's long hair, alcohol, death penalty, pork, homosexuality, mixed race marriage, gambling, and on and and on). An atheist objective morality is easy to explain and will make perfect logical sense to pretty much anyone, even a child. It only gets subjective, the atheist objective morality and ethics, when it comes to children as there's no clear line when a child should be treated like an adult. Of course, Christians don't exactly agree on this either as evidence by the drinking age differences in Western nations (and formerly the US states before the feds jumped in and mandated 21 years or no federal money). You cannot name a single Christian objective morality that I cannot find a counter example to, probably instantly -- as there are no objective morals in the Bible, only the rule, "Divine Command Theory" which states that if God wills it, it's good, perfect, and lawful, even if it's slavery, murder, genocide, etc., as God has, at once time or another, commande all those things. If Christian morality was really easy to understand and objective, why do all the denominations disagree on so many things?
Hey, I am 69 years of age. Not far beyond you. NOW is the day of salvation. Don't put it off. Jesus Christ died for YOU. He poured out His holy life for all sinners including you and me. I am so thankful for Jesus and His eternal work of grace on the cross of Calvary. Without repenting of sin and trusting Jesus, you will die in your sins. I really don't desire that to happen to you! Jesus desires to save and rescue you from the condemnation and wrath of God. Please, turn to Christ and live !
@@christophergibson7155 Blood magic and human exchange are barbaric solutions for a problem that only needed God to say 3 simple words: "I forgive you."
For those claiming that the requirements for salvation are easy, I would point to the bible's depiction of the 12 apostles. Even those most taught, directly from the source, struggled to grasp his messages.
Love these videos. Internet apologists think that if they prove the existence of god then everything else follows but christianity has a lot of nonsense. Your perspective is unique and very insightful
Very good point - proving god's existence would only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of figuring out the nonsense and contradictions of christianity.
What the fuck ain't nothin insightful about a one sided view of anything. The only thing atheists prove is that they will listen to anyone as long as their ideas dont contradict their own. Bitch earth is flat where the hell are all the atheist calling bullshit on climate change, NASA, school shootings, Evolution, this whole girls can turn into boys with secondary sexual characteristics, or really anything in medicine. Take some radiation see if you dont get sick, but it cures cancer!? Take Azt see if you dont begin to feel weak and Ill like aids patients. Money talks and thosewith money have worked for at least two hundred years to control academia and get Americans educated with their lies. Erasmus Darwin was patorinzed by Rothschild, so was his slow grandchild who did exactly zero experiments. Einstein is a damn actor. Imagine when you see acar driving down the road that the car is actually perfectly at rest but the world is moving around it. Einstein actually said that about a horse and a carriage Its fucking laughable that's why they stick out their tongue at you. And cover one Eye. Their controlled by satan dude. Two witnesses in Heaven of day and night he wants to blot one out pretend to be another, but for these idiots they do it because they draw you into their group but the can see but your blind. Sure their is some abyss stuff in their too.
Would be funny if a god did exist and ruined the christians' moment by telling them that what they believe is bs and their bible had nothing to do with him. Would be entertaining to see the fallout from such a scenario.
I grew up fearing hell so much as a child that I literally wanted to die before 13, I was afraid I would grow up to sin and somehow fail to achieve salvation in some way. It got way worse the closer I got to 13, it became an obsession, constantly on my mind, distracting me in school and affecting every aspect of my life. When I did turn 13 I began to pray for salvation almost daily, I expected something to happen so I would know it worked, some sign, but nothing ever happened. This went on until well in to my 20's and 30's. It screwed me up badly, it was a side effect of my parents good intentions, they thought they were raising me right in the faith but it ended up instilling a terror in my mind that I only recently managed to overcome at 46. Indoctrination works, it's a sick abuse perpetuated by the church. I broke the pattern with my son, he wasn't subjected to what I went through and while his life isn't perfect at least he wasn't saddled with the same barbaric religion I was that ruined so much of my childhood.
I’ve been having the exact same experience dating back to when I was a kid. I developed severe OCD from being consumed 24/7 by the fear of not being saved. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve prayed for “salvation” but never felt anything but confusion. The religious scrupulously caused decades of trauma in every aspect of my life. Religion is so dangerous. I now take medication for OCD try to see past my indoctrinated views, but scared they will always be there deep down. Thank you for your videos, they make me feel less alone
This video is basically my deconstruction in a video. I told one of my friends who also was a Christian, then deconstructed, and is now an atheist, that I thought it is interesting that the "age of accountability" and "rapture" aren't really found in the Bible and it makes their God look more merciful than he actually is.
@@MindShift-Brandon A lot of things you talked about in this video is about the concept of "salvation" so if "salvation" starts falling apart everything else will probably go with it. But for me, I thought maybe there is something that I am missing, so I turned my focus on the character of God. Then I came to the topic of slavery and was like "why am I following a god that is "ok" with slavery!?!?" That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Then I went back to things like God sacrificing himself to himself and I realized that there wasn't anything I was missing. There is no hidden truth that will fix everything. It just plain doesn't make sense.
Or have you rather forgotten..."Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need." (Hebrews 4:16)
@@DannyS177 It makes every bit of sense. You are just living in denial of the power of the cross of The Lord Jesus Christ. If you are looking for reasons to not walk with Jesus anymore, then there is not much doubt that you have unconfessed sin before the Lord. When you come to a place of a broken and a contrite heart before Him, then you will have the grace to walk in holiness by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
@@christophergibson7155 You sound like you know a lot about God, and since I grew up without God I am trying to learn about him so that I don't miss out on his glory. I have always found God sacrificing himself to himself to save us from himself a very confusing topic. Can you explain how it makes sense?
"struggling with my faith" ---- Atheist videos will not provide you with answers. "All I had hitherto heard of Christian theology had alienated me from it. I was a pagan at the age of twelve, and a complete agnostic by the age of sixteen... One rationalist had hardly done calling Christianity a nightmare before another began to call it a fool's paradise… But it did for one wild moment cross my mind that, perhaps, those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other” (G.K. Chesterton. Orthodoxy) Peace be with you.
Don't Do IT ! Take it from me, a backslider for 20 years! I left following Jesus and lived for a self indulging life in porn and pot smoking. The Lord Jesus called me back to Him in the summer of 2019. I struggled for another 9 months with my thoughts. Scriptures kept pouring into my thoughts. I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There were times I wanted to die. But God was so merciful and on Easter Sunday 2020 I went to a room for almost 12 hours and cried and wept before The Lord. What a burden fell from me. I have joy like I never had before. Jesus is sweeter today than all those years ago! Please, come back. He will receive you like the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-31)
@@Warrior-re5fn "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Corinthians 5) Peace be with you.
Spitting fire with this one, lol. XD I felt this pretty hard. Really sums up all the confusion and angst you feel trying to figure all this out. I've had family members speculate about general revelation in regards to like the Native Americans and say things like, "There had to be some way they could be saved. God wouldn't just let his children die without a chance." And even then I remember being like, "The very fact of having a chosen people would seem to negate that."
Hey Brandon, your work is truly changing my life. I hope you can feel free in the future to put out some really long form content, 2+ hours if you ever feel like it. I am sure 20ish mins hits the sweet spot for views though, so keep it up! Love what you’re accomplishing.
I've pointed out before that if general revelation is true, then spreading the gospel is perhaps the cruelest thing a Christian can do. Before you told that person about Jesus, they had a better chance of achieving heaven based on their intuition. Once you introduce them to the "good news," all they have to do to go to hell is look at how incoherent it all is and reject it for whatever previously made sense to them under general revelation.
Exactly what I was about to comment - thank you! Missionaries are just screwing people over by forcing them to have the opportunity to reject Christianity. If they had some evidence with them maybe it would be different...But nope, it's not giving them a fair chance to believe in Jesus, only a good chance to "reject" it.
If children that die before reaching the age of accountability go straight to heaven, then killing a child in infancy is the most loving and selfless thing a believing parent can do
Fantastic video! Leaving Christianity behind was easy for me. One Hitch video and I was done. But listening to you & reading your replies to my comments, has driven it home to me, that I was lucky. For someone REALLY indoctrinated hard, it’s not easy. I’ve always thought, “All you need to do is just think about it, just try & make sense of it and then it’s so obvious”. But I’m realizing how truly hard it is for so many people. It’s so sad. I have a customer who is about 80 y/o. He sits in his bedroom all day watching Catholic masses, surrounded by pictures of Popes, Saints, Bible verses, crucifixes, etc. He told me one day that he was waiting to die so he could be with Jesus. I left, called my daughter, and we both laughed at how stupid that is. Now I feel differently. I feel so sad for him. He’s literally wasting his life waiting to die. How fu*king sad. 😔 Thank you for helping me to see how wrong I’ve been.
Thanks Lori. Yes the religious hold is really something and like you said its so very sad. I almost wonder if some personalty types at some point after indoctrination or conversion simply do cannot deconvert. Im actually planning a video around this and might do it as early as sunday
You definitely cover the hot topics that are so important that shows the man's words not a gods word in the bible. Your rockin with this channel young man. ✌️👍
To anyone who is curious what BLM land is, it's not Black Lives Matter, it's Bureau of Land Management. Basically government owned wilderness that allows camping.
Everything you said resonated with me so much. I have spent so many years trying to figure out what I'm supposed to believe and how I'm supposed to believe when it comes to Christianity. The fear of hell has been so horrible for me. It even has taken a toll on my health. But I really feel like, even if there is a hell, I can't avoid it. It even says in the bible that few will be saved, even people who think they're Christians. That should tell you right there that a whole lot of Christians think they're right about how they interpret the bible, but they're actually wrong. My mom and I have gotten into arguments over this. She'll tell me I should interpret it one way, but then I always ask her how do we know that it's not wrong? The only way to follow the bible accurately is to take it at its word. That means, the verse that says you should cut off your arm or remove your eye if it causes you to sin, should be taken literally, because otherwise you could interpret it in a thousand different ways, and how do you know your interpretation is right? But how many people are actually going to cut off their arm or remove their own eye? I think you'd have to be crazy. There's so many other things that I want to say but I'm out of time. Have to get back to work. I could literally talk to you for hours, all the videos I've watched of yours so far have been such a breath of fresh air, I'm so glad that there is someone else out there that has thought about these things so deeply. Please never stop making videos.
I'm Brazilian and I always had a hard time with missionaries wanting to go evangelize unreacted tribes in the Amazon, I always assume that they are saved because they never had contact with the Christian religion, so why would anyone go to them, not speaking the same language, not knowing their culture, knowing absolutely nothing about them, to talk about a God from the other side of the planet with concepts they may not understand, why try to convince them ? It seems to me like it's basically condemning these people to hell for selfish reasons.
Christian Redemption = Someone throws you into their pool, knowing full well you can't swim. As you are frantically flailing around, he stands there and watches over you while doing nothing to help you. He says you deserved to be thrown in the pool because your extremely distant ancestors disobeyed him and you must pay for that. Besides that, it is assumed you would have done the same thing. He says you must repeatedly beg for forgiveness for being in his pool and pledge to praise him for the rest of your life if he agrees to save you. You must do this until he finally believes you and throws you a life preserver. In exchange for saving you, he throws his son in the pool to take your place. You must also continually thank his son for being thrown in the pool in your place. If you have a child, it will also be thrown in the pool and the process starts over.
It was a lot of these questions as a Christian that led to so much confusion and anxiety. Then eventually leaving the faith. All I had to do was read the Bible.
Thank you so much for covering this topic!! I think this particular topic is used a lot to shift blame to victims of abuse. "You should've stopped it, you must've liked it, you knew what you were doing..." can be breathtakingly harmful to say to a child, which is why I think it's difficult (and terrifying) for victims of such abuse to leave the religion that endorses the abuse or negates it altogether at the so-called "age of reason."
Omg this is the first time I’ve thought of missions as a spiritual death sentence. That once they’ve been told they have “no excuse.” In that case, if evangelicals actually cared about getting people into the kingdom they’d leave them alone so as to not risk their “general” salvation.
The creepy thing about alot of evangelicals is they seem to enjoy the concept of everyone outside of their cult goes to hell.. i don't think they give a rat's behind that they are literally putting these people at risk for hell.
My Adventist Church made sure I was baptized at 10, as ensurance. They go out in the community and scaring people saying what if you die tomorrow or Jesus shows up tomorrow
Let it go, be here now"... sound advice once again from you Brandon, I played a few of your videos to my wife and her reactions are about the same as mine were when I first started listening to you . every episode is full of astounding insight and clarity on the issues that are important to us. Thank you for doing this you surely are the voice of reason!!
Oh thats so kind! Thank you. How i envy you getting to go through this process with your wife. I cant imagine the closeness that comes from waking up together.
Again, a great, insightful discussion here. 👏 What I find thought provoking about religion in general is how "Believers" will blindly believe the gospel message and that the Bible is inerrantly the inspired Word of God. And while many of them seek to spread the Gospel to others in "the world", they love the exclusivty of Christianity. ( God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die for us sinners So, that if anyone believe Jesus is the Son of God will be saved, but if you don't you will burn in Hell for Infinity.) I feel many Christians like feeling "chosen" and special.
You are so right. We are not built to deal with is. I asked a pastor how he can cope, walking around and looking at people all day that he (or that he says he) believes are going to eternal torment? IF thats the burden that God wants us to carry around what happened to having " life in abundance"? Subjecting people to that kind of mental torture is abusive.
Hello, I’m a fairly new subscriber. I’m so glad to find your channel. I’m pretty sure I found you through other atheist videos. I had the courage to leave my faith after reading the history of ancient religions. I found out that many ancient world leaders considered themselves a “son of god” and “born of a virgin” and I was like, wait a minute??? I kept reading and reading. I found Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins (my family made sure I never knew their names!!!) No wonder it is forbidden to research other religions. At the age of 39, me and my family, including my 2 children, made the decision together to lead an atheist/agnostic life. If we can all let go of the supernatural beliefs, we could come together as one humanity. It’s excruciating that I have to stay quiet where I live. I drive 1 1/2 hours for an atheist community. I can’t believe so many support LGBTQ hate just because it’s in the Bible. I was sick of it all. Christian Nationalism is scary. I have 2 friends I’ve been trying to talk to, but are so resistant to listen. It’s heartbreaking. You would think highly analytical people could understand these claims we make, but they were just too indoctrinated as children to ever be able to leave. Thank you for spreading the anti-theism information. I realize there is the historical evidence as well as the faults in the belief system like you are highlighting. I’m so glad to find your page. I wish I had the courage to do what you do. ✌️
what a wonderful and encouraging message. Thanks so much for taking the time to make this thoughtful comment. I share in your frustration. Hope and peace are so close, but so far away it seems. It is just so very sad that they all cannot see it for what it is. BUT, i am thrilled for you and your family!
Fantastic!!! I have to be careful not to listen to your video's while driving!! Especially ones like this where you just go off..... I find myself driving faster than I'd like to😁
Fantastic video! I’ve just discovered your channel, so I am making my way through all your older content. I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and I would love for you to watch it…I cried harder than anyone else with me because this (to me ) was finally a TRUE depiction of the Christian God. Wondering what you could understand about the film someday. Keep up the content, it is needed badly.
Agreed with everything you said, thanks! Many Christians say the reason God hasn't revealed himself to an atheist is because the person hasn't earnestly sought for God. Then they tell you that God has revealed hisself to everyone and there is no excuse not to believe in him. It isn't our fault if God is the greatest player in a childish game of Hide and Seek where he can choose to put the loser in Hell.
God has revealed himself to every man, atheists included. You can't be an atheist without first rejecting God. Almost no one in this day and age hasn't heard of Jesus. For those who truly haven't God has revealed himself through nature (science) and conscience. We all instinctively know there is a God, and know right from wrong. The question is what you do with that information. Very few people are on a truth quest and truly seeking God. Most people are on a happiness quest and feel God gets in the way of that. If they only knew the only true way to peace, fulfillment and joy is through seeking God and having a relationship with him. All other things lead to temporary bliss and ultimate depression and brokenness in the end.
@@elkhuntr2816 - God hasn’t “revealed” himself to anyone, so far as I can tell. You have a book that was written by regular, fallible people, which includes a bunch of stories about a man named Jesus, which were all written decades after Jesus died, by ancient people who spoke an entirely different language from Jesus and never directly met him. Beyond that, the natural world speaks to the fact that we exist in a vast, ever-changing environment that appears to predate mankind and life on this tiny planet Earth in general by an astonishingly large amount of time, and no one knows how it all started. That’s all you’ve got: an ancient book written by fallible, ancient people, a vast, complex world around you, and a bunch of unanswered questions. Your “god” is nowhere to be found.
@@TestMeatDollSteak "God hasn’t “revealed” himself to anyone, so far as I can tell. You have a book that was written by regular, fallible people, which includes a bunch of stories about a man named Jesus" Well, you are very likely mistaken there. These aren't just myths, these are verifiable historical events. Even Bart Ehrman (atheist new testament scholar / historian?) is quoted as saying "one of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea Pontius Pilot". There is more historical evidence for his crucifixion that pretty much any ancient historical event. This is universally accepted by historians. And they also agree on the historical evidence surrounding his burial, empty tomb, eye witness accounts of him alive after death etc... So Jesus is clearly a historical figure who died and people claimed he was resurrected from the dead. If that is true, then what Jesus claimed about himself was true and he was Son of God in human flesh. God's revelation of himself to man. And you have a conscience where you instinctively know God is real, and right from wrong. All you have to do is a basic study of science to see this had to have a designer behind it. Some of the best arguments for the existence of God come from science itself.
This ambiguity for salvation was probably what laid the ground work for my deconstruction. I remember trying to make sense of it in the lead up to encountering the historical problem that made it all click. Trying to figure out what salvation is, how it happens, how to make myself right.
@@MindShift-Brandon I think often it is the attempt to go deeper that pulls people out. So many deconstruction stories that I hear start with, "I was in seminary, and..."
What got me first in my de-conversion was just trying to find the actual 100% requirements of salvation. If you confess your sins silently, don't know if Jesus rose from the dead, but firmly believe he died for your sins and haven't been baptized yet would you go to heaven? You'd think if there was anything the God wanted people to know, it would be the checklist. Also something I was never figured out is if you stop confessing, believing or practicing when that switch flips from "saved" to "not-saved".
Denominations are a clear indicator that religion is false/fiction. Excellent work here, as always! Thank you for your service towards the progress of humanity!
I want to share my go-to response to the idea that isolated tribes that have not heard the gospel will be given a special grace and won’t be judged, or they can be saved by just recognising the world was made by a creator. My response: why contact the tribes then? These people are in a great position and have a much higher chance of going to heaven. By introducing the gospel to them, you’re effectively introducing the risk of hell that wasn’t there before you shared the gospel with them.
And if they can be "saved" by just recognizing the world was made by a creator...why can't I or everyone? Why do I have to stumble through all this confusion and contradiction and convoluted messages and just hope I land on the right formula or I'm going to hell.... I'd rather be a remote indigenous person thank you... my chances would be way higher of being saved.
It's even worse than this, the logical conclusion is to genocide them, as William Lane Craig answered in one of his online debates. The children all go to heaven, WLC argued, so their deaths were a mercy. The adults, who's murders were sad, were needed to stop them from making more damned souls, so in the end, a plus for God. Dead heathens can't make more people to be damned, and they were going to hell anyway, so killing them didn't make things worse. But the babies? God Blessed them with genocide, WLC answers, as the salvation of babies is "well understood." I love that clip of WLC and I watch it at least once a year, just to remind myself of the sociopaths we face in the Christian apologetics community. Anyone that can justify murdering babies is evil, imho, but he does it with a straight face. But, back to the point here, contacting tribes would expose them to the risk of being held accountable, so contacting them with the Word makes their position worse, as you mention, but genociding them all is a Godly act, at least according to apologists (caveat, you need God's direction first, of course, you cannot just go out killing natives without Jesus prompting it first, but heck, that's easy enough to discover, just pray for it).
When you were talking about knowledge and thinking it reminded me of a couple of points in the Bible. Jesus says in Matthew that unless we become as children we cannot enter the kingdom. In Hosea God says his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and because of the people’s rejection even their children will be forgotten 🤔 I never thought about the correlation between being like a child and having knowledge in this way. Great video
hey shared your channel with my (also athiest) roomate, and he goes. Ohhhh I know him (and he already follows) hahahahha yesss you are very good at putting the subject out there in a concise and clear way
Yesterday I saw your Q&A video and when the question came about if your wife watches the channel I thought "I sure hope not". With the frequency and passion you say things like "disgusting" and "ridiculous" it's clear that it's a very emotional subject for you, which is very understandable given your history and circumstances. I'm glad you're able to make it work and are finding an outlet and a community here. I like your videos and look forward to the secular bible study series.
Haha, I was just arguing with a very confused theist on one of your other videos about this very thing. They wanted to claim that babies are innocent, as they cannot be held accountable for their actions because they do not yet know right from wrong, and simultaneously claim that we are all born guilty of “original sin”. I pointed out that it has to be one or the other; babies cannot be fully innocent _and_ fully guilty at the same time. He regurgitated the Adam & Eve story and seemed immune to basic logic, so the convo went nowhere.
lol, wish I was surprised. I have been following a couple of your comment engagements that go on for quite some time on atheism and morality and I loveee what you have to say.
"When I was a kid, I was a Catholic, uh, at least until I reached the Age of Reason. So I was a Catholic for two, two-and-a-half years, something like that." - George Carlin
@@MindShift-Brandon If I recall correctly, I first heard it in his last special, It's Bad for Ya. I do not quite remember the specific bit it is from, though.
so now what do you believe? everything is meaningless? hitler and buddha both end up in the same place so character during your meaningless existence is meaningless?
I like how you point out how anything can be sin. Sins of commisson and omission. It goes into thought, desire, motivation. It really has a way of making you question everything. Why did I do or say that? Did I do it for myself or God? Was my motivation really pure with that? Consequently, we should find ourselves asking, in that mindset, what do we think, say or do thats not potentialy sin!? Especially with the emphasis the book puts on self deception.. How many will say Lord Lord, and how many are entertianing the false angel of light thinking its God. Like how serious.. how devout.. how consumed in every aspect of life and being with this must one be to know that they know that they know!? You cant have it? And I believe its for good reason as it keeps many locked in. Really, there is no full proof assurrance of salvation offered. Anything not done of faith is sin and has us bound up then. If none are righteous and all the desires and thoughts of men are wholy set toward evil, continually... if the heart is deceitfully wicked.. then one may be genuinely all in and still have plenty good reason to doubt.. bc they may be absolutley wrong about their experience.. utterly deceived. I must add, who is actualy saved from sin? Literally no one, as all the christians go on "sinning" the rest of thier lives as well.. oh sure.. maybe not in the worst ways.. its behavior modification at yhe threat of punishment and promise of reward. Just drop the whole game. Its extremely unheathy.
I am beginning to understand how much trauma is caused in people's lives by the fear of hell and trying to understand what they need to do and believe to escape eternal torment.
There is noth8ng to do, God has done all the work for u on the cross. The moment ppl say u must X to be saved it is not the gospel of Christ. The gospel is preached, either you are saved or not. If so it is bc God chose to save you, if not He hasn't. There is nothing you can do to be saved.
Yeah the age of accountability thing was something I saw through early on in my deconstruction. Because it's obviously a way for christians to avoid seeing their god as a monster for sending babies to hell.
My special needs brother was not born with original sin. That concept was born out of self-loathing and guilt from people who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. Typical authoritarian tactic.
Can't speak about other denominations, but in Catholicism, they hold that special needs people have original sin but are not accountable for converting or sins they can't understand. I think the traditional understanding was that, unbaptised, they go to limbo with unbaptised babies. It's not heaven but it's certainly not hell. And yes, there's not much Biblical support for this.
"special needs brother was not born with original sin. That concept was born out of self-loathing and guilt from people who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions"-- This seems backwards.
Very good vid. You answered a question I asked weeks ago on how Religion hold and gathers people and Atheists lack this: The Core that Religion has, "We all seek salvation" that core draws people together. We all love groups, families, parties and Church provides this. So, if we have to pretend, we pretend. Or else face being shunned, cast out, no support. People do change religions, few give up the group. Good vid.
When we finally receive an interstellar message, will it be "Have you heard the good news about Jesus?" or "Have you heard the good news about Bumblefart?" Frankly, neither seems likely.
Oooh man, that just gave me chills...Imagine mankind, after thousands of years of ignorance and pain, FINALLY putting all this nonsense behind us, growing the hell up, resolving all our diffs, and finally reaching out into space, making contact with our first alien species...only to discover that they are religious fanatics. With MUCH better tech and superior weapons! WTF do we do then??
@@HandofOmega We worship our new masters, of course. The real answer is we're probably screwed, the Dark Forest Theory. Nobody is coming here to preach about a different god or gods, if aliens show up, we're toast.
I was raised Catholic and at age 9 I had my First Communion- against my consent, too- that made me a “morally accountable” person. Not enough to make the whole thing voluntary, mind you! We had to sign a document pledging to serve the RCC. I signed in all caps and told my friends, who worried about this, so that it wouldn’t “count” as it wasn’t my actual signature. I was also aware minors could not sign contracts but I wanted to make extra sure, just in case. With that said, children at my Catholic school were punished as “moral agents” long before this supposedly watershed moment. I was told about hell and my place there years before the ripe age of 9 and I knew of kids who were punished by kneeling on the floor for the duration of the entire class as early as kindergarten. Catholics are particularly spiteful about this, at least traditionally so. This is why “kids just being kids” is not a thing in Catholic schooling, when it is taken “seriously”. This is why they read “impropriety” in the youngest of kids. I had a nun go ballistic on me because I committed the grave sin of removing my panties…in a changing room! It was ballet class and I thought the tutu was worn without underwear as it looked like a swimsuit. I must have been 6 or 7, and it was a changing room but to the nun, it was simply too much. No one without serious issues would be bothered by this. It didn’t cross my mind I didn’t know- I didn’t, this was the first class- she assumed some kind of provocation. I got screamed at for a while, still half naked.
I am so sorry to hear about this abuse. I am well aware of it and its why whenever a catholic comes in to tell me about gods love and how they are the one true church, it makes my blood boil.
@@MindShift-Brandon Thank you, that really means a lot. It is also worth mentioning, and if I were not so shy, I’d start a channel myself to cover this as I don’t think it is that well known, First Communion has actual consequences in the life of a child. From that point on, confession becomes a thing. In my case, it was mandatory. You’re forced to tell a man about all your sins and hope for absolution because you are a moral agent. Needless to say, I always lied but the whole thing is simply wrong. There are also very unsavory implications for CSA. You hear priests say that the child “seduced them”, it is horribly common. It ties up with the idea that the child is, as far as being responsible for its actions go, an adult. Thus sexual crimes can be imputed on them, where they are at the very least complicit.
I have to say it. It's "let alone" not "yet alone". To let something alone means to leave it alone or disregard it. This makes sense with the phrase being a synonym for "not to mention"
13:25 Thirteen? When my father spoke to me about the age of accountability -- and that was quite often -- he always told me it was the age of seven. I don't know where he got that age from. We were Baptists.
Great video Brandon! I’m glad you brought up the whole “god will do the right thing” crap. I had so many pastors say that god knows how people would have chosen if they had access to the knowledge of Jesus, and will judge accordingly. If that’s what they have to believe to sleep at night go ahead lol. 😂
Whenever the question comes up about what happened to all the people who ever lived before Jesus, the answer I get is something along the lines of "well they will be judged according to the light they have received and how they lived according to it". Ok, but where is that in the Bible? It's the same old pattern, whenever the plain reading of the Bible is too uncomfortable, Christians invent new doctrines to ease the dissonance.
Yes, it was pretty apparent to me years ago that if Xanity was true then Xanity would have sprung up all around the world at more or less the same time; instead what we got was the slow expansion of this theology via old fashion proselytizing and The Sword (more the latter than the former) - just like any other religion.
Sinful from conception. Wow! Exactly what sins can we commit in the womb? You are one powerful preacher. Glad you are on the side of reason! And don’t know if this is intentional but the pace on this one isn’t so rapid-fire and is much easier to follow. Thank you for everything!
Yes, you are sinful from conception. You inherit the sinful nature through your father's seed. That is why Jesus was born sinless. Joseph was not His biological father. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and she became pregnant. And the Word of God is clear on original sin..."Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-"(Rom. 5:12)
@@karlwinkler4223 The point of original sin is that The Lord God created Adam and Eve perfect and without sin. They were given free will. The Garden of Eden was their home. They could name the animals, eat anything of the trees and plants given to them by God. But because of their disobedience to the one commandment that the Lord gave them, they died spiritually, when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God strictly warned them of this. Sin had dire consequences. Later Adam & Eve died physically. Now everything dies. Animals, vegetation, etc...The offspring of every living man passed the sinful nature onto the following generation. And sin has brought a curse on all of mankind. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-" (Romans 5:12) God has a divine order in creation. After the heavens and earth were created. Then Angels, including Lucifer were created next, then mankind later on. And God does not by pass His plan. His eternal purpose and ways are done by His wisdom. The redemption and atonement that The Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished at the cross was kept a mystery until the exact time it was to be revealed and fulfilled. "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints." (Col. 1:26) "For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." (Col. 1:19)
In the first Mindshift video I commented on I was attacked by a Cherokee over a *concept of the great mystery.* I tried not to be angry, but failed. I was angry, and still am. This is no different from my time as a "Christian Indian" 🙄. Christians treated me like crap, my own peoples treat me like crap. I feel no guilt. I didn't disintegrate when I left the cult, and my peoples adapting white ways does not diminish me as an Indigenous woman/human being. The only thing I regret in the first is replying to an intended tear down.
I think the similarity between the codependent/ narcissist relationship and the relationship between this god and his followers is woefully under-explored. This channel does better than most, if not all, channels at highlighting this specific point.
Brandon, how can we talk? I have so many questions for you and I am a believer struggling with so so many doubts and your videos just make so much sense. I would really love to have a sincere and honest conversation if you have the time.
I am planning a call in show for people in youth position to call in and discuss any questions you have. That will allow me the time and also can hopefully help many others in your position. I should get that show up and running this month yet.
@@MindShift-Brandon I'm 31 so I'm not involved in youth ministry. I've been a believer for almost 3 years and felt like I had a genuine conversion and "born again" experience. But after 3 years.. of serious study, of trying to live like Jesus said to, of experiencing the church... I am mentally taxed and starting to ask questions. I was hoping for a more private conversation if possible but I totally understand if that's something that may be difficult to do or you would rather keep it on your channel.
@@themuffins4 I went through the same exact thing at 31. Kind of scary how similar. Right down to the age. It wasn’t until the age of 33/34 that I was listening to the daily audio bible that It clicked. Hearing the Bible read out loud, laying down I was in disbelief of what I hearing. The Bible alone is responsible for making me an atheist. One cannot deny the evidence. When I started doing research and seeing undeniable evidence it folded like a house of cards. I highly recommend you check out Bart Ehrman and also myth vision in addition to Mind Shift.
@@themuffins4 They get you hooked with all of the emotional stuff before you've even had a chance to read the whole Bible, or analyze what they are telling you. Now that I'm deconverted I can say I still can replicate the same spiritual feelings through meditation. Do you have any specific questions?
Hey appreciate that! I do some oils, sometimes but more than anything im just blessed by something trying to make up for the fact i have no hair up top lol
This was powerful: I loved the “preach” btw, rattling those verses off in full context and with your intimate knowledge is very effective and disarming, if I was still a believer I’d be reeling lol. Not least because your intent is open, honest & clear: I’d be flailing around the “sinfulness of sin” or some pseudo-profound BS that we just don’t have a divine vantage point and we cant comprehend holiness vs sin etc … all to dodge & obfuscate all your specific points lol 😉. Huge thanks for exposing “general revelation” as being so weak & illogical.. 1st time since waking up that I’ve been made to consider it honestly .. great job mate, really helpful. Loved that you literally went out into the wilderness to commune .. but love more that you still do for actual tangible benefits & joy. And loving the buzz in your channel comments showing growing reach .. and re: the believers chiming in there, if it helps 4 yrs ago I’d have been praying for you too lol - ESPECIALLY cos I’d not be able to address the things you raised 😂
What an amazing and delightful comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to be so thoughtful. 4 years ago, i would have been right there with you!
The way general revelation was taught to me is even worse. I didn't encounter it until later in life, and even when I was a Christian I found the idea disturbing. But here goes: the idea is that general revelation provides enough knowledge about God to damn your soul if you don't believe, but it doesn't provide enough for you to be saved.
Oh yeah. I grew up LDS and am about 12 years into my deconversion (29 now) and seeing my younger brothers and sister be “accountable” at 8 is a GD joke (no pun intended). I would love, LOVE, it if you went over the Book Of Mormon one day. My goodness, that would be phenomenal.
It's funny that supposedly god made everyone but waited a long time to pick a favorite group (i guess the nature revelation thing wasn't going well) to personally talk to (but only a handful of them) and told them they were his favs but then later was cool with everyone, sort of.
I’ve asked Christian’s about mentally handicapped and babies dying, where do they go? Generally you get some made up answer, like Gods grace covers them… I always had issues with this, same as issues I’d have with children being possessed by demons. The no excuse thing is nonsensical, the fact that even the very word deceit means you’re being tricked which isn’t your fault, right? If Satan deceived you do you not have an excuse? Thank you for another great video! It’s raining here in Washington today and it’s a perfect day to drink some coffee and listen too your video 💜
right. nothing in the bible to sufficiently cover these real questions! and wow i am jealous. It is literally a "feels like" temp of 106 degrees here with 80% humidity.
You asked Christian's and now your asking a listening to a trash atheist about what happens to kids if they die? What a pathetic state humanity is in. Your a woman presumably, so it does make sense, but damn never dawned on youto ask God
It makes me question how much people really believe in things like this, or if they more accurately just push it aside in their mind and focus on other things. If you really believe in the age of accountability, it would be in your best interest to either not have kids or (this would be absolutely horrible, don't do it) end their lives early. If there was even a 1% chance that they wouldn't 'accept Christ', or that they'd stray away at some point, or maybe not learn in time, whatever it may be, if there was even the slightest chance, how can you live with the possibility of your beloved children ending up being tortured beyond imagination for trillions & trillions of years? Why would you not protect them from the most horrifying, supposedly real, gut-wrenching threat of them all? And yet we all know that the chance is MUCH higher than 1%. What do a handful of years on this earth compare to eternal paradise vs. eternal torment? This is the absolute insanity that the majority of Christians won't pay any mind to.. but it's the only reasonable conclusion to draw if these beliefs hold any accuracy whatsoever.
Happy Tuesday! Thank you, everyone, for being here.
You know if you would just rightly divide the word of truth as stated in 2 Timothy 2:15 you would get a better understanding of the bible and most likely as a result you wouldn't be making these videos against it because then you would actually see your incorrectness when it comes to the videos you are making.
I'm a true born again Chirstian and I clearly see the mistakes that you are making in your understanding of the bible which is NOT the correct understanding of the bible at all.
Seems to me people spend their lives in fear, dread, and confusion regardless of any religious affiliation. Christianity may expose psychological anxiety, but it is not the cause of it.
You are falsely suggesting that, absent religion, people would not become anxious about meaning, purpose, direction, personal growth, intrusive thoughts, guilt, and mortality, etc.
Religions may certainly disagree, but so do psychologists, historians, and every individual life experienced subjectively. You seem to suggest that by jettisoning hope in ultimate Goodness, that you will somehow alleviate this uncertainty and stress of being human.
Hope points us toward Goodness. In hope, we trust that Goodness is and cannot not be, is manifest, makes demands upon us, and is that to whom we are all accountable---
All people of sincere faith and goodwill throughout the world share this hope. Goodness Himself will determine who those people are. That is not our job. All people have the capacity for hope. Let us encourage one another toward hope in Goodness, not away from hope--- whatever our disagreements may be.
"in a way that the God of the Bible never cared to"----
That is just unfair, or based on a very superficial reading of scripture and an adolescent understanding of Goodness. Surely you cannot be so cynical.
"Everyday, Jesus naked and bleeding on the cross, unveils God and destroys every false image of what it means to be powerful, let us look to him and thus find the courage to look at ourselves, to follow the path of confident trust and intercession, and to make servants of ourselves, in order to reign with him.” (Pope Francis, November 2022)
❤Puberty
I remember asking all these questions and getting the answer "You'll have to ask Jesus when you get to heaven" as if I wasn't asking how to get to heaven 😂
Lol oh goodness. Also the privilege…i was told why worry about it when im already saved.
Apparently you first have to convince yourself that there is an afterlife.
@@MindShift-Brandon Exactly. I always picture it as a scenario: Why bother about the details of all the people that are still on board, as long as yourself already have a place on a lifeboat. And don't forget to shout out Hallelujah to the wise captain who made it possible for you to be saved! Hasn't he found the ideal solution to a situation he himself created?
@@MindShift-Brandon Oh, Titanic, I wanted to say. Titanic scenario. But obviously you got my point nevertheless.
Well, that is sad they answered you that way. The Word of God is clear on all these subjects covered. But the un-regenerated mind can not understand the wisdom and Sovereignty of God. "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned, (void of the Spirit)." (1 Corinthians 2:14)
"Aleviate suffering in a way that the god of the bible never cared to." Man, that quote hits hard.
Its just sad that so many otherwise charitable people who could make real impacts just give their money and time to the church and pray instead of act
@@MindShift-Brandon people die every minute because of it. Every second
You really nail the insanity of Christianity. I just started my Patreon support. Thank you for your work.
hey thank you so much! really appreciate your support.
Pay your tithe you good little religious idiot. You would think at least atheist pastors would not earn money off of the bible and His Word, but nope all the same. You cant think for yourself, so you found yourself a nice little atheist pastor to spoon feed you bullshit. Are you kneeling with the other idiots at the front of the church. Kinda, your at the tippity top of the comment section oh such a good little antichwistian. You even got a comment from your little idol, oh and heart!!! Adorable did he pat your head too? Grow some balls, and be your own man. Fuckin straight trash up in here you cant help but blow the horn when you think you did something good or nice. You got your pay in full, along with some truth well deserved and ridicule.
@@MindShift-Brandon when I get paid I'm going to join too, cause your content is awesome
My neighbor 😮 support the work of Jesus as revealed in the holy scriptures. Do not support the works of those opposed to Jesus' Holy Scriptures it's not healthy 😢 God is not happy yet doesn't want anyone to perish and I'm scared 😨 for the many God and I have to Jude on judgement day God and I do not want this. Please reconsider your decision and join #teamJesus #teamHolyBible
I have a non-Christian friend who first moved to a majority Christian country 4 years ago. She said she thought Christians a uniform faith and has been shocked at the number of denominations, the discrepancies and the infighting within the faith! The "Truth" can look almost comical to an outsider!
I bet! its hard for me to even think about what all this must look like to a true outsider.
Truth is like that. You argue what you believe to be true. People Love either One God or the other, and some are straight spies and evil pieces of shit who knowingly or unknowingly work for satan. They sneak into churches and always do what satan does use the bible in a twisted and distorted way. Do you remember when a a group of ArAb men who were caught shortly after the 9/11 attacks for videoing the twin towers all morning before the supposed attacks and then celebrating and when the towers crumbled? Or how a man from the same middle eastern country had purchased the deed for the towers with a very meager down payment of a few million, but fully ensured the towers a month before, and bragged on television that he took the insurance company to court to pay him in full. He made billions If that doesn't count as something considered an act of God I don't know what is? Oh yeah except they weren't arabs. Yeah cant quite remeber where they were from. Oh yeah it's not a real country it's actually desolate because of the leaders. Look it up and you will they are actually a supposed ally to the US. Yeah then tell me it's not all a setup to get the whole world to hate these people and destroy them like it's already been told to us would happen. Dude it's called not having power and having to do shady and stupid shit to destroy your enemy.
To be fair to Christians, is there ANY faith that has lasted more than a few centuries and hasn't split into various sects?
@@Charlotte_Martel The Christian religion has divided up more than any other religion that I know of... probably because it has the most _holy books._ Islam has two main divisions Sunni and Shia, with Sunni having about 4 sects and Shia having about 3 sects. I would consider Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Latter Day Saints as divisions of Christianity as well, but even if you categorized them as separate religions, SDA has about 4 sects and LDS has maybe 5 or 6 main sects depending on how you measure it.
I hardly know anything about Eastern religions so there very well maybe many divisions in Buddhism and Hinduism, etc.
@@icypirate11 In some ways, the Quran having a single author who did not officially allow for translations was its greatest benefit and detriment. The Quran is compiled to the length of the ayah(verses), not chronologically. This is incredibly important to note because Muhammad explicitly denounces some earlier ayahs and replaces them, but the novice reader would not know this if he read it simply like the Bible. But this insistence on a single book (the Hadiths not withstanding) by a single author in a single accepted translation has maintained a much stronger unity within Islam as opposed to Christianity. However, it has also prevented Islam from reforming many practices like child marriage because, given that Muhammad received this command from Allah himself, who are you to question it? Reforming the Quran to align with a more modern understanding of morality is almost impossible for this reason.
But back to Christianity: this was EXACTLY why the Catholic Church crushed various reformation movements swiftly until Luther had his hands on the printing press and could petition the people directly. It is not a coincidence that the Reformation occurred in the same land and immediate time period as the invention of the press. Luther, to his "delight," quickly discovered that once you remove the authority of the Pope, any barely literate fool could pick up a Bible and start his own church, leading to the explosion of denominations. If you read Luther's writings, this was absolutely the last thing he wanted. He truly thought that he was giving the world the true Gospel and faith and that all would convert. Oddly, this did not occur. But had the Catholic Church retained control, Christians would likely have had only 2 branches: Catholic and Orthodox.
As for the Mormons and JWs, no, I don't personally consider them to be Christians. The Mormons added an entirely new scripture to their canon, which is explicitly denounced by Paul as being of the devil. The JW have too many doctrinal points that directly contradict orthodox Christianity that they should be seen as their own religion. Seventh Day Adventists push the envelope, but they hold enough core doctrines that I think they should be considered Christians. As for Buddhism, I know a bit about the various schools of Buddhism but not enough to speak knowledgeably about the topic so I will leave that to someone else.
I clearly remember the moment my grandfather, who was a preacher in our church, explained to the assembled family that I had now reached the age of accountability. It was my sixth birthday. It was horrible. I was immediately terrified of dying. Looking back, it all seems so surreal. How can you put such a burden on a child?
isnt that just insane. I am so sorry to hear that. Glad you are free now.
Same here. In islam, that starts at puberty. So basically you'll be accountable for your sins and accountable for sending yourself to hell at age 9.
@@ashleytheseeker8480 So mohammed married a minor
Don't apologize for anything you say. Speak the truth loudly.
Having grown up mormon (I'm an atheist now) I really hate the 8 year old age of baptism and accountability. But you make a good point - when it comes to the matters of god, NO age is sufficient really. I mean how many times have christians said "we can't comprehend god and his ways" (usually as a cop out when faced with hard questions)? If no one can understand god, no human of any age is truly at the "age of accountability."
Yes, preach! this. is he comprehendible or not. That goalpost moves more than any other!
@@MindShift-Brandon Very true! It's one of those weird contradictions imo. Like on one hand christians say they _know_ so much including even how the universe itself was created. But then if you press them on any of what they "know" suddenly it's all "no one can know the ways of god." But I thought they _did_ know the ways of god, that's how they know where the universe came from isn't it? lmao XD Definite moving of the goalpost.
You don't have to fully understand God to be saved. If we could fully understand God, he wouldn't be God. The salvation message is extraordinarily simple. God has revealed himself to all men, and wants all to come to him. Don't let false religion bury God, or some atheist moral objection (with no objective moral foundation) convince you to reject Christ. Seek what is actually true. Satan is good at using religion to camoflauge God.
@@elkhuntr2816 Oh my bad, I failed to fully illustrate the extent of the problem. Christians claim to fully understand god, to not be able to understand god at all, AND to only sort of understand god. You can see all three examples in this person's preachy comment.
"You don't have to understand god to be saved" = I only sorta understand.
"If we could understand god he wouldn't be god" = I understand nothing.
"The salvation message is extraordinarily simple" = I fully understand.
@@elkhuntr2816 Why do you think atheists have no objective moral foundations?
I'm an atheist and my moral foundations, based on objective facts, are better than Christian morals by a long shot.
For example, Christians agree on pretty much nothing, some now agree that there is nothing wrong with smoking marijuana, as a current example, while some still believe it's a sin.
Some believe tattoos are wrong, some don't.
How is Christian morality objective? It's totally objective, which I've just proven with two examples (there's thousands more, women's dress, men's long hair, alcohol, death penalty, pork, homosexuality, mixed race marriage, gambling, and on and and on).
An atheist objective morality is easy to explain and will make perfect logical sense to pretty much anyone, even a child. It only gets subjective, the atheist objective morality and ethics, when it comes to children as there's no clear line when a child should be treated like an adult. Of course, Christians don't exactly agree on this either as evidence by the drinking age differences in Western nations (and formerly the US states before the feds jumped in and mandated 21 years or no federal money).
You cannot name a single Christian objective morality that I cannot find a counter example to, probably instantly -- as there are no objective morals in the Bible, only the rule, "Divine Command Theory" which states that if God wills it, it's good, perfect, and lawful, even if it's slavery, murder, genocide, etc., as God has, at once time or another, commande all those things.
If Christian morality was really easy to understand and objective, why do all the denominations disagree on so many things?
Thanks for your thoughts on the topics of the day. I am still learning at 76. Listening to UA-camrs like yourself has been an amazing experience. 😊
Thats awesome to hear. Thank you!
Hey, I am 69 years of age. Not far beyond you. NOW is the day of salvation. Don't put it off. Jesus Christ died for YOU. He poured out His holy life for all sinners including you and me. I am so thankful for Jesus and His eternal work of grace on the cross of Calvary. Without repenting of sin and trusting Jesus, you will die in your sins. I really don't desire that to happen to you! Jesus desires to save and rescue you from the condemnation and wrath of God. Please, turn to Christ and live !
What I find satisfying about Brandon's approach is that, even if you appear delusional, your comments are still welcomed🙏😊
@@christophergibson7155 Blood magic and human exchange are barbaric solutions for a problem that only needed God to say 3 simple words: "I forgive you."
For those claiming that the requirements for salvation are easy, I would point to the bible's depiction of the 12 apostles. Even those most taught, directly from the source, struggled to grasp his messages.
yes!
Love these videos. Internet apologists think that if they prove the existence of god then everything else follows but christianity has a lot of nonsense. Your perspective is unique and very insightful
Appreciate that so much. Thanks for watching!
Very good point - proving god's existence would only be the tip of the iceberg in terms of figuring out the nonsense and contradictions of christianity.
What the fuck ain't nothin insightful about a one sided view of anything. The only thing atheists prove is that they will listen to anyone as long as their ideas dont contradict their own. Bitch earth is flat where the hell are all the atheist calling bullshit on climate change, NASA, school shootings, Evolution, this whole girls can turn into boys with secondary sexual characteristics, or really anything in medicine. Take some radiation see if you dont get sick, but it cures cancer!? Take Azt see if you dont begin to feel weak and Ill like aids patients. Money talks and thosewith money have worked for at least two hundred years to control academia and get Americans educated with their lies. Erasmus Darwin was patorinzed by Rothschild, so was his slow grandchild who did exactly zero experiments. Einstein is a damn actor. Imagine when you see acar driving down the road that the car is actually perfectly at rest but the world is moving around it. Einstein actually said that about a horse and a carriage
Its fucking laughable that's why they stick out their tongue at you. And cover one Eye. Their controlled by satan dude. Two witnesses in Heaven of day and night he wants to blot one out pretend to be another, but for these idiots they do it because they draw you into their group but the can see but your blind. Sure their is some abyss stuff in their too.
It's not nonsense my dear fellow man it's the truth amen! The Bible is the truth and only truth thank God for the bible
Would be funny if a god did exist and ruined the christians' moment by telling them that what they believe is bs and their bible had nothing to do with him. Would be entertaining to see the fallout from such a scenario.
I grew up fearing hell so much as a child that I literally wanted to die before 13, I was afraid I would grow up to sin and somehow fail to achieve salvation in some way. It got way worse the closer I got to 13, it became an obsession, constantly on my mind, distracting me in school and affecting every aspect of my life. When I did turn 13 I began to pray for salvation almost daily, I expected something to happen so I would know it worked, some sign, but nothing ever happened. This went on until well in to my 20's and 30's. It screwed me up badly, it was a side effect of my parents good intentions, they thought they were raising me right in the faith but it ended up instilling a terror in my mind that I only recently managed to overcome at 46. Indoctrination works, it's a sick abuse perpetuated by the church. I broke the pattern with my son, he wasn't subjected to what I went through and while his life isn't perfect at least he wasn't saddled with the same barbaric religion I was that ruined so much of my childhood.
Man. I am just so very sorry to hear that. Its all too common. Just a thief of time! Glad you made it out eventually though
I’ve been having the exact same experience dating back to when I was a kid. I developed severe OCD from being consumed 24/7 by the fear of not being saved. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve prayed for “salvation” but never felt anything but confusion. The religious scrupulously caused decades of trauma in every aspect of my life. Religion is so dangerous.
I now take medication for OCD try to see past my indoctrinated views, but scared they will always be there deep down.
Thank you for your videos, they make me feel less alone
This video is basically my deconstruction in a video. I told one of my friends who also was a Christian, then deconstructed, and is now an atheist, that I thought it is interesting that the "age of accountability" and "rapture" aren't really found in the Bible and it makes their God look more merciful than he actually is.
ahh, good points. its always so interesting to me to see which straws break the camels back for people.
@@MindShift-Brandon A lot of things you talked about in this video is about the concept of "salvation" so if "salvation" starts falling apart everything else will probably go with it. But for me, I thought maybe there is something that I am missing, so I turned my focus on the character of God. Then I came to the topic of slavery and was like "why am I following a god that is "ok" with slavery!?!?" That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Then I went back to things like God sacrificing himself to himself and I realized that there wasn't anything I was missing. There is no hidden truth that will fix everything. It just plain doesn't make sense.
Or have you rather forgotten..."Therefore let’s approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace for help at the time of our need." (Hebrews 4:16)
@@DannyS177 It makes every bit of sense. You are just living in denial of the power of the cross of The Lord Jesus Christ. If you are looking for reasons to not walk with Jesus anymore, then there is not much doubt that you have unconfessed sin before the Lord. When you come to a place of a broken and a contrite heart before Him, then you will have the grace to walk in holiness by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
@@christophergibson7155 You sound like you know a lot about God, and since I grew up without God I am trying to learn about him so that I don't miss out on his glory. I have always found God sacrificing himself to himself to save us from himself a very confusing topic. Can you explain how it makes sense?
Yet another video full of insight explaining how even the most core ideas in Christianity don`t makes sense, thank you for this Brandon!
You got it! My pleasure
Your passion & heart ache for the damage this is still causing is so refreshing!
Appreciate that. Thanks for being here!
WOW brother you nailed it again. I had been struggling with my faith. You make it so much easier to let go. You are so appreciated. Thank you. 👍🏼😁
You are so welcome. Thanks for the kind words.
"struggling with my faith" ----
Atheist videos will not provide you with answers.
"All I had hitherto heard of Christian theology had alienated me from it. I was a pagan at the age of twelve, and a complete agnostic by the age of sixteen... One rationalist had hardly done calling Christianity a nightmare before another began to call it a fool's paradise… But it did for one wild moment cross my mind that, perhaps, those might not be the very best judges of the relation of religion to happiness who, by their own account, had neither one nor the other” (G.K. Chesterton. Orthodoxy)
Peace be with you.
Don't Do IT ! Take it from me, a backslider for 20 years! I left following Jesus and lived for a self indulging life in porn and pot smoking. The Lord Jesus called me back to Him in the summer of 2019. I struggled for another 9 months with my thoughts. Scriptures kept pouring into my thoughts. I was under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. There were times I wanted to die. But God was so merciful and on Easter Sunday 2020 I went to a room for almost 12 hours and cried and wept before The Lord. What a burden fell from me. I have joy like I never had before. Jesus is sweeter today than all those years ago! Please, come back. He will receive you like the prodigal son. (Luke 15:11-31)
Well bro that's your conviction. My walk is mine. Have a nice day
@@Warrior-re5fn "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God"
(2 Corinthians 5)
Peace be with you.
Spitting fire with this one, lol. XD I felt this pretty hard. Really sums up all the confusion and angst you feel trying to figure all this out. I've had family members speculate about general revelation in regards to like the Native Americans and say things like, "There had to be some way they could be saved. God wouldn't just let his children die without a chance." And even then I remember being like, "The very fact of having a chosen people would seem to negate that."
right!! man, they are so close, they know it would not be fair, but imagine things to make it so.
And what exactly was all that "vessels of wrath" talk about? God created people to basically be Starfleet redshirts? lol.
General Revelation, I remember when he was a private in the salvation army. 😊
Ha!!
🤣🤣🤣
Hey Brandon, your work is truly changing my life. I hope you can feel free in the future to put out some really long form content, 2+ hours if you ever feel like it. I am sure 20ish mins hits the sweet spot for views though, so keep it up! Love what you’re accomplishing.
I am so pleased to hear that. Thank you!
I've pointed out before that if general revelation is true, then spreading the gospel is perhaps the cruelest thing a Christian can do. Before you told that person about Jesus, they had a better chance of achieving heaven based on their intuition. Once you introduce them to the "good news," all they have to do to go to hell is look at how incoherent it all is and reject it for whatever previously made sense to them under general revelation.
100%! there should be no missionaries if christians really believed this.
Exactly what I was about to comment - thank you!
Missionaries are just screwing people over by forcing them to have the opportunity to reject Christianity.
If they had some evidence with them maybe it would be different...But nope, it's not giving them a fair chance to believe in Jesus, only a good chance to "reject" it.
You are a needed voice of reason, don't ever apologize for expressing vehemently.
Appreciate that!
1.4k views and 233 comments! I love how engaged this community is, and I'm glad to be a part of it.
Me too! Thanks for being here.
If children that die before reaching the age of accountability go straight to heaven, then killing a child in infancy is the most loving and selfless thing a believing parent can do
and that's exactly what make the religion dangerous
Why are they against abortion?
This is why logic & the bible don't mix.
Even worse, there are cases that this has happened.
@@Kelley_X yep yep. andrea yates.
Fantastic video! Leaving Christianity behind was easy for me. One Hitch video and I was done. But listening to you & reading your replies to my comments, has driven it home to me, that I was lucky. For someone REALLY indoctrinated hard, it’s not easy. I’ve always thought, “All you need to do is just think about it, just try & make sense of it and then it’s so obvious”. But I’m realizing how truly hard it is for so many people. It’s so sad. I have a customer who is about 80 y/o. He sits in his bedroom all day watching Catholic masses, surrounded by pictures of Popes, Saints, Bible verses, crucifixes, etc. He told me one day that he was waiting to die so he could be with Jesus. I left, called my daughter, and we both laughed at how stupid that is. Now I feel differently. I feel so sad for him. He’s literally wasting his life waiting to die. How fu*king sad. 😔 Thank you for helping me to see how wrong I’ve been.
Thanks Lori. Yes the religious hold is really something and like you said its so very sad. I almost wonder if some personalty types at some point after indoctrination or conversion simply do cannot deconvert. Im actually planning a video around this and might do it as early as sunday
@@MindShift-Brandon I can’t wait for that video as I’ve been wondering the exact thing
I’ve heard a preacher basically say that he was looking forward to death so he could go to heaven. What a sad outlook on life.
You definitely cover the hot topics that are so important that shows the man's words not a gods word in the bible. Your rockin with this channel young man. ✌️👍
thank you very much, Mark!
To anyone who is curious what BLM land is, it's not Black Lives Matter, it's Bureau of Land Management. Basically government owned wilderness that allows camping.
Lol thanks for clarifying
... and possibly ... Bureaucratic Land Mongers ?
...and black lives do matter
Everything you said resonated with me so much. I have spent so many years trying to figure out what I'm supposed to believe and how I'm supposed to believe when it comes to Christianity. The fear of hell has been so horrible for me. It even has taken a toll on my health. But I really feel like, even if there is a hell, I can't avoid it. It even says in the bible that few will be saved, even people who think they're Christians. That should tell you right there that a whole lot of Christians think they're right about how they interpret the bible, but they're actually wrong. My mom and I have gotten into arguments over this. She'll tell me I should interpret it one way, but then I always ask her how do we know that it's not wrong? The only way to follow the bible accurately is to take it at its word. That means, the verse that says you should cut off your arm or remove your eye if it causes you to sin, should be taken literally, because otherwise you could interpret it in a thousand different ways, and how do you know your interpretation is right? But how many people are actually going to cut off their arm or remove their own eye? I think you'd have to be crazy. There's so many other things that I want to say but I'm out of time. Have to get back to work. I could literally talk to you for hours, all the videos I've watched of yours so far have been such a breath of fresh air, I'm so glad that there is someone else out there that has thought about these things so deeply. Please never stop making videos.
Thank you for taking the time to share this and for the kind words! Glad to be useful here!
Dude! You're making me cry! It's like you read my mind from the ages of 12 to 30.
Glad to help normalize! So sorry you had to go through the ringer with this religion too.
I'm Brazilian and I always had a hard time with missionaries wanting to go evangelize unreacted tribes in the Amazon, I always assume that they are saved because they never had contact with the Christian religion, so why would anyone go to them, not speaking the same language, not knowing their culture, knowing absolutely nothing about them, to talk about a God from the other side of the planet with concepts they may not understand, why try to convince them ? It seems to me like it's basically condemning these people to hell for selfish reasons.
Christian Redemption =
Someone throws you into their pool, knowing full well you can't swim. As you are frantically flailing around, he stands there and watches over you while doing nothing to help you. He says you deserved to be thrown in the pool because your extremely distant ancestors disobeyed him and you must pay for that. Besides that, it is assumed you would have done the same thing. He says you must repeatedly beg for forgiveness for being in his pool and pledge to praise him for the rest of your life if he agrees to save you. You must do this until he finally believes you and throws you a life preserver. In exchange for saving you, he throws his son in the pool to take your place. You must also continually thank his son for being thrown in the pool in your place. If you have a child, it will also be thrown in the pool and the process starts over.
so very clear!
It was a lot of these questions as a Christian that led to so much confusion and anxiety. Then eventually leaving the faith. All I had to do was read the Bible.
Thank you so much for covering this topic!! I think this particular topic is used a lot to shift blame to victims of abuse. "You should've stopped it, you must've liked it, you knew what you were doing..." can be breathtakingly harmful to say to a child, which is why I think it's difficult (and terrifying) for victims of such abuse to leave the religion that endorses the abuse or negates it altogether at the so-called "age of reason."
Thanks so much for getting the ball rolling!
@@MindShift-Brandon No problem! I like where you went with it.
Omg this is the first time I’ve thought of missions as a spiritual death sentence. That once they’ve been told they have “no excuse.” In that case, if evangelicals actually cared about getting people into the kingdom they’d leave them alone so as to not risk their “general” salvation.
The creepy thing about alot of evangelicals is they seem to enjoy the concept of everyone outside of their cult goes to hell.. i don't think they give a rat's behind that they are literally putting these people at risk for hell.
My Adventist Church made sure I was baptized at 10, as ensurance. They go out in the community and scaring people saying what if you die tomorrow or Jesus shows up tomorrow
so much is done in the name of fear. Without it this religion would have been wiped away long ago.
Let it go, be here now"... sound advice once again from you Brandon, I played a few of your videos to my wife and her reactions are about the same as mine were when I first started listening to you . every episode is full of astounding insight and clarity on the issues that are important to us. Thank you for doing this you surely are the voice of reason!!
Oh thats so kind! Thank you. How i envy you getting to go through this process with your wife. I cant imagine the closeness that comes from waking up together.
Again, a great, insightful discussion here. 👏
What I find thought provoking about religion in general is how "Believers" will blindly believe the gospel message and that the Bible is inerrantly the inspired Word of God. And while many of them seek to spread the Gospel to others in "the world", they love the exclusivty of Christianity. ( God so loved the world that He sent His Son to die for us sinners So, that if anyone believe Jesus is the Son of God will be saved, but if you don't you will burn in Hell for Infinity.) I feel many Christians like feeling "chosen" and special.
Yes exactly!!
I think this is one of your most important videos
Thanks, friend!
Even when I'm free of this it is still all around me in the shunning and inability to talk to anyone about any of it.
I know it, man. This world is not quite ready for non-belief
You are so right. We are not built to deal with is. I asked a pastor how he can cope, walking around and looking at people all day that he (or that he says he) believes are going to eternal torment? IF thats the burden that God wants us to carry around what happened to having " life in abundance"? Subjecting people to that kind of mental torture is abusive.
I look forward to your take on biblical prophecy !
Hello, I’m a fairly new subscriber. I’m so glad to find your channel. I’m pretty sure I found you through other atheist videos. I had the courage to leave my faith after reading the history of ancient religions. I found out that many ancient world leaders considered themselves a “son of god” and “born of a virgin” and I was like, wait a minute??? I kept reading and reading. I found Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins (my family made sure I never knew their names!!!) No wonder it is forbidden to research other religions. At the age of 39, me and my family, including my 2 children, made the decision together to lead an atheist/agnostic life. If we can all let go of the supernatural beliefs, we could come together as one humanity. It’s excruciating that I have to stay quiet where I live. I drive 1 1/2 hours for an atheist community. I can’t believe so many support LGBTQ hate just because it’s in the Bible. I was sick of it all. Christian Nationalism is scary. I have 2 friends I’ve been trying to talk to, but are so resistant to listen. It’s heartbreaking. You would think highly analytical people could understand these claims we make, but they were just too indoctrinated as children to ever be able to leave. Thank you for spreading the anti-theism information. I realize there is the historical evidence as well as the faults in the belief system like you are highlighting. I’m so glad to find your page. I wish I had the courage to do what you do. ✌️
what a wonderful and encouraging message. Thanks so much for taking the time to make this thoughtful comment. I share in your frustration. Hope and peace are so close, but so far away it seems. It is just so very sad that they all cannot see it for what it is. BUT, i am thrilled for you and your family!
I’m so happy for you and your family and that you guys got out!
Fantastic!!!
I have to be careful not to listen to your video's while driving!!
Especially ones like this where you just go off.....
I find myself driving faster than I'd like to😁
Ha! Love that. Charge me with any speeding tickets.
Fantastic video! I’ve just discovered your channel, so I am making my way through all your older content.
I just saw Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and I would love for you to watch it…I cried harder than anyone else with me because this (to me ) was finally a TRUE depiction of the Christian God. Wondering what you could understand about the film someday. Keep up the content, it is needed badly.
That is so kind. Thank you for being here. I have not seen it yet but i will watch it just for you!
@@MindShift-Brandon I’mma warn you, get tissues, so sorry AND Wow, Thank you!! ☺️
Agreed with everything you said, thanks! Many Christians say the reason God hasn't revealed himself to an atheist is because the person hasn't earnestly sought for God. Then they tell you that God has revealed hisself to everyone and there is no excuse not to believe in him. It isn't our fault if God is the greatest player in a childish game of Hide and Seek where he can choose to put the loser in Hell.
right? what a contradiction! then sprinkle in every story of the sinner who god does reveal himself to like Paul lol.
God has revealed himself to every man, atheists included. You can't be an atheist without first rejecting God. Almost no one in this day and age hasn't heard of Jesus. For those who truly haven't God has revealed himself through nature (science) and conscience. We all instinctively know there is a God, and know right from wrong. The question is what you do with that information. Very few people are on a truth quest and truly seeking God. Most people are on a happiness quest and feel God gets in the way of that. If they only knew the only true way to peace, fulfillment and joy is through seeking God and having a relationship with him. All other things lead to temporary bliss and ultimate depression and brokenness in the end.
@@elkhuntr2816 - God hasn’t “revealed” himself to anyone, so far as I can tell. You have a book that was written by regular, fallible people, which includes a bunch of stories about a man named Jesus, which were all written decades after Jesus died, by ancient people who spoke an entirely different language from Jesus and never directly met him. Beyond that, the natural world speaks to the fact that we exist in a vast, ever-changing environment that appears to predate mankind and life on this tiny planet Earth in general by an astonishingly large amount of time, and no one knows how it all started. That’s all you’ve got: an ancient book written by fallible, ancient people, a vast, complex world around you, and a bunch of unanswered questions. Your “god” is nowhere to be found.
@@TestMeatDollSteak "God hasn’t “revealed” himself to anyone, so far as I can tell. You have a book that was written by regular, fallible people, which includes a bunch of stories about a man named Jesus"
Well, you are very likely mistaken there. These aren't just myths, these are verifiable historical events. Even Bart Ehrman (atheist new testament scholar / historian?) is quoted as saying "one of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea Pontius Pilot". There is more historical evidence for his crucifixion that pretty much any ancient historical event. This is universally accepted by historians. And they also agree on the historical evidence surrounding his burial, empty tomb, eye witness accounts of him alive after death etc... So Jesus is clearly a historical figure who died and people claimed he was resurrected from the dead. If that is true, then what Jesus claimed about himself was true and he was Son of God in human flesh. God's revelation of himself to man. And you have a conscience where you instinctively know God is real, and right from wrong. All you have to do is a basic study of science to see this had to have a designer behind it. Some of the best arguments for the existence of God come from science itself.
@@elkhuntr2816 what about the people who lived in South America between 100 AD and 1500 AD, they didn't know who Jesus was.
This ambiguity for salvation was probably what laid the ground work for my deconstruction. I remember trying to make sense of it in the lead up to encountering the historical problem that made it all click. Trying to figure out what salvation is, how it happens, how to make myself right.
it either seems to be the thing that pushes people deeper or pulls them out.
@@MindShift-Brandon I think often it is the attempt to go deeper that pulls people out. So many deconstruction stories that I hear start with, "I was in seminary, and..."
21:25 -22:36
🎯BULLSEYE POINT🎯
What got me first in my de-conversion was just trying to find the actual 100% requirements of salvation. If you confess your sins silently, don't know if Jesus rose from the dead, but firmly believe he died for your sins and haven't been baptized yet would you go to heaven? You'd think if there was anything the God wanted people to know, it would be the checklist. Also something I was never figured out is if you stop confessing, believing or practicing when that switch flips from "saved" to "not-saved".
And no one else knows either lol the debate of once saved, always saved is a big one. You’re right. It shouldnt be this hard.
I love it when you get "preachy". Don't hold back.
Ha! Thank you. Sometimes just gotta say it.
Well, if atheism is just another religion it’s only fair we have preachers too. ;)
Right. He should have a series were he preachy as hell!
Maybe that tone & style will be more appealing to Christians.
You have a great channel here. You articulate very well. Ty for sharing this content.
Appreciate that so much!
Denominations are a clear indicator that religion is false/fiction. Excellent work here, as always! Thank you for your service towards the progress of humanity!
My absolute pleasure. Thanks for watching and the kind words.
Religion is false. Jesus is the truth. Follow Him, not religion, and find the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I want to share my go-to response to the idea that isolated tribes that have not heard the gospel will be given a special grace and won’t be judged, or they can be saved by just recognising the world was made by a creator.
My response: why contact the tribes then? These people are in a great position and have a much higher chance of going to heaven. By introducing the gospel to them, you’re effectively introducing the risk of hell that wasn’t there before you shared the gospel with them.
Exactly! And yet Jesus tell us too. Nothing like gambling with peoples souls
Also, smallpox! Pity the GC left that out...
And if they can be "saved" by just recognizing the world was made by a creator...why can't I or everyone?
Why do I have to stumble through all this confusion and contradiction and convoluted messages and just hope I land on the right formula or I'm going to hell.... I'd rather be a remote indigenous person thank you... my chances would be way higher of being saved.
It's even worse than this, the logical conclusion is to genocide them, as William Lane Craig answered in one of his online debates.
The children all go to heaven, WLC argued, so their deaths were a mercy.
The adults, who's murders were sad, were needed to stop them from making more damned souls, so in the end, a plus for God. Dead heathens can't make more people to be damned, and they were going to hell anyway, so killing them didn't make things worse.
But the babies? God Blessed them with genocide, WLC answers, as the salvation of babies is "well understood."
I love that clip of WLC and I watch it at least once a year, just to remind myself of the sociopaths we face in the Christian apologetics community.
Anyone that can justify murdering babies is evil, imho, but he does it with a straight face.
But, back to the point here, contacting tribes would expose them to the risk of being held accountable, so contacting them with the Word makes their position worse, as you mention, but genociding them all is a Godly act, at least according to apologists (caveat, you need God's direction first, of course, you cannot just go out killing natives without Jesus prompting it first, but heck, that's easy enough to discover, just pray for it).
Boom! Genius.
When you were talking about knowledge and thinking it reminded me of a couple of points in the Bible. Jesus says in Matthew that unless we become as children we cannot enter the kingdom. In Hosea God says his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge and because of the people’s rejection even their children will be forgotten 🤔 I never thought about the correlation between being like a child and having knowledge in this way. Great video
Thanks so much!
hey shared your channel with my (also athiest) roomate, and he goes. Ohhhh I know him (and he already follows) hahahahha yesss
you are very good at putting the subject out there in a concise and clear way
Man, appreciate that very much!
Amazing video!
Thank you!
Yesterday I saw your Q&A video and when the question came about if your wife watches the channel I thought "I sure hope not". With the frequency and passion you say things like "disgusting" and "ridiculous" it's clear that it's a very emotional subject for you, which is very understandable given your history and circumstances. I'm glad you're able to make it work and are finding an outlet and a community here. I like your videos and look forward to the secular bible study series.
Appreciate that! Thanks for being here
Phenomenal breakdowns. No need to apologize. You didnt say anything that was out of line, or even untrue. Keep it up.
Appreciate that, man!
Haha, I was just arguing with a very confused theist on one of your other videos about this very thing. They wanted to claim that babies are innocent, as they cannot be held accountable for their actions because they do not yet know right from wrong, and simultaneously claim that we are all born guilty of “original sin”. I pointed out that it has to be one or the other; babies cannot be fully innocent _and_ fully guilty at the same time. He regurgitated the Adam & Eve story and seemed immune to basic logic, so the convo went nowhere.
lol, wish I was surprised. I have been following a couple of your comment engagements that go on for quite some time on atheism and morality and I loveee what you have to say.
@@MindShift-Brandon - Thanks man!
Very good video once again and yet it makes my head hurt to try and think about all of the circular b.s. that I once believed…
thank you, yes i still uncover things myslef when doing these videos about my own upbrining and past thinking. its just nuts.
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free."
-Johann Wolfgang Von Goeth
1749-1832
You continue to produce the most relevant, clearly communicated content on the planet! Imo.
Beyond kind. ThNk you so much for all your support!
@@MindShift-Brandon just being honest bro.
EV-RR-EE ;) person needs to hear this, Brandon! Thanks for your wise insight and your forthright delivery.
Ha! Lovee this
Damn, this man never misses. Good job as always.
Ha. Thanks so much!
"When I was a kid, I was a Catholic, uh, at least until I reached the Age of Reason. So I was a Catholic for two, two-and-a-half years, something like that."
- George Carlin
Ha! Hadnt heard that bit before
@@MindShift-Brandon If I recall correctly, I first heard it in his last special, It's Bad for Ya. I do not quite remember the specific bit it is from, though.
so now what do you believe? everything is meaningless? hitler and buddha both end up in the same place so character during your meaningless existence is meaningless?
@@japexican007 Wow, going straight for the classic Hitler and Buddha strawmen, huh? You apologists really do not have any character, do you?
@@japexican007this is such a stupid thing to say. An incredibly stupid and simple thing to say.
I like how you point out how anything can be sin. Sins of commisson and omission. It goes into thought, desire, motivation. It really has a way of making you question everything. Why did I do or say that? Did I do it for myself or God? Was my motivation really pure with that? Consequently, we should find ourselves asking, in that mindset, what do we think, say or do thats not potentialy sin!? Especially with the emphasis the book puts on self deception.. How many will say Lord Lord, and how many are entertianing the false angel of light thinking its God. Like how serious.. how devout.. how consumed in every aspect of life and being with this must one be to know that they know that they know!? You cant have it? And I believe its for good reason as it keeps many locked in. Really, there is no full proof assurrance of salvation offered. Anything not done of faith is sin and has us bound up then. If none are righteous and all the desires and thoughts of men are wholy set toward evil, continually... if the heart is deceitfully wicked.. then one may be genuinely all in and still have plenty good reason to doubt.. bc they may be absolutley wrong about their experience.. utterly deceived. I must add, who is actualy saved from sin? Literally no one, as all the christians go on "sinning" the rest of thier lives as well.. oh sure.. maybe not in the worst ways.. its behavior modification at yhe threat of punishment and promise of reward. Just drop the whole game. Its extremely unheathy.
I am beginning to understand how much trauma is caused in people's lives by the fear of hell and trying to understand what they need to do and believe to escape eternal torment.
There is noth8ng to do, God has done all the work for u on the cross. The moment ppl say u must X to be saved it is not the gospel of Christ. The gospel is preached, either you are saved or not. If so it is bc God chose to save you, if not He hasn't. There is nothing you can do to be saved.
Yeah the age of accountability thing was something I saw through early on in my deconstruction. Because it's obviously a way for christians to avoid seeing their god as a monster for sending babies to hell.
Exactly
Never apologize, Brandon and never promise to shut up.
so sweet.thank you, Jenna!
My special needs brother was not born with original sin. That concept was born out of self-loathing and guilt from people who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. Typical authoritarian tactic.
Yup! what a terrible concept to introduce on the world. Broken at birth.
@@MindShift-Brandon😮😬
Can't speak about other denominations, but in Catholicism, they hold that special needs people have original sin but are not accountable for converting or sins they can't understand. I think the traditional understanding was that, unbaptised, they go to limbo with unbaptised babies. It's not heaven but it's certainly not hell. And yes, there's not much Biblical support for this.
"special needs brother was not born with original sin. That concept was born out of self-loathing and guilt from people who don't want to take responsibility for their own actions"--
This seems backwards.
@@Charlotte_Martel "they go to limbo" ---- That is not correct nor is that taught by the Church.
Very good vid. You answered a question I asked weeks ago on how Religion hold and gathers people and Atheists lack this: The Core that Religion has, "We all seek salvation" that core draws people together. We all love groups, families, parties and Church provides this. So, if we have to pretend, we pretend. Or else face being shunned, cast out, no support. People do change religions, few give up the group. Good vid.
For sure. And thanks so much!
Amazing video! Keep it up!
Thank you!
Keep nailing it Brandon!
Thanks, man!
When we finally receive an interstellar message, will it be "Have you heard the good news about Jesus?" or "Have you heard the good news about Bumblefart?" Frankly, neither seems likely.
Oooh man, that just gave me chills...Imagine mankind, after thousands of years of ignorance and pain, FINALLY putting all this nonsense behind us, growing the hell up, resolving all our diffs, and finally reaching out into space, making contact with our first alien species...only to discover that they are religious fanatics. With MUCH better tech and superior weapons! WTF do we do then??
@@HandofOmegaNow that's some real cosmic horror
Federation meets the Yuuzhong Vong!🤓
@@HandofOmega We worship our new masters, of course.
The real answer is we're probably screwed, the Dark Forest Theory.
Nobody is coming here to preach about a different god or gods, if aliens show up, we're toast.
I was raised Catholic and at age 9 I had my First Communion- against my consent, too- that made me a “morally accountable” person.
Not enough to make the whole thing voluntary, mind you!
We had to sign a document pledging to serve the RCC. I signed in all caps and told my friends, who worried about this, so that it wouldn’t “count” as it wasn’t my actual signature. I was also aware minors could not sign contracts but I wanted to make extra sure, just in case.
With that said, children at my Catholic school were punished as “moral agents” long before this supposedly watershed moment.
I was told about hell and my place there years before the ripe age of 9 and I knew of kids who were punished by kneeling on the floor for the duration of the entire class as early as kindergarten.
Catholics are particularly spiteful about this, at least traditionally so. This is why “kids just being kids” is not a thing in Catholic schooling, when it is taken “seriously”.
This is why they read “impropriety” in the youngest of kids. I had a nun go ballistic on me because I committed the grave sin of removing my panties…in a changing room! It was ballet class and I thought the tutu was worn without underwear as it looked like a swimsuit. I must have been 6 or 7, and it was a changing room but to the nun, it was simply too much.
No one without serious issues would be bothered by this. It didn’t cross my mind I didn’t know- I didn’t, this was the first class- she assumed some kind of provocation.
I got screamed at for a while, still half naked.
I am so sorry to hear about this abuse. I am well aware of it and its why whenever a catholic comes in to tell me about gods love and how they are the one true church, it makes my blood boil.
@@MindShift-Brandon Thank you, that really means a lot.
It is also worth mentioning, and if I were not so shy, I’d start a channel myself to cover this as I don’t think it is that well known, First Communion has actual consequences in the life of a child. From that point on, confession becomes a thing.
In my case, it was mandatory. You’re forced to tell a man about all your sins and hope for absolution because you are a moral agent. Needless to say, I always lied but the whole thing is simply wrong.
There are also very unsavory implications for CSA. You hear priests say that the child “seduced them”, it is horribly common. It ties up with the idea that the child is, as far as being responsible for its actions go, an adult. Thus sexual crimes can be imputed on them, where they are at the very least complicit.
Forgive me father, for I have sinned, again and again, and again tonight, and probably again tomorrow morning. 😊
Nice.
Thanks!
I have to say it. It's "let alone" not "yet alone". To let something alone means to leave it alone or disregard it. This makes sense with the phrase being a synonym for "not to mention"
Lol fine with that call out. I do know it as i know i write it that way but this tongue gets away from me
@@MindShift-Brandon I appreciate that the way you tend to say it, the "yet" has more oomph to it, and lends it more emphasis
11:15 lol "the book that shall not be named"
Ha. Thats how i will refer to it from now on.
Wow! ...what a neat video. I agree with every issue you spoke to.
Thanks so much!
Great vid. You really nailed it at the end.
Appreciate that. Thank you!
13:25 Thirteen? When my father spoke to me about the age of accountability -- and that was quite often -- he always told me it was the age of seven. I don't know where he got that age from. We were Baptists.
Great video Brandon! I’m glad you brought up the whole “god will do the right thing” crap. I had so many pastors say that god knows how people would have chosen if they had access to the knowledge of Jesus, and will judge accordingly. If that’s what they have to believe to sleep at night go ahead lol. 😂
right! just the only option is to make beleive hes a good guy.
Whenever the question comes up about what happened to all the people who ever lived before Jesus, the answer I get is something along the lines of "well they will be judged according to the light they have received and how they lived according to it". Ok, but where is that in the Bible?
It's the same old pattern, whenever the plain reading of the Bible is too uncomfortable, Christians invent new doctrines to ease the dissonance.
Yes, it was pretty apparent to me years ago that if Xanity was true then Xanity would have sprung up all around the world at more or less the same time; instead what we got was the slow expansion of this theology via old fashion proselytizing and The Sword (more the latter than the former) - just like any other religion.
perfectly put.
Sinful from conception. Wow! Exactly what sins can we commit in the womb? You are one powerful preacher. Glad you are on the side of reason! And don’t know if this is intentional but the pace on this one isn’t so rapid-fire and is much easier to follow. Thank you for everything!
thank you so much for your kindness. Cant guarantee you wont get more rapidfire vids though lol.
😄
Yes, you are sinful from conception. You inherit the sinful nature through your father's seed. That is why Jesus was born sinless. Joseph was not His biological father.
The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary, and she became pregnant. And the Word of God is clear on original sin..."Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-"(Rom. 5:12)
@@christophergibson7155 What is the point of original sin?
@@karlwinkler4223 The point of original sin is that The Lord God created Adam and Eve perfect and without sin. They were given free will. The Garden of Eden was their home. They could name the animals, eat anything of the trees and plants given to them by God. But because of their disobedience to the one commandment that the Lord gave them, they died spiritually, when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God strictly warned them of this.
Sin had dire consequences. Later Adam & Eve died physically. Now everything dies. Animals, vegetation, etc...The offspring of every living man passed the sinful nature onto the following generation. And sin has brought a curse on all of mankind. "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-"
(Romans 5:12) God has a divine order in creation. After the heavens and earth were created. Then Angels, including Lucifer were created next, then mankind later on. And God does not by pass His plan. His eternal purpose and ways are done by His wisdom. The redemption and atonement that The Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished at the cross was kept a mystery until the exact time it was to be revealed and fulfilled. "the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints." (Col. 1:26)
"For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." (Col. 1:19)
In the first Mindshift video I commented on I was attacked by a Cherokee over a *concept of the great mystery.* I tried not to be angry, but failed. I was angry, and still am.
This is no different from my time as a "Christian Indian" 🙄. Christians treated me like crap, my own peoples treat me like crap. I feel no guilt. I didn't disintegrate when I left the cult, and my peoples adapting white ways does not diminish me as an Indigenous woman/human being. The only thing I regret in the first is replying to an intended tear down.
I think the similarity between the codependent/ narcissist relationship and the relationship between this god and his followers is woefully under-explored. This channel does better than most, if not all, channels at highlighting this specific point.
I appreciate the compliment and i think your point is correct. Its something i want to continue to explore more. Thanks!
I love your videos so much!
Glad you like them! Thanks for your kindness.
Great video 🎉
Thank you much!
Brandon, how can we talk? I have so many questions for you and I am a believer struggling with so so many doubts and your videos just make so much sense. I would really love to have a sincere and honest conversation if you have the time.
I am planning a call in show for people in youth position to call in and discuss any questions you have. That will allow me the time and also can hopefully help many others in your position. I should get that show up and running this month yet.
@@MindShift-Brandon I'm 31 so I'm not involved in youth ministry. I've been a believer for almost 3 years and felt like I had a genuine conversion and "born again" experience. But after 3 years.. of serious study, of trying to live like Jesus said to, of experiencing the church... I am mentally taxed and starting to ask questions. I was hoping for a more private conversation if possible but I totally understand if that's something that may be difficult to do or you would rather keep it on your channel.
@@themuffins4 I went through the same exact thing at 31. Kind of scary how similar. Right down to the age. It wasn’t until the age of 33/34 that I was listening to the daily audio bible that It clicked. Hearing the Bible read out loud, laying down I was in disbelief of what I hearing. The Bible alone is responsible for making me an atheist. One cannot deny the evidence. When I started doing research and seeing undeniable evidence it folded like a house of cards. I highly recommend you check out Bart Ehrman and also myth vision in addition to Mind Shift.
@@themuffins4 They get you hooked with all of the emotional stuff before you've even had a chance to read the whole Bible, or analyze what they are telling you. Now that I'm deconverted I can say I still can replicate the same spiritual feelings through meditation. Do you have any specific questions?
Id encourage you to ask questions here on the channel. Many here are so helpful. You can send me an email also but im a bit behind there.
Your beard is looking nice and full these days, B. Do you use oils and if so which ones?
Hey appreciate that! I do some oils, sometimes but more than anything im just blessed by something trying to make up for the fact i have no hair up top lol
1:25 The essence.. the CORE.. the VERY REASON that Ssooooooo Many Christian denominations (and Christianity itself) fall ABSOLUTELY FLAT.
This was powerful: I loved the “preach” btw, rattling those verses off in full context and with your intimate knowledge is very effective and disarming, if I was still a believer I’d be reeling lol. Not least because your intent is open, honest & clear: I’d be flailing around the “sinfulness of sin” or some pseudo-profound BS that we just don’t have a divine vantage point and we cant comprehend holiness vs sin etc … all to dodge & obfuscate all your specific points lol 😉.
Huge thanks for exposing “general revelation” as being so weak & illogical.. 1st time since waking up that I’ve been made to consider it honestly .. great job mate, really helpful.
Loved that you literally went out into the wilderness to commune .. but love more that you still do for actual tangible benefits & joy. And loving the buzz in your channel comments showing growing reach .. and re: the believers chiming in there, if it helps 4 yrs ago I’d have been praying for you too lol - ESPECIALLY cos I’d not be able to address the things you raised 😂
What an amazing and delightful comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to be so thoughtful. 4 years ago, i would have been right there with you!
The way general revelation was taught to me is even worse. I didn't encounter it until later in life, and even when I was a Christian I found the idea disturbing. But here goes: the idea is that general revelation provides enough knowledge about God to damn your soul if you don't believe, but it doesn't provide enough for you to be saved.
Yup! Pretty much sums up all of christianity actually.
I like the way you say Deuteronomy better actually.
Oh yeah. I grew up LDS and am about 12 years into my deconversion (29 now) and seeing my younger brothers and sister be “accountable” at 8 is a GD joke (no pun intended). I would love, LOVE, it if you went over the Book Of Mormon one day. My goodness, that would be phenomenal.
It's funny that supposedly god made everyone but waited a long time to pick a favorite group (i guess the nature revelation thing wasn't going well) to personally talk to (but only a handful of them) and told them they were his favs but then later was cool with everyone, sort of.
I’ve asked Christian’s about mentally handicapped and babies dying, where do they go? Generally you get some made up answer, like Gods grace covers them…
I always had issues with this, same as issues I’d have with children being possessed by demons. The no excuse thing is nonsensical, the fact that even the very word deceit means you’re being tricked which isn’t your fault, right? If Satan deceived you do you not have an excuse?
Thank you for another great video! It’s raining here in Washington today and it’s a perfect day to drink some coffee and listen too your video 💜
right. nothing in the bible to sufficiently cover these real questions! and wow i am jealous. It is literally a "feels like" temp of 106 degrees here with 80% humidity.
@@MindShift-Brandon that sounds miserable! This is a welcome change from the 100 degree heat we’ve been experiencing for the last month.
You asked Christian's and now your asking a listening to a trash atheist about what happens to kids if they die? What a pathetic state humanity is in. Your a woman presumably, so it does make sense, but damn never dawned on youto ask God
Bro u are fucking brilliant. Keep up the awesome vids.
Ha! Thanks so much!
"Nobody knows. People are pretending to know." 😂😂😂😂
It makes me question how much people really believe in things like this, or if they more accurately just push it aside in their mind and focus on other things. If you really believe in the age of accountability, it would be in your best interest to either not have kids or (this would be absolutely horrible, don't do it) end their lives early. If there was even a 1% chance that they wouldn't 'accept Christ', or that they'd stray away at some point, or maybe not learn in time, whatever it may be, if there was even the slightest chance, how can you live with the possibility of your beloved children ending up being tortured beyond imagination for trillions & trillions of years? Why would you not protect them from the most horrifying, supposedly real, gut-wrenching threat of them all? And yet we all know that the chance is MUCH higher than 1%. What do a handful of years on this earth compare to eternal paradise vs. eternal torment? This is the absolute insanity that the majority of Christians won't pay any mind to.. but it's the only reasonable conclusion to draw if these beliefs hold any accuracy whatsoever.
Exactly! People cant really believe this if they wouldn’t act on it. Its just a good placeholder excuse is all.