You wanted an answer, so here it is.
Short answer: No.
Reasons I'm not a Christian
- Christianity is a “me” religion.
- I wasted over twenty years being one and it never benefited me. In fact, it caused considerable harm.
- Jesus probably never existed.
- Even if Jesus *did* exist, he did not fulfill the requirements of Jewish Messiah as outlined in the Jewish bible.
- Even if Jesus *had* fulfilled Messianic requirements, the Messiah was never meant to be God; just a human.
- Even if Jesus existed and *had* fulfilled the Messianic requirements and *was* God, the Jewish Messiah was only ever for the Jews, and not the Gentiles.
- There is no need for the Christian idea of “salvation”. There is nothing from which to be saved. Adam and Eve didn’t bring death into the world. There is no devil; there is no eternal hell.
- The basic theology of Christianity is pure insanity.
- The Jesus portrayed in the Christian bible is not a being of love.
- Jesus is nothing original and nothing new.
- Christians are inconsistent with their views.
- The idea of Jesus paying for our sins is completely unethical.
- Fear-based belief systems are damaging; a form of emotional abuse, and can hardly be considered valid.
- Belief in a deity is not required for a person to be good.
- Emotional blackmail isn't my thing.
Christianity is a “me” religion.
The very basis of Christianity is incredibly selfish. If I believe in the Jesus story, it helps absolutely no one but me. Whether I believe because I want to go to heaven, or because I want to stay out of hell, it's still all about ME. No one benefits if I believe because I "love" God, or because I fear hell. No one, that is, but ME.
I wasted over twenty years being a Christian and it never benefited me. In fact, it caused considerable harm.
That's basically it in a nutshell: I've been there, done that, got the tee-shirt - and I don't want to do it again.
Christianity taught me to be ashamed for being me; that I was a "sinner" by genetic default, born bad and rotten to the core; that it was my fault that someone killed a guy over 2000 years ago and I should feel personally responsible; that God wouldn't want anything to do with me unless I took a metaphysical bloodbath. I was taught that I was second-rate for being a woman and that my role here on earth was to submit to my husband and pop out babies. That it was my fault that my ex raped me because I was a woman and I was too tempting for him.
Did I have self-esteem issues? You bet I did.
Jesus probably never existed.
Outside of the Christian bible, there is absolutely NOTHING that is both historical and contemporary (of Jesus) to show that he ever existed. While there is enough literature left to fill a library from the time that Jesus supposedly walked the earth, NONE of it mentions Jesus.
Here are some of the authors from the time Jesus allegedly lived:
- Apollonius Persius
- Pausanias
- Arrian Phaedrus
- Martial Valerius Falccus
- Columella Phlegon
- Juvenal Statius
- Dio Chrysostum Pliny the Younger
- Josephus Seneca
- Florus Lucius Quintilian
- Epictetus Pompon Mela
- Lucian Tacitus
- Paterculus Valerius Maximus
- Appian Petronius
- Aulus Gellius Philo-Judaeus
- Lysias Theon of Symran
- Lucanus Suetonius
- Justus of Tiberius Silius Italicus
- Damis Pliny the Elder
- Dion Pruseus Plutarch
- Favorinus Ptolemy
- Hermogones Quintius Cutius
This list is from John E. Remsburg's book "The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His Existence".
These authors were from the time of Jesus' alleged life, or within a century after - yet apart from a forged passage in Josephus' works - just ONE passage! - there is to be found no mention of Jesus whatsoever.