I was the suffering child who pondered how an all powerful all loving God could let me suffer abuse and neglect. And I did decide there was no all powerful all loving God. After I was an adult I tried to give Christianity a good effort, but I was repelled by the self righteousness and hypocrisy. I really enjoy your writing.
I was a suffering child and the church taught me it would be better when I got to heaven. I can’t tell you how many times I went to the bridge at the river and contemplated throwing myself off of it. Some how I didn’t.
Throughout my term in Christianity I tried to reconcile all suffering and God’s part in that. Been told it’s the sovereignty of God and the other explanations you mentioned. Always uncomfortable with it. Someone suggested reading The Shack for further understanding.
Christianity makes the mistake of forgetting humans are intelligent. We can fall for delusions.
Getting an education helps.
Thank you for pointing out that it is our responsibility to make It is such a good point that the attitude of why bother with Christians.
I am a follower of Jesus’s and have always believed the kingdom of God is within , where we differ in philosophy’s is I experience the Holy Spirit ( pure Love) is found within , and without ,
While you say there is no God but yourself, I say all is God , there is nothing that exists that isnt part of everything anyway, and the Gateway to all Devine starts within.
This entire essay resonates deeply. The traditional explanations for why an all-powerful, all-loving God allows unspeakable suffering have always rung hollow for me — especially when you look at real-world atrocities like child trafficking. The idea that we’re waiting for divine intervention while failing to take personal responsibility for the suffering around us is one of the core reasons my own faith began unraveling. Your framing of “God-as-Us” is challenging, but honest — and honestly, far more hopeful than much of what passes for theology today.
Jim, this is the kind of truth that rips the veil, not gently lifts it. Every word here drips with holy fire—the kind that doesn’t comfort but confronts.
I appreciate all the details here that help undercut the primitive idea of an all-loving, all-powerful god. As an anti-theist myself, it appears obvious to me that all ideas of a god or gods have been manufactured by human minds. Our species constantly makes up stories. Stories about our individual lives, stories about our families and nations, stories about how the universe was created and why it exists. My “prayer” is that we take responsibility for life on Earth, as this essay so clearly states, and stop putting it outside of ourselves. Our species is so damn immature; will we ever grow up?
My deconstruction journey was plagued with so many of the same reckonings. It’s hard to witness the cognitive dissonance that happens in my religious parents minds. Asking them those hard questions gets me nowhere lol. They just double down on the fact that faith and belief are more important than anything else.
I keep hearing the phrase I read from you before, “Religion is concerned about bringing people to heaven but Jesus was more concerned with bringing heaven to people.” I am in the middle of a messy deconstruction and facing my fear of responsibility. Within Christian religion, I have learned passivity and not taking personal responsibility and I’m dealing with these and learning how to deal with and confront head on that when there is suffering it is my responsibility to do what I can to end it (bring heaven to the people). It’s really difficult to be around people who genuinely believe that there is a literal Satan causing the suffering (and how relieved they are that it is Satan and demons and not themselves). For people to be relieved by the thought of demons and by a God who is all powerful and loving yet doesn’t put an end to the horrible things that happen, doesn’t make any sense to me anymore. Thank you, Jim, for your help and support in my life through your writings.
You just described the conclusions I came to concerning Jesus. He was showing us the way to realize ourselves as God on earth. It's up to us to end these tragedies and bring heaven to Earth. Thank you.
I worked a few years in law enforcement and as a caseworker dealing with severely abused children in the 1970's. I was devastated emotionally and spiritually. I've recovered over the years since then.
I am also a retired Paratrooper and Infantry Medic.
Thank you so very much for your clarity and sanity. You've been very helpful to me in my old age. I'm very grateful for your writing this article.
I think I like the non-response starting Job 38. Job is much more poetic, but in today’s idiom, I hear God saying “ you want to know why the world is as it is? OK, tell me what triggered the Big Bang. What is dark matter and dark energy. Are there smaller particles than quarks? Give me a universally accepted definition of life. If you cannot understand and describe the physical world that you live in, what makes you think you can understand anything?”
Again, it’s kind of a non-answer. But I think it’s probably the only kind of answer we are going to get. Because humans are not the only cause of suffering. I don’t want to be buried in a mudslide or caught up in a volcanic eruption, and that is not caused by humans.
Satan blaming is such a huge part of traditional Christian thinking. Everything that goes awry is called demonic and peoples actions that are a part of our human foibles is labeled the same. I can see clearly at this point in leaving how that plays such an irresponsible role. My demon made me do it
I was the suffering child who pondered how an all powerful all loving God could let me suffer abuse and neglect. And I did decide there was no all powerful all loving God. After I was an adult I tried to give Christianity a good effort, but I was repelled by the self righteousness and hypocrisy. I really enjoy your writing.
As a child I recall asking the question "so all I do is believe, then one day when I die God will give me a happy pill"
Great article! I like how Neale Donald Walsch describes it - that evil exists so we have the opportunity to define who we are in our response to it.
I was a suffering child and the church taught me it would be better when I got to heaven. I can’t tell you how many times I went to the bridge at the river and contemplated throwing myself off of it. Some how I didn’t.
Throughout my term in Christianity I tried to reconcile all suffering and God’s part in that. Been told it’s the sovereignty of God and the other explanations you mentioned. Always uncomfortable with it. Someone suggested reading The Shack for further understanding.
Christianity makes the mistake of forgetting humans are intelligent. We can fall for delusions.
Getting an education helps.
Thank you for pointing out that it is our responsibility to make It is such a good point that the attitude of why bother with Christians.
A very powerful message ,
I am a follower of Jesus’s and have always believed the kingdom of God is within , where we differ in philosophy’s is I experience the Holy Spirit ( pure Love) is found within , and without ,
While you say there is no God but yourself, I say all is God , there is nothing that exists that isnt part of everything anyway, and the Gateway to all Devine starts within.
This entire essay resonates deeply. The traditional explanations for why an all-powerful, all-loving God allows unspeakable suffering have always rung hollow for me — especially when you look at real-world atrocities like child trafficking. The idea that we’re waiting for divine intervention while failing to take personal responsibility for the suffering around us is one of the core reasons my own faith began unraveling. Your framing of “God-as-Us” is challenging, but honest — and honestly, far more hopeful than much of what passes for theology today.
Jim, this is the kind of truth that rips the veil, not gently lifts it. Every word here drips with holy fire—the kind that doesn’t comfort but confronts.
I appreciate all the details here that help undercut the primitive idea of an all-loving, all-powerful god. As an anti-theist myself, it appears obvious to me that all ideas of a god or gods have been manufactured by human minds. Our species constantly makes up stories. Stories about our individual lives, stories about our families and nations, stories about how the universe was created and why it exists. My “prayer” is that we take responsibility for life on Earth, as this essay so clearly states, and stop putting it outside of ourselves. Our species is so damn immature; will we ever grow up?
My deconstruction journey was plagued with so many of the same reckonings. It’s hard to witness the cognitive dissonance that happens in my religious parents minds. Asking them those hard questions gets me nowhere lol. They just double down on the fact that faith and belief are more important than anything else.
I keep hearing the phrase I read from you before, “Religion is concerned about bringing people to heaven but Jesus was more concerned with bringing heaven to people.” I am in the middle of a messy deconstruction and facing my fear of responsibility. Within Christian religion, I have learned passivity and not taking personal responsibility and I’m dealing with these and learning how to deal with and confront head on that when there is suffering it is my responsibility to do what I can to end it (bring heaven to the people). It’s really difficult to be around people who genuinely believe that there is a literal Satan causing the suffering (and how relieved they are that it is Satan and demons and not themselves). For people to be relieved by the thought of demons and by a God who is all powerful and loving yet doesn’t put an end to the horrible things that happen, doesn’t make any sense to me anymore. Thank you, Jim, for your help and support in my life through your writings.
You just described the conclusions I came to concerning Jesus. He was showing us the way to realize ourselves as God on earth. It's up to us to end these tragedies and bring heaven to Earth. Thank you.
I worked a few years in law enforcement and as a caseworker dealing with severely abused children in the 1970's. I was devastated emotionally and spiritually. I've recovered over the years since then.
I am also a retired Paratrooper and Infantry Medic.
Thank you so very much for your clarity and sanity. You've been very helpful to me in my old age. I'm very grateful for your writing this article.
Good job, Jim.
I think I like the non-response starting Job 38. Job is much more poetic, but in today’s idiom, I hear God saying “ you want to know why the world is as it is? OK, tell me what triggered the Big Bang. What is dark matter and dark energy. Are there smaller particles than quarks? Give me a universally accepted definition of life. If you cannot understand and describe the physical world that you live in, what makes you think you can understand anything?”
Again, it’s kind of a non-answer. But I think it’s probably the only kind of answer we are going to get. Because humans are not the only cause of suffering. I don’t want to be buried in a mudslide or caught up in a volcanic eruption, and that is not caused by humans.
Satan blaming is such a huge part of traditional Christian thinking. Everything that goes awry is called demonic and peoples actions that are a part of our human foibles is labeled the same. I can see clearly at this point in leaving how that plays such an irresponsible role. My demon made me do it
It’s a cult.
We are not the cause of natural disasters or crippling disease