Why are christians so desperate to deny those who became Atheists were ever christians? [Spirituality & Religion]

I used to be a devout christian but, after seriously studying the bible and examining my faith, determined it was all BS. I found the bible to be nothing more than a jumble of myths and superstitions taken from various older belief systems and frequently contradictory. As a result of my studies, I became an Atheist.

Now I find some christians are desperate to deny I was ever a christian. They just can't accept the fact that a christian could ever break away from "the truth" (as they like to call their beliefs) to become an Atheist. The idea is so alien to them they deny it's even possible. They even claim to know what the person experienced better than that person knows. Another claim is that I couldn't have studied the bible "properly" and that I should ask (their) "god" for help. What are they so scared of?

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SomeMichGuy · M

From my reading of more of your personal history in the various replies, is it fair to say, @suzie1960, that you believed in God as you were taught, then--I am not sure if there was an event which triggered this or not...?--you began to study the Bible and found that it did not match what you had been told. As a result, you became...discouraged? bitter?...but you decided that the Bible was nought but a hodgepodge of inconsistencies, and so you gave up on it and are now asserting atheism?

Is this accurate?

suzie1960 · 61-69, F

@SomeMichGuy Not entirely accurate. I was brought up nominally as a christian, much like most British people at the time. In my teens I got taken in by christian propaganda and became more of a practising christian. As such, I studied the bible believing it to be "the word of god".

My studies showed that, not only did the bible not match with what I'd been told, it wasn't even internally consistent. It also became obvious, from wider study, that almost everything in christianity had been copied from older belief systems. I found the older (Pagan) were more scientific in that they were based on observing nature. When christians tried to copy the Pagan systems, they did so without understanding the basics so, not to put too fine a point on it, screwed it all up.

As a result of what I found, I broke away from christianity. That's when I found the christians I had thought of as friends were not "all sweetness and light". On the contrary, they were among the most arrogant, evil creatures one could ever have the misfortune to encounter. I was subjected to abuse, threats and even physical violence. That really only convinced I was doing the right thing ans I did, eventually, break free.

I'm an Atheist in that I do not believe in gods. That said, I do like the Pagan view of them.