The End of the Jesus Journey?

When I was a teenager, about 12 or so, I was a firm believer in God and Jesus. Then, amidst a certain family situation, I started to have doubts, and a decade later was convinced that religion was pretty much bull. Still, considering myself an agnostic, I wasn’t quite sure that there was no God, and sometimes would think, “what if?”. Then one day I remember reading “Why wouldn’t God heal amputees?”, and it was quite liberating. I know it might sound pompous, but now I know how much easier it is to disregard all notions of an invisible sky-man who would (or wouldn’t) grant you your wishes if you “only asked”, and wish others would find that also. At any rate, IMHO, it’s better to live in a harsh reality than in coziness of lies.

During the 3rd ad 4th panel I would have had a gun to my head and tears in my eyes….

but on the 5th panel…smiles…joy all around. Once you become comfortable with yourself and life without a crippling god you realize how disabled you were when you had him.

I went through the process myself. If I had to draw the above cartoon, I would show Jesus as a heavy weight on the back of the believer, who as he doubted, the load shrank, until he was finally free. It was a painful experience for me, but my only regret is that I did not do it sooner. If I could change anything, I would have liked to have been the child of atheists, and free of religious dogma from childhood. I wasted > half my life on religion, and will never go back.

I was a believer until after college. I even took steps to try to get into seminary. I was what you’d call a “Jesus freak”… I listened to Christian music, went to YouthQuake, led my youth group and ran the children’s choir. When I started really examining my faith I found that a lot of things just didn’t add up. I, too, considered myself an agnostic at that time. I didn’t negate God, but I did feel that the religion I was involved in wasn’t right for me. I tried learning more and more about world religions and found that they all felt exactly the same to me. That God, Allah, Yahweh, Zeus, Buddha, Saturn, Odin etc all felt like explanations for misunderstood natural phenomena rather than a be all end all of everything. I think a lot of people go through the same thing during radical changes in their lives, with questioning a lot about themselves and what they believe about anything, not just religion, and every person has a unique experience. Some fall away from faith, some embrace it even harder, but no matter what conclusion you come to I think we all deserve respect, and that is what I find difficult about living in a world where religion is still the majority thought. That either side would think less of the other really bothers me. I think everyone goes on a journey and we all end up at different places and that should be respected.

That’s one of the best atheist cartoons I’ve seen in a long time. It hits dead center at the heart of a Christian’s deepest secret without being cruel or belligerent.

@jynnan_tonnyx
You mean that Kevin Smith isn’t jesus? CRAP! Another attempt at faith wrecked by you godless heathens…

It wasn’t tough at all. He faded away the year they taught us philosophy of science in philosophy class. From that we learned how we get to know things, then I read Sagan’s Demon Haunted World and Feynman’s Surely you’re joking, Mr Feynman! and others and it all just made insanely good sense. It was like “this actually works, this makes things happen!”

It was all pretty exciting actually.

If I had drawn it, I’d have doodled Jesus fading with me not even noticing it. I’ve never considered it much of a loss. It didn’t use to work so well anyway.

It describes how I felt as well. But am I all happy about it? Not completely. Having your family not liking it and your youngest child telling you that you going to hell mom does hurt. Now it is getting a bit easier. I am not alone in my family though thank goodness. My 17 year old nephew is atheist as well, but we still have to talk about our views almost in private. Which consists to happen in my bedroom and my theist husband not liking it much to hear it. He supports me thank goodness along with being worried about me at the same time. Sorry for talking so much.

Satan caused his fall by finding the chink in his armor: intellectual curiosity.

There but for the grace of God go they.

Kevin Smith as Jesus. Damn, I’d like to see that movie.

Funny, I never thought of Jesus as being “with” me. Perhaps that is why it was so easy for me to let religion go…

Wow. This is why I love NP. He always illustrates so clearly through his artwork what it takes me 5000 words to say unclearly.

Wow–Love that cartoon. Pretty much describes my loss of faith. Very painful experience. Very painful.

Of course, looking back, there is nothing you could offer me to go back to that kind of delusion. Who knows what journey the naked pastor will take, but your description, Hemant, of the “5th panel” is pretty much identical to what mine would be.

The point I find most interesting about this whole concept of a “personal relationship with Jesus” is that it is a relatively new one. I think it was a meme created in this century to provide a post enlightenment world a reason to keep believing. There is certainly no Biblical root to this notion, and historically, the only relationship that existed was a patriarical hiararchy with God presumably at the top, the inerrant Church a close second and the human wreckage below that had absolutly no say in it’s own destiny, beyond the presumed choice of eternal bliss or everlasting damnation. Considering that it’s the only part of the xtian faith that kept me believing for as long as I did, I would reckon the church would not be very substantial in numbers if it weren’t for this “own personal Jesus” concept.

I would still be about the fourth panel myself right at the moment. A little bit depressed and lost and still questioning “hey, maybe he does exist.” The most painful part of losing my faith is that I know my family will be upset and disappointed when they realize (my sister cried when she realized it, my father thinks atheists are ‘the enemy’)

I’ll be better for in in the future, I know. Most important I find is how much amazement there is in the universe and science. My mind has opened up even more, and I’m just completeled awed by the natural world. I won’t climb a mountain and think “god made this for me.” Instead, I’ll climb that same mountain and just be stunned at the beauty of nature.

Hmm… just went back to David’s blog, it would appear that people are misunderstanding his cartoon. He said his last panel should have a smile on his face. He isn’t ‘bummed’ like everyone is assuming. Interesting. Whether he is on a godless path or not I’m not sure though.