Twelve Reasons Why Millions Are Leaving Christianity

With Millions More in the Closet or on the Fence

Published in

ExCommunications

11 min readJun 6, 2024

The Baby Boomers and ALL earlier generations grew up in a time when the sciences lacked much of the knowledge and information that they do today. Not all that long ago, it was quite rational to think that lightning and volcanoes were supernatural events causing great fear. Major discoveries are made every year that clearly debunk many of the things that once were very reasonable to believe. Advanced technologies just in the last few decades have discovered a wealth of new knowledge from DNA and the size and make up of our universe. Among many other things, with the discovery of millions of additional fossils and new aging techniques, we have a very good understanding of how our species evolved. Even plate tectonics did not become a consensus until the late 1960s.

Many things that our parents and preachers taught us not only seemed logical and reasonable, but there was no way to fact check many of them. In addition, we had no real access to alternative opinions to even consider. We now know that the human race did not begin how the Bible told us it did with Adam and Eve. (See links below for greater details.) Among numerous other things, archaeology has shown that the Bible’s account of the Exodus just did not happen. Ditto with Noah’s flood, thanks to modern geology, hydrology, and genetics. The Tower of Babel story is debunked by linguistics research, even though the idea that a powerful and all-knowing God feared man’s attempt to build a stairway to His abode in heaven was absurd on its face. And we also know for sure that the earth is not 6,000 years old, despite the fact that numerous churches still teach that it is. Since the Bible is so incredibly wrong with so much, how can we reasonably accept anything else it says as fact?

Yet, many are still teaching (indoctrinating) children that everything in the Bible are facts direct from God, thus the children learn to view science and the humanities with the utmost suspicion, if not outright contempt and rejection. Some suggest that to even explore things like some of the sciences or philosophy is to invite Satan into your life.

Thankfully, with the internet, Google, and social media, the ability to fact check things in real time gives us many resources to help determine fact from fiction. (That assumes facts are what is being sought.) Millions of former sincere Christians, like me, came to realize that they no longer had an excuse to continue in their false beliefs. We had to be true to ourselves, so we just moved on. For many, this process was very difficult and costly. Loss of families, jobs, and entire communities of friends and support has occurred to many of them. Many children were literally thrown out of the house, and college tuition was cut off. Due to childhood indoctrination (brainwashing), such as an eternal hell for unbelievers, the process was long and difficult. Millions, in their hearts, know that it is not true, but remain mute about it because of fear or because of the high cost of coming out.

Interestingly, there are over a thousand active clergy in the support group, The Clergy Project. It consists of vetted clergy who now no longer believe in the supernatural, but if known, they stand the real possibility of losing their family and financial ruin. Many are not trained in anything other than the ministry. The goal is to support and assist, often with money, their transition with as little pain as possible.

Here are a few of the reasons why millions are leaving Christianity: (additional links are below for more detailed documentation.)

The Bible is not from God:

It is easy to confirm that the Bible is full of contradictions and errors; thus a perfect God could not possibly have inspired it, or if He or She did, it was not at all important to preserve its original messages. So why even inspire it to begin with? Certainly, any all-knowing God would not have been wrong about anything. Further, an all-knowing God would have known that its many ambiguities and multiple possible interpretations were going to result in many wars, murders, and tortures, including racism, slavery, witch burning, and other atrocities. A perfect God would have been a master of clear communication. Since it cannot be from Yahweh or Jehovah God, who according to the Bible is both all knowing and all powerful, there is no longer any rationale to fear an eternal hell.

Modern discoveries:

As stated above, recent discoveries have proven that the Bible is full of scientific and historical errors that, again, no perfect God could have inspired them. We now know its account of Adam and Eve could not possibly have happened, nor are the Exodus, Noah’s flood, or the Tower of Babel even plausible. The sun never stood still to allow Joshua to finish one of his genocides, nor is the earth 6,000 years old.

The Bible by any definition is immoral:

It became harder and harder, and finally, impossible to justify the many atrocities and immoralities that the Bible not only condoned but many times even commanded to take place. Genocides, slavery, and rape are several examples.

On top of those, how could a good and loving God ever create the food chain that required almost all animals that desired to live or feed their babies to be forced to kill and eat other animals to do so? Not only was the sacrifice of thousands of animals commanded, but several times the Bible indicated that God loved the smell of the burning meat. Imagine that, God having the same traits as men. Did an all-powerful God really inspire this thing, or does it sound exactly like things that ignorant old men would write? Karen Armstrong was right-on when she opened her book The History of God, with the line that read, “In the beginning, man created God.”

It is extremely anti-women:

The Bible did not respect, nor did it even try to protect the rights and dignity of women. As society became more enlightened and understood that females had equal worth as males, (and were often smarter and wiser) the Bible’s utter discrimination of women became intolerable. Just one example is, if a woman marries a man and it is determined that she was not a virgin, is found in Deuteronomy 22:20–21: But if this charge is true, and they did not find the girl to have evidence of virginity, then they shall bring the girl out to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death… How they “determined” that she was not a virgin shows the absolute ignorance of its author(s). Meanwhile, her husband was allowed other wives and sex slaves, politely referred to as concubines.

If you are still not convinced, here is Deuteronomy 21:10–13: When you go out to battle against your enemies, and the Lord your God delivers them into your hands and you take them away captive, and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and have a desire for her and would take her as a wife for yourself, then you shall bring her home to your house, and she shall shave her head and trim her nails. She shall also remove the clothes of her captivity and shall remain in your house and mourn her father and mother (who had just been killed) a full month; and after that you may go in to her (that means to rape her) and be her husband and she shall be your wife.

Deuteronomy 22:28–29: If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not betrothed, and he seizes her and has sexual relations with her, and they are discovered, then the man who had sexual relations with her shall give the girl’s father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife, because he has violated her; he is not allowed to divorce her all his days.

It is very very racist:

The Bible was racist to the core. Slaves and genocide were condoned and often outright advocated. Over and over again we read that the Bible’s God was the “God of Israel” who commanded them to enslave many foreigners, kill many others, and burn down entire foreign cities. The reason? God did not want the foreigners nearby, as his people would then be tempted. Deuteronomy 20:16–18: Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave anything that breathes alive. Instead, you shall utterly destroy them, the Hittite and the Amorite, the Canaanite and the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that they will not teach you to do all the same detestable practices of theirs which they have done for their gods, by which you would sin against the Lord your God.

1 Samuel 15:3: Hear the voice of the God of the Bible instruct His priest: “Now go and strike Amalek and completely destroy everything that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.’”

Not only did we learn just how racist the Bible was, but that racism became deeply incorporated in the church. Any honest reading of U.S. history shows it was used to justify slavery. I would think that a good God would have clearly stated that no one is ever allowed to own another human being, or to rape a woman, or to kill and destroy entire ethnic communities.

It is not a small world anymore:

Given our ability to travel today and to observe people interacting around the world, we realized that our culture was not superior when it came to morality and ethics. Moral and smart people lived everywhere, and many were sincere and devout followers of other religions. Thus, there was no evidence that having the “right God” resulted in a higher standard of morality or a greater love, unlike what we were taught by our parents and preachers.

No longer a captive:

Many who were forced to attend church as children disliked it so much, that when they became independent, they just quit for no other reason.

No mercy for the abused:

Many were abused and/or had friends who were. Rather than be provided with support, comfort, and therapy, they were often forced to be quiet about it and some were even blamed for being abused, just as women are often blamed for being raped. In the last decade, approximately eight billion dollars has been spent by the Catholic Church in settlements and attorney fees regarding clergy abuses. Protestant churches have had their share of scandals too.

MAGA politics:

Politics caused many to flee the church. While some churches are better than others, the fact remains that over 80% of white evangelicals proudly supported a pathological liar, a serial adulterer who bragged about sexual assaults, was an outspoken racist, and who did not even possess a single “fruit of the spirit” or one of the “seven virtues.” It became clear that their church had nothing to do with morality and love; rather it was usually just about money, power, and white supremacy. This is not to suggest that there are not many good and sincere Christians, there certainly are, but the majority of white ones made it completely untenable.

Even those who were less extreme and who had soft spots for suffering humanity, rarely raised their voices making them totally complicit.

Hypocrisy to the max:

Social issues is another major reason for many who left the church. While many evangelicals try to justify their vote for the protection of the “unborn,” the fact is, that same conservative platform also attempted dozens of times to strip health care from over 20 million people and they fight very hard against any attempts to provide fair housing, fair justice, equal education, equal voting, and safety nets that desperately are needed by families with children who have already been born.

The nicer parts of the Bible instructs true believers to heal the sick, feed the hungry, love their enemies, and among many other humanistic things, to comfort and protect the immigrant. Hypocrisy is really a kind word given that the loudest so-called Christians advocate the total opposite.

Just a thought question: If you truly believed that the unborn has a soul and will go to heaven if it is not born, is it really better having them to live, rather than most ending up in hell?

LGBTQ+:

Many were gay or had close friends or family members who were. Other “straights” were put off with the rampant discrimination and hatred. Yes, while Leviticus 18:22 does seem to refer to gay men, many “righteous” and outspoken Christians very conveniently ignored the other verses in the very same book of Leviticus that condemn having tattoos, wearing clothes that are made with mixed fabric (cotton, linens, polyester, etc.) adultery, eating pork, cursing your parents, planting more than one kind of seed in a field, and the trimming of sideburns and beards (See Leviticus chapters 19–20.) It makes no distinction as to any of them being worse than the others.

The hypocrisy and cherry-picking to single out just one of them for condemnation is nonsensical and is outright appalling, not to mention, dishonest.

Broken and false promises:

It became obvious that the Bible’s promise to answer prayer did not work. Generally the poor remained poor, the depressed remain depressed, and the sick remained sick. While there were a ton of testimonies about miracles, assuming it was not just made up, it always had other plausible explanations. Often God was credited with someone receiving a job offer or finding lost car keys. Healings were usually headaches that went away or other natural explanations, such as the common occurrence of cancer remissions or a high temperature dropping. Those remissions usually came back a year or two later.

Never ever was there a miracle such as an amputated limb growing a new one or anything else that could be explained only by the supernatural. There are billions of hungry people in the world, many of which are children and yet no multitude has ever been fed with just a couple of fish and a loaf of bread. A poor person never had a set of needed car tires instantly installed from thin air, nor if stranded in the desert with an empty gas tank, have it miraculously filled. Many died praying.