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what lies were YOU told e.g. in church?

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What lies, eh?  Well, there is the sweeping everything answer, but I can get more specific than that.   

"Jesus loves you."

John 3:16.  What kind of a "loving" god would create hell to send people that he loved so much to?  And what kind of a "powerful" god would have to die to fix the problems that it created in the first place???  If god is timeless, couldnt he just go back to the beginning and fix it?  And if he knows everything, dont you think he could have gotten it right in the first place??? 

"God created man in his own image."  That one has to be the other way around. 

Unsaved people really want you to tell them about Jesus.  If they argue with you, it's Satan or his demons talking through them. 

Oh... this one really burned my shorts:  Confusion is from Satan.  HUH???  Oh yeah... this one is to keep the sheep in line.  If you tell them that their doubts are coming from Satan, then they will never voice them so that they will appear as devout as the next lamb.  Sad.  Sort of like the story of the Emperors new clothes, right?

Mmmm.....cool question and I can't think of anything - everything is a lie?

The I'm gonna ta Hell is probably the one I heard said to me the most. That and umm...Satan is sitting on my shoulder.

Speaking in tongues....heeheeee

Healing of any kind

That christian's are always good - honest people...heeheee

The pastor is god's rep on earth that's why he owns the church building and needs to keep the money - the pastor and his church is the only true church in the whole wide world.

The christian's in 'our' church are the only true christian's and are direct descendences of Adam or some such bullshit. Jews and Muslims are not. (of course)

christian's are loving....heeheee....and pure.....and don't sin.....heehee......

fornicatin' and masterbation is bad, evil........christian's don't fuck around because its bad.

If I eat carrots I will go to heaven. Bacon will rot my soul.

Watching TV is evil and satan lives inside.

Father and Husband are the leaders and I will be taken good care of by them (if I obey)....women are sluts and harlots who don't obey.

Praying will achieve anything I want.....all I need to do is ask and I will receive.

I could go on and  on but I think I've bored you all enough.

The people out there (non-christians) don't give a toss about working hard.

Non-christian men don't know how to treat women, that's why in the world women aren't expected to be submissive.  Christian men know how to treat women so it's safe for them to be submissive.  Words to that effect.

Christians don't steal.

If you let God be the centre of your life you will have a fantastic time and be fulfilled. 

Everything you need to know is in the Bible.

There's not enough to do in the city that's for families.

This list is not exhaustive.  I can think of more but not at the moment.  But it's almost anything you hear  in a fundy church.

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Here's a few things Nietzsche had to say about the lies of Christianity:So long as the priest, that professional denier, calumniator and poisoner of life, is accepted as a higher variety of man, there can be no answer to the question, What is truth? Truth has already been stood on its head when the obvious attorney of mere emptiness is mistaken for its representative.-- Nietzsche, The Antichrist, section 8Whoever has theological blood in his veins is shifty and dishonourable in all things. The pathetic thing that grows out of this condition is called faith: in other words, closing one's eyes upon one's self once for all, to avoid suffering the sight of incurable falsehood.-- Nietzsche, The Antichrist, section 9Whatever a theologian regards as true must be false: there you have almost a criterion of truth. His profound instinct of self-preservation stands against truth ever coming into honour in any way, or even getting stated.

-- Nietzsche, Ibid

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Wow, I'm going to have to read some Nietzsche. 

Most of your answers cover the first question concerning lies, to which I can only add that the entire system, if believed literally, is lies.  Adam and Eve, the world flood, Elijah whipped up to heaven in a chariot, Jonah and the whale, all the healings in the NT--lies.  Oh, fundy xtians don't think they are lying, but they are deceived, and spread their deception around like butter on toast. 

The second part of PhoenixFireWalker's question "Did Jesus fill the emptiness?"  NO.  My emptiness at the time of my conversion was caused by a lack of life skills, so I felt helpless and needy, having to depend too much on people to take care of me.  Such as my parents, who I really needed to instead be pulling away from and developing my own personhood.  But, after much of my own study (and suspention of my critical thinking process--which wasn't in too good of shape yet anyway), Jesus "saved" me and I moved on with my life thinking I could do all things through him who strengthens me.  The first two years or so--yeah it worked, in the sense that it gave me confidence to move on with my life.  But I now know that it was my own inner strength that enabled me to make changes; if I had done all of what I did but not accepted Jesus and went to church, I still would have grown as a human being.  But no, I believed...so beyond the first two years, I added almost 12 more in which I slogged on, trying to find that elusive "true xtianity".  You could say that through out most of my xtian career, I still felt empty because of being unsatisfied with my church, their teachings, and their examples (whoa boy, don't get me going there!). 

Really all humans probably have feelings of emptiness now and then.  Especially in the USA, where a consumer/advertising culture pushes new products on you all the time, making you feel like if you don't perpetually buy the new models available you're being left in the dust by the Jones'.  Doesn't Buddhism address this some, by saying the source of our unhappiness (emptiness?) is desire?  Constant emptiness--now that's more serious; probably depression, or as in my case, lack of training in knowing how to manoeuver in the world (which then leads to depression).  Emptiness; this is what the fundies take advantage of, with great success.  Then they actually keep you in that state with their worm theology. 

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what lies were YOU told e.g. in church?

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My particular favorite lie: "Jesus died for your sins".

Everything that flows from that statement, and all the necessary assumptions about the nature of the world that lead up to that statement are lies. Or at least perhaps delusions.

While these were lies, at least I take some comfort from the fact (assumption?) that those who told me these lies did not do so knowing them to be lies.

Did Jesus fill the emptiness?

Yes.  Temporarily.  A band-aid works for a little while, but if the cut isn't getting better you need to move on to something more efficient.  What I had were emotional highs.  Worked well with the bipolar.  Up, God was moving in my life and the Holy Spirit was filling me, I was on fire; mood swings low, I'm being "tested", Satan is trying to distract me, God is strengthening me and using what I learned in my spiritual fever and applying it to my life.  (Two years gone and I can still talk the talk.)   But my bipolar wasn't healed by Jesus, it's kept under control by medication and I will always have it. 

Lies:

The healing thing first.  I never saw God heal anybody.  I saw medication work, and not work.  People prayed and were better, people prayed and died. 

Second, that masturbation and lustful thoughts are evil; that homosexuality is "an abomination". 

Third, that words of men are divine.  This is the big one.  There's others, like I must "deny myself" and suffer persecution to truly follow Christ, when really none of us can avoid completely giving up something for another, and everyone goes through hurt and loss in their lives.  American Christians feel so guilty about their blessings they go looking for persecution wherever they can find it.  Even though they're just being rude and getting the inevitable reaction.  I digress...

people can say they see God, hear God, experience God, but it's all subjective.  I can't prove it, neither can they, and I wasn't there.  That was my favorite part about "The Age of Reason", revelation is personal, if it's second hand it's not revelation you're just choosing to believe someone else's revelation.  Those that contributed to the Bible, or any other religious text, are giving their own personal accounts and oppinions.  Some may be well intended, and some self serving, but that doesn't make it true.  I know, I'm preaching to the choir here.  I just get a lot from my oldest whether or not the religious books we sometimes read or videos we occassionally watch are "true".  I'm constantly telling him, "It doesn't matter.  The point is, did you learn something?"  I say other stuff sometimes, but I tend to be too wordy for my kids.  Some people believe it's true.  We have friends who take it as history, they tell my son that when he talks about it with them, but it doesn't happen too often.  I want my children to think for themselves, and not get spoonfed "truth" by the words of men long dead, or the men that claim to represent those dead men.

Once the "absolute truth" is taken out of the picture there is tremendous freedom from such absolute lies. 

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That I was worthless.

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It's not actually said but it's implied and just when the effects of feeling 'worthless' strike hold (as in depression, anxiety, OCD, failure in life, etc) you're told that you're 'special' to God.  Bit of a schizophrenic attitude.  Being 'worthless' means being told that you can't do anything without God and even if you do then the act itself becomes 'worthless'.

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That I was worthless.

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Your statement struck me right in the chest.

Yes thanks I heard that as well.....may I add -

 and in need of fixing and correcting.

For me that message was given to me at a very young age......come to think of it I never heard that I was 'special'.........but if I worked harder on it I might be one day. (that means never)

I hear that the pentie cults are going for the same  kind of message and are delivering it on mass from the pulpit....the idea that 'perfection' can be achieved through hard 'faith'.... but at the same time they speak about the absolute 'liberty' they all have through their 'hard work' and by following the rules to the letter. If that sounds like circular crap to you then I make no appologies - its meant to! Crap is like that....

Someone totally stole my icon.

That aside, I think the worst lie I was told was that I WAS empty inside. I had always been a fairly happy child, until I went to the Christian school and they told me that Jesus had to fill up the empty place inside me that was just waiting for him. In effect, I sabotaged myself, which is pretty sad when you think about it.

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Then there was the anti-inellectualism: Don't go to a secular university... or a Presbyterian/methodist/catholic/the bunch down the street or the next town over, et al. because they'll seduce you to put your mind/knowledge above the Will of God. Those who don't submit, those who question and don't reach the proper [unconscious] answers are doomed to fail having been predestined by God to be "given over" to the devil and his ways... etc.

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That was another big one, especially after I decided to go to a secular college. I was told a number of times that I had to "lay my intellect at the foot of the cross." I hated that - why would God give me an intellect and then tell me I couldn't use it? It was so silly.

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Also, what lies were YOU told e.g. in church?

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That the Bible is inerrant - it isn't.  According the much revered King James Version so highly vaunted in my circles, the earth is both flat and the center of universe.  The sky is an impenetrable dome above the earth.  Jesus was to come again before some of the people hearing him make the claim would die.  Solomon, in parallel accounts, had both 4,000 and 40,000 stalls of horses.  Etc.  (I've yet to hear anyone explain just WHICH KJV is the inerrant one - the 1611, or the 1789 version with all the error corrections?  I've heard claims both ways, plus comments that BOTH versions are inerrant, despite the many differences between the 2 translations.)

That "people who don't believe like we do" are willful sinners, shaking their fists in the face of God, and ignoring clear teaching of the Bible.  That isn't true.  People, generally, take their religion at least seriously enough to believe that it is Right and Good.  People aren't running around with their heart-felt beliefs, thinking at the same time that those beliefs are a cheap cover up for the One True Religion.  Never minding that, the Bible tends to be vague or contradictory on many things.  This includes key doctrines such as salvation (do you have to be baptized or don't you to be "saved" - do you have to have works or don't you to be "saved" and so on), so much so that it's easy to see how different people can read the Bible and see things differently without being intellectually dishonest.  Call this the "black and white" lie - not everything is black and white.  There's lots of gray.

That the genocidal God of the Old Testament who repeatedly orders the wanton slaughter of entire populations is the same God who loved the world so much that he sent his Son to die for it.  That's so severely out of whack that I can hardly grasp it, nor do I accept it as true.  Something's amiss with that one.

That the Bible is the preserved Word of God for man.  If what God wants the world to know and believe is written in the Bible, then why is the Bible so difficult to make plain sense out of in many places?  Should something so important as how we interact with God be open to interpretation, or to misinterpretation?  You'd think God would make it so simple, we couldn't possibly screw it up.  Why would people through the centuries spend lifetimes in dedicated religious study just to wrap their brain around the contents of the Bible (in other words, why should they have to)?  The consequences for getting the Bible wrong are (apparently) eternal damnation, so if the scholars and major religious denominations who are supposed to know these things not only don't agree, but sharply disagree at many turns, where the heck does that leave the layman?  As best as I can tell, I am SCREWED.  Now, to be fair, I've not thrown out the Bible completely.  But the lie is that the Bible is word for word, verse for verse, chapter for chapter the inspired Holy Word of God.  It's something...but I don't know just what it is at this point.

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In effect, I sabotaged myself, which is pretty sad when you think about it.

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Lies I was told:

1-There is more evidence for the existence of Jesus than there is for the existence of Abraham Lincoln.

2-Trust your Christian leaders because God has chosen them to be in their postitions of authority.

3-Give ten percent of your income and God will open the floodgates of heaven. (I am still paying off the debt this created)

4-The Bible is infallible and therfore perfect.  If something doesn't make sense it is because you lack some particular insight into what is being said.

5-Jesus made grape juice and not real (alchoholic) wine. ( when I pointed out to the pastor that this cannot be supported from the biblical text, he basically said that drinking alchohol is wrong and if he uses the scripture in a dishonest way he is supporting what is right-keeping people away from alchohol!)

There are more but these are the main ones.

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I guess every chuch has it's own flavor of baloney!

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I think my favorite phoney balony line was one from my grandfather after he got a brand new RV.  He was showing it off to my husband, and he told him that if you were good to god (like he was), god would be bless you with a brand new RV.

Now everytime my husband and I see an RV driving down the road, we giggle and say, "That person must have been good to the Lard."   

Not as bad (in a way) as the lies you guys have reminded me about BUT it used to get me feeling pretty damn miserable!  The whole thing about the end of the world! I went to a church that was I guess the term is post-rapture? and we were told and my family believed (and most or all still do) that "perilous times shall come" (is perilious one L or two?) Now, because of this myth, my mum was discouraged from having a proper career - which she would have liked.  (She told me this herself.)  And everytime ANY kind of card system was introduced my grandma and the church and now my brother were convinced it COULD be the mark of the beast.  And re. the U.N. etc, that was possibly the Anti Christ.  I am a person who is extra sensitive, O.K.  I take things to heart, sometimes more than others, I mean, although I keep up with what's going on (usually through the Net) I avoid the TV news cos actually sometimes I will shed tears if something is sad.  Can you IMAGINE then how these myths made me feel? I am also highly sensitive to pain.  The idea of being tortured for my faith in the near future, for e.g., TERRIFIED me.  When a war was solved I WANTED to believe it was a GOOD thing (I am a peace-loving person by nature) but then say my brother would say for e.g. "Oh the U.N. solved that, and then they'll sort the Middle East crises out (I WISH!!) and get them to live in peace and that's part of the evil system." All I wanted to do, really, was feel HAPPY about the peace!! I mean, yes it all sounds SO ridiculous BUT when you've been to church since you were young and you had to go three times on Sunday and when you were a teen there was the youth group and your best friend's friends (even though they're downright bitchy and UNChristian like!!) hang out with you you can believe it, you know? Cos it's what you're brought up with.  I know, too, what you mean about the low self esteem thing the kind of we are crap God/Jesus/Holy Spirit is everything lie and how that can make you feel.  My first job I prayed God would help me do well but I didn't "trust" Him because I thought well it COULD be in his WILL for me to lose this job for some reason!  And lose it I did in the end! The hitch with the prayer thing for ME was that (as I was told over and over) whatever I was praying for might not actually be in my best interests and God might have a better idea.  But shit would still happen and so I guess i didn't think much at times of his "better" "higher" ways!!  And as for believing I am inferior to men (as the bible basically teaches) well, I never believed THAT one!!  Then there was the "unequally yoked" which has effected my life negatively many a time.  Now I am happily married to a man who is NOT a Christian (he is a moslim but oh well I guess you can't have everything! Anyway he is less fundy than my family was or my ex church, more moderate and lets me belive what I like!!) well we are happy and yet my cousins who married "Christians" and my aunty are divorced or separated, in most cases it was a VERY miserable separation!  (They also married a lot younger than me, which isn't always a good idea.)  I also used to wonder about the "obey your parents" all very well and good but WHY was there no clause/exception in there saying obey your parents UNLESS they are say sexually abusive?  (Not that mine were by the way.)  I was told "positive thinking" for e.g. was evil even by my brother.  I mean, I had this Tony Robbins book - still do! - and he saw it and said self help books are bad because they are unChristian, they don't encourage you to be born again but rather to believe in yourself!!  I think I am paraphrasing but that's basically it.  Sorry to say it, I am doing a much better job of managing my life than "God" et al EVER did!! Oh yes, and the thing about homosexuals I mean generally speaking do they ever HARM anyone? (usually no!!) So what's the big deal?! (The lie that we should discourage homosexual marriage cos the bible tells me so etc etc.)  But, as I said, the End of the World or rather the idea of persecution, torture and an evil system that would be almost impossible to say no to and if I didn't I would end up in even more torturous hell was probably the most painful lie of all. I even considered suicide once because I was afraid of it! (Lucky I never attempted it!) Oh, and because I had no Christian friends!!!! (Cos they were too snobby to even TALK to me!!)

P.S. although some of you have pointed out corrupt churches tithing etc (ha! I used to tithe a dollar or less, well occasionally $5 but that was MAX) and tons of people ARE corrupted by it, does that mean EVERYONE is?! What am I talking about? The lie??? or IS it true? "money is the route of all evil" I am PRETTY sure that's from the bible. Oh, sorry the LOVE of money. Hey, if you don't LOVE it, you may not WANT it enough to actually GET it, you know? And you CAN love somethings (like say family, a marriage, your health) MORE than you love others (e.g. money).  And I HAVE heard of rich philanthropists and I think don't charities for e.g RELY on donations and aren't you more ABLE to donate if you actually HAVE the money??  Money is a tool, like a lot of things, it's neutral.  Like a spade (silly example, first one that comes to mind) you can dig with it and make a gorgeous garden or you can use it as a weapon and bash someone on the head with it! A better e.g. is pen and paper. You could write a "poisonous" letter (say blackmail) or a profound and beautiful poem.  Just a thought.