By trustingdoubter ~ I 'm not sure how long ago, but at some point I started seeing Christianity as a box - a really big box, to be sure. A box big enough to hold the God of the Bible, biblical history and doctrine, and all the christians who have ever lived or with ever live...a safe enclosed environment in which we all lived, moved, and had our being. It was a universe beyond which we dare not venture. If there is one thing that we knew, and knew well, it was that the boundaries of that box were there for our good and our protection. It was all we needed to know. God created us, loved us, sent his son to redeem us from our sins, and if we accept him as our personal savior we will be saved and go to heaven. That was the essence (although there was room for plenty of disagreement within those statements to make for a colorful and diverse and rancorous population....to keep it interesting.) And in one flash of insight I saw the Christian box, and I saw a camera's eye

By Alin B. ~ B orn in a Christian Orthodox family, around half of 1976 somewhere in the North-Western part of Romania , I got little of spiritual experience together with my family. I never had to go to church, we went few times but never stood too much and did not got very intense. At the age of 10 we moved and start having some problems while my father start heavy drinking. We are 4 children in the family and at that time two of my sister to escape from the super charged atmosphere in our home, married to first guys they met. So why is that important? Because the husband of one of my sister, is a strange guy. They are married for 14+ years and have 6 wonderful children. At the time they met, my sister was young and full of life and her new boyfriend also. But something changed dramatically after a little while.They moved out together in a rented house. So, one night after midnight we got some strange noise in the house where we lived at that time. The noise was actually, my new

Why the Universe Is Not Designed for Us Book by Victor J. Stenger ~ This article by Cheryl Krajna ~ A number of authors have noted that if some physical parameters were slightly changed, the universe could no longer support life, as we know it. This implies that life depends sensitively on the physics of our universe. Does this “fine-tuning” of the universe also suggest that a creator god intentionally calibrated the initial conditions of the universe such that life on earth and the evolution of humanity would eventually emerge? Some influential scientists, such as National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, think so. Others go even further, asserting that science “has found God.” In this in-depth, lucid discussion of this fascinating and controversial topic, physicist Victor J. Stenger looks at the same evidence and comes to the opposite conclusion. He states at the outset that as a physicist he will go wherever the data takes him, even if it leads him to God. B

By Barbara ~ I 've been a visitor of ExChrstian for a couple of years now and am a fellow de-convert. I just need to put this out to people who will understand my frustration. There is a so-called Theater production infiltrating the West Coast and they are using fear tactics and manipulation to convert young people to Christianity and they are being covert and deceitful to do it. Here is the opening post to the blog I just set up : My college campus closed an entire parking lot, for an entire month, to allow a “theater group” called The 99 to set up their temporary theater, right before finals. That was upsetting enough, but it gets worse. Little did the college or any of the teaching staff know that The 99 is a Christian organization that uses fear and manipulation to “save souls,” (read convert people to Christianity). They present themselves as an organization concerned about teens who make “bad choices,” but their focus and their goal is to convert vulnerable young

By ParticleMan ~ W hy does God’s plan for my missionary friends always revolve around me sending money to subsidize homeschooling their n children? (where n ≥ 3) One the things that we agnostics / atheists tend to get upset about is when Christian friends reject us once they find out our true beliefs. I don’t want to do the same thing in reverse, so I attempt to keep up polite contacts with people I knew from my ‘true believer’ days. In the course of corresponding with them there are sometimes intense moments of reverse- schadenfreude - seeing how silly I too must have sounded to the outside world. Except sometimes I can’t laugh about it – sometimes it is downright frustrating. I’d like to write about this partly to just get some of the dissonance ‘off my chest’ and partly to seek feedback from others on this site. None of my old Christian friends know that I am no longer a true believer anymore – I don’t live in the same town or see them personally. These are people that

By Angel of Mercy ~ I have very little experience judging things based on facts rather than circumstance, opinion, or blind belief. Often, when my reasoning faculties have failed me due to lack of practice, I am left to rely on how I feel about something as basis for my decisions. This is why, time and time again, I have been suckered into joining cult after cult only to realize that my time, energy, and money have been wasted while my return on investment was negative. I never even broke even to recover my initial investment. Most painful is the fact that I nearly lost what was most dear to me, my relationships with loved ones, as I exploited or neglected them in order to attain what I thought at the time was a greater purpose. My mind has been trained to be gullible. [...] Traces of the disease of Christianity are left inside my mind. My upbringing in Christianity taught me to view people as so stupid, ignorant, and "sinful" that they don't know what is good for t

By Amy ~ I t was one of those moments in which something fundamentally disturbing sneaks up on you before you have a chance to put your guard up. I can vividly recall each instance this has happened to me, and last night I can add another to the list. I was stretched on the couch, reading a fabulous book and sipping on fresh coffee. I had the television on in the background, and the news had begun. For a moment, just a moment, my attention broke away from the book and caught an image on the screen. The video displayed an Afghanistan man gleefully smacking two rocks together, a wide grin on his face. He looked like he was preparing for something quite fun and exciting, the look of anticipation in his eyes. The announcer then matter-of-factly proclaims that women’s rights in Afghanistan are still abysmal as evidenced by this stoning of an Afghan woman for alleged adultery. The video then flashes to a woman huddled in her black robes, completely hidden in heavy folds of clot

By Carl S. ~ O ne might conjecture that the realities of human life are like a 20th century symphony, with dissonances and unexpected changes in tempo, rhythm, dynamics, and melodies; vast and lengthy, overflowing and enwrapping everything. Life is made up of variations on the themes of atoms, DNA and RNA . Evolution is not only the greatest show on Earth, but the song of Nature. Image by Alan Vernon. via Flickr Societies have their own themes, dogmas, philosophies, and stories - all evolving, adapting in attempts to answer the age-old questions which keep aggravating humans. Like the themes used in a symphony, sometimes they are modified, re-introduced, rejected eventually, only to turn up again later as new information and ideas arise. Consider the edifices built on the beliefs of the divine powers of kings and priests and gods: temples, cathedrals, pyramids, palaces and the like. Rising to crescendos in glorious harmony and splendor, they eventually are destroyed or fall int

By summerbreeze ~ L ittle Sophie is a lamb that was the last to be born of twins. Image by paulafunnell via Flickr The mother Ewe had a hard time delivering Sophie, and when she was born she was not breathing. My Daughter had to use her 'lamb smarts' and do mouth to mouth, cleaning all the passage ways, then take the little lamb by its hind "ankles" and gently swing it back and forth while being held upside-down. Finally Sophie started breathing. Staying in the sheep barn all night, after the births, my exhausted daughter slept with her head on a bale of hay. The next morning brought a grim sight. Mother Ewe would not let Sophie nurse, instead she would head-butt the tiny lamb, sending it cartwheeling across the pen. For four whole weeks my Daughter bottle fed the lamb every two hours, night and day. Having a job where she works at home, made it easier for her, however she was bone tired just trying to get through the days. On Mother's Day we wen

By Adam ~ A s I sit here writing these very words, I’m listening to what many Christian would consider being New Age music , drinking a wonderful and refreshing alcoholic beverage, and talking with friends on Facebook about burning incense for calming and meditative purposes. Image via Wikipedia What a journey I have been through, to end where I am now. I remember praying earnestly and sincerely to god that I wouldn’t lose my faith. That my faith would continue to grow by leaps and bounds, that my entire life would be in devotion and loving sacrifice to him. I remember soaking up the bible and then similarly forcing it down other’s throats. I remember speaking in a crazy mumbo-jumbo and calling it the purest form of prayer – tongues. I remember being convinced by my old church, believing whole heartedly, that Dinosaur bones were planted by Satan to draw people from the truth of Christianity. I remember hearing at the pulpit what to wear, what to do, what to listen to, what

By James A. Haught ~ O sama bin Laden achieved a remarkable feat: He mobilized the power of religion to spur devout young men to kill themselves in order to murder defenseless strangers. Grotesquely, the suicide-killers felt they were performing holy acts that would please God and assure them martyr rewards in paradise. The annals of faith-based killing are long: human sacrifice, the Crusades, the Inquisition, witch-hunts, Reformation wars, drowning of Anabaptists, jihads, pogroms against Jews, China's Taiping Rebellion, Mexico's Cristero War, cult horrors, abortion clinic murders, and many modern ethnic conflicts fueled by "religious tribalism." A new phase was led by bin Laden, who orchestrated the 21st-century phenomenon of Islamic suicide-bombing. Mercifully, his personal chapter ended when Navy Seals stormed his Asian hideout on May 1. The modern Islamic "cult of death" -- the worst menace of current times -- baffles most Westerners. Logical minds

By Peter ~ I was 61 years old when I had my "Eureka" moment. The realisation that I had not stopped to think and open my eyes, and my mind, came as a thrilling surprise. My only disappointment was that I had hidden the truth and ignored the facts for so long. I was born, baptised and raised as a Catholic, served as an altar boy, and became a Godfather to several children. My mother was a convert to Catholicism and being a wise and intelligent person I guess I just followed her lead. Her basic message was, have faith, do not question. I was born in England, UK , but was taken to South Africa aged 1 and returned to England on my 16th birthday. The church had been a champion of Human Rights against the Apartheid regime and was a conduit for peaceful protest against the government. Also the Mass was always said in Latin and this allowed the mystery to survive in my mind. When the Latin was dropped in the late 1960's (?) the full meaning of the scriptures was more plainly

By Charles ~ W ell, I thought that this day will never come. I know your website from a while, but I was thinking that you were just a bunch of crazy people, really angry with God, religion and christians. Sorry about that... Image by m@®©ãǿ►ðȅtǭǹȁðǿr◄© via Flickr My story...well, everything started 16 years ago, when I started attending an evangelical church. My first few weeks in the church were OK, then someone asked me if I have received Jesus as saviour. I thought: "No, that I'm aware", but to them I says yes....so I guess I've started my Christian journey with a lie. I went to different churches, denominations, I went to theological college, etc.. my life was full of ups and downs, moments of doubts, etc... I thought that that was pretty normal for a young Christian who need to growth. I went to the brethren church, Pentecostal, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc..Every time the story was the same…if I was attending a church very faithfully I was a very mature an

By Marlene Winell ~ The description on YouTube: On the occasion of Camping's "Judgment Day" prediction of May 21, Dr. Winell and Tracy Williams discuss the psychological implications of these end times doctrines. This is part of a day-long podcast on The God Discussion. Marlene and Tracy also explain RTS, or Religious Trauma Syndrome, as a real condition similar to PTSD . Religious indoctrination in a repressive, authoritarian religion can be serious child abuse with life-long emotional consequences. Many people are taking steps to recover and there is help available. Go to journeyfree.org for more information and resources. Dear ExChristian reader, What are your memories of being taught about the " End Times "? Were you looking forward to the rapture, afraid about the tribulation, scared you would be left behind, etc? Did you ever think you were left? What's it like for you now? Do you ever have panic attacks or get worried when bad things happen