Try to imagine the pain and humiliation of a teenage girl, just 16 years old, who says she was forced to stand in front of a New Hampshire church congregation and confess her "sin" of being pregnant. She says not only was she forced to confess her pregnancy, but also to ask for their forgiveness – with no mention of the man she says sexually abused her. After all, she says, the pastor told her it's better than being stoned to death as the bible describes. That is what Tina Anderson alleged happened to her at her ultra conservative Independent Fundamental Baptist, or IFB, Church. The IFB has thousands of congregations across the country, but many people have never heard of it. That was, until another woman, Jocelyn Zichterman, began a public campaign – armed with nothing but a computer and memories of her own alleged abuse that she says church beliefs can foster. And survivors are now coming out of the woodwork, to say she's not alone.
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From The Australian : THEY came from everywhere, the true unbelievers: from Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, New Zealand and beyond. There was a honeymooning couple from North Carolina who had met on an atheist internet site; and two friends from rural NSW, both extroverted women who had been raised Catholics and were now seriously annoyed with it. Author Richard Dawkins had a few words to say about the sanctification of Mary MacKillop. An Iranian man who had seen unspeakable things done in the name of religion asked a speaker, philosopher A.C. Grayling, how it was that humans could be so kind and yet torture and kill each other. An Iraqi who migrated to Australia 40 years ago gave $4000 of his money to support this unusual gathering: the 2010 Global Atheists Convention, held in Melbourne at the weekend. The idea of atheists congregating seems counterintuitive. After all, they are defined only by an absence, a belief they don't have. But congreg...
By TheRedneckProfessor ~ I magine, if you will, a seedy hotel room in the dirty part of town. In the corner there is a small table, the drawer of which contains a Gideon bible. A garishly ornate lamp casts a pool of dingy yellow light upon the wall behind it, covered in peeling wallpaper, the fading floral pattern now more a study in browns after decades of dust and cigarette haze. In this room we have a 10-year-old girl: a singular expression of innocence and unfettered hope. Beside her, on the bed, is a 39-year-old pedophile rapist: the epitome of sociopathic sadism, a monster. He is neither her father, nor her uncle. He is, in fact, no one with whom this little girl should be alone. We know what is going to happen in this room; there is no need to provide further detail. This is the essence of meaningless, purposeless, gratuitous suffering inflicted upon innocence, examples of which can be s...
By Webmdave ~ A short discussion with a Christian believer Question: What do you mean when you say “free will.” Christian Believer Answer: Free will is the ability to make choices without external constraints. Q: Does God possess free will? CBA: God has the capacity to make choices, does not answer to any authority, is not limited by any external constraints, and cannot be coerced. God is unconstrained by all natural laws; He in fact established those laws and is sovereign over them. God most certainly possesses free will. Q: Then, In the same way, is God also unconstrained by moral laws? Since he established those laws, then he must hold sovereignty over them as well, right? CBA: There are certain things that God is incapable of doing because His perfect and holy nature disallows it. For instance, Titus 1:2 says that God “cannot lie.” God’s perfection prevents Him from lying and identifies an intrinsic property of God’s own character. God cannot be unfaithful to Himself; H...
By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our ...
