There is no beginning and no end

By TheAtheistCrusader ~

After the overwhelming comments of support on my opening testimonial letter, I was really touched by most of the support I got. Thank you for it!

English: Logo from the television program The Big Bang Theory (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I first entered theoretical physics, I discovered the magic of reality. I always loved math, and this was an atheist's wonder.

Recently I elaborated my own little theory about the universe, and I'd like to share it with my fellow non-believers.

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Based on the law of conservation, it is said that "no matter is created nor destroyed only transformed"

From this it is insinuated that every smallest particle of matter (electrons, and even gluons) was and always will be there. From this it is insinuated that in accordance with the Big Bang theory, in the original nucleus was every particle of matter. This of course, is impossible, as density is a factor.

Continuing on this, it is noted in the law that no matter is ever brought into existence nor taken out of existence. Noting this, we can insinuate that the universe has no beginning and no end. The concept of expansion is due to the continuous star expansion and galactic movement. Thus if God, or any force exists, he/she/it must have been the matter, since it's eternal, and eternity is a property of a God.

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Give me your thoughts on this this little theory of mine. I'd love to have your comments!

8 Ways the Religious Right Wins Converts – To Atheism

By Valerie Tarico ~

If the Catholic Bishops, their Evangelical Protestant allies, and other Right-wing fundamentalists had the sole objective of decimating religious belief, they couldn’t be doing a better job of it.

Testimonials at sites like ExChristian.net show that people leave religion for a number of reasons, many of which religious leaders have very little control over. Sometimes, for example, people take one too many science classes. Sometimes they find their faith shattered by the suffering in the world – either because of a devastating injury or loss in their own lives or because they experience the realities of another person’s pain in a new way. Sometimes a believer gets intrigued by archaeology or symbology or the study of religion itself. Sometimes a believer simply picks up a copy of the Bible or Koran and discovers faith-shaking contradictions or immoralities there.

But if you read ExChristian testimonials you will notice that quite often church leaders or members do things that either trigger the deconversion process or help it along. They may turn a doubter into a skeptic or a quiet skeptic into an outspoken anti-theist, or as one former Christian calls himself, a de-vangelist.

Here are some top ways Christians push people out the Church door or shove secret skeptics out of the closet. Looking at the list, you can’t help but wonder if the Catholic Bishops, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachman and their fundamentalist allies are working for the devil.

Gay Baiting

Because of sheer demographics, most gay people are born into religious families, and in this country almost half are born into Bible-believing families who see homosexuality as an abomination. The condemnation (and self-condemnation) can be excruciating, as we all know from the suicide rate. Some emotionally battered gays spend their lives fighting or denying who they are, but many eventually find their way to open and affirming congregations or non-religious communities.

Between 1991 and 2011 the percent of women attending church in a typical week dropped by eleven points, from 55 to 44 percent.
Ignorant and mean-spirited attitudes about homosexuality don’t drive just gays out of the Church, they are a huge deconversion issue for straight friends and family members. When Christians indulge in slurs, devout moms and dads who also love their gay kids find themselves less comfortable in their church home. Young people, many of whom think of the gay rights issue as a no-brainer, put anti-gay churches in the “archaic” category. Since most people Gen X and younger recognize equal rights for gays as a matter of common humanity, gay baiting is a wedge issue that wedges young people right out of the church. That makes Fred Phelps a far better evangelist for atheism than for his own gay-hating Westborough Baptist Church.

Prooftexting

People who think of the Bible as the literally perfect word of God love to quote excerpts to argue their points. They often start with a verse in 1 Timothy: All scripture is given by inspiration of God. (As if this circular argument would convince anyone but a true believer.) They then proceed to quote whatever authoritarian, anti-gay, or anti-woman verse makes their point, like, Whoever spares the rod hates their children . . . Blows and wounds cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the inmost being. or Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. In doing so, they call into question biblical authority, because the Bible writers so obviously got these issues wrong. Literalists who prooftext are a tremendous asset to those who would like to see Bible worship fade away – because prooftexting on one side of an argument invites the same in return, and it is easy to find quotes from the Bible that are either scientifically absurd or morally repugnant.

Many liberal or modernist Christians see the Bible as a human document, an attempt by our spiritual ancestors to articulate their best understanding of God through the lens of imperfect human cultures and minds. Suppose such a Christian gets confronted with a verse that says, for example, Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man (Numbers 31:17-18), or No man who has any defect may come near [to God in the temple]: no man who is blind or lame, disfigured or deformed; no man with a crippled foot or hand, or who is a hunchback or a dwarf, or who has any eye defect, . . . (Leviticus 21:17-23). He or she can simply shrug and say, “Yeah, that’s ugly.” A couple of years ago a group of liberal Christians even kicked off an internet competition to vote on the worst verse in the Bible. Their faith doesn’t stand or fall with the perfection of the Bible. Biblical literalists, on the other hand give someone like me an excuse to talk about sexual slavery or bias against handicapped people in the Bible – in front of an audience who have been taught that the good book is uniformly good. For a wavering believer, the dissonance can be too much.

Misogyny

For psychological and social reasons females are more inclined toward religious belief than males. They are more likely to attend church services and to insist on raising their children in a faith community. They also appear more indifferent than males to rational critique of religion, like debates about theology or evolutionary biology. I was interested to notice recently that my YouTube channel, Life After Christianity, which focuses on the psychology of religion gets about eighty percent male viewers. Women are the Church’s base constituency, but fortunately for atheists, this fact hasn’t caused conservative Christians to back off of sexism that is justified by – you got it – prooftexting from the Old and New Testaments.

Evangelical minister, Jim Henderson, recently published a book, The Resignation of Eve, in which he urges his fellow Christians to take a hard look at the consequences of sexism in the church. According to Henderson, old school sexism has driven some women out of Christianity permanently, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For those who stay, it means that many are less enthusiastic and engaged than they would be. Churches rely on women to volunteer in roles that range from secretary to director of Children’s programs to missionaries. That takes a high level of confidence in Church doctrines and also a strong sense of belonging. Biblical sexism cultivates neither. Between 1991 and 2011 the percent of women attending church in a typical week dropped by eleven points, from 55 to 44 percent.

Hypocrisy

Christians are taught – and many believe—that thanks to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit they are a moral beacon for society. The writer of Matthew told his audience, “You are the light of the world.” That’s a high bar, and yet decent believers (along with many other decent people) try earnestly to meet it. But the added pressure on those who call themselves “the righteous” means that believers also are prone to hiding, pretending, posing, and turning a blind eye to their own very human, very normal faults and flaws. People who desperately want to be sanctified and righteous, “cleansed by the blood of the lamb” – who need to believe that they now merit heaven but that other people’s smallest transgressions merit eternal torture—have a lot of motivation to engage in self-deception and hypocrisy. High profile hypocrites like Ted Haggard or Rush Limbaugh may be loved by their acolytes, but for people who are teetering, they help to build a gut aversion to whatever they espouse. But often as not, the hypocrisies that pose a threat to faith are small and internal to a single Bible-study or youth group. Backbiting and social shunning are part of the church-lady stereotype for a reason. They also leave a bitter taste that makes some church members stop drinking the Kool-aid.

Disgusting and Immoral Behavior

The priest abuse scandal did more for the New Atheist movement than outspoken anti-theists like Christopher Hitchens (God is Not Great), Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The End of Faith) or Bill Maher (Religulous) ever could. To make matters worse—or better, depending on your point of view-- Bill Donohue of the Catholic League seems to be doing everything possible to fan those flames: On top of the abuse itself, followed by cover-ups, he is now insisting that the best defense of Church property is a good offense against the victims, and has vowed to fight them “one by one.” The Freedom from Religion Foundation publishes a bi-monthly newspaper that includes a regular feature: The Black Collar Crime Blotter. It features fraud, drug abuse, sex crimes and more by Protestant as well as Catholic clergy. The obvious purpose is to move readers from Religion isn’t true to Religion isn’t benign to Religion is abhorrent and needs fighting. Moral outrage is a powerful emotion.

Science denial 

One of my former youth group friends had his faith done in by a conversation with a Bible study leader who explained that dinosaur skeletons actually are the bones of the giants described in early books of the Bible. Uh huh. Christians have come up with dozens of squishier, less falsifiable ways to explain the geological record: The ‘days’ in Genesis 1 were really ‘ages.’ Or God created the world with the fossils already in place to test our faith. Or the biblical creation story is really sacred metaphor. But young earth creationists who believe the world appeared in its present form 6- 10,000 years ago are stuck. And since almost half of the American public believes some version of this young earth story, there are ample opportunities for inquiring minds to trip across proto-scientific nonsense.

Like other factors I’ve mentioned, science denial doesn’t just move believers to nonbelief. It also rallies opposition ranging from cantankerous bloggers to legal advocates. It provides fodder for comedians and critics: “If the world was created 6000 years ago, what’s fueling your car?” It may produce some of the most far reaching opposition to religious belief, because science advocates argue that faith, even socially benign faith, is a fundamentally flawed way of knowing. The Catholic Church, perhaps still licking wounds about Galileo (they apologized finally in the 20^th Century), has managed to avoid embarrassing and easily disproven positions on evolutionary biology. But one could argue that their atheism-fostering positions on conception and contraception similarly rely on ignorance about or denial of biological science –in this case embryology and the basic fact that most embryos never become persons.

Political meddling

If you look at religion-bashing quote-quip-photo-clip-links that circulate Facebook and Twitter, most of them are prompted by church incursions into the political sphere. A spat between two atheists erupted on my home page yesterday. “Why can’t ex-Christians just shut up about religion and get on with building a better world?” asked one. “Why can’t we shut up?!” screeched the other. “Because of shit like this!” He posted a link about Kansas giving doctors permission to deny contraception and accurate medical information to patients.

I myself give George W. Bush credit for transforming me from a politically indifferent, digging-in-the-garden agnostic into a culture warrior. He casually implied that, when going to war, he didn’t need to consult with his own father because he had consulted the big guy in the sky, and my evangelical relatives backed him up on that, and I thought, oh my God, the beliefs I was raised on are killing people. The Religious Right, and now the Catholic Bishops, have brought religion into politics in the ugliest possible way short of holy war, and people who care about the greater good have taken notice. Lists of ugly Bible verses, articles about the psychology of religion, investigative exposes about Christian machinations in D.C. or rampant proselytizing in the military and public schools –all of these are popular among political progressives because it is impossible to drive progressive change without confronting religious fundamentalism.

Intrusion

Australian comedian and atheist John Safran, flew to Salt Lake City for a round of door-to-door devangelism after Mormons rang his doorbell one too many times on Saturday morning. More serious intrusions, in deeply personal beginning- and end-of-life decisions, for example, generate reactive anti-theism in people who mostly just want to live and let live.

Catholic and Evangelical conservatives have made a high stakes gamble that they can regain authoritarian control over their flocks and hold onto the next generation of believers (and tithers) by asserting orthodox dogmas, making Christian belief an all or nothing proposition. Their goal is a level of theological purity that will produce another Great Awakening based largely on the same dogmas as the last one. They hope to cleanse their membership of theological diversity, and assert top down control of conscience questions, replenishing their membership with anti-feminist, pro-natalist policies and proselytizing in the Southern hemisphere. But the more they resort to strict authoritarianism, insularity and strict interpretation of Iron Age texts, the more people are wounded in the name of God and the more people are outraged. By making Christian belief an all-or-nothing proposition – they force at least some would-be believers to choose “nothing.” Anti-theists are all too glad to help.

Church and Hypnotic Manipulation

By Michael Sherlock ~

In the third volume of my ‘I Am Christ’ series, I dedicate two chapters to examining hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), as they apply to most, if not all, Christian Church services.

Hypnosis (Photo credit: heyjoewhereyougoinwiththatguninyourhand)

In the chapter on Hypnosis, entitled; The Magic of Modern Christianity: Sunday Morning Hypnosis, I discuss the five stages of hypnosis as they relate the average church service.

The following is a small excerpt from I Am Christ; Vol. 3: The Ascension – Understanding, which includes a brief background on hypnosis as well as the second stage of hypnosis.

Hypnosis Misunderstood

Contrary to popular myth, hypnosis is not about turning people into chickens! It is true however, that deep trance hypnosis can dramatically alter one’s perception of reality, in much the same way that meditation, prayer, long term fasting, entrancing religious rituals, or walking for miles in the hot desert. Contrary to the title of this chapter, there is nothing magic about hypnosis. A popular misconception regarding hypnosis is that it involves a sleeping state, in which the subject is covertly forced to adopt thoughts and behaviors which they would otherwise, be adverse to. The trance-state can and usually is, induced via hypnosis while the subject is wide awake; this state is known as the ‘waking trance’ and is the most common form of trance. Under this waking trance, it is unlikely even impossible, that hypnosis alone can cause the subject to think and behave in a manner that is contrary to their moral constitution and established principles. Having said that, when hypnosis is combined with N.L.P (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), it can, and quite often does, result in the changing of a person’s ideas, beliefs and behaviors. Subjects under hypnosis will usually remain acutely aware of their surroundings and may not even know that they are in the hypnotic state. The trance-state induced by hypnosis is a relaxing, slightly altered state of consciousness, which is very natural and commonly experienced by everyone almost every day. Whether we experience it during our favorite TV show or driving down a long stretch of highway, we all go into trance daily and we are seldom aware that we are in this state of slightly altered consciousness. Have you ever been in a daze while being asked questions by someone and you ended up asking them what you had just agreed to? Or have you ever walked into a room to get something and then forgotten what you had to get, once you were in the room? Because trance is a regularly experienced state of mind, it makes it hard to tell when we are going in and out of it. It is familiar to all of us yet, just as the deep sea dweller fails to notice the water around them for the fish and the coral, we take this state of mind for granted.

What is Hypnosis?

Hypnosis is essentially, a mental state**, usually induced by a procedure known as a hypnotic induction. The induction is commonly composed of a long series of preliminary instructions and suggestions.(1) Hypnotic suggestions may be delivered by a hypnotist in the presence of the subject, or may be self-administered ("self-suggestion" or "auto-suggestion").
The words 'hypnosis' and 'hypnotism' both derive from the term "neuro-hypnotism" (nervous sleep) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid in 1841. Braid based his practice on the earlier work of Franz Anton Mesmer, whose name is the origin of the word ‘mesmerized’. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Franz Anton Mesmer developed what is known as "Mesmerism" or "animal magnetism". He was heavily influenced by the earlier work of Father Maximillian Hell, a Catholic Priest, who had been using magnets and prayer to hypnotize subjects and had some success in healing hysterical conditions, such as hysterical blindness and similar psychologically rooted problems.

Contemporary research suggests that hypnosis is a wakeful state of focused attention and heightened suggestibility, with diminished peripheral awareness. (2) This heightened state of suggestibility is the primary focus of both this chapter and the next. What and how intensely can one be manipulated to believe a given proposition, if one is under hypnosis? And more importantly, if one does not realize that they are being hypnotized over and over again; doesn’t this constitute manipulative conduct on the part of the hypnotist(s)? These two questions underscore the following investigation into the magic of Christianity.


The 5 Stages of Hypnosis

A typical hypnotherapy session contains five stages:]

1. Introduction
2. Induction
3. Deepening
4. Suggestion and;
5. Awakening.


It is the contention of this author that the same five stages can be found within most Christian church services. The hypnotic techniques employed during church sessions have served to further entrench Christian beliefs into the minds of Christian subjects and so demonstrates the mentally manipulative religious package offered by the Christian religion.


According to professional hypnotists, the subject’s mind must contain four primary criteria in order for the hypnosis to work. The acronym is known in the profession as, B.I.C.E:

1. Belief
2. Imagination
3. Conviction and;
4. Expectation


These elements are generally found in abundance in the mind of the true believing, church going Christian. Generally, those who attend church believe that their pastor or preacher is speaking the word of god, which has very powerful psychological implications and satisfies the first criteria of the list above. Further, the church goer’s imagination is engaged at almost all times throughout the service, during the singing, the sermon, the prayer and it is probably the hardest working aspect of the four criteria set out above. Next, professional hypnotists say that the subject must have conviction and the stronger the better! There is almost nothing in this world that inspires conviction, like one’s religious beliefs. The attendee is convinced that the church service is permeated by the spirit of their god, which leads to the expectation, that they will “feel the spirit.” In truth, the elation one gets from “feeling the spirit” may be little more than the pleasure and catharsis of entering a trance.


(Stage one has been taken out of this post by the author)


Stage 2: The Induction: Removing the Filter


The purpose of the induction stage is to have the subject enter a trance state.
A trance state, as mentioned above, is more often than not a state of consciousness that does not involve deep sleep, or a complete alteration of the mind. It commonly involves a slight, almost imperceptible change in focus and a light feeling of relaxation. Listening to one’s favorite music can often induce trance, along with other activities such as; driving a car, washing the dishes, watching TV and many other mundane daily activities that require little participation from the conscious mind. Once the conscious mind is dismissed from the activity, the subconscious or unconscious mind is opened. Much like a key opening a locked door, the induction stage is primarily concerned with accessing the subconscious mind via trance.


In their book Unlimited Selling Power, Donald Moine and Kenneth Lloyd, discuss the trance associated with everyday activities in the following words:


Self-hypnosis occurs frequently in everyday life and can be found in such diverse activities as day-dreaming, jogging, prayer, reading, listening to music, meditation, or even driving the freeways. Once in the self-induced hypnotic state, suggestibility is greatly heightened. Psychological barriers and defenses are lowered, and the person's unconscious becomes more receptive to new programming. (3)


The trance state is one in which the subject’s subconscious mind is brought to the surface. Subsequently, the subject in trance is more prone to receiving suggestions in a less critical fashion. This is due to the absence of the critically analytical conscious mind, which questions and assesses information upon rational grounds.


As stated by William Hewitt, in his book ‘Hypnosis for Beginners’:


The conscious mind does not take suggestions well. It is most useful for thinking, reasoning and putting into action those things it already knows the subconscious mind, however, is like an obedient slave. It doesn’t think or reason. (4)

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord.
Colossians 3:22

The subconscious mind has difficulty distinguishing between fantasy and reality, which is why our dreams seem real at the time. During the dream state, the subconscious or unconscious mind, is not critically evaluating the probability of flying over a house in pink underwear, while being chased by a vicious dog with wings. It is happening now! It is real! It is only when we wake up that we realize it was all just a silly dream. But what happens when we don’t wake up from our subconsciously inspired fictions? This is the dilemma faced by the conscious mind of the believer. One could view the subconscious mind as the gateway to our conscious mind, allowing it to be manipulated in to believing things which it would otherwise see as irrational. Here in lies the power of hypnotic induction, when it comes to changing, molding, or maintaining irrational and unsound beliefs.


The ‘Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science’ sums up the effect of hypnotically induced manipulation upon the subconscious mind in the following terms:

Hypnosis appears to diminish the ability to discriminate between fantasy and reality, and of course it involves enhanced responsiveness to suggestions. (5)

Accessing the conscious mind via the subconscious is a little like commissioning a mutiny aboard a ship. The conscious mind is usually the captain, steering the ship and making decisions on behalf of the crew or subconscious, however when the captain or conscious mind is bypassed, the crew is given the power to alter the course of the ship. It is however, the captain alone, who possesses the necessary skills of navigation and engineering and so when the crew is directly accessed and given authority over and above the captain, the ship can be steered in any given direction and this can often result in the ship being steered off course.

I have already spoken about factors that may help induce the trance state such as, the monotonous nature of everyday activities, post hypnotic programming, the environmental impact on our state of mind and melodic music. So now, I would like to focus more on the role of music in inducing trance, as it is a common element in almost all church services and has a tremendous power to illicit an emotional response from the listener.


Music and Trance Induction


Music is an extremely effective instrument for trance induction. Most people can relate to the feeling of listening to music that either inspires or relaxes their thoughts and emotions. Music is designed to engage us at both the conscious and unconscious levels. It can make a person angry, sad, happy, sleepy, or even inspire the listener with confidence before a big event. The famous rock and roll singer, Henry Rollins once said that, he listens to a rap group called ‘Public Enemy’, before he performs, because it “gets him in the right mood”. The military uses it to entrance their soldiers and get them ready for battle and so do nations with their national anthems, which inspire an almost religious feeling in some. Members of the Voodoo religion in Haiti use it to evoke trance states and the religions of antiquity would also use music to invoke the “spiritual experience”.


Left Brain Lyrics and Right Brain Rhythm


It has been said by Psychologists that the left hemisphere of the brain is the dominant hemisphere and is responsible for our conscious mind while our right hemisphere houses our creative, intuitive subconscious and is responsible for interpreting music. Referring once again to the ‘Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science’:


The dominant (most often left) cerebral hemisphere is associated with information representation and processing, which is sequential or in series, digital, and abstract. It is characterized by analytical and logical processing that deals with detail. It plays a major role in the processing of verbal information, and in particular digital or abstract linguistic representation. Of the two cerebral hemispheres the dominant one is considered to be involved with consciousness, especially self-consciousness.


The minor (most often right) cerebral hemisphere is associated with information representation and processing, which is simultaneous or in parallel, analog, and holistic. It is characterised by Gestalt, analogical, and integrative processing, which deals with more spatial and global information and with novel (creative) or unfamiliar information. It plays a major role in the processing of naturomorphic or imagistic representations and in particular the processing of nonverbal and emotional information, spatial and pictorial information (symbols), and music and other non-language sounds. (6)


Therefore music with lyrics could be argued to target the listener’s left and right brain simultaneously. It is possible, that the left brain is being distracted by words and messages, while the right brain is being entranced by the beat and melody of the music.


It is little wonder that songs and hymns have been playing an increasing role in Christian worship, especially ‘Protestant Born Again’, Evangelical and so called Charismatic or ‘New Seeker’ Churches, as these churches lack the awe inspiring architecture of their Catholic counterparts.


In an article posted by the Unity Christian Church, called ‘Suggestions for an Effective Order of Service’, they say:

Music has a powerful ability to move our thoughts and feelings. 80% of our theology is learned in the songs we sing. Songs can be chosen that define and apply structure in the worship service so that congregants are more completely engaged in and inspired by the message of the church’s ministry. (7)

If one is to read this with an adequate knowledge of hypnosis, it becomes apparent that what they are proposing, is a more effective method of completely entrancing and evoking an emotional acceptance of the church’s ministry or suggestions. This is not a technique which seeks to impart a simple and universal truth, it is a technique aimed at overcoming the left brained rational and critical faculties, in order to take over the ship, so to speak!


The Unity Christian Church goes on to suggest the following for an effective service. Please pay particular attention to the amount of music recommended:

Here are some suggestions for music as part of a Sunday service and how to use and place other elements of your service.

1. Prelude music –usually instrumental. Prelude music sets the atmosphere you desire; sacred or upbeat. Usually 5 – 10 minutes while people enter. Prelude can also be used to teach the congregants new songs that will be sung during service. (8)

Notice they recommend the prelude music to “set the atmosphere”, while people enter. As we have already discussed this element of trance induction I will not labor the point any further.

2. Gathering song – Or Invocation. Sung by the music team and the congregation as a call to worship or to bless the space and the service. Usually sung every week, this song can be a church “theme song” about why people enjoy coming there. (9)

The dictionary definition of the word ‘Invocation,’ relates to the use of magic to conjure up spirits from other worlds. It is possible that the invocation is doing little more than having the subject enter into a trance state, so that they perceive spirits, due to the hypnotic induction and suggestion, which is compounded by their pre-established beliefs. Whether or not, we do actually contact god or the gods in this manner, is not the issue and may well be the case, however, I am looking at this phenomena from a strictly psychological point of view. As Carl Jung said; “religion is a psychological phenomenon”. Whether there are more meta-physical aspects to these techniques, is not in dispute here, as there may well be, but then Christians would have to admit that Voodoos, Hindus, Buddhists and all other religions that induce this kind of trance, via invocations, also achieve true contact with the gods!

3. Congregational singing – a mix of classic, and contemporary songs with new, message-oriented choruses sung together by the music team and congregation to support that week’s theme and establish unified presence and energy. (10)

This induction is very clever, as it involves the suggestions that will later be reinforced at the ‘suggestion stage’ or sermon and thus, the congregational singing would have a 2 pronged effect. Firstly, it would induce trance and secondly act as the foundation for repetitious suggestions.

4. Recognizing visitors – this can be done at the beginning of the service as a welcoming. Usually underscored with instrumental music. (11)

Here we have the entanglement of introduction and induction with new comers made to feel at ease and comfortable whilst the beginnings of trance induction are underscored with instrumental music.

5. Lord’s Prayer – many churches still use the Lord ’s Prayer as a familiar touchstone for visitors and those from other faiths. Unity is a Christian based faith so it is appropriate. There are many versions of the Lord’s Prayer with updated words more appropriate to our theology. The Lord ’s Prayer can be sung or spoken. It is effective leading into or out of meditation. (12)

Prayer, meditation, Lord’s prayer – contemplative music played under prayer/meditation, Lord’s Prayer can be sung by congregation with music team. (13)

This induction is recommended to occur right before the ‘deepening stage’ of hypnosis or meditation, as it is called. Both prayers and meditation can be used as effective ‘deepeners’ as well as inductions and will be discussed a little later.

6. “Special Music” solo or choir song VERY focused on the ministerial message of the day. Energy is thoughtful and specific. The song can be familiar, but needs lyrical content and musical style carefully chosen to set up the talk. The song can segue into the talk. (14)

Again, one is able to see the use of repetition and in this case the music is being cleverly placed as a segue into the talk, which will then repeat the same message. One of the secrets of successful hypnotic induction is the use of repetition. If we are told something over and over and over, we may not necessarily be convinced of its truth. However, if we have a pre-established belief and the repetition is aimed at reinforcing that belief, it will cause the subject to mentally agree with the repeated suggestion, over and over, causing an almost subliminal rhythm based submission. This is what most Christians might call “submitting to the spirit” but in actual fact, it is more than likely, nothing more than, submitting to hypnotic suggestions which reinforce their pre-established belief.

7. Minister’s message – many ministers incorporate the song lyrics into the message or pick up on an idea from the song that was just performed to “embed” the idea more deeply. You may even want to build your message around a great song’s theme or lyrics. (15)

Here they are even using hypnotic language by proposing that the minister’s message repeat the ideas in the song lyrics so as to “embed” the idea more deeply into the mind of the believer. It does not take a genius to figure out that this technique is mental manipulation at its best.

8. “Offering Song” designed to uplift, entertain and remind congregants of the topic of the day. It’s the post-message de-programming, and doesn’t have to include an actual “passing of the plate.” (16)

This is my favorite part of the service. The “hypnotic snatch and grab,” as I call it! In many services, not all, but many, music will be played while the collection plate is being passed around. During which time, the preacher, pastor or minister, will be saying something like “give to god”, “give to Jesus” repeatedly. Well he did suffer immensely and die for you! The least you could do is give him a few dollars, right! The truth is, as shocking a revelation as this might be to some Christians; Jesus does not get the money! With believers already in a highly suggestible state, the peer pressure and repeated suggestion, “give to god” places both conscious and subconscious pressure on the congregant to pay the church money. This element ties back to the theme brought up by Jordan Maxwell regarding Mother Circe bringing men into her abode, hypnotizing them, turning them into pigs and then feeding off them. Of course, not all churches pass around a collection plate, some just have an envelope in front of the pew, so that the church goer can donate anonymously. However, the collection plate is common enough to mention. Furthermore, relating back to the ‘bread of shame’ discussed in chapter 8, the congregants are entertained, given the opportunity to “get to god”, fed with wafers and wine, and so in the spirit of reciprocity, the church goer often feels compelled to give money to their church, lest they breach the compelling ‘norm of reciprocity’.

9. Children – if you are set up for it, parents should drop their children in the classrooms before service. You may allow children to enter with parents and then dismiss the children with a song toward the beginning of the service. (17)

Separating children from their parents is common to most Christian services and achieves two objectives. First, it allows the parents to zone into the service and receive the full undistracted benefits of the hypnosis session and secondly, it replaces the children’s authority figure with a church member who is practiced in indoctrinating children and takes on the role of the child’s teacher. By placing the children in a new or separate environment from their parents, the child can be influenced to a greater degree and when the child goes home, this indoctrination is reinforced by their trusted parents. There is no escape from the belief, the children are given no choice in which belief system they are to adopt, they will become Christians without ever having a chance to assess the truth of that belief for them self.


There are many denominations of Christianity each with their own slightly unique order of service, however there are commonalities between most Christian services and these commonalities are designed to mentally manipulate the participant via trance induction, so that their subjective beliefs about god and the truth never come into question. The above example illustrates some of the typical elements of most Protestant Christian services. As stated by Frank Viola and George Barna:

With some minor rearrangements, this is the unbroken liturgy that 345 million Protestants across the globe observe religiously week after week.' And for the last five hundred years, few people have questioned it.

Look again at the order of worship. Notice that it includes a threefold structure: (1) singing, (2) the sermon, and (3) closing prayer or song. This order of worship is viewed as sacrosanct in the eyes of many present-day Christians. (18)

So why is this important? Christianity, since its beginnings, has employed various forms of psychological manipulation which is focused on reinforcing the beliefs of passive believers. It demonstrates that religion, as is also the case with politics, is not about truth, but rather, it is about persuasion and manipulation.



This article is the intellectual property of Michael Sherlock, so if you would like to use any of this information, please either send me a message, or at the very least, reference me.


Website: http://michaelsherlock.org

---

References:



1. New Definition: Hypnosis" Division 30 of the American Psychological Association
2. Spiegel, Herbert and Spiegel, David. Trance and Treatment. Basic Books Inc., New York. 1978. Pg. 22.
3. Donald Moine & Kenneth Lloyd. Unlimited Selling Power How to Master Hypnotic Selling Skills. Prentice Hall Inc. (1990) Pg. 204.
4. William W. Hewitt. Hypnosis for Beginners. Llewellyn Publishers. (2003). Pg. 5 .
5. W. Edward Craighead, Charles B Nemeroff. The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. 3rd Ed. John Wiley and Sons Inc. Pg. 452.
6. Ibid. Pg. 165.
7. unity.org/.../pdf/SuggestionsforEffectiveOrderofService.doc
8. Ibid.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Frank Viola, George Barna. Pagan Christianity. Tyndale House Publishers. (2008). Pg. 85.

Desperate for God

By iwonder ~

I was born into a super-strict church. Outward appearances were the most important things. Not only dress-wise, but attitude-wise also. The church preached 2 works of grace: salvation, then holiness.

Holiness was huge. That was when you emptied yourself of yourself, and were filled with the holy ghost.Proof of this was loss of any negative emotions, the biggest of which was anger. The root of sin was removed, and after receiving the baptism, people did not sin. I had THE WORST time achieving this. Salvation could be lost, and there were so many things that were sins that I couldn't stay saved long enough to receive the holy spirit. I perceived myself as more sinful than most (step over, apostle Paul!) because no one else in my church had the trouble I did.

All I wanted in the world was for god to love me, and for me to be holy. Beginning in my very early teens, I got serious about my soul, but I could not quit sinning. The church had an altar where praying was done, and I was there all. the. time. People began to take notice. It was a very small church; they couldn't help but notice. I was told that my struggles were a result of my unwillingness to die to myself. I began to plead for god to break my will.

I began praying and fasting everyday, and in fact, made myself sick. I thought if I were miserable enough, god would see how much I wanted to be good enough for him to love and fill me. I was miserably unhappy all through my teen years. I thought that was what I deserved.

The church advised me to "pray clear through". When I did that, and my will was broken, I'd know that I'd achieved holiness.

In 6th grade, my sibs and I began attending the church school, and now I was receiving a double whammy of my unworthiness. I was being preached at there about my sinful heading-to -hell-self, then hearing it at church.

Nothing I did worked, and by the time I was a Senior in high school, I'd just about given up. I had high grades, though, that earned me a scholarship to the church bible college. I thought maybe being surrounded by holy people 24/7 could only help me die to myself. It didn't. It only made me see my badness more starkly. At the end of my first semester, I had my first suicide attempt. I mean, what did I have to live for? I was never going to be good enough for god. I could never be as holy as the church said I should be.

I hung in for 3 years. Then, the depression and the desperation to be good enough became too much. I left school, and gradually the church.

In the years since then, I have also slowly let go of my belief in god. I've come to love myself, and realize that dying to myself was just moronic. Ironically, the more I've let go of god, the more peace and joy I have. I never thought I'd experience these wonderful things!

This is a scary journey I'm on, I'll admit. It's also exciting. I have more freedom now than I ever did before. Not freedom to live hedonistically, as the church told me I would, but freedom to love and be loved. Freedom to accept friends that the church never would have allowed me.

It wasn't easy leaving the community the church afforded me, but I'm finding that I belong to a much bigger (and better!) one: humanity.

I don't know where on this journey I'll be tomorrow, but I'm just so glad I am indeed on it.

Dear Aggravated Believers

By Carl S ~

We are NOT going away. We have tolerated 2000+ years of being silenced, suppressed, persecuted, tortured and killed, simply because we disagree with religious beliefs. Don't expect us to back down. Over the span of 2000+ years, you STILL have NO evidence to verify your claims. And with every new piece of scientific evidence to back up natural explanations formerly attributed to invisible "supernatural" forces, your god melts like the Wicked Witch of the West. Don't expect us to not keep reminding you of this as long as you arrogantly try to force your will on the rest of society as "the laws of God." You have no more legitimacy than any of the other thousands of religions.

So, get used to our voices. Adjust to opinions and beliefs other than your own: beliefs in the rights of humans over themselves, in the inherent goodness of mankind, and the destructiveness which is caused through blind, unthinking obedience to dogmas.

If you didn’t want us to get so pissed off, you shouldn't have treated us, and continue to treat us, with such indifference, contempt, and prejudice. We are sick of being belittled. We are also sick of the arrogance and domination of your spokesmen, the televangelist millionaires, with your support and quiet compliance eating up monies in their houses of worship, while our fellow human beings die like flies from preventable causes, starvation, and religious sectarian wars. We are sick of watching hypocrisy and narrow-mindedness masquerading as virtue.

We will not be denigrated because we "lack" superstitions, a.k.a. "beliefs," and do not accept invisible, supernatural, ghost-forces in control of Nature.

We will CONTINUE to promote reason, curiosity, and skepticism, despite your efforts to thwart such thinking and reasoning. We shall fight for our right to free expression. If your religious beliefs were truly right, you would never have had to resort to the slayings you formerly engaged in as a matter of policy; such methods are the hallmark of someone in the wrong. Without them and without fear tactics, you would not have been able to last this long. (Remember- the ancient Egyptian gods were in existence longer than your god.)

Without your former controlling mechanisms, you are revealed as the manipulating man behind the curtain, and we will continue to pull that curtain back. Without those methods, you are left to be apologists, and you are looking pretty unreasonable and often silly with those explanations, when not downright cold regarding human suffering and needs.

We realize, as African-Americans, homosexuals, and all others who suffered prejudice have found out, that we also have rights you don't want to recognize, and that we too, must fight like hell to get them. We do not appreciate, for example, being left out as citizens, as you demand your sectarian prayers at public functions. None of us will put up with further bullying. You wouldn't, if a Moslem or Hindu took over beginning a public meeting with his/her prayers, so you understand where we're coming from. The tyranny of the majority is un-American, and un- Constitutional.

If what you believe and maintain is so ultra-powerful and ultra-real, why have you done everything possible to keep yourselves frightened lest you hear any different interpretation of reality than your own? After 2000+ years, the best you can come up with is to tell people to "believe." That's it? What other system except the most repressive, asks that of humans?

We are tired of boring sermons, hearing about a "Jesus", of whom no proof is offered that he ever existed. We do not want any more intransigent inflexibility from any quarter. Life is too short to tolerate these things. No one in the 21st century should be asked to believe without evidence anything claimed to be all-important. In the past thousands of years we have learned and want to pass on to our children and all children what has been discovered and confirmed in that span of time. It would be morally unfair to teach them to return to times of ignorance as if they were founts of wisdom. We will not allow them to be mired in dark, cruel, immoral, scriptural mindsets, and will oppose your efforts to promulgate them. If, for instance, you cannot accept the fact of evolution, stand aside, because your children CAN. Do not teach them that nature is wrong because it doesn't agree with your scriptures. Please.

Our time has come. It is long overdue that we are allowed out in the open, speaking out and known. You have had yours, and have seized it with force, fear, threats, killings, indoctrination, and coercion. The world is going away from those methods. We are not "getting even," we are allowing the free flow of ideas and the quiet voice of reason to speak. Step aside. And listen.

Immoral Without God

By JC ~

I swear I am not making this up.

I subscribe to a priest's FB stuff because, honestly, some of what he posts is really interesting to me. However, in a recent post, we got into a discussion about moral laws (e.g. "Go kill all the Jews and Gypsies") to which I responded that when the law is immoral it's our duty to disobey it. Here's where the conversation went from there:

Priest:

English: The inside of an Orthodox church. Greek Orthodox Church. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

John, let me ask you this: You say "When the law is immoral, it is our duty to disobey," and "the law itself is insipid." On what basis do you call a law immoral? Without God as guide and teacher, ultimately there is no arbiter of morality except oneself.

Your Truly:

Your question is based on a common fallacy. To state that one cannot be moral without god is not well thought out.

For the sake of argument, let us suppose that there are moral laws that are absolute. If that is true, God must be bound by them, yes? But God has committed murder (both personally committing genocide and ordering his people to do so), adultery (impregnating the wife of Joseph), left a murderer and alduterer unpunished (taking out the punishment on the innocent child conceived by Bathsheba instead (and where does the anti-abortion crowd stand on THAT issue?)), instructing his people to steal from other people that they conquered, intentional obfuscation (Matthew 13:13), and coveting (Exodus 20:5).

If we say that the Judeo-Christian god is moral, then genocide and slavery are morally justified and the only thing Hitler did wrong was try to wipe out people without getting god's permission first. Even as late as Colossians we read that a slave should submit to his/her master - not that slavery is immoral.

As a moral guide, any deity you name falls horribly short of a worthy standard.

Indeed, this is why I left Christianity. When comparing "God the Father" to any human father I have ever known, not one man that I could think of failed to be superior to god. If we say "god is good" and look at the god of the Bible, we come away baffled.

What many religious fail to admit is that morality is not strictly a human characteristic. Here's a good example:

http://new.exchristian.net/2012/05/frans-de-waal-moral-behavior-in-animals.html

Indeed, many religious hate to admit that humans are actually part of the animal kingdom, despite all the evidence.

Morality is innate in many species. It is far more complex in humans, to be sure, but what of that? We are complex creatures.

I would also point out that your presupposition is proven erroneous by human history. There is not one theistic society that has failed to screw over anyone of a different faith.

Moreover, 2 Cor 5:17 is a bald-faced lie. Christians are not a "new creature" at all! They have the same nature as every other human being. They just obsess over their human failings more than most. Want proof? Explain to me why the church is so fractured? Even among Orthodox Christians, all y'all are like Scottish clans that war with each other. Same goes for every religion ever known to man. There is nothing "new" about Christians at all.

That said, how can one claim that a person cannot be moral without god? If that was true, why aren't atheists all debauched? How is it possible for us to be moral when we deny that any god exists? The premise is flawed.

Priest:

John, I know you'll take this as a copout, but this forum was long ago designed not for debate. As my info tab explains, "My main intent is to inform and embolden and give resources to Christians to speak out on certain "politically incorrect" issues, such as euthanasia, destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation, cloning, homosexuality, Islam, etc.

I post the truth about abortion, for instance, and inform Christians of what the mainstream media doesn't give coverage to. Additionally, I post because I believe we Orthodox (and clergy in general) need correction for our compromise on these issues. My posts are not for everybody. I don't write them to be, and I don't intend them to be. Those I actively try to find and ask for FBfriendship are Christian clergy (bishops, priests, pastors, elders, ministers, brothers, trustees, deacons, deaconesses, monks and nuns), and serious Orthodox Christian faithful.

But I don't turn down anyone for FBfriendship. So, sometimes my confrontational style and the topics of my posts offend some people I don't intend or want to offend. For instance, I wouldn't post what I post about Islam to Muslims. A different approach entirely is required, just for the sake of kindness. I wouldn't post what I post about abortion to women who are hurting in its aftermath. I would, of course, take a completely different approach and attitude. Please keep this in mind as you consider beFBfriending me. ***It is beyond the scope of my posts to debate about the merits of Christianity or a Biblical worldview. My posts are designed for those who already surrender to Christ and are seeking to submit to God's Word, as the Church has taught it.*** It's not my intent to debate at all, but to inform, correct and encourage."

Again, I'm sure you'll consider this a copout, and perhaps it is, but I don't have the time to debate whether there is a God or whether He is the source of truth or right/wrong for us. Perhaps this forum is not for you. There are many other forums which seek to reach out to atheists with evidence of God's reality. I wish you the best.

Your Truly:

I do find it odd that you would pose the question then dismiss the answer, yes.

I have become too accustomed to ability to speak rationally to any issue and willingness to discuss the things he posts. He and I do not agree on much but I have learned a lot from him and trust his judgment because he thinks first and understands his opponent well. I acknowledge he is a rarity.

Since you and I cannot have such an honest dialogue with one another, I'll keep my yap shut on your posts hitherto.

I will say, though, that what troubles me most about people in general is that they are unwilling to even consider a point of view outside of their own cherished beliefs. Therefore, not only do they not understand the people around them, they don't even understand why what they believe to be true is (or isn't) valid. Hence, they never really grow. To my mind, there is nothing more blessed than to have your opinions and beliefs challenged because, in the end, those challenges wipe away the dross and leave only the pure gold behind (or reveal the material to be iron pyrite).

:::JC passes silently out of your life forever:::

Now, I give the guy full credit for still responding after I stated that I was sick of hearing the religious whine about how they are losing their religious freedoms, citing that the fact that they are able to whine in public is evidence that they aren't.

But I find it distressing that this leader in the church is not interested in answering the questions that need to be answered. These people just want to bitch and moan and feel persecuted.

I would literally pay money right now if anyone could find a Christian leader who would honestly debate "God is a prerequisite to morality" in a public forum with me or anyone else in our little community here. The sad thing is that I am no intellectual giant and even I could easily win that debate.

(BTW - thanks to whoever posted the Frans de Waal video.)

Beforelife or Afterlife?

By BP ~

Here's one for the critical thinkers. I swear I'll tie in religion at the end.

Dead=Not Alive; Therefore, Afterlife=Beforelife.

Soap bubble (Photo credit: Raphael Quinet)

In words now: I was not alive before I was alive and I'll be not alive after my death. So how can before life and after life be any different?

See I don't remember the before life b/c I did not have a brain then. I could not carry around this collection of data that we call memories in life. Nor would I have any need for them. They do not apply. How long was I not alive before I was alive? An hour, a day, an eternity? As far as I can remember it was an instant and an eternity all in one. There is no use for time when one is not alive. It is being alive that confines us to this space time continuum. A little like being trapped I guess. Separated from the truth that perhaps we once knew. When we were not alive.

I like to think of being alive as not too much unlike a bubble. All the necessary ingredients for the bubble were always there. However it takes some sort of outside input for the bubble to exist. The ingredients have to be combined in just the right way. Our body is like the shell that makes the bubble visible. Allows the bubble to exist. The way we understand it. The inside of the bubble would be like the soul I guess, or whatever it is that life is made of. Once the bubble is gone all the ingredients still remain. Maybe to be used in another bubble; maybe to be used on something completely different. I don't know. No one does. There is no proof for any theory. What I do know is that it's putting something out of place that makes the bubble. Think of air in water. The bubble fighting to get to the top. Think of a soap bubble just floating around ever so delicate. Much more wanting to pop than to remain a bubble. Everything is trying to reach equilibrium again. That's why the bubble pops and that's why we die. Being alive is not our natural state of being.

Well if that is true, and I can honestly say now that being NOT alive was not so bad, then what's so scary about being not alive again? Only the the physical act of dying? If one can accept that then there is nothing else to do, but to see our current state (being alive) as something like a journey. A vacation of sorts. A vacation from being not alive. So enjoy. We all know vacations don't last very long and for some reason when we are on them all we can think of is how we will eventually have to go back home.

Religions make us comfortable with this eventually having to go back thing. But you don't need 'em. It's like going to the beach on vacation just to see a psychologist for a week to try to deal with the thought of going back to work. It just doesn't make any sense. Enjoy life! Accept not knowing!

Fear and Loathing

By John ~

HEBREWS 6: 4-6

4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

The first time I read those words I became convinced it was speaking about me, and I was terrified.

It happened about 3 years ago, during a time I could only explain as my brief sojourn from sanity, into the world of uncertainty, doubt, fear, and misery that I now associate with religious belief.

I've always been slightly obsessive: a mixture of the passion to understand things and my high intelligence. It's both a blessing and a curse.

I first heard about Jesus when I was 6 years old from a babysitter at the prompting of my mother, concerned over my eternal well-being. She sat myself and my sister on the edge of my sister's bed and told us about how we were sinners and needed a Savior, and I accepted Jesus then and there.

Up until that point, I was a happy little kid atheist. Not by choice mind you, but by default. I had no concern over 'spiritual matters' and when I first heard about these things unseen my mind and emotions began their lifelong plummet into the world of uncertainty and fear.

For some unknown reason, the babysitter, I still remember her name: Thina, added as a suffix to our initial indoctrination the grave warning: 'if you challenge the devil, you will explode.'

I remember the next day or two of my weekend was ruined, as I sat on a bench in the park near my house ruminating over the possibility, afraid to death that if my resilience broke for even one moment and I said those words it would mean the end of my life.

Torture.

I quickly moved on, being the child I was, and forgot about it.

My young life was not very devout: my mother being a Christian and my father being a devout unbeliever we rarely went to church. When I was ten years old we moved to a new city for my father's new job.

At 13 and a new high school student, I remember vividly sitting on my bed reading the bible at night when that thought came back into my mind: 'if you challenge the devil you will explode.' Once more I was plunged into the vague world of religious uncertainty and doubt, ruminating day and night over the possibility I might at any moment lose my resolve and be forever shorn into millions of pieces of teenager-kibble. For weeks and months I prayed to God for strength, I used bible verses to 'send Satan away' such as: 'If God be for us, who can be against us' and 'All things are possible through Christ who strengthens us.' Little did I know the solution to my problems was to get rid of the religious thinking altogether. At the time, however, I could not risk my eternal soul at the utter joy of being safe from explosion over a religious loophole.

This might seem stupid to people, but understand I was a child when I first heard about this. This unknown realm of religious possibility was a mental reality for me since the age of 6, and it was impossible for me at the time to get out of it.

It took me about 18 months to get over it. One day after months and months of torture, I finally decided to face my fear and I finally challenged the devil out loud and...nothing happened. Cathartic. A temporary relief from the agony of obsession that I had been in the grips of for at least a year and a half, day and night, nonstop, 24 hours a day.

But that relief was short-lived. My mind soon found new religious things to obsess over. Demonic possession.

If I stopped believing, I was no longer saved and was at the risk of being possessed. So even though I knew certain things must be true about our reality, I held firm onto the notion that Christ died and was raised and that I was saved. That's all that mattered.

A growing pornography addiction and experimentation with marijuana grew at ages 16 and 17 and culminated in my true religious experience at the age of 17. After watching the 'Jesus' film and seeing this man nailed to a cross and for the first time realizing he 'died for ME' I broke down in shame over my problems as a human being, my lying and stealing and pornography and marijuana use, and asked him to forgive me. A rush of peace loving and forgiving spiritual water (only way I can describe it) flowed through me, and I became a Christian, again.

Shortly after I was baptized and when I went under the water something inside my heart 'leapt' at the recognition that this was me being saved, I was very happy for a time and I still have that feeling sometimes. The best way to describe it is a 'holy fire' in my heart. I don't know what it is, but that 'feeling' is probably the thing I have the most difficulty reconciling with my new found agnosticism or atheism.

Something kept me from going 'deep' into Christianity. I only ever put my toes in, because of this deep underlying fear at all things religious. I thought they were all very mystical and to be honest, extremely scary, and so I sort of kept my distance at becoming too indoctrinated into it. I don't think I could do it even if I wanted to. It's just too weird for me, and always was.

So having been saved and having that part of my life handled I went on to accomplish things in my life and did so for 10 years, constantly battling pornography addiction, trying to be clean in a relationship with my girlfriends and often denying them sex because of fear, battling my ongoing obsession with the potential for me to be possessed by constantly reinforcing that I was a child of God and such things were impossible as long as I had the holy spirit inside me.

That is, until about 3 years ago when I came across that verse. Terrified at having been a nominal christian for all these years and that I had 'fallen away, never to return' I began to research just what salvation really was. Much to my chagrin, I found 7 different interpretations of that verse and 2 Peter 2 from 7 different theologians, all saying different things. Some said I was never really saved. Some said I had lost my salvation. Some said I was still saved but 'backslidden.' Why wasn't there an answer? I ruminated in mental torture, watching YouTube videos from different pastors on salvation. I cried out to God for months, every night and day, in pure agony over the state of my eternal being.


not

really

there

at allAnd I received no answer.

The Christian counselor I saw thought I had some kind of demonic influence from the drugs I had taken as a teenager that was making me question my salvation. I stopped seeing him after he gave me a handbook on how to get rid of that. I never understood how drugs like anti-depressants and aspirin were OK for Christians to take but natural drugs like marijuana were not. Even though I didn't smoke marijuana and hadn't in almost a decade, I could not reconcile this. It just doesn't make sense.

I thought I had finally gotten an answer from God, at the pinnacle of my mental fury he had shown me that God did all the work and that all I needed to do was have faith and I was saved. But how did I know my faith was enough? I heard different pastors saying that God gave YOU the faith to believe, and I felt like I didn't really believe it, otherwise I would have developed more 'fruits' over the past years. Was I never really saved in the first place? Was I in danger?

And to be honest this is very hard for me to write. That know of complete terror rises once again inside my heart as I force myself to tell my story here.

How did Jesus' death save us at all? One pastor on youtube said it was god's wrath poured out on him instead of us that saved us. So then, why need him to die that way at all? One said it was his death. Well, how does one day of torture forgive someone who tortured someone else for 20 years, like the father who kept his daughter in the basement as a slave? How does Jesus' resurrection mean anything at all? It just didn't make sense.

Desperate for an answer I cried out to God, and received nothing. And after a long time I was forced to admit the possibility that he was

not

really

there

at all.

I began to delve into atheist literature, and every bit of it made intellectual sense to me. Evolution is actually true. It's not possible to reconcile the evolution of man with mankind's fall in the bible, because evolution is dependent on selection pressures, and those include being tougher, smarter, more logical, and in human beings' case: more social and more moral for success. Mankind was not created perfect and chose to fall (the whole fall in Genesis is a confidence trick anyway), mankind evolved these things. He could not have been successful if he didn't.

I still bounce between atheism and agnosticism. I still have bursts of religiosity and bursts of fear and terror over religious thoughts. I know there are a lot of Christians in the same boat as me. It truly is horrifying stuff.

I began to see most religious people very ignorant of reality in order to hold on to beliefs, either because they must hold on to those beliefs being true because they are afraid, or holding on to those beliefs because they desperately want them to be true.

And to be honest, part of me wishes they were true as well. The thought of a loving God and me being together forever and me living forever is a nice thought. The gospel story is still an amazingly beautiful one.

But so is Santa Claus.

12 Step Recovery from Christianity

By an Alabamian ~

1. I admit that I am powerless to change the fact that I have been Christian for a good part of my life.


2. I realize that I have within me the power to free myself from the harmful part of my Christian past and that I am no longer bound by promises or covenants which I was induced to make based on the false promises of Christianity.


3. I make to myself a firm promise to listen in the future only to reason, rationality, and factual evidence in making decisions about how I should live my life, rejecting all emotional appeals, guilt-inducing threats, myths, pretty stories, promises of castles in the air, and superstition.


4. I make a searching and fearless moral and intellectual inventory of myself with the purpose of recognizing in myself those weaknesses which induced me to remain Christian for so long.


5. I am able to list the specific reasons why I can no longer be Christian.


6. I make the decision to do what is right, and to accept whatever the consequences may be for acknowledging the lies and living accordingly.


7. I begin working through each of my Christianity-related problems of mind, body, and relationships.


8. I make a list of those for whom it would be important to know of my decision and the changes I am making in my life, and prepare myself emotionally to discuss my decision with them all, realizing that many may react with hurt, anger, emotional outbursts, or other unpleasantness.


9. I discuss my decision with them (except in those cases where I think it would cause greater harm to do so than not) in a calm, friendly and loving way, without argument.


10. I continue to take personal inventory, and where I find artifacts of Christianity, I carefully consider whether they should continue to be a part of my life, or whether I should discard them.


11. I seek out truth wherever I can find it.


12. Having had an awakening and renewal as the result of these steps, I try to be helpful to other recovering or doubting Christians, and to practice these principles in all of my affairs.

My Journey towards the truth without the bonds of the lies

By Jeff Rohde ~

It has been an extremely long journey to get to where I am now and even though my destination is well in sight, I still feel there is more to be done and that is something I am working on at this time. There is no reason to mention the project I am working on right now because an idea is only an idea until you put that idea into motion and end with a result that not only satisfies yourself, but everyone else you intend to share it with. My project is in motion, it just does not have an end to date. Now, I do not intend on boring anyone reading this with meticulous events or useless babble, so I will be as brief as humanly possible as I present my testimonial for I assume many of you who reading this will already understand the missing parts.

Agnostic (Photo credit: las - initially)

I was born in the heart of the "Bible Belt" in 1970 to Christian parents. My parents and family referred to themselves as Baptists, so that is what I believed my destiny to be also. I got saved and Baptized in 1979. I believe it was sometime around the year 1987 when, even though still proud to be a Christian, I had questions. Something about the whole story did not settle well in my stomach. I remember thinking that something about all of this just simply did not make sense. After asking a few questions and getting the all so common answer of, "we should not question the Bible" or "do not look too deep into something that only requires faith," it started to hit me that I might be on to something. I wondered if there might just be something they are not telling me, so I decided to figure it out for myself.

I did not start right away on my journey. I had to pack for it first and that did take some time. Around the year 1998, I read the Bible cover to cover for the first time. I felt more confused than I had before I had read it, so I read again a few years later. Still nothing. I read it again for the third time in 2008. Still nothing. I decided in 2009 to take a break from a forth reading. I decided to start reading everything I could get my hands on dealing with the Bible and religion as a whole. I read a book by Bart D. Erhman and if you do not know who he is or have not read any of his books, you must do so as soon as possible. It literally changed my life. Dr. Erhman PhD went to Moody Bible College. He graduated from Wheaton college and completed his Masters of Divinity at Princeton Seminary. Bart can read Hebrew, Greek, Coptic, Latin, German and French. He is a true Biblical scholar and even though he went down this road as a Christian, he walked away an Agnostic.

I am not a prisoner to the lies of Christianity.Now, I want to state this so that you will better understand my passion. I will be 42 years old in June. I have been divorced for seven years. I am currently single, have no children and have a good job. My point is that I have free time to do whatever I want. After reading three of Bart's books, which mainly deal with the problems in the Bible, I read the Bible again for the fourth time. It blew me away. There are not a few problems in the Bible nor hundreds, there are literally thousands of problems in the Bible. I could give you one problem in the Bible everyday for the next ten years! You cannot see them if you are not looking for them, but when you know about them, they are everywhere! In the last two years, I have read over 70 books dealing with everything from Reincarnation to NDE's, OBE's, life after death, books for Christianity and books against it. I have read about the history of Christianity and much about other religions. I listen to books at work, research for hours on my computer and watch everything I can about religion on television. This is my drug if you will and I do not care, I love it. I do not believe it anymore, but I am fascinated to the core as to how almost everyone else is. I am still on the fence as to whether it is outright brainwashing or how one is raised or if it has to do with a fear of Hell, the unknown or just simply the absence of an open mind. Like I said, my journey has been long, but it is not over.

In conclusion. I stated a year ago that I am Agnostic to most of my friends and family. I do not believe that the Bible is the word of God nor do I believe it was inspired by God. It was written by men, men who had agenda's and thoughts about the way they believed the story was supposed to mean. As an Agnostic, I must honestly say that when it comes to everything, I just simply do not know. I have thoughts and theories, but at the end of day, I am not completely sure about any of them. I do, technically, consider myself an Agnostic Theist who believes in Reincarnation, but Agnostic is easier. I am not a Biblical Scholar, but I am happy to discuss Religion or any other related topic with anyone at anytime. My goal is not to figure all this out because that is not going to happen. I just enjoy learning. When you grow up in the "Bible Belt" and leave Christianity and Pastor Bob, friends or family want to know why, it is nice to have an intelligent answer. Leaving Christianity was not easy, but I now wake up every day feeling secure in knowing that even though I do not know, I am not a prisoner to the lies of Christianity.

The Hindu Roots of Worship Music

 By Danimal (aka Aspieguy) ~

Perhaps my largest objections to the organized church is its music. Hymnbooks have been largely discarded in many churches in favor of "praise and worship" or simply "worship" music. The music and lyrics are simple, easily reproduced by any "worship team" with minimal talent. Unfortunately, the lyrics are often bereft of meaning and frequently repetitive. Consider the lyrics of this song:

This is the air I breathe.
This is the air I breathe.
Your holy presence living in me.
And I, I'm desperate for you.
And I, I'm desperate for you.

If you are like me, you are mystified by these words. Picture singing them six or seven times in a row. Worshippers will always have their eyes closed and maybe their hands raised. They often describe their minds as empty during these songs.

To a person with Aspergers syndrome or "Aspie" such music can be sheer torture. Because I am a highly visual thinker, I am unable to form pictures of worship music. In short, my thinking process stops, and I quickly become very anxious and even frightened.
However, I doubt most Christians realize how much Hinduism has permeated the church. In Hindu meditation repetitive phrases intended to empty the mind is called "mantra". Christian musicians have adopted this technique, and the sheep can't seem to get enough of it. I find the music phase of a church service to be highly contrived in order to manipulate emotions and attitudes.

I find it difficult to believe that a rational god would enjoy such music. However, we aren't dealing with a rational deity. I remember being severely criticized for not wanting to listen to christian music or keeping my car radio tuned to K-Love. Far better to tune to public radio or listen to some excellent pieces by Beethoven.

I wiggle my ears for your comments.