By Dano ~ I 'm a atheist/agnostic/humanist, pantheist/whatever. In other words I have read enough about how Christianity got started plus all of the suffering caused by this faith to realize that I could never be a believer of pretty much any of it. I have gotten used to being shunned by people who I have eventually realized were born again Christians or had a belief in some sort of invisible deity and wore the smug demeanor of someone who believed that anyone who didn't, was working for the devil. I have never been bashful about telling anyone that I think all religions are a crock of shit, and are responsible for most of evil and divisiveness we see today. Now to be clear about all of the comic book paraphernalia that goes along with the Christian faith such as the devil, angels, heaven, hell, virgin births and blood sacrifices to god and such, it is clear to me that they also consist of what makes good fertilizer. So! Without a god to keep me on the straight and...

By Stewpid Monkey ~ I didn't start out as an atheist. Like many Hispanics here in America, I was indoctrinated at an early age. I remember quoting scripture at the age of 7-8 on the public train in New York City . I was kind of like a monkey doing palor tricks for the delight of strangers that shared the metal wheeled rocket. Life was simple. My idea at a young age of what it was to be an American was simple. As I got older of course things became a little more complicated. Hormones, social diversity and racism became the norm. My view of America was still very limited. Naively I believed that my little world should be the only thing that mattered to me. If there was not immediate need for anything then nothing was done. Now that I am in my 30's I am faced with a bigger America. An America where people kill, hurt and slander, not only because of skin color but because of religious beliefs. I mean, we heard about it as a kid, but in the great melting pot of N...

By Faithfool ~ A message in my Facebook inbox this morning: "In the nicest possible way, I cannot understand why you feel the need to put up this constant barrage of anti-God, anti-Church and anti-Christian posts on Facebook... Frankly, I think it is time you shut up, because it is now counter-productive and does you a disservice. With this daily bombardment, to be blunt people are beginning to wonder whether you have become an obsessive-compulsive nut-job - from "Bible -banger" to 'Bible-basher", and regarded in the same way as any such extreme. "Everyone well and truly knows your position now, so further demonstration of it is superfluous. Extremes and excesses are dangerous. It doesn't worry me what you post, as it's like water off a duck's back, but the sheer number of your posts, quite apart from the content, strongly points to it having become an obsession. Time to take stock and tail-off, in my opinion.. Again, I stress that I a...

By Lilly Black ~ I was raised in a Pentecostal home, with loving parents and a wonderful brother. They raised me as a Christian. I attended Bible college, where I met the man who is now my husband. After graduation, we went to Europe for a few months with a missions team to do street preaching and other ministry, during which time we became engaged. We came back and moved to his hometown after our marriage, which is far away from my hometown. Neither of us attend church now, and we do not consider ourselves Christians anymore. We went from preaching on the streets to not wanting anything to do with God or the church. Quite a change... it feels like it happened suddenly, but it was actually a very gradual process. Our first year of marriage we were on staff at a church where the board felt it more beneficial to talk about us behind our backs in their meetings then to mentor or help us be better leaders. We left after a year and considered attending my husband's old church,...

By Ash T ~ I grew up in a fairly non-religious environment. When I was in middle school I started learning about all religions and trying to find the right one for myself. At home, my parents were often drunk or on pills so I was trying to find somewhere I was welcome and safe. I (of course) found Christianity and embraced it. When I was in 8th grade , I had a science teacher that I really connected with, whom was deeply religious. I was very close with her for about three years until I came out of the closet . She (of course) told me that I had to choose to "act in a homosexual way" or choose God. Naturally, she insisted that no one is born gay , but chooses to be gay. She of course also told me I would go to hell if I did not choose God. Side note: I am sure she herself is gay so it would make sense that she would deny people are born gay. If she can choose to not engage in homosexual acts then she won't go to hell. But if she is born gay, then she has no cho...

By Cjmybad ~ I saw an ad for a dating service using the words Christian Values as an requirement to sign up for the service. And I often hear people say that everything was so much better when we had God and prayer in our schools. And I can remember my Grandmother saying that 'we are all going to hell in a hand basket' nowadays. Christian values are based on God and the work of Jesus Christ. The most important Christian value is for a Christian to just value God more than anything, anybody, or any idea. Christian values are based on spiritual things vs. material things. Even though Christian values are spiritual in nature, the evidence of these values come through deeds and actions. This is all according to a Christian website. Value God is having God first in our lives. This means continuously seeking his righteousness and totally relying on him. As humans we have the freedom of choice to decide what is right and what is wrong, but if we value God we will look t...

By SingleOrigin ~ I t’s a curious and disquieting feeling, letting go of a worldview you've grown in to. But to emerge from months and years of internal discussion, evaluation and introspection is a unique experience that I am glad I had. Long-time lurker, here. I've been subscribed with Ex-Christian for several months now, but until now haven’t mustered up the motivation to put things to the page. Reading through the myriad stories and extimonies on this website has been informative and instrumental in my (somewhat) meandering slide out of Christendom . It’s always a delight to read insights from a broad range of experiences, backgrounds and individual personalities – and to at once see the incredible singularity, but also multitude nuances which make up deconversion accounts. Singular in the sense that similar themes are repeated almost universally, and diverse in that no one experience is truly alike. So with that gushing preamble aside, I shall share my own reflect...

By Paul So ~ I n one of the articles in Ex-Christian called the Trapped with Mennonites , I posted a comment about Spinoza, a 17th century philosopher to try to comfort the author. Surprisingly, I received a lot of likes (approximately 13) and some couple replies from people who express interest in Spinoza. In hindsight, this shouldn’t be surprising, because nowadays anyone who hears about Spinoza will either hate him or love him. People who are mostly non-religious, secular, and free-thinking will most likely like Spinoza. Spinoza’s importance in modernity cannot be overstated, he basically helped established the foundation of the Enlightenment (a.k.a. Age of Reason). Spinoza did this by arguing for secularism and civil liberties such as freedom of speech and freedom from religion. Furthermore, Spinoza argued that the bible is not the product of divine revelation, but created by primitive superstitious men with poor understanding of science. Spinoza’s metaphysical worldview was the...

By Daniel out of the Lion's Den ~ I ’m an engineer. A big part of my job is analyzing data. Data is known. A product has been tested and measured, creating the data. If you want to know how a product will perform, you simply look at the data. But what if you want to know how the product will perform beyond the confines of the existing data? No problem, you use numerical methods to extrapolate. Sure, it’s a fancy term for guessing, but with experience and proper tools, you get pretty good at it. Sometimes you have to extrapolate far beyond the confines of existing data. You know it’s a bigger guess, and the answer has increased uncertainty. But you convince yourself that you are an expert. You have the answer that no one else can come up with. You are right, and no one can tell you otherwise. In my last testimonial, Out of the Lion’s Den and Into the Fiery Furnac e, I introduced you to Brother Enrique. One of Brother Enrique’s teachings of faith was that God is th...