By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ Y esterday, my good friend Carl S. called to pass on an observation. He said, “ Abraham didn’t free the slaves, Moses didn’t free the slaves, Jesus didn’t free the slaves, St. Paul didn’t free the slaves, Abe Lincoln freed the slaves. Think about it.” I did think about it, and found a very important message in this observation. If you think about it, you too will see that the Bible presents the morality of primitive men, not the morality of the best of men. Isn’t that odd for a book which is claimed to be the word of god, or at least inspired by god? Just what does that say about those men who set those words to parchment? We could easily fill a book with examples of Biblical passages which reflect the morality of primitive men, but let me just provide a few. When Adam and Eve disobey god, he doesn’t just curse them, he curses the whole human race. This is even worse than when he threatens to punish the ancestors of men to the third and fourth gen

By Discordia ~ I found a free Android app that lets me create memes for posting on various social sites. One of the myriad templates is the philosoraptor with the following text offered as a sample: If Satan punishes the evildoers, wouldn’t that make him a good guy? That question made me sit back and think. (I love when that happens, by the way!) The only logical answer would have to be "Yes". I have always heard that Satan is the enemy of God and stands against everything God is for. Since God orders the eternal punishment of people who don’t believe in Him, then why would Satan follow that order if he was The Bad Guy? According to Christian doctrine, Satan and Hell are a special creation of God to punish people who don’t believe in God. Christians believe that people who don’t believe in God are enemies of God, just like Satan. So….what possible reason could there be for Satan to torture those billions who should be his steadfast allies in his fight agai

By Daniel out of the Lion's Den ~ M y mother claims that when she was four years old, she floated down a staircase. Astonished by this feat, she ran to the neighborhood children to tell them about her amazing achievement. Some were skeptical, and demanded that she repeat the event in their presence. The crowd gathered in her house as she climbed to the top of the stairs. She stood there trying as hard as she could to launch into the super-human glide that she was certain occurred just minutes beforehand. But nothing happened. As the naysayers began to dispersed, she exclaimed, “You have to eat a lot of carrots!” “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the matter be established.” This biblical axiom is scattered through the Old and New Testaments. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s actually not a bad rule. Certainly, in modern courts of law, when more than one witness independently corroborate a story, the story is given credence and becomes believable. In the Bib

By Tom Brower ~ I trace the beginnings of my spiritual journey to a time when, as a young teen, I began to take interest in the great questions in life and was frequently distracted by a desire to understand how I fit into the big picture. Living near the beach, I often took advantage of the opportunity to sit and contemplate on the shores of Huntington Beach, California. I felt a palpable sense of peace and belonging at the ocean and I often would retreat there for solace. My answers to life’s great questions remained ill defined at this point in my life, but my own native religion was nature-centered and non-theistic. In my later teen years, however, I came under the influence of several enthusiastic Christian friends. At first, I was very resistant to the Gospel message and to some of the content of the Bible. But over time, my attraction to the welcoming fellowship, the high moral standards, the reassuring divine promises, and the ready supply of answers to my deepest questi

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ W hen it comes to witchcraft, very few things can be proven, but this can: my great . . . [number of greats unknown]. . . great grandmother, Mary Perkins Bradbury, was tried and convicted of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, when she was 78 years old. According to one source, “Witnesses testified that she assumed animal forms; her most unusual metamorphosis was said to have been that of a blue boar. Another allegation was that she cast spells upon ships. Over a hundred of her neighbors and townspeople testified on her behalf, but to no avail and she was found guilty of practicing magic and sentenced to be executed. Through the ongoing efforts of her friends, her execution was delayed. After the witch debacle had passed, she was released.” Mary was actually one of the more fortunate players in this sad New England drama. Before it was over, twenty men and women were executed and five others died in jail. But, witches don’t exist! How

By Valerie Tarico ~ W hen it comes to matters of individual conscience, Washington State voters have a don’t-mess-with-us attitude that makes Texans look like cattle—and it goes way back. In 2012 Washington voters flexed their muscle by legalizing recreational marijuana use and marriage for same-sex couples. In 2008, death with dignity passed some counties by as much as seventy-five percent. In 2006, Washington lawmakers outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In 1991 a citizen initiative established that “every individual has the fundamental right to choose or refuse birth control” and “every woman has the fundamental right to choose or refuse abortion.” It also guaranteed an absolute right to privacy around mental health and reproductive issues for teens aged 13 and up. Washington State’s constitution includes an Equal Rights Amendment and (from the get-go) a stronger wall of separation between church and state than the U.S. Constitution. Thes

By Carl S. ~ T here are times when l find myself wishing this were not an ex-Christian , but an ex- believer, site. There are good reasons for this. For one thing, shared experiences for the sake of comparison would be eye-opening amongst believers of many faiths. For another, the rationalizations and convoluted defenses of the faiths would be exposed; those ways in which people were conned into accepting them in the first place. Then there is the emotional involvement, the dedication and utmost certainty each testifier would have to offer as evidence why he or she stayed in the respective faith. And, why each believer in each respective faith thought he or she was in the one true one. It would be enlightening to note that all religions begin with miracles, that all of them somehow manage to lose all the “evidence” for their claims even at their beginnings. And that the conflicts in interpretations of their beliefs at those beginnings are still unresolved to this day, as firmly as th

By Doubting Thomas ~ R ecently I spoke to a friend of mine about a car of a one German producer which has been proclaimed by a study as the most reliable machine on the market. I’ve said to him that I would love to have that car. He looked at me with a smile and said: “No way. That car sucks. I know a guy who bought him and had a lot of problems with it”. He simply discarded data from analysis I showed to him and not even bothered to read it. This example proves that testimonies are more accepted as evidence of truth than ‘boring’ and comprehensive analysis. That is a known fact which is used in marketing since humanity exists. Let us apply it to religion. When people hear of personal testimony of somebody’s conversion or miracle story they will easily believe it and accept it as a self-evident proof of God ’s existence. On the other hand, when you show them medical data or present them with other more plausible scientific explanations they will in majority cases discard them, be

By Princ ~ I became a saved Christian on January 2013 when I came across the concept of salvation on the internet. I decided to become a Christian because I was interested in following the commandments of God and I also liked the idea of Jesus caring about everyone. Two weeks after my conversion, I decided to read the bible and that is when I was so shocked at the cruelty of God. The Old testament is filled with violence, genocide, rape and threats against the Israelis . I was disgusted at the fact that God orders his people to invade other lands, kill all the people and take virgin women as wives. There are also detailed instructions on how to beat your slaves. I could not believe that many Christians were defending this type of cruelty by claiming that the Canaanites were so evil or God has the right to kill anyone. I also realized that there were thousands of different doctrines regarding salvation and the afterlife. One doctrine is the once saved, always saved doctrine, an

By Valerie Tarico ~ W hat happens when religious institutions get to manage public funds, absorb secular hospitals, and put theology above medical science and individual patient conscience? In 2010, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, an elderly woman was rushed to a local hospital called St. John. She had suffered a massive stroke and could no longer eat, drink or speak. Mercifully, she was one of the growing percent of Americans who have prepared for such an eventuality by writing an end of life directive . Hers said that said she did not want artificial hydration or nutrition if she wasn’t going to recover. Unfortunately, St. John is a facility where the directives of the Catholic bishops take precedence over the directives of individual patients, and one such directive orders hospitals to feed and hydrate end of life patients whether they want it or not. Americans would do well to consider what happens when theology dictates health care. In the official language of the Bishops, St. John