By Unborn Again Christian ~ S oon after my de- conversion from Christianity , I was very enthusiastic and zealous to spread my newfound knowledge to those around me. The first few people I got in touch with were secular friends from college who had always tried to get me to reconsider my fundamentalist Christianity. These were the people who had stood by me despite my firm stand on the bible and the gospel. One of my friends, delighted with my de-conversion, said that he always believed I had a thinking brain in me and has thought that it was only a matter of time before I abandoned my faith. I responded saying that I knew something was fishy all along. However, I could easily not let go of what I had held on to all my life. He said that the process of letting go is initiated only when you are willing to reconsider everything with an open mind. This is a profound statement. It sounds highly philosophical but has tremendous practical implications. Following this discussion with him

By Laura ~ I have been on this site for the past year and decided it's time to join. I will try to keep my testimony short today but I hope to add more to the comments section as time goes on. I was raised as a Jehovah's Witness as a child. My father was a lukewarm fence sitter who faithfully attended the meetings but didn't do much else. My mother was not a believer and my whole childhood is filled with memories of the many "debates" that took place where my parents each tried to convince each other as to how the other person was wrong. I lived a pretty sheltered life as a child, living in a rural area and being of the mindset that anybody who was not a JW, they were to be avoided as worldly. I became rebellious as a teen (back in the 70's) and just wanted to have some fun. Started hanging out with worldly friends and got a worldly boyfriend. Even the other JW teens I hung around with just wanted to party. The summer I turned 16 my parents told me I

By youthpastorkevin ~ T hought y'all might enjoy this little series of sketches my wife and I (who met as evangelicals and quit together) made about the idiosyncrasies of youth group life. http://www.youthpastorkevin.com/

By Carl S ~ First of all, I wish to thank those who so well responded to my previous posting “ Times Must be Difficult for True Believers .” There are times when I wonder if what l write is “preaching to the choir,” and am thereby inclined to become discouraged. I'm sure I am not alone on this. Your responses usually offer even more input to what I have written. They are experiences and commentaries I value just as much as my own. Peace in the Middle East : A Way Forward A peaceful Middle East is an oxymoron. A major reason for this has always been the tradition of what the national media (in fear of religion , I'm sure) refers to as “ sectarian strife.” Considering that the region consists of religious sects aplenty, the infighting tradition is kindling waiting to burst into flame with every provocation, however slight. Property is destroyed, members of factions maim and murder each other, and governments are stressed out. After a war in which hundreds of thousands of

By Underground Freethinker ~ A fter reading many others deconversion stories for the past few months, I feel I should share my story as well. To really tell the truth, my story started long before I even considered leaving Christianity. In seventh grade social studies back in 2006-2007, we were instructed to learn about ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Romans, Greeks, Persians, etc. and gradually work our way through to the Columbus voyages . One of the first few things we learned was of the creation stories each civilization believed in to justify how we got here. Every time I heard one of them, I thought of how utterly ridiculous it was to believe such nonsense. Sadly, I had never thought of questioning the christian creation story that I believed in. I couldn't blame myself because I grew up in a christian family and I didn't know any better. I thought what they told me was completely true. For me, my family and I went to an Assemblies of God church whi

by Kenneth W. Hawthorne ~ I s the phrase, " extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence " (with all due respect to Carl Sagan ), sufficient to describe miraculous claims and the evidence needed to prove them? ( miracle , " a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency:" ) ( extraordinary , " 1   a:  going beyond what is usual, regular or customary...;  b:  exceptional to a very marked extent," and is normally used to describe  naturally  occurring events that are out of the ordinary.) So it seems to me this phrase is lacking--the word  extraordinary  just seems too generic for this purpose. We need a phrase that immediately and unambiguously gets to the heart of the type of evidence it would take to prove  miraculous  claims. Let's take the miraculous claim that a man came back to life after being dead for three days. It is more than a cl

By Daniel out of the Lion's Den ~ I ’m reading Richard Dawkin ’s book, The God Delusion . Now, I have read the entire Bible, and most assuredly have read the books of Matthew and Luke many times over. And due to enduring countless Advent and Christmas Eve services, I have listened many more times to Matthew chapter 1 ad nauseum, and Luke chapter 3 to a lesser extent... which is why this astonishes me: that I have never heard of or noticed what Dawkins describes in his chapter ‘ Arguments for God’s Existence ’ in the section ‘The Argument From Scripture’. He points out that the genealogy of Jesus documented in Matthew is markedly different than the one documented in Luke. Specifically, the lineage from King David to Joseph (the husband of Mary) not only contains predominantly different names, but Matthew has 26 generations from David and Joseph, while Luke has 41! Needing to see for myself, I created the following table from the two books, showing the discrepant patriarc

By Kelsey ~ S ince birth to the age of 16 I was 100% convinced that God existed, he was my father, we had a deep personal relationship, and that nothing could tear me away. Being so caught up in this belief, and having so much faith, I often spoke to God (vocally and in my head) almost every second of ever day, with the best intentions to better know my creator. It took three years, a random dream , the most painful emotional torment my mind/body had ever experienced and intellectual honesty for me to come to my senses, and to learn what I had been denied as a Christian. [ Here is the dream ] I was walking barefoot in the sands of Egypt, When I came upon four monuments sitting side by side. They came to life, and stood before me alive. I approached them, curious and in awe. They walked into the desert, and I followed. After many hours, we came upon a rope hanging from the sky. I looked up the rope and did not find a connection, it simply faded into the atmosphere.

By StainedGlass ~ L et me start by thanking this community on Ex-C for being so open, honest, and supportive. The seeds of doubt in Christianity were planted at least 4 years ago, but honestly, 6 days ago, my complete de-conversion happened entirely by accident. Let me share a bit about me (or a lot!) I was raised by Christian parents in a large, close-knit, "sheltered" (isolated) home. My father was a second generation Christian, and my mother a first generation Christian. Therefore, she was the most fundamental. My father was always very easy going, and my favorite parent. My mother had the most "sin passed down" that she was struggling to overcome. As many Christian families do, my family started out as fundamentalist baptist, and I was taken to church and taught right from wrong since the time I was one year old. My memories of scripture verses are as old as my memories of my mother rocking me to sleep. These are memories that I still deeply cherish, exp

By Tania ~ I t has been about 2 ½ years now since the start of my deconversion. I had been having questions and doubts about many of the Christian doctrines for years leading up to this, and I'd had many struggles with God and my relationship with Him; yet at these times, I sensed that these things were just building blocks to a stronger Christian faith, and I worked hard to become “the kind of person God wants me to be.” In January 2011, something snapped. It was something small, in the scheme of things, and looking back on it now, I'm grateful for how things worked out in the end. But, nonetheless, I believe that it was the thing that marked the start of my unbelief in a God who intervenes in the lives of His children. What happened was small: I was interested in a young man; I felt that God had placed him into my life and that we would end up together, eventually, as husband and wife; said man expressed, three months into my infatuation with him, that he was not intere

By Carl S. ~ A large painting hangs in the foyer of a local church. It depicts pairs of large animals ascending a ramp into a huge ark. I doubt that there is any member of our society who has not heard the story of Noah's ark. Every child who is taught that the tale is true knows its details. This story is dropped into their laps, and the story-tellers move on to other subjects, avoiding any questioning or analysis as to what it signifies for good behavior in children and their parents. Illustrated children's books including the story, and toy sets with ark and animals, are sold in secular stores, further supporting the story as actual fact. So great is its influence that not only paintings but stained glass windows and TV “documentaries” present it as a real event, as the “Search for Noah's Ark ” programs attest. (Why the search for Noah's ark and not the search for the Emperor's New Clothes? You may notice that story is not in the bible. If THAT story WAS in t

By Raven Nightsong ~ "And to keep me from being puffed up and too much elated by the exceeding greatness (preeminence) of these revelations, there was given me a thorn ([a]a splinter) in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to rack and buffet and harass me, to keep me from being excessively exalted." [ 2 Corinthians 2:7] I am coming to realize that I have a MASSIVE thorn in my flesh, and it has a name - Christianity! This MASSIVE thorn in my flesh has another name - Religious Trauma Syndrome! [More information on that can be found at - http://journeyfree.org/rts/ ] I realize that I am having a delayed reaction to leaving Christianity. I didn't deal with it when I left because things happened quickly, and those things made leaving somewhat easy... even pleasurable. But I also realize that those things caused me to repress ALOT of emotional and spiritual yucky mucky's in leaving Christianity. I didn't allow myself to process what I had just done, and beca