Freedom from Lies

By E Singletary ~

I am a Man who has taken it upon himself to think, think critically about what is presented to me as fact and fiction. In particular religion. From an early childhood I was indoctrinated into the baptist church, I was scared into being "saved" by a hell fire preacher at the impressionable age of 6. I was told to believe everything that the people of the church told me yet was never offered one bit of proof. The world was hidden from me, I was never taught to think critically or even allowed to question what I was taught. Right along with reading and math I was taught the bible as total fact and not to question it. Good people taught me this but better people would have exposed me to it and let me formulate my own choices and opinions as an adult instead of indoctrinating me as a child.

As I grew up I challenged what I was taught, but only to myself because the people around all passed judgement on each other based on the person's religious fever not on the actions of the person. "He is a good christian man." and I wanted to be seen as a good man so I followed the line, all the while questioning my motives because of my core beliefs that the bible and the stories in it are questionable, horrid and at times ridiculous.

A little over three years ago I decided to study for myself where the bible came from, how it was compiled and who the authors were, and if anyone really knows. I discovered that the history of the bible is not as presented to me as a child. Popes and kings decided the stories that went into the bible, there are no first hand accounting by the authors, some books of the New Testament where written many hundreds of years after the stories where supposed to take place.

Many key players in the bible have no historical mention of them outside of the bible, even though the empires they represented in the bible were meticulous in recording their political history.

Then I read the bible, I saw that the churches, all of them just picked and chose what rhetoric they want to expound. The reason was the bible is full of things that are not acceptable. A woman is but a slave to her husband in one area but held high in another. A leader in the Old Testament is told to prove his love of god by killing his son as a human sacrifice. Daughters trick their drunk father into getting them pregnant. God instructs the Jews to commit genocide down to the animals and innocent children in the land that is now Israel.

God himself, tells the people not to kill but on many occasions tells them to commit genocide over land and even supposedly kills the first born sons of the non Jewish families in Egypt, of which there is no record in Egyptian history.

There is no proof of god, there never will be because you can't prove something that is not there.If there is a god, why did he not stop Hitler, or the 9/11 attacks? If he did it to punish the Jews or Americans then he is malevolent, not loving. If this god loves us, why does the bible threaten us with a nonexistent hell if we don't love him back? Who is there to love? I have prayed as I was taught and found the only thing there were my own thoughts. People talk of god working in mysterious ways, I see no works at all done by god. Men do the work. Men stomped out the Nazis. Men searched out those who are guilty of the 9/11 attacks. A loving god would have kept those things from ever happening. Why pray out loud? Can't god read your thoughts? Verbal prayer is done solely for the person who is praying and those who will listen. Why pray for specifics, why not pray for big ticket items, world peace, the cure for cancer or no more war? Why not, because it does not work. Wars will still happen (most rooted in religion), cancer will still affect lives, the world won't have peace, ever. Man is selfish, all animals are, it is survival instinct, this will always lead to conflict.

The reason why I doubt; because religion is a manifestation of man, invented to answer questions that at the time could not be answered and even more so to control the people and mold their behaviors and thoughts. There is no proof of god, there never will be because you can't prove something that is not there. There is a dragon in the garage. Referring to Carl Sagan.

I believe in loving each other, being kind, giving a hand up, being empathetic and upholding just behaviors. I worship nothing, my only temple is my body and try to treat myself with with the respect I am due. I strive to respect everything and everyone.

I don't pass judgment unless my nation calls me to do that in the courts, then I do it based on evidence not faith. Passing judgement or ridiculing those who believe differently or think critically is wrong at the deepest level.

To paraphrase Carl Sagan, incredible claims require incredible evidence. Don't teach faith, teach the pursuit of truth and an awe for nature. My children will be presented the opportunity to think for themselves and think freely and critically. I will not tell them what to think or decide but will tell them be skeptical of everything.

Comments

Christian TV presenter reads out Star Wars plot as story of salvation

An email prankster tricked the host of a Christian TV show into reading out the plots of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Star Wars in the belief they were stories of personal salvation. The unsuspecting host read out most of the opening rap to The Fresh Prince, a 1990s US sitcom starring Will Smith , apparently unaware that it was not a genuine testimony of faith. The prankster had slightly adapted the lyrics but the references to a misspent youth playing basketball in West Philadelphia would have been instantly familiar to most viewers. The lines read out by the DJ included: "One day a couple of guys who were up to no good starting making trouble in my living area. I ended up getting into a fight, which terrified my mother." The presenter on Genesis TV , a British Christian channel, eventually realised that he was being pranked and cut the story short – only to move on to another spoof email based on the plot of the Star Wars films. It began: &quo

Are You an Atheist Success Story?

By Avangelism Project ~ F acts don’t spread. Stories do. It’s how (good) marketing works, it’s how elections (unfortunately) are won and lost, and it’s how (all) religion spreads. Proselytization isn’t accomplished with better arguments. It’s accomplished with better stories and it’s time we atheists catch up. It’s not like atheists don’t love a good story. Head over to the atheist reddit and take a look if you don’t believe me. We’re all over stories painting religion in a bad light. Nothing wrong with that, but we ignore the value of a story or a testimonial when we’re dealing with Christians. We can’t be so proud to argue the semantics of whether atheism is a belief or deconversion is actually proselytization. When we become more interested in defining our terms than in affecting people, we’ve relegated ourselves to irrelevance preferring to be smug in our minority, but semantically correct, nonbelief. Results Determine Reality The thing is when we opt to bury our

So Just How Dumb Were Jesus’ Disciples? The Resurrection, Part VII.

By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette

ACTS OF GOD

By David Andrew Dugle ~ S ettle down now children, here's the story from the Book of David called The Parable of the Bent Cross. In the land Southeast of Eden – Eden, Minnesota that is – between two rivers called the Big Miami and the Little Miami, in the name of Saint Gertrude there was once built a church. Here next to it was also built a fine parochial school. The congregation thrived and after a multitude of years, a new, bigger church was erected, well made with clean straight lines and a high steeple topped with a tall, thin cross of gold. The faithful felt proud, but now very low was their money. Their Sunday offerings and school fees did not suffice. Anon, they decided to raise money in an unclean way. One fine summer day the faithful erected tents in the chariot lot between the two buildings. In the tents they set up all manner of games – ring toss, bingo, little mechanical racing horses and roulette wheels – then all who lived in the land between the two rivers we

Morality is not a Good Argument for Christianity

By austinrohm ~ I wrote this article as I was deconverting in my own head: I never talked with anyone about it, but it was a letter I wrote as if I was writing to all the Christians in my life who constantly brought up how morality was the best argument for Christianity. No Christian has read this so far, but it is written from the point of view of a frustrated closeted atheist whose only outlet was organizing his thoughts on the keyboard. A common phrase used with non-Christians is: “Well without God, there isn’t a foundation of morality. If God is not real, then you could go around killing and raping.” There are a few things which must be addressed. 1. Show me objective morality. Define it and show me an example. Different Christians have different moral standards depending on how they interpret the Bible. Often times, they will just find what they believe, then go back into scripture and find a way to validate it. Conversely, many feel a particular action is not

I can fix ignorance; I can't fix stupid!

By Bob O ~ I 'm an atheist and a 52-year veteran of public education. I need not tell anyone the problems associated with having to "duck" the "Which church do you belong to?" with my students and their parents. Once told by a parent that they would rather have a queer for their sons' teacher than an atheist! Spent HOURS going to the restroom right when prayers were performed: before assemblies, sports banquets, "Christmas Programs", awards assemblies, etc... Told everyone that I had a bladder problem. And "yes" it was a copout to many of you, but the old adage (yes, it's religious) accept what you can't change, change that which you can and accept the strength to know the difference! No need arguing that which you will never change. Enough of that. What I'd like to impart is my simple family chemistry. My wife is a Baptist - raised in a Baptist Orphanage (whole stories there) and is a believer. She did not know my religi

Search This Blog