By Carl S ~ I f Bible-god could change his mind, what changes might he make? 1. As a parent he wouldn't allow his children to feel responsible for all the chaos they experience in life, and for the deaths, poisons, and destruction inherent in Nature. 2. He would forbid those who claim to speak in his name from exploiting emotions, through hammering at those emotions with all manner of confusing and conflicting demands attributed to him. 3. He would not play favorites, telling some they are much better than others and therefore have the right to dominate, denigrate, snub, persecute, jail and execute whomsoever they say he hates. 4. This god would encourage humans to think for themselves and never take his word for anything on faith. He'd want them to think freely and become independently mature. 5. He'd tell those intelligent creatures: Wisdom is attained in doubting and searching after the facts continually. 6. He would say, "Please, no praise or worship.

By Stef ~ H i, I'm Stefanie and I'm addicted to religion. I have seen others refer to this as an addiction, and I have said this myself before. Sometimes I wonder, am I making to much of this? Is it just something that happened in the past and I'm over it? No.. It's something I battle all the time. Am I sure all other ex Christians feel addicted? No, I don't know... That's just it, I don't know.... I have been in a relationship with someone who goes to AA . I go to support him, And I listen. I have to say that I went through a lot that they did, but I can't tell them that, they will never understand. Its actually addicting to me to get into an organization. But I am an extremist and take it too far. I can't help it and I don't know when to quit, I end up getting hurt and hurting the people around me. Christianity hurt me and my family. I didn't know when to quit. I had to be just what God ordered and I thought I was doing right. I

By Karen Garst, The Faithless Feminist ~ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden , in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate.

By Thomasina Belle ~ I know a lot of you can probably relate to me, so I'm going to use this platform to vent. I really really appreciate this site. I am the lone liberal ex-christian in my large devout conservative family. I am the “donkey” in a room full of elephants yet I am the “elephant in the room.” With our election over and my anger somewhat subsiding, I just need some fellow ex-Christians to share the love. I have friends who think like me philosophically, but not many who have a similar background. The following is a perfect vignette to illustrate my family and me: A couple of years ago with my parents and two of my siblings, we got on the subject of gay marriage. I try, I really try to keep my mouth shut, but this time immediately after my dad said “it’s in the Bible!” I blurted out “The bible’s full of contradictions.” You see, I had been reading some Bart Ehrman and Skeptics Annotated prior to that and was well on my journey to agnosticism. My sister cried, “

By Carl S ~ B elievers find something wrong with unbelievers: If you don't believe, they'll tell you, it's because you have chosen not to. (By the way, what's wrong with that?) They all maintain belief is necessary for morality. So let's rethink this unbelief thing. Unbelief is as necessary for believers as belief. I maintain, along with Eric Hoffer , that it takes an incredible amount of unbelief to make belief possible. In fact, much more unbelief than belief is involved. You have to constantly disbelieve the evidence, the realities of life that keep contradicting those beliefs. The contradictions in the various creeds alone create suppressed undealt-with doubts within them. This has always been true. You might say about this, "Tell me something I don't know." Or maybe right now, you don't see things that way; if not, you soon might. Sometimes the obvious takes a long, long, time to be recognized. Speaking of important discoveries and propo

By AnonAgno94 ~ I scribbled this down a few weeks ago: I had a moment today at work when I had a breakdown. The situation itself is not worth explaining, but the outcome of it is. At times, departing from religion leaves me lonely and cynical of the world. What is the point of life? Of people? Why should I care? A Yellow-winged grasshopper (Gastrimargus musicus) caught in a barbed-wire fence. The yellow back wings are usually only visible when in flight. This image was captured in the few seconds during which the unfortunate grasshopper's head was stuck in a barbed wire fence. Australia is currently experiencing a locust plague. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) But today as I was crying, my coworker hugged me. At one moment, they held my face in both of their hands, and they said how nice of a person I was, and I felt such empathy that it struck me very deeply. They said very kind words today that I just can’t get past them. When I was a Christian, I often imagined Jesus a

By Karen Garst ~ I f you have never heard the term “cultural relativism” before, rest assured you are not alone. One really has to work hard to keep up with the new words and phrases that have popped up in the last few years, particularly on social media. Cultural relativism can be defined by this type of statement: “Women’s wearing of veils in certain Arab countries is just part of their culture and, therefore, we should not criticize them.” It is also reflected in the comment made by Secretary of State John Kerry when asked about whether our ally, Saudi Arabia , should allow women to drive. He responded that this decision was “ best left to Saudi Arabia ,” thus refusing to take a stand for the rights of women. But Secretary Kerry and cultural relativists are making a serious mistake for one simple reason. Women don’t have a choice in these countries to decide for themselves whether they wear veils or whether can drive. It is this issue of choice that underlies all basic huma

By Rae Blackwood ~ D o you remember the last thing you said to me? Do you remember our last conversation? I do. We were standing in the kitchen. It was dark out, but the lights were bright inside. You were complaining about our beloved Otis having one single flea. You wanted to kick him out of the house because of a single bug. We argued about it. The next morning you were dead. You killed yourself. I questioned myself, I blamed myself and others for years. What could I have done? Could I have made a difference? Could I have talked to you, treated you different? But the answer is no. Did you think this was going to be an I’m sorry letter? It’s not. As a matter of fact it’s the opposite. You always told me you were a bad father. You always manipulated me into feeling sorry for that confession, as if it was my fault some how. The thing is, you were right, you were a very bad father. The first memory I have of you, I made up. When I was a teenager, you asked me wh

By Carl S ~ T he 1962 movie, " Gigot ," (pronounced: zhih-GO) features the Catholic comedian Jackie Gleason as the title character. It's about a middle aged deaf-mute and the young girl he befriends in Paris . The young lady is the daughter of a well-known prostitute, and Gigot is the laughingstock of the city; so both of them are outcasts. Gigot spends time showing the girl the sights of the city. I still remember one emotionally powerful scene, even this many years after seeing the movie: In the center of an empty gothic cathedral at mid-day, the two of them look up and see the life sized crucifix hanging above the far-off altar. The girl asks, "Who is that man on a cross?" Gigot stares, and throws out his arms, searching for a way to explain what "that man" means to him. He cannot speak. In frustration, he pounds his fists on his mouth. Gigot (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I mentioned this scene to my Christian wife , hoping to explain m

By Lethargic Sweetheart ~ I have recently started questioning the Christian faith I've been raised to believe in. It happened when I was reading my Bible and stumbled upon several passages I don't agree with (those passages being the ones that condone rape and state that you must marry your rapist), and I realized. The vast majority of the things in that book are the complete opposite of what I believe in. Having been raped, I can not in any way, shape, or form understand how a loving god could make you marry the person who did it. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time the Bible gave me comfort; instead, it filled me with anxiety, depressing thoughts, and feelings of worthlessness. And thus, a tiny revolution sparked inside my mind. And I let go. If you're anything like me, you probably know where I'm coming from when I say that I still have doubts. At the moment, I refer to myself as agnostic. But the longer I stray from my religion, the more... fr