By Carl S ~ A few days ago, I purchased a fascinating book, “Leningrad: Siege and Symphony,” by Brian Moynahan . Since I'm very familiar with the “Leningrad Symphony,” as well as the siege of Stalingrad, the title grabbed my attention. If you are still a believer in God or prayer, you will be totally unprepared for the historical facts and first-person testimonies in this book. If you still believe in God and the power of prayer by page 200, you're totally in denial. Of the many lessons learned from Leningrad, both long before and during the siege: there is no God. (BTY: the question, “Does prayer work?” is moot, if one claims to believe in a caring God. Prayer will not be necessary if there were.) Does truth matter? America's Trump administration has used a term, “alternate facts,” as an explanation for its claims. This is just another way of saying “lies” in Trump's “Orwellian 1984” political doubletalk. His press secretary explained Trump's “facts” as “wha

By manwithquestions ~ S o I started dating a christian woman who eventually told me if I didn't go to church I could not marry her. So heck i gave it a shot. The music the message kinda touched me I remember crying my first time going. I went on Sundays her family were all born again and very very into the religion. Deep down I knew it was a little much but I thought so I had felt Gods presence so I continued on. , Although I was going to church, some bible study I always questioned: Why I couldn't have sex with my girlfriend and was it all real or a big sham? Friends thought I was crazy for waiting so long 'till marriage. I was suppressing natural feelings and it was very difficult to deal with. This led to watching things the church would deem bad, but I felt it was just natural. Eventually I felt more and more overwhelmed by the religion. It was just overbearing. The fact that we were the only ones right and everyone else was wrong, I just could not agree with. I

By Tania ~ L ast night was one of those rare nights when I did not fall asleep two seconds after turning out the light. Instead of picking up a book or flipping through a magazine, I chose Facebook. Probably not the most calming thing to do, that sneak-peek into others’ lives, which inspires a host of feelings from surprise to jealousy to nostalgia to inspiration to you-name-it. As I spent longer than usual on Facebook last night, scrolling through my home page and my own timeline, I contemplated yet again this concept of holding on…and letting go. As I saw pictures of the church “young adults” group, church weddings, and barbecues and road trips with the church people, part of me just wished to go back to those times and to have life more mapped out for me, Christian-style…for the most part, though, I am excited to have moved on and wandered into more unknowns. It wasn’t until a couple years ago that I realized that it’s okay to stop trying so darn hard to make things work. I

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ O ver the past few weeks, I have been embroiled in a fascinating debate on the Letters to the Editor pages of our local weekly newspaper here in Maine. It all started when a neighbor, our own Carl S. in fact, wrote a letter questioning whether the Roman census that allegedly brought Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem from Nazareth actually happened. A man responded to Carl’s letter, disputing Carl’s claims. At that point, I couldn’t resist chiming in myself in defense of Carl, so the next week my letter (#1) was published. Letter #1 "The Roman Census Revisited" To the editor: These past two weeks there has been an interesting debate on these pages concerning the Roman census said to have caused Jesus’ parents to travel to Bethlehem from their home in Nazareth. According to Carl Scheiman, there was no such census, while Henry Simmons claims there was. I think Mr. Simmons misunderstood. Scheiman wrote, “a decree went forth from Caesar Augus