J oy Hopper, a well respected contributor here, submitted 24 articles under the pseudonym " Undercover Agnostic ." After making peace with her new atheist reality, she moved on from Ex-C and wrote a  memoir about her deconstruction of faith. The faith Joy inherited at the age of three worked for almost fifty years. She believed it, preached it, wrote songs about it, lived it. Jesus was the center of her universe, literally and metaphorically. Hence, one can only imagine the tsunami that followed when her ironclad theological foundation unexpectedly and involuntarily collapsed with a deafening thud. Joy's narrative chronicles her experiences of indoctrination from a young child to the present, as viewed through her rose-colored glasses. From early neglect to domestic violence, she shares how her distorted lens of faith turned every obstacle into an object lesson and every injustice into a refining tool. She exposes the toxicity of a religion that promises unspeakable

By Michael Runyan ~ R eligions roll with the times and the tides. A good example of that is what has happened in the United States over the past 50 years. Back then, Jesus was ambivalent about abortion. Now he is solidly anti-abortion. Back then he cared deeply about poor people, but the modern Jesus opposes almost all forms of poverty assistance from food stamps to Social Security. He was also a great healer who ministered to the sick, but lately he is opposed to universal health care and Medicaid. Five decades ago, Jesus was a pacifist (turn the other cheek), but now he is a stand-your-ground man toting a semi-automatic rifle and 25-bullet clip – yes, he opposes all forms of gun control. He has also gone from not being concerned about gay people to now seeing them as sinful reprobates. He was primarily a socialist in biblical times, but today he is a staunch capitalist despising government interference. He wore long hair during his time on earth (or so the paintings of him imply)

By Yak ~ I f I were a Christian I’d be afraid. Very afraid. Mainly because of their extraordinary claims about the Universe, and more importantly, their view of how it will end. Keep in mind that only a few of their beliefs about "the end" actually come from their book, the bible. The rest of the dramatics and theatrics, and especially their fear-mongering comes from people throughout time who have added their own imaginative twists to the florid prose they use to frighten people with. An example. They believe that this rather wide, old, busy and populated universe will come to a rather theatrical and catastrophic end. Their Jesus will show up completely pissed-off at everything and everyone, just like his genocidal father (Remember the maniac git with the kill-everything-that-lives-whether-they-deserve-it-or-not flood? Yup. That’s his pop. My friends say that apples certainly don’t fall far from the tree in that family…) –and he causes mayhem: thunderous trumpets to

By Jessica ~ I was raised in a Christian cult. That’s a heavy opener, right? It’s definitely a conversation starter. Yes, I was raised in a Christian cult. You may have heard of it: the UPCI, the “ United Pentecostal Church International .” I remember very clearly as a six-year-old girl, I was playing outside just as it was getting dark. It was a Wednesday night. My mother came to me and told me it was time to go to church. “I don’t want to go.” I told her. “If you don’t go, god might come back tonight, and you won’t go.” So, I went. At six-years-old, I already knew what it meant to “not go.” To six-year-old me, “not going” when god came back meant being stuck on Earth that would be overcome with bad people, natural disasters, and demons being unleashed from hell; which meant torture, losing my loved ones, and death. It scared me. It would scare anyone, let alone a six-year-old. We had people in our church called “end time preachers” who would preach about nothing other

By Riki ~ T his isn't really my testimony so much as it is simply a stream of consciousness about the nature of forced belief and fake adulation; both rife among Christians. One must unquestioningly accept so many irreconcilable 'facts' and offer up such a steady stream of hand-wringing adoration it equates to one of the cruelest psychological tortures ever devised... From my perspective, the sponsoring emotion of all Christians is fear... and what a terrible way to begin a relationship with someone you're supposed to love... If I had a message for Christians; housed within the belief system they adhere to, it would be as follows: Be honest! God knows your true motivation! You can't lie to god about what you really feel!! Lying is a sin and it will land you in hell, so your only hope is to first be completely honest and bare your soul... You can't pretend to love someone who fills your entire being with terror and dread..pretending that is called groveli

By Apetivist ~ H ello to all. You can call me "Ape." (It is okay, I do not mind as I happen to be one.) I hope you get something useful from my website . I will explain more about myself below too so you can better understand where I'm coming from. Now onto the purpose of my site . First, let us get this basic Q & A stuff resolved before we continue: Q. Do I mean to attack believers? A. No, I am only addressing beliefs not the people who hold them. Q. Do I think I am more intelligent than believers?  A. No, making a case for my or a reader's intelligence is not the point for my website. Intelligence is rather evenly spread throughout groups of people. There are no peer-reviewed scientific studies that indicate intelligence being a factor that is sufficient enough to make any difference between believers or unbelievers. We must be careful and kind to not make snap judgments on the intelligence of others based upon a belief or absence of beli

By Dean Klamath ~ I have been through many twists and turns in my life as a Christian questioning God, trying to reconcile with what is going on in the world today and my personal life, but last year I threw in the towel. All my life I thought God had some kind of plan for everything. I'm a man of Science, but even the best atheist arguments did not shake my belief that at least God was real and had good intentions, and that He simply allows us to make our own suffering as a lesson to turn and come to Him. What changed for me is when the woman I loved, who was a very devout evangelical (and kindest sweetest person I ever knew), cut our engagement and ghosted me a little over a year ago. I had proposed to her on Valentine's Day, and we were happy and talking about the future. Everything seemed right. I finally was going to get married despite the uncertain financial future and the fascist regime taking over the country. God was finally delivering on an 8-year investment I