M y name is Ines W. Jindra, and I am an assistant professor of Social Work at Idaho State University. We are conducting a study that examines the biographies of those leaving various Christian churches, and the process by which it happens. The study also includes questions about the consequences on people’s sense of identity, well-being, on their relationships, their relationship to specific rules within the Christian churches, and on coping mechanisms that arise from the difficulties that this process might entail. This research will be valuable in helping us understand the differences between people who stay and those who leave a specific church. We are interested in talking to people who are willing to share their experiences with us about this topic. Participation in this research study will take approximately one hour to maximum an hour and a half. Interviews will be conducted in person or via zoom, depending on your personal preference and location. Your information will be ke...

By Jason7 ~ R ecovering x-Christian here. Struggling spiritually. My life used to revolve around church. All my friends were from the church. My ex-wife & 4 kids were all heavily involved with the church. We were there every Sunday. We took my kids there for Wednesday night children's church. My family & I lived in a carefully constructed, sheltered Christian bubble. My life revolved around the Bible & I taught my family that it was 100% truth. We listened to Christian music & frowned on secular music with its cuss words & loose morality. We didn't smoke. we didn't openly cuss. We surrounded ourselves with like-minded Christians & had no non-Christian friends. We thought of ourselves as Holy & set apart by God to be his light in the world & to spread his love. However, underneath my outer Christian shell was a soul that was struggling intensely. I started questioning things that didn't make sense about my religion & God him...

By Guncher ~ I have been a believer for over fifty years. During Covid I sat down and looked at what I believed. Once I questioned things, I realised that I had no evidence to stay a Christian. At the moment I border between Agnostic, Atheist & Deist. I have lost trust in the Bible being "inerrant." Confused...

By Ellie ~ Hi all. I'm a UK journalist and ex-Christian with experience of UK purity culture in the Church of England and evangelical church/events. I'm keen to speak to men and women 25-40 who experienced purity culture at church as children or young people about its impact on them, with a view to sharing those experiences anonymously in a feature for a UK title. Your stories would run alongside coverage of a story-gathering project at a major US university about the impact of purity culture, and a research PhD about the UK experience of purity culture. Sharing experiences of UK purity culture feels important to me, and seems like something that hasn't been done yet. I can share a bit more about my portfolio and experience as a journalist if you'd like to hear that before going ahead but to summarise, I have about 10 years' experience as a journalist, and three or four years' experience working closely with case studies on personal stories.   If you'd lik...

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 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 Art ~ G reetings to all of you! Sorry if my English is not very good, it's not my native language. So I want to ask you guys to give some advice about my situation. I'm a musician, worship minister in a small Pentecostal church (about 20-30 members). The other members of the group never considered themselves as a musicians and was doing their ministry only because there was no one else who was ready to do it. So when I became a minister, all technical stuff about how to make music not to sound like shit was laid on my shoulders because I was the only one in the whole church who knows how to do it right. Not so long ago I was came out to my pastor and to other ministers about my non beliefs. After some discussions when they realized that I'm serious about my decision to leave the church they're have nothing left to say but to ask me not to leave my ministry until a replacement was found for me as a musician. Actually I can understand them, because the rest of th...

By James Wilhelm ~ (The following is a true story - one of many I have personally come across during my 40+ year journey through Christianity.) I have a good friend - a dependable, devout, genteel type of guy. Regularly attended church - always participating in "fellowship" and other church activities. Being single - he met a girl in church and quietly and discretely dated her. One night a very clear dream came - God wanted him to marry her! God answered his prayer! They married months later and soon a child followed. Turned out his new wife was a secret drug addict - and within two years sunk deeper into addiction and eventually killed herself. Now - totally broken and no faith he's struggling to explain to his child what happened to her mother. The real issue is how do you stop from being angry, bitter and resentful at a God you believed in that really doesn't exit? This is the conundrum of many of us who have abandoned religion. My anger is toward the th...

From Michael ~ H ello, If you guys don’t mind I’d like to request some advice. I’m on the fence about religion at the moment. I used to be a Christian, as I was raised in a predominantly Christian household. My Mom and Grandma brought me to Mass every Sunday, and I spent my time in primary school in a Christian school. However, I’m starting to question things, and I’m confused because of it. For example, I sometimes ask myself questions like, "If there is a God, why has he allowed so many people to suffer over the thousands of years of our existence. If he loves us, why does he let us suffer?" I’ve also asked myself the question of, "If there was nothing before God created us then how did he exist? Does God have his own God?" He couldn’t have just existed without any kind of explanation right? I think the most important question however is: "How do I overcome this confusion?" Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

From Mandy ~ J ust curious to know what your thoughts are on these stories about atheists who supposedly saw or went to hell when they had a near death experience. I see these kind of videos popping up on my YouTube feed from time to time. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.

By Ward Ricker ~ T he Holy Bible as you have never read it before . I wish to let you know about two new books that I just published that I think you'll be interested in. Holy Hustle! A Bible Parody Containing all 66 books of both the Old and the New Hustles is a (I hope) hilarious romp through the whole Bible, making fun of its stories, teachings, etc. Although it is intended to be fun and entertaining, it is also, I believe, educational, pointing out the contradictions, insanity, immorality, and horrors of the Bible. Read a  sample of  Holy Hustle! . The entire book is available on Amazon ! The other book, Unholy Bible: The Unholy and Unreal Parts of the Bible , is a free book. It started out as a listing of all the contradictions that I found as I was writing the parody, but I have expanded it to include the Bible contradictions that I have been able to find from other sources, as well as the Bible passages that show its violence, horror, immorality, ...

By AJ ~ I have asked, “Is it possible to be a spiritual person without being a religious person?,” "Is it conceivable to be a spiritual person and not belong to an organized religion?,” and “Can a person be spiritual and at the same time be an atheist?” I submit that the answers to all of these questions are yes. The answers are yes if we acknowledge that religion is man-made and spirituality is nature-made. George Vaillant declared that, “religion arises from culture; spirituality arises from biology.” (2008) Spirituality invites us to become awakened to ourselves and to the world around us. I maintain that each one of us has a life encapsulated in Nature, human nature, and our own nature. I announce that this awakening can happen without adhering to any religion. I recognize that for some spirituality can include religion, but it doesn't have to. Really, to be a spiritual person doesn't require a belief in a God. I view spirituality from the following...

From Tricia ~ W e only leave Jesus because we were never committed to Him or were deceived, wanted to live our lives the way we want. Self idolatry -- it is the same and just what Satan wanted you serve and worship SELF but actuality this world. The FOOL has said in his heart there is no God. We have become blinded, caught up in lies by the god of this world You want to be hay and God says no, therefore He is wrong. No you are wrong. I is an abomination and God says you want your lust so He gives you a reprobate mind....the word of God is right. We are wrong, admit the truth even if you chose not to live it.

From Mark ~ H i Guys, Thought I'd just give a little update since my last post. It's been over six years that I called it Quits. To be exact, 29 Aug 2012. Life has not been exactly rosy as I had expected back then, just because there was stuff to be worked out. But having said that, I felt I was more in control of my life although the road was dark and slippery at times. I felt I was more free and liberated to follow my own path, my own heart and gut, which while it might not to be everyone's liking, is actually what prayer and faith is all about. I still keep in touch with some friends from church as we are still friends, but sometimes I feel sick in the stomach when they start talking about how you must have more faith, pray more, fast more, tithe more, give more. Anyway, long story short, its been the best and most exhilarating six years I ever had. I am free. Thank You !!

Disciple of Jesus Forever ~ G uys, this is a warning. Stop doing all of these before it is too late. I am not pointing fingers at anyone around here, but I am telling you the truth! God loves every single one of you and wants you to give your lives to Him. As it is written, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by Him. If you give your lives to Jesus Christ, He will change your lives and use you greatly! This is all your decision here! God wants you to spend eternity with Him, and the only ones stopping this are you! Also, by doing what you are doing, you are actually working with Satan and you are bringing souls to Hell by misleading people. Please repent before it is too late! God really loves you, and I love you all as well. Just because you were probably disappointed before or just waited and did not get answered by God, it does not mean He is not real! All the truth is in the Bible, make sure you read the Bible as well! In order to...

By A Former Believer ~ A fter quitting my Religion, I have had a problem. I always have had ADHD. The problem that follows with this is lack of focus. I have never been able to sit down and work without having a lot of distractions. When I was young I had the same problem but after converting to Christianity I prayed and suddenly I could work for hours and hours. It worked like this : after I prayed and I started working, when some distraction occured, I immediately thought about God, and he would ask me to focus and return to Work. It was very efficient. During those years, my grades rose several steps. This was one of the main reasons why I stuck to Christianity for so long. As an adult I have tried several times to come back and achieve the same effect, but without any luck.Today I dont have the slightest belief that a God exist. When I tell christians about this, they soon proclaim it was a miracle.I don't think so. I remember that when it worked, I considered it to ...

By Emmanuel Melendez ~ O kay, so just to be clear I am a Christian, an actual real Christian, I've spent years studying the bible with no bias and looking at scripture in historical, scriptural, and cultural context, all the while seeking Gods infinite wisdom on what his word says. I will start off by saying today's modern church is anything but Gods church. First, church isn't a building, in scripture we see that what church is, is the people themselves. God, nor the people in scripture never refer to church as a building and the funny thing is all these church traditions like weddings or going on Sundays to a building, are not in the bible. So anyone telling you to go to a building, don't even realize that God is speaking about his actual followers who love him and actually follow him. Since the church has developed many false beliefs have arisen, and God does say a false church, or group of believers would rise during the end times. Some of those false belie...

By TDB ~ I am an ex-Methodist. I am 25-year-old autistic atheist who also questions his sexuality while at the same time am totally grossed out by sex. I have been labeled a "special snowflake social justice warrior" for being who I am...and I think it's killing me. I have thought about suicide for the longest time now and I may have written something here once before that was probably incredibly inappropriate. It all came from seething rage over the Orlando massacre as well the notion that my rights as a human being with the ability to think an act for himself should be up for debate. I was born and raised in the Deep South, Georgia to be exact. I am trying my damnedest to not conform to any ideology, but all it has done has given me more scorn than ever before. I think that learning to come to grips with the truth that me and my kind are cancer for valuing feelings more than facts, or whatever the apparent current argument is. I have been frequently called a...

From Rodney M ~ I really don't need to transcribe volumes of some diatribe to prove my worthiness to be read. After all, I'm writing to a bunch of moron's who claim they can think but rarely do so beyond their own "narrow self interests" or suicidal group-think causes. Guess what, life sucks for most of us. It sucks to a large part because we live in a world of competition and that competition is not fair. It's not only unfair it's often deadly to the naïve and innocent. Now, you can always blame some dogma for the problems in the world but even your dogma isn't a unifying one. As a matter of fact I can sum up the calloused ExC-Net dogma in a few sentences: I am rational. Do what thy wilt, shall be the whole of the law. Welcome to the jungle. You can take anything you want but you better not take it from me. Repeat Mantra. The main problem I have with this website is that you never offer any viable alternatives. You're like the Geor...

By AS SEEN ON TV ~ I f you or a loved one has any two of the following symptoms: currently living a biological father ... then you are suffering from borna sinna. Without treatment, your B.S. condition will never heal, and your condition will worsen into unbearable torture. HAVE YOU HEARD THE GOOD NEWS? The cure is TOTALLY FREE! EVEN THE CALL IS FREE! The Son of the Founder will PERSONALLY take your call. YOUR CALL IS VERY IMPORTANT! Due to the volume of calls, the Son will not be able to respond to any caller, but rest assured, you are His top priority. LOCAL SUPPORT GROUPS! There are many local support groups for B.S., with leaders who have decades of experience identifying, describing, and sharing their B.S. solutions with others. YOUR DONATIONS ARE TAX-DEDUCTIBLE! Check with your local leaders, but most donations to local support groups for B.S. are tax-deductible. REMEMBER: THE CURE IS A TOTALLY FREE* GIFT FROM THE SON! *Just pay a small 10% service cha...