By Renoliz ~ Y ou just can't come up with a coherent message from the gobbledygook of the Bible. It is the wackiest, scariest story ever told. We are born as worthless sinners and filthy rags fit only for the dustbin because of two people long ago. God never mentions his great plan in the entire Old Testament [several chapters in Isaiah not withstanding, especially since you have to really pick through the whole thing to get what the Christians are getting out of it and it doesn't read the same if you translate it directly from Hebrew instead of from the Greek version]. Image by AlaskanLibrarian via Flickr Anyway, the myriad of problems with the Bible not stopping there. Biblegod then sends his son who is really himself to get a good beating and save us from Hell . Now, Hell was never mentioned in the Old Testament either. So, Jesus gives the ultimate sacrifice of giving up his life but not really since he came back after only two days even though we are going to s...

By  Steve ~ I am a person who was brought up in Pentecostal churches , with all the speaking in tongues , people falling over when hands were laid upon them, and absolute FEAR of the Devil or Hell or death. It has done nothing but cause me to have extremely bad nerves as an adult, and I fight it daily. Image by quinn.anya via Flickr I have been questioning Christianity since I was a kid. I never could believe that God would send so many people to hell. Now that I'm an adult, I can tell you that with some great amount of thinking, I have decided that the stories in the Bible make absolutely no sense at all. Please attempt in your mind to answer a few of the following questions and see if any of it still makes sense to you. Why was there rebellion in heaven? If God and heaven are so perfect, why did a rebellion happen there?  Why did God put people on the earth after he sent Satan and his bad angels there? Surely he knew Satan would try to influence us?  Why did ...

By dealdoctor ~ J ohn Lennon's song “ Imagine ” contains the famous lines: Imagine There’s No Heaven It’s Easy If You Try No Hell Below Us Above Us, Only Sky Image via Wikipedia Atheists simply do not believe in Heaven or Hell after this life, but rather that this life is the only life an individual will have to live. What are the implications of such a belief? Does this leave atheists in a sad hopeless situation while living this life, because once it is over it is really flat out over with no encore? Would this make us depressed people because there are no golden streets on which we will walk for eternity? Does this mean that atheists will live irresponsible, immoral lives now, because there is no hell to punish us when we die? Gosh if God does not have a carrot of heaven to inspire us and a big stick of hell to fill us with fear, what in the world would motivate us to act in kind ways toward others? Gosh it seems if we actually start to imagine that there is no hea...

By Matthew ~ H ey everyone. I have been on the path to atheism for a long time now, but found it really hard to break free from the brainwashing until recently. Image by The U.S. Army via Flickr I was homeschooled and went to church three times a week my entire childhood (yada, yada, yada). Basically every bit of input was controlled through my first 18 years even though from around 14 on when my grandpa whom I loved dearly died, I had begun to question things like God's promise to Christians who pray in Jesus' name and believe... the whole moving mountains bit. I'm sure you've heard it before. Christians have an answer for everything: "It was not in God's will," and "Who am I to question this?" (aka hold God to his promises). I was really naive at the time, but this doubt started me on my journey to freedom. There were many things that led me to atheism, but when I was in Iraq we killed a few people and one instance helped me make...

By Matthew ~ This was sent in prior to the debate ... S o I'm going to see Sam Harris this Thursday night debate William Lane Craig at the University of Notre Dame . Upon hearing about the debate, I was thrilled to find out that Notre Dame is only 4 hours away from me, and even more thrilled when I found out that there were still tickets left (6 tickets left, to be exact. I'm way in the back, but at least I'll be there). Image via Wikipedia So getting a ticket to this thing really made my day. A lot. I love watching debates, and I'm glad that people like Hitchens and Harris are making noise and standing up to religious dogma. I feel like if I had heard some of their arguments sooner or if someone had stood up to my religion sooner maybe I might not have suffered all the ill effects of religion in my life. It is the natural tendency of humans to share exciting things with others, usually in the form of friends and family. And it's true that I have friend...

By Victor J Webster (ret. surgeon), Sydney ~ I recently received an email, alluding to the exemplary behavior which had been observed and widely reported following the recent earthquake and subsequent disaster in Japan, which included the following list: Victor Webster THE CALM Not a single visual of chest-beating or wild grief. Sorrow itself has been elevated. THE DIGNITY Disciplined queues for water and groceries. Not a rough word or a crude gesture. THE GRACE People bought only what they needed for the present, so everybody could get something. THE ORDER No looting in shops. No honking and no overtaking on the roads. Just understanding. THE SACRIFICE Fifty workers stayed back to pump sea water in the N-reactors. How will they ever be repaid? THE TENDERNESS Restaurants cut prices. An unguarded ATM is left alone. The strong cared for the weak. THE TRAINING The old and the children, everyone knew exactly what to do. And they did just that. THE MEDIA They ...

By Belle ~ W here do I start? Well, first and foremost, I would not call myself an atheist. I don't even know what to call myself and it does not bother me not to classify myself. I just know what I know for this moment and religion is just something that does not work for me anymore. Image via Wikipedia For as long as I can remember, I recall the idea of there being a God deeply rooted in my consciousness. It could have been the Sunday school lessons since young or my aunt's constant reminders about sin and righteousness. I have never questioned "sovereignty." I was not allowed to. If I do it anyway, I would be filled with guilt and condemnation. Yes, it is the condemnation that kills. From church to church, I have tried staying there for long without getting depressed or upset with either: A)The superficiality of the people B)The obsession with sin and constant pricking of conscience The first church I attended left a very bad taste in my mouth. The peo...

P erformed by Tim Minchin , animated by DC Turner and produced by Tracy King , " Storm " tells the story of Tim's encounter with an alternative medicine supporter at a dinner party. Cover of Tim Minchin Tim Minchin’s Storm is a 9-minute beat poem which has already attracted half a million views on YouTube in audio alone, and has become the anthem for critical thinking worldwide. In the confines of a London dinner party, Tim argues with a hippy named Storm. While Storm herself may not be converted, audiences from London to Sydney have been won over by Tim’s wordplay and the timely message of the piece in a society where science is attacked as the enemy of religion, alternative medicine given credence and public funding, and psychics have prime time TV exposure.

O n April 7, a sold-out audience in Notre Dame’s Leighton Concert Hall watched this year’s edition of “The God Debate.”Before a packed house, “ New Atheist ” Sam Harris and philosopher of religion William Lane Craig argued whether God is the source of morality. I simply argued for a scientific conception of moral truth and against one based on the biblical God. This was, after all, the argument that the organizer’s at Notre Dame had invited me to make. --  From Sam Harris' blog

Writer & Humanist Chaplaincy Fellow, Harvard University   C hris Stedman talks about becoming a Christian, leaving the faith, and his current efforts as  a secular humanist working to foster positive and productive dialogue between faith communities and the nonreligious. Chris is the Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard  and the Managing Director of State of Formation . He is also the founder and author of NonProphet Status and a columnist for The Huffington Post Religion , where his work is among the most commented upon in the site's history. Chris is also the youngest member of The Washington Post’s On Faith panel. Chris serves on the Leadership Team of the Common Ground Campaign , and he previously worked with  Interfaith Youth Core . Chris is writing a book on his work and speaks regularly as a member of the Secular Student Alliance Speakers Bureau . ( Cambridge, Massachusetts )

By Sputnick ~ I was raised in a non-religious home by parents who rejected religion , but who unfortunately didn't understand or feel that there was such a thing as faith (non-religious). It has been a double whammy going through life this way: A lot of trial and error -- if you know what I mean -- because the morals were thrown out with the bath water. Because of the lack of morals and poor role modeling, I took a detour through Hell itself. But, I was taught to work hard, and I did work through this all. My conclusion: Give your child some kind of moralist creed or religion (yes, even religion, but without any kind of Hate). Tell them that their religion is not the only true one as soon as possible, (early teens) before they set themselves up as judges to their friends and the whole Human Race. This way they'll get a strong start and stay out of trouble till their silly little underdeveloped moral faculties can start to use inductive logic .