By Arthur ~ M any Pastors and biblical scholars teach us that God is all-loving, good, great, just, and full of mercy and grace. But is this the God of the Bible or is it the God they would like to portray to their gullible followers? Why is that when we study the Bible we find otherwise? The Bible teaches us that love and wrath are the very essence of God. How can love which by definition wants good and wrath wanting evil for another, abide in the same person at the same time? Surely love will drive out wrath and wrath will drive out love. No one in there right mind would view a wrathful person as a loving person and vice-versa. So are the wrathful God of the Old Testament and the loving God of the New Testament one and the same God? There is nothing loving about murdering millions of people, innocent babies and billions of animals in the Flood of Noah, or in a jealous blood thirsty God slaying thousands of men, women and children who were worshiping Baal at the time of Moses. So ...

By ~2Honest ~ I was thinking about how Christians all have their own interpretation of the Bible and of who God is. At the church we most recently were a part of, God was nice and happy and loved everyone and had all these great goodies for them. But down the street from our house is a weird little church with some pretty angry “messages from God” on their sign out front. They fully believe God is an angry guy out to get those who don’t believe in him or who don’t go to church often enough. So who is right and what is true? The thing is, each person’s view of God (if a believer) evolves over the course of his or her life. It is affected mainly by our upbringing, then gets added to by life experience, church experience, and for the studious - the study of the Bible. Years ago I was in a church service where we had a guest speaker. This speaker gave this warning: we should be careful of creating a “false image of God ” and then worshipping that image, rather than the “true...

From Vyckie Garrison ~ M y dad is in the ICU in a small town in the deep South - seriously ill, not expected to make it :( He is a True Believer - he and his wife of 35 years attend a fundamental Baptist church. The church has organized a prayer chain for my dad - they're visiting and bringing casseroles - and of course, lifting him up in prayer. He and his wife know I am an atheist - we have a strained, awkward relationship which isn't helped (or maybe it is - LOL) by the fact that I live about 15 hours away. The thing is - it seems so mean and ungracious to respond to my step-mother's updates on FB with, "Hope" he gets better, or I'm "thinking" of you both ... "wishing" you all the best, etc. As a former Christian, it just doesn't feel nearly so supportive to express my love and concern in terms that seem dry and reserved and pathetically hopeless in comparison to "I'm praying for you" and "God be with you...

Son of a Preacher ~ T he brainwashing or should I say brain programing (you have to have prior knowledge (dirt) for washing) is the worst. And its all a scam, turn you into their slave. That's what they want, you must all fulfill their "vision for the world", after all the earth belongs to them… and they need a million dollars, like really need it. Whenever I think about the mind control used against me as a child it always makes me shake, I don't know why, kind of like I'm sick but not sick, like I'm really cold. You are told as a child "you must be stupid not to believe in this stuff" or "if you don't believe you must be brain dead", this is all designed to enslave the mind, and I can tell you, it works very well on a child's mind. "You are condemned" they say, "a life without god is worthless, now open you wallets and give" they shout. Or as my fathers group of churches say "those who do not tithe th...

By Carl S ~ "L etting go - Letting God," is the way they told you it would come about. Glowing, mind-blowing and satisfying, yes? You bought this. It's all psychological. No god there. A relationship by proxy. The need to be loved is a need to be shown love; in affection, personal attention, gifts occasionally. To be emotionally supported, involved with others who appreciate you, while expressing yourself, with others who apparently give a damn about you. Purely psychological, which is neither good nor bad, but open to making the wrong choices in re friends and/or lifestyles. You might be one of those individuals who is very insecure, not trusting yourself perhaps because you've made some bad decisions in relationships, but maybe you're naturally that way. So, you might be one of many who believe others have the answers, share your experiences, deepest needs, hopes. And Jesus is their answer, or some other who speaks for God. Whatever; you're involved. Y...

By a curious ex-christian ~ W ell. Let me explain myself first. Image via Wikipedia I was formerly a 'united baptist'. I got 'saved',dunked in a creek, and such when i was 11. Then when i was about 14 i really starting to see through all that bullshit. How? I read the bible. If you actually read it, it will turn you against your own religion. But i have never had the heart to actually tell my family how i feel about the subject. I sometimes ask my father questions that he tried to answer with some outlandish answer. But if i keep pressing the subject he just gets upset. So i could only imagine how he would react. Plus my uncle is a deacon and my grandpa is a preacher. At the age of 18, my freshman year of college, i found out i was pregnant. (The family was absolutely stunned) so i moved back home. And i had already forgotten how horrible it was, to be forced into a skirt and sit in church listening to some old guy ramble about complete nonsense. So i started refu...

By Lynn, The Agnostic Pastor ~ T his is a topic that has been discussed by many theists and non-theist for many, many years. Theists assert that a society that lacks a religious structure will disintegrate into mass chaos, filled with crimes of every sort. They also claim that religious belief is the ONLY source of morality for human beings. Sam Harris is the latest non-theist to take up the debate regarding morality without god. (You can find the book here: www.samharris.org ) I personally find it difficult to believe that religion is the prescription for human morality. Take a small child, for example. Two toddlers are playing on a playground. A third toddler enters the picture and begins to bully one of the two. What is that other child's response going to be? Compassion. Intervention. A strong feeling that what is happening to his/her friend isn't right. What theological teaching instructed that toddler about fairness? How did they know that bullying is wr...

Hello Everybody, this is my first post am I'm very excited to do so. I cut and pasted it from my research, so I hope it transfers well. The story behind this; I am a freshman at a university in Arkansas. My chemistry teacher mentioned something about Darwin's theory that got my mind working, so I wrote a hypothesis to see where I could go with it. It was a pleasure to write and I hope you all enjoy it. I'm considering more research on this matter, which will be enormous fun, especially with so many like minded people on this site to bounce ideas off of. Please bear in mind this is very rough and needs exorbitant amounts of research. Have a good day, guys :) The Morality of Evolution A Hypothesis by C.T. Ogden I was recently enlightened to the fact that Darwin’s theory of evolution is in fact a theory; something that has been proven numerous times. This being said, it is still a theory, and lacks the grounding to make it into Scientific Law. I am very...

By Carl S ~ H aving passed the age of 70 not too long ago is like Voyager passing Saturn - way back when yet it seems like yesterday. Being young is only a matter of living like I always have, neither born again or born yesterday. Strangely, one of the ways this came about was quite by accident; I found out that that there were other ways of seeing things, and was willing to consider them, think about them. Ways outside of what I was taught to believe, viewpoints from many different individuals. The world opened up. There's an admonition, for many, a commandment, "Unless you are born again . . . and become as these children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." This was said by a famous cult leader. (Guess his intent.) Now, that kind of birth is like "born yesterday." Childhood, whether a pleasant or onerous experience that you want to forget, is nevertheless, about discovering, trusting, learning by copying, adults. There's no escaping or choosing...

By Valerie Tarico ~ W hat do Koch Industries and the Catholic hierarchy have in common? A determination to shift rights away from individuals and assign them to institutions. Since the founding of the United States our ancestors have wrestled with the question of who counts. Who gets the rights and dignity that define the promise of America? For two hundred years generations of Americans have fought to bring the rights of person-hood and citizenship to those who had been excluded: the landless poor, religious minorities, Blacks, First Nations, women, gays. But always, as we have expanded those rights it has been with the goal of giving greater dignity and self-determination to individuals. Now we have both multinational and religious institutions seeking to do the opposite, to create rights/powers for organizations and ideologies that trump individual self-determination. In their crusade to block medical access to contraception, marriage equality and death with dignity, religi...

By Apostate Paul ~ Y ou are the principal of a school. You find out that one of the fryers in the cafeteria burst into flames, spreading quickly, and the fire department is ten minutes out. It's unclear why the smoke alarms aren't working in the school, but they aren't. The fire is likely to get out of control fast. Do you: A. Pull the fire alarm, alerting all students that they are required to evacuate immediately. B. Get on the PA system and make an announcement, giving the students the option to evacuate if they are afraid that the fire may harm them, and advising them to do so. C. After 5 or so minutes, go into a nearby classroom and alert the teacher and her students that they have the option to leave because there is a fire in the building, and tell them it is imperative that they alert the rest of the school, and leave. Seems like a pretty simple choice, right? Let's say you are God of the universe. You have known since the dawn of time...