By Neal Stone ~ F rom about age 12 to around age 33, I attended church. I attended a strict Baptist church that focused a lot on “Soul Winning”, as in going door-to-door annoying… ahem… sharing your faith with others who were so eager and overjoyed to open that door at 7pm, while you were in the middle of not being annoyed, and seeing those wonderful suit clad strangely happy guys with Bible in hand or New Testaments conveniently hidden in an attempt to hide the reason you were there… poorly. They often have no time to jump around the issue and dive right into why they are there. When I did the door knocking stint, I was surprised at how many pretended to get “saved” just to get these guys off their porch. It was obvious, at least to me, but not to the guy who ran back and bragged how he got one. In fact, not many had much success each time we got back and reported in our results. Most of the time the results were exaggerated followed by a lot of patting on the back. Often one is ...

By Tyler ~  O K, so there is a heaven and there is a hell.  On the way to heaven:  a person must be of good character and not break any rules On the other hand: if you do break rules, you must go to hell. So, let me get this straight. All your life you sin, sin, sin. Then, one day, just admit your sin aloud to other sinners and you will instantly propel yourself towards the eternal land of righteous rewards? I highly doubt this is the way it would work. Sounds to me like the corrupted mentality of those crazy bible-thumpers that took over Africa. Africans got the Bible while the white "fathers" got the land. Interesting. I am equally sure white "fathers" were on a righteously peaceable mission when  handing out guns for natives to use against each other (and ultimately destroy each other). And the gold and silver-grab thing by white "fathers" was just good ol' Christian home-cooking val...

By Mark F I always used to think that I was the problem. Growing up I was always painted as something of an outsider. I was that annoying kid in youth group that always took the opposite opinion. I suppose you could say that I was always trying to be a freethinker, but over time the labels and the constant framing of me simply being combative and argumentative for the sake of it took it's toll. Time and pressure and the ever growing need to prove – to overcompensate – led to extreme zealotry and a 5-year entanglement with the ministry of one Ray Comfort (sorry if we dare not speak his name here). At the time I genuinely wanted to save souls. Again, this part of my life took it's toll emotionally; trying to save the world from damnation will do that to you. Fast forward to 2008. I had a hyper-manic episode and was diagnosed Bi-Polar. This rocked my world. The foundations I had built my life on were in a moment shattered. I didn't know if I could hold onto my faith ...

By Neal Stone ~ I t has been years since I've posted here. A huge upset about my atheism caused me to panic (I was in an awful place then) and then I soon faced divorce in 2012, which was completed in 2013. It all fell apart, but I then found myself in Mississippi (of all places) visiting my dad. My dad made me an offer to come down and live in Mississippi with him. Mississippi is a very religious state though the coast, where I live, is a lot more relaxed. But that is another story. This story is about how I saw some of my Christian friends for who they were vs who I thought they were. I had some friends who came over weekly to hang out. They played D&D RPG style games (praise Jesus) even though they all attended church. I eventually got bored with it and would pop in time to time during their visit but would sit in my office…writing you guys. My ex-wife was the queen of playing victim and often wore a hat that said, "SUPER BITCH" and was quite proud of it. Lit...

By Jerry ~ I just wanted to bring a bit more clarity to my earlier post . A ll my life I had been searching for God. I remember at seven years old going into a religious book store and asking the owner what the “right religion” is. He advised me to read and come to my own conclusion. My mom had been lonely as dad was working a lot, so when the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) knocked on the door she agreed to study their literature with them. In short order she was baptized and began taking me to JW meetings. I was about 11 years old and remember the kids I met there which soon turned into friendships. I continued to be a Witness until about 25. Around that time I was experiencing great doubts because the JWs had prophesied that 1975 would see the return of Jesus and he would establish a kingdom on earth. By now it was 1982 and he had failed to show up. A book written by one of the top leaders in the organization blew the lid off the JW scam outlining the many times they had prophes...

By Andrew Pledger ~ (*Trigger Warning - Topics of depression, trauma, and suicide) H ello, my name is Andrew Pledger, and this is my story of religious trauma. My story is long and complex which is why I’ve been working on a book. This entry will leave out many details, but covers the general overview of my experiences and will help people understand how I got here. Restoration Counseling says, “Religious trauma (RT) is similar in symptoms to Complex-PTSD." Symptoms of RT: Negative beliefs about others Low self-esteem Struggle with emotional regulation Depression, anxiety, grief, and anger Nightmares Disassociation, flashbacks Lack of pleasure Feeling isolated Feeling empty, lost or directionless Reduced critical thinking Feeling out of place or like you don’t belong According to Restoration Counseling , "Religious Trauma Syndrome is often caused for several reasons for different people. Many people experience RTS as a re...

By Webmdave ~ R eality for my dog is uncomplicated. She understands life to be a series of eating, sleeping, running, sniffing, barking, guarding, trusting some and distrusting others, and above all expressing affection and loyalty to her pack (human family). In short, reality for my dog is displaying the qualities usually associated with a dog. She neither searches for or desires a higher purpose, nor does she fear sickness or death. She does not accumulate possessions and is not afflicted by envy, avarice, or demanding addictions and passions. Beyond just living out her days according to her nature, there is nothing else. She is at peace and content with her lot. Regardless of various differences in appearance, aptitudes and situations, dogs appear to be consistently content with their lives. People, however, are complicated. We believe we are somehow special in the universe and are notoriously discontent with nearly everything in our lives on a regular basis. Just sitting still fo...

By Jerry ~ I am a senior man who would consider himself an agnostic when it comes to belief in a creator of the universe, but an atheist who rejects the idea that there is a loving being wishing the best for mankind. Because of the design of the earth itself and the completely hostile environments of the planet, I believe we are more of an accident then a purposeful creation. I don’t accept the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or pagan gods. I had been involved with Jehovah's Witnesses in my youth and Christian Evangelical Fundamentalists most recently. I found both to be equally troubling for various reasons. However, my wife is still a staunch Pentecostal, and I must at least pretend in order to keep my marriage. But, in my heart I know the Bible was a book written by men and not at all accurate or inspired by anything other than their imaginations. One only need to study the Old Testament to see that not only was God a monster, but compared with the New Testament it’...

  By Tyler ~ L uckily, I was not born into a religious family! However, I was born into a family that lived around religious Catholics and Jews. Oh no! When going to school with people who were primarily Jewish, I was ridiculed all the time and heard their silly jokes to each other, which I never understood. They were all well dressed, totally materialistic and did not make sense to the rest of us who did not grow up with their religion. One actually came to my house, stole something and tried to put the blame on me. Then we called his mother. She tried to blame it on us too! Same thing happened to my sister: false accusations. I think they secretly think everything belongs to them, much like their Catholic and Christian enemy/brothers. Anyway, I eventually went to a community school with a Roman Catholicism class. Uh Oh! I was sitting in the first seat in front of the teacher and he immediately looks at me and tells me, "Come out of her my people." I did not say a wor...

By Webmdave ~ I retired a couple years ago and people are still asking me what I do with all my time. Responding I am working on personal improvement seems to assuage most curiosity. What I am tempted to tell them is I spend my time the same as everyone: living life.  It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it. Life is long enough, and a sufficiently generous amount has been given to us for the highest achievements if it were all well invested...  ― Seneca, On the Shortness of Life Until recently my mindset resembled that of my inquisitors. I believed that a person who spends the day playing video games or watching television is wasting time. Further, I believed that if a person isn’t actively pursuing a goal such as career advancement, acquiring a degree, travelling the world, etc., then they are also just wasting time. In fact, spending time doing anything not measurably productive could be labeled a waste of time. Someone I know, when she ...

By Sean ~ I became a born again Christian when I was in the Air Force in 1986. I didn’t have a big, spiritual conversion experience. I was told to pray for God to reveal himself to me and told he would. So I did. I prayed and said, essentially, “I don’t know if you are real but if you can prove to me somehow in the next 30 days, I’ll follow you for the rest of my life. If you are there and real, amen.” How I got to that point: About two weeks earlier I was given a copy of a book about Armageddon and Revelations called “ There’s a New World Coming ” by a guy named Hal Lindsey . I devoured that book. It was amazing and Hal was quite convincing. So I went to the bookstore in the town near the Air Force base and bought a Bible. I wanted one that didn’t look like a Bible at all. I found a paperback New American Standard Version Bible that fit the bill. From Hal’s book I learned enough to believe that I should read the New Testament first. So I started reading the gospels. ...

By Carl S ~ I t's that time of year when people hear the story of a star traveling right above Earth, leading men to a structure, where it stops and hangs around for hours! ( Global Positioning Star, or Ancient UFO?) The reason for the Christmas story is said to be of utmost importance: It's claimed (no witnesses), the first humans did something naughty by following the advice of a Talking Snake! This “evil” was enough to punish the entire human race, forever. In order to pay the penalty for it, the child born on the first Christmas had to be tortured to death for three hours! This gory “solution” is preached as the greatest example of love! If you're willing to accept this package: would you believe all animals on Earth, predators and prey, could live peacefully packed together, on a boat, for over a hundred days? Would you believe only a few people on Earth worth saving were the ones standing by watching their friends and neighbors drown? What about five loaves of br...

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...

By Carl S ~ O ne man made a very astute observation. He said before the ten commandments came to be, there were tribes. Mankind, therefore, already had social laws in place. People co-operated, loved, cared for, and supported one another. So who needed commands from one more invented invisible deity? All of this natural morality existed before the ten commandments. But what happened after them? What about that Golden Calf story? It's in Exodus 32, if you're wondering. Long story short, after the Israelites are delivered out of Egypt, they make a stopover near Mt. Sinai, and Moses, the leader, goes up the mountain alone to speak with the “god” no one has seen. He's up there so long, it looks like he's skipped out on them. They're bored, and ask the second-in-command man to fabricate this god upstairs into an image representing that “god.” After he does (here again, according to Moses alone), the “invisible god” on the mountaintop tells Moses he's pis...

By Valerie Tarico ~   P erhaps it’s been years or even decades since you left biblical Christianity behind. You may have noticed long ago that there are human handprints all over the Good Book. It may have dawned on you that popular Christian versions of heaven  would actually be hellish . You may have figured out that prayer works, if at all, at the margins of statistical significance—that Believers don’t avoid illness or live longer than people who pray to other gods or none at all. You may have clued in that Christian morality isn’t so hot and that other people have moral values too. (Shocking!) You may have decided that the God of the Bible is a jerk—or worse. But some habits of thought are hard to break. It is a lot easier to shed the contents of Christian fundamentalism than its psychological structure. Here are ten mental patterns that trip up many ex-Christians even when we think we’ve done the work of moving on. None of these are unique to former Christians, but they ...