sent in by Greydon Square 1 + 1 will never equal 3 I just spent the entire day (a Sunday I might add) arguing with my ex-girlfriend and my brother’s current girlfriend about their so-called God of the impossible. This fight went the entire 12 rounds ranging all over the ring from Free will, to the self contradiction of God's omnipotence, and even to the concept of God creating everything, and i have one simple question...WAS I REALLY LIKE THAT? I mean here’s the thing, these 2 women who don’t know each other from Adam (or Eve), yet believe so blindly without reason that this self contradicting God exists and has played such a huge part in their lives. its sickening to think that i used to be that way. Here’s my problem: Due to the mathematical constant (otherwise known is mathematical law) 1 + 1 will never equal 3, 11, 23, 15 or any other number besides 2. Yes, 2. Not even an all powerful God can change this because 1+1=2. If this is true, then why on God's green earth (you can...

sent in by Lisa I grew up Catholic, following what my parents taught me, thinking Christianity was normal and universal to everyone. But even though I didn’t know anyone of a different religion (or none at all), when I was very young, probably around 7 or so, I started questioning religion. My parents always told me that one must know Jesus to gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven. I didn’t think that was very fair. I remember asking, “What if there was some remote tribe in the jungle somewhere that didn’t know about Jesus.. would they go to hell?” My mom said, “Well, that’s why we have missionaries, to tell them about Jesus.” But I would ask the question again, insisting that there must be some extremely remote tribe that missionaries couldn’t get to. My mom’s answer was, “No, they had no way of knowing about Jesus so God would probably be merciful with them and judge them on their character instead.” At first, it made sense to me but then I said, “Then WHY do we send missionaries ou...

sent in by Trudy My journey is like many of yours. I grew up in Christianity. I was born into a Baptist family. When I was young, my mom and dad taught Sunday school and six of us kids trailed behind. One of my sisters played the piano in church and the others I think sang in the choir. My brother and I were younger, so we just sat quietly in the pews with our parents. Our family was a mess, and as we grew older, our parents no longer attended church. When my brother was about 11 and I, 12 and our older siblings gone or at least one-foot-out-the-door, my brother and I were on our own, our parents only coming home to sleep for the night. I clung to the church. The pastor became a lifeline to me. While he wasn't perfect, I suspect that I would have killed myself had there not been someone who cared. Life was very difficult. To feel abandoned by my parents, and then having been sexually attacked by a friend's brother - I had no one to tell. (I never told anyone for about ...

sent in by Harry M Hi everyone. My name is Harry. I've posted on here a couple of times before. At this stage in my life I am very confused and feel like I'm in a paradox. Currently, I attend a United Church (you know, that church that some evangelists consider a church of the devil because we accept all people). Anyways, I'm involved in some activities there and even chair a committee. But lately I've been questioning my faith altogether. So what I'm doing now, I guess, is just writing out my thoughts so that I can get more clarity to figure out what exactly I believe. I am 26 years old. I've been a Christian since I was five. Went through some difficult times with addictions at the age of 19 and when I was 20 I attended a local Bible College where I became indoctrinated every day about Salvation and Hell and Evil this and Evil that, etc. I graduated with a diploma but after graduation I began questioning my faith and explored other religions (became a Muslim b...

sent in by Don Grab a snack and a beverage and settle in. This might take awhile. I was baptized and brought up as a Roman Catholic. My first three years of education were spent in parochial school. Here I first learned about Christian behavior when the nuns thought they had a right to administer corporal punishment. We moved to the suburbs and I started attending public school. This meant I had to attend Catechism, or CCD, we just called it "catecrap". The curriculum was heavily influenced by what I call the "1970's Folk Mass Crowd". I was b-o-r-e-d. At home, I was given the Baltimore Catechism to study. This of course, showed me that anything I may enjoy is a sin; and lead to feelings of guilt over the human emotions and drives that "God" gave me. That I was to avoid all the books and movies and "immoral associations" where I could encounter differing ideas. I took all the sacraments, (except marriage) for the laity: baptized as an infant...

sent in by Alan This is going to be slightly different from other testimonies, as I would like to talk about my experiences long after deconversion, rather than during deconversion. What really interests me is the change in my feelings towards Christianity since abandoning the faith. The actual loss-of-faith bit is similar to most other people's, anyway, in that it was driven by a realisation that Christianity simply doesn't work on an intellectual level: I read some Plato, and some Aristotle, and some Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, and I saw that human thought is far deeper and broader and richer than what passes for Christian "thinking," indeed far richer than what the deity himself is supposed to think. It all unravelled for me after that. When I first gave it up, I didn't really have any feelings one way or the other. If other people thought Christianity made intellectual sense, well that was ok, let them carry on, why not? That was about ten years ago. Since then ho...

sent in by Barb I went away to a Christian college when I was seventeen. It didn't take long to see that there were many types of Christians. I was most comfortable with people like me: people who didn't smoke, drink, dance,play cards, watch movies, listen to rock music or fraternize with the opposite sex. I was least comfortable with the Catholics I met-- my church had told me after all that papists worshipped Mary and therefore would be spending eternity in hell. But these Catholics, some of whom smoked, drank, and regularly had sex, were also involved in the community, working at soup kitchens and pantries, tutoring low-income children, etc, things that my church had never encouraged or emphasized. My church was comprised of middle- and upper-middle class people who were comfortably sedentary in the knowledge that they were saved, and except for the occasional "outreach" to save more souls, they felt no burden toward disadvantaged people. What was required w...

sent in by Smaugfrost I am a recent deconvert (last day or so) but have been in the transition for years. I will not bore everyone with the years of unquestioning servitude to this religion. I am not erudite in writing out my feelings yet, but suffice it to say, I was driven from the teachings of my faith by the teachings of my faith. My case is simple: Christianity presents the following dogma. 1.The path to destruction is wide according to the bible. 2.Paganism is an anathema to god and admonished as evil. 3.No-one comes to the father except through the son. 4.Hell awaits the sinner and Heaven the believer. 5.God is constant and unchanging. 6.Sin requires a blood sacrifice to be made for attonement. 7.Graven images are sinful. 8.No man is to be called father except god. My dilemma started years ago and grew until I could no longer accept the faith. My doubts stemmed from the following issues among countless others: (check these in reference to the above doctrines) 1.the exclusive nat...

sent in by SomeoneWithProblems I'm a Christian in lots of Doubt and Confusion. I believe God for quite a while now, but the churches, the people... are pissing me off everyday. Whenever I have problems, I talk to the pastor, and the believers there, and they all say the same shit "It's God's Will" "It's a Trial" "Pray about it".....and I'm not talking about just 1 church, but ALL the ones I've been to(11 different churches). Honestly those responses from them aren't good enough.... And I don't read the bible much honestly(yes, I'm terrible at being a christian), because the other christians happily read it to me anyway. I don't know....it seems like Brainwashing, and the bible was constructed and put together by a council who VOTED which verses and books will ultimately go in the Bible. Theres verses like "don't associate with non-believers(2nd cor 6:14-18)". Theres "Humbling(matthew something : so...

sent in by J.S. I have to say I made peace with my past, at this point. I was very angry with feelings of being deceived for the longest time. But now, I think I have come to believe error is truly human. And a genuine spirituality can and does exist. However, most people are not ready for that. And so, the masses tend to need a more directive, nurturing, organized, and infantile means of attaining partial spiritual awareness (ironically, a reality acknowledged by philosophical Hinduism). By genuine spirituality I mean a non-theistic belief in transcendant value (though to be sure, I hold to some minimalist notion of a naturalistic "god," the Tao or essential nature, present throughout the cosmos). A belief that certain values and principles beyond our moment to moment existence should guide our lives. Thus for me, it is important to leave the world better than I found it, making a better for future generations. Thus, political activity, charitable work, and providing directi...

sent in by Jess My earliest memories are of being in church. I remember being about three years old and looking through the hymn books at the pictures of birds. I thought that the priest was actually God and thought that "sins" were tangible...things. My other memories are of falling asleep on the pew being as old as six. After that, my dad always made me kneel with my back completely straight when the time came, etc. Being Catholic I had my first communion when I was seven. I hardly understood what was going on; it felt awkward being in a poofy white dress and having all these relatives so excited about me taking a wafer for the first time. That same year I remember wondering if heaven really existed and if we actually lived many lives on earth. Then I became fascinated with astronomy. I read everything I could about the planets, the galaxies, and the Big Bang Theory. Of course, the latter resulted in conflict. I was in the third grade when I was spouting off to my ...