By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ T he bible is chock-full of difficulties for those who see it as the literal “Word of God,” where every word must be absolutely true. One of those difficulties just occurred to me recently (and I don’t pretend it is the most interesting or most important difficulty – it’s just one that’s easy to understand, and kinda fun to deal with). Image via Wikipedia Of course, the Noah’s Ark story presents a whole bunch of problems for literal belief. For one, did all the animals live within walking distance of Noah’s house? For another, how did Noah get the kangaroos back to Australia , the penguins back to Antarctica , and the polar bears back to the arctic (or, for that matter, why didn’t god just create the animals again after the flood instead of putting Noah to all the effort of building an ark and collecting them)? I suppose one could argue that maybe the flood wasn’t worldwide, so only the local animals were collected. This would still leave a very big ...

A central Ohio pastor is in trouble with the law, facing allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a teenager in his congregation; a child he was supposed to be counseling. The allegations have rocked a central Ohio community. As pastor, Daniel Monk used to preach behind the pulpit at Soul's Harbor Pentecostal Church in Millersport . Little did anyone know or expect he would soon end up behind bars. The 47-year-old was arrested Saturday on a charge of felony Sexual Battery. This, after allegedly having sex with a 16-year-old girl who attended his church. According to records from Licking County Municipal Court, late last month the girl's mother called Hebron Police over concerns of an inappropriate relationship between her daughter and Monk. Records state when police interviewed Monk roughly a week later, the married man admitted to being the girl's boyfriend and that they had kissed and had sex on at least two separate occasions. The records go on to sa...

By Patrice ~ H ello to whoever may read this. I've been coming to this site for a little while, probably a little over a month. It takes alot for me to write on this site, even now, with my questions and honest disgust with Christianity--I still feel somewhat like a blasphemer. But, I can't help that when I read a lot of the rants and testimonies that I feel what they feel. Image by ·BigGolf· via Flickr I have felt so much guilt, fear and just plain old pressure from trying to live the Christian life and honestly in my heart of hearts...I don't want to be a Christian anymore. I'm not worried about what to call myself or if I'm even comfortable calling myself an agnostic just yet. I know that I don't wish to or even want to go back to being a Christian. I hope to be able to be fully free of this someday and put my testimony on here with confidence. I've been a Christian for almost all of my life (since 8yrs old and I'm 27 now). My heart is...

By dharma ~ N ot long ago I decided to share a few of the inspiring testimonies from this site. I posted them on my Facebook page. Now anyone who really knows me knows that I would not join an on line community for popularity purposes. I am not inclined to kiss any of the gluteus muscles of the fad-following, misinformed majority. Nope, I join a community to find like-minded people. Yet, my non-believer comments to a couple of fellow de-converting xians instantly drew a bit of righteous criticism. Now, I am sure you have guessed that this criticism came from xians. These xians who chose to befriend me do not like my opinions. Shocking, isn’t it? So I was forced to delete a slew of xian propaganda posts from my wall. Then I responded rationally to my sister-in-law's naive and condescending remarks. And this was not easy, given that she chose to use my deceased Dad, whom I loved dearly, as a weapon against me. She told me that I may not care to see my father again, bu...

By Freddieb42 ~ I 'm not going to lament my time spent as a Christian or write about how I wailed and gnashed because of how I was brainwashed. Suffice to say that I'm glad I got out of Christianity's clutches. My comments are about a Christian doctrine and how their most important teaching is an offense to humans and humanity. The doctrine that all humans are born as sinners is an outrageous concept and could only have been dreamed up by sub-intellectual people long ago who were seeking control over other humans. The definition of sin would certainly be a lengthy diatribe that could burst forth from my keyboard, but suffice to say that Christianity teaches that sin is the breaking away from god and not obeying god's laws. Simplistic to say the least! Suffice to say that god's "laws" do not meet the expectations that most decent human beings would see as being societal norms . No mention of racism , homophobia, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, phys...

By Carl S ~ I remember Albert Schweitzer , but only slightly, for I was only 7 yrs. old when my brother mentioned him. Recently, I came across an old Life magazine article about Schweitzer, whose photo was as unforgettable as Einstein’s. He lived from 1875 to 1965, earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his work as a doctor and founding a hospital, saving lives and bringing medicine to native Africans. But most of all, at my young age, I remember what he said about ending suffering , which he regarded as evil. End suffering? Suffering is “evil?” Being raised as a Catholic , with the hanging corpse present in our home and our church of a man who died in agony, a symbol, we were taught, of a redemption from eternal suffering because of this, the message was, “Look, Jesus did it for you. He set the example. Look how much he loves you!” But the message really is: IT IS GOOD TO SUFFER. The central teaching of Christianity is NOT the life of Jesus, but the sufferings and death of Chris...

By David ~ A lthough claimed by even the most moderate and progressive Christians that Jesus is the best image or representation of what God is like, I can’t’ get over some big issues I have with him. Here are a few I recently have been thinking about. 1. Jesus lies. In John 7 he tells his disciples his time for going to Jerusalem has not come – they go up without him, then at night he secretly goes up. I wonder if your spouse or parents would have thought this to be a lie if you said you were not going somewhere and then you showed up there. 2. Jesus says John the Baptist is the greatest born among women. Two things here: First, if taken literally, I guess he meant even greater than himself even if his mother was a virgin. Secondly, it seems that this accolade of John sets the wrong precedence. John was a prophet living in the desert calling people to repent and turn to God or face impending judgment. We can only infer that if we want to be great in Jesus’ eyes we should ...

By Dano ~ I don't hate anyone, not even Christians. That said though, I do hate things, and the number one thing I hate is dishonesty. Image by southerntabitha via Flickr Now I am not, and don't claim to be intellectual in any sense of the word, but for the sake of clarity I will try very hard to not sound too dumb here, and I will use spell check. That's about the extent of my intellectual ability. I repeat. I don't hate Christians, or anyone else for very long periods of time because it takes too much energy. Energy that (at my age,74), I could be using for more satisfying pursuits, but as in my opening statement, I do hate dishonesty, because it defiles the dignity of what we have so arduously become as Homo Sapiens, and the most insidious form of dishonesty is self delusion. When you are dishonest with yourself, it cheapens and diminishes the whole 'Life" experience. I know physically beautiful people who habitually lie about everything. One lad...

Pancakes and prayers — have we reached a point where even those two can’t get along? Frankly, yes. So praise the Lord and pass the syrup, the International House of Pancakes and International House of Prayer are fixing to throw down. IHOP (pancake) , based in Glendale, Calif ., has sued IHOP (prayer) , based in Kansas City, for trademark dilution and infringement. The lawsuit, filed last week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, essentially said there was room for only one IHOP and that would be the restaurant chain that has been using the initials since 1973. The religious group drawing thousands from around the world to south Kansas City to prepare for “end times” was started just 10 years ago. Other than an acronym, the two have nearly zilch in common. The IHOP (prayer) on Red Bridge Road operates 24/7/365, sending a never-ending digital signal of prayers to Jerusalem, where it streams live on God TV for broadcast all over the world. The other largely operates 24/7...

Wallace Harris in 2000 He was the highest-ranking black cleric in the archdiocese and once considered for appointment as a bishop A prominent Harlem pastor who was accused by a retired NYPD cop and nine other men of molesting them when they were kids has resigned. The Archdiocese of New York says whether Monsignor Wallace Harris will be formally removed from the priesthood will be decided by the Vatican's internal affairs office. He was the highest-ranking black cleric in the archdiocese and once considered for appointment as a bishop. In 2008, he arranged Pope Benedict XVI 's Mass at Yankee Stadium and gave the invocation at Gov. David Paterson 's swearing-in. The archdiocese suspended Harris that year. Prosecutors say 10 people lodged complaints against him. Harris had been a pastor at the Church of St. Charles Borromeo since 1989. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful. Statutes of limitations have precluded any criminal charges being filed. STORY L...

By Carol Putnam ~ T his simple yet profoundly insightful question was posed by my neighbor's six-year-old daughter, Jillian. It was inspired by her twelve-year-old sister Sarah's recent emergence into womanhood, i.e. the onset of her first menses. Rather than try to put a positive spin on this life-changing and often traumatic event in a young woman's life, their mother—an Evangelical Christian—explained to the girls that this was the curse the great Jehovah put upon Eve for her disobedience in the Garden of Eden. Image by d u .r. M a c i e l via Flickr      I nearly choked on my cucumber sandwich when I heard her say that. ( Does anyone even use the term "The Curse" anymore? I wondered.) Apparently some ECs do. And in doing so, they continue to burden their daughters with the same guilt, shame and degradation that for thousands of years have kept women the world over subjugated by the specious dictates of an ectoplasmic tyrant with some seriou...