By Marlene Winell ~ The description on YouTube: On the occasion of Camping's "Judgment Day" prediction of May 21, Dr. Winell and Tracy Williams discuss the psychological implications of these end times doctrines. This is part of a day-long podcast on The God Discussion. Marlene and Tracy also explain RTS, or Religious Trauma Syndrome, as a real condition similar to PTSD . Religious indoctrination in a repressive, authoritarian religion can be serious child abuse with life-long emotional consequences. Many people are taking steps to recover and there is help available. Go to journeyfree.org for more information and resources. Dear ExChristian reader, What are your memories of being taught about the " End Times "? Were you looking forward to the rapture, afraid about the tribulation, scared you would be left behind, etc? Did you ever think you were left? What's it like for you now? Do you ever have panic attacks or get worried when bad things happen...

By Philonous ~ O ne of the fundamental reasons why I find the notion of God philosophically unsound is because of either the tension or contradiction between the transcendence of God and God as a causal agent. The transcendence of God asserts that God is not only independent of the universe, but such independence is constituted by negative attributes or predicates that make God’s nature contrary to that of the universe. This dualistic understanding of transcendence makes it difficult to reconcile it with the other important notion of God as being the causal agent. God is immaterial (pure spirit) as oppose to material, immutable as oppose to mutable, and eternal as oppose to temporal. What each of these negative predicates/attributes of God suggests is that God is beyond the spatial-temporal reality because God is a non-spatial-temporal entity. However the problem with this view is that it is irreconcilable with the notion that God is a causal agent because causality is intelligible...

By Thor's Hammer ~ Noah, passed out drunk after docking the Ark "I struggle with believing the Bible is the inerrant and infallible word of God because if you find just one contradiction or historical inaccuracy you have to throw that whole idea out.” “What passages are you struggling with?” “ Noah and the Flood . If you really think about it, it doesn’t make sense. How did all the animals get to the ark and how did they all fit?” “These are good questions. I have some books that might help you.” I was meeting with my pastor about some doubts I was having after reading some non-Christian literature. He goes to his office and comes down with two books. I promise to take a look at them. It is hard to explain how I was feeling when I picked up the first book, “ The Big Book of Bible Difficulties ” by Norman L. Geisler and Thomas Howe. At that point in my life, I had been a Christian for 15 years and wanted it to be true. However, I also wanted to know the truth a...

By Kate Harrad ~ A s many of you will already be aware, this Saturday is an exciting day in the history of the world. According to the eBible Fellowship – and who can argue with them based on the robust and convincing evidence they provide ? – on this Saturday, May 21st, true Christians will be removed from this world and taken to heaven, there to watch the 99.9% who weren’t chosen cope with a five-month-long global fire before the world is finally put out of its misery on October 21st. Yes, the cream is being skimmed off the top of humanity; and as often happens, without any cream we may find that we experience some burning. I love Rapture cults. This is going to be evident later in the year when my novel comes out , and frankly I would have appreciated it if the eBible Fellowship could have chosen a later date for this Rapture, as it would have provided a great gimmick for marketing my book. As it is, I’m just grateful I’m being published electronically and not in...

By atheistnurse ~ O nce upon a time there was nothing. But in that nothing was an omnipotent god. This god wasn’t made by anything - he was just always there -- hanging out in nothingness for eternity ( Don’t spend a lot of time wondering how this could be, just believe it). You might think he was bored, lazy, or unimaginative because he didn’t do anything, but he was thinking of what he was going to do. It just took him a really long time to come up with a good plan. He thought of talking snakes, talking donkeys, superhuman men who lost their power when their hair was cut, killing people for picking up sticks on his day, making a lot of stupid rules that would be really hard to follow so he could punish them for not following them, wiping out whole communities of men, women, and children, and –oooh!! the best part!! – he would make an evil, powerful angel who would tempt people and cause people to turn away from god so he could put those people in a place of torment for al...

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ D oes god have parts? Yes, that sounds like a silly question, but let me explain, and I’m just sort of thinking out loud here, a kind of thought experiment. I recently saw a “ Through the Wormhole ” TV episode titled, “Is There a Creator,” where one scientist suggested that maybe the universe is a computer simulation because it does look a lot like it. As we have learned about the universe, there appears to be a minimum size to everything, matter, energy, and, it’s hypothesized, even time. That is, modern theory suggests there is a smallest possible unit of matter (quark?), energy (photon?), and time ( Planck unit ), and all things in the universe a built up from these. Interestingly, computers work much the same way, with pixels, bytes, and clock time. So, I wondered - assuming for the moment that a god exists - if everything in the Universe (which is not itself a tiny thing) is apparently built up from tiny things, is god himself a tiny thing, or d...

By Bryan ~ T he time has come. You’ve taken the class ‘ Life, the Universe, and Everything ’ and you’re at the end of the year. Of course there’s a final for you to take. This final is one everything that you’ve covered over the year. The teacher tells your class that while using the notes you’ve received all year will certainly help, almost all of her previous students have always bought a study book. You decide to go get a study book at the local book store. When you get there, what you see surprises you. Image by Corrie... via Flickr There are many different study guides for the end of the year. Most of them claim to have all the answers to the test in their book. The Christian Edition says Jesus is the answer for everything. The Islamic Edition says to follow Allah and study Muhammad 's teachings. All these different books, offering different answers. The list of study guides you found was almost endless. They all seemed to offer an answer to every question, but didn’t ...

By Steelblood ~ I 've been coming to this site for almost two years now. I don't know why I'm suddenly submitting my deconversion story this evening, and I am certainly at a loss as to where to begin. Voltron -- Image via Wikipedia I was raised in an industrial-strength Christian household like many people who've contributed to this site. However, when I look back I'd always known that religion in general, and specifically the existence of a god is ridiculous at best. I think my first proverbial inkling was the night I was reading Genesis for the tenth time and I found myself thinking, "Why do I have less difficulty believing in Voltron , Defender of the Universe than I do in a fruit condemning humanity until a redeemer came along? (I recall specifically thinking of the messiah as being a "redeemer" for some reason.) Regardless, I was and still am a voracious bibliophile; so I devoted a lot of time to reading apologetics, scripture, et al of ...

By Carl S. ~ L ast Sunday, like all the rest, I went to pick up my wife after her church service, going from entrance to restroom in a flash. On the way, I passed a Jamaican man. We greeted each other. He was not a regular, so he was probably there to raise money. What strikes me about missionaries is their over-sweetness and overflowing politeness. It's even more than the typical after-sex-afterglow of the after-service believer crowd I'm accustomed to seeing. Oh, the imperviousness to reality in this post-service emotion! I've occasionally tried to point out the contradictions, lies, even malice in Christian doctrines to a few of them, but to no avail. They cling to, not their god, really, but their convictions. Finally, I gave up on them. They accept me . . . conditionally. In other words, as long as I keep my mouth shut and don't disturb their comfort zone/security blanket. (Like a woman accepts disgusting or criminal behavior from her partner because the sex is...

By Tempest ~ I felt what so many others around the world felt- the sadness, fear, and anxiety at the mere thought of leaving their faith. All my life my Ive been told that God was real, and that Heaven and Hell were real. And yet, even as a young child, I had my doubts about God. If God existed, why was their so much sin and squalor in the world, even among his believers? If he loved people so much, why does he see us suffer?" These unanswered questions weighed down my heart, as I feigned faith in Jesus many years of my young life. I had a very religious niece, who talked often about saviour, refused to watch shows with "witchcraft or demons" in it, and often preached to me. Each time that she talked about God, my heart sunk- would I get in trouble for not believing in God? This Spiritual death left me in many years of depression, thoughts of suicide, and recently, attempted suicide. And it was last year that I did research on Witchcraft. My teacher had briefly talk...

From Brandon ~ L ove this site. Grew up having the "good" book thrown at me and my parents still try to. It feels so good to not fear death and hell anymore. I just cant understand how someone can live by something that completely contradicts itself over and over. Thanks all of you on here. Feels so good to just think for myself!