By Brian Kellogg ~ T his is where the rubber meets the road for me. When I was a christian a few years back I remember teaching on hermeneutics and critical thinking at church. I brought up an example of a current christian conspiracy theory and that is where I lost the class. I had another parishioner approach me at the end of another class very emotional saying that I could not say she was wrong on how she interpreted a certain scripture due to her own personal revelation . It is an untouchable belief among many Christians that verses can have multiple "hidden" meanings. Scripture is fluid, but the same will hold to a completely unyielding strict interpretation of our US constitution . A little hypocritical me thinks. There are no symbols that represent skepticism. This is one symbol that can be used to represent skepticism, skeptical inquiry, critical thinking, critical inquiry, and truth-seeking. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It is this hyper-subjectivity ...

By Alex ~ F orgive me for the title. I couldn't help but think of Christopher Hitchens whilst writing this. If only he did a commentary on this doctrine when he was alive. I am writing this piece on the fallacies of Christian Universalism and the flaws that those still within Christendom fail to acknowledge. It didn’t take long for me to apply my critical thinking skills to come up with these points. I tend to break down and analyse everything logistically. Whilst Universalism sounds great on the outside, a few neurons connecting should paint a different story. Let me know what you think about them. 1. Length of an Age: In 2 Peter 2 4-5 is this passage: For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell,[a] putting them in chains of darkness[b] to be held for judgment; And in 2 Peter 2 9: 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. And Peter 3 ...

By Lillian ~ T his weekend, I got in my car and made the 5-hour trip to see a friend that I have had since college. Our lives have diverged a great deal. Anna has had a hard life, failed marriages, money problems, alcohol and drugs...but she is my friend, nonetheless. A brother is all that remains of her family. When I arrived at her house she was drunk. We talked as we usually do and I heard the same things I have been hearing for years. This time she spoke of her 'Pastor'. "What pastor?" I asked. "You're Jewish!" Ans so began her story of her being accepted into a Church and being baptized. She told me we needed to worry about the afterlife and the prophecies of the Bible. Armed with my new Ex-Christian strength, I asked her why was she doing this. And she said, "I want a family. I want a eulogy when I die. I have a lot to offer a Church". I didn't know what to say. She is so very alone and this Church is 'taking her in...

By Tania ~ I love the words of the old hymn “ Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing .” I've loved them for a long time. Last year, as I began having these “challenges in my faith” and experiencing “a difficult time with God,” I'd listen to the words of this song, write them out, stick them on the fridge or the mirror – a sort of reassurance, an encouragement to keep trying with God. Now, as I listen to them, I realize I haven't left God, but rather that God (or at least the God I used to believe in) is not there. come thou fount (Photo credit: J. McPherskesen ) I have not “wandered,” as into some questionable lifestyle or as though I've “forgotten” about Him and placed all kinds of other things ahead of Him. No, it's not like that. I've learned that for most of us “de-converteds,” it's not like that. We've researched, dug deep into books and our minds, exhausted ourselves praying and reasoning and wishing. We've stood in church, unable to s...

By Brian Kellogg ~ C hristian apologist Dr. William Lane Craig often uses the argument from personal experience in an effort to prove his god. Craig says (in his own words): The way in which I know Christianity is true is first and foremost is the basis of the witness of the Holy Spirit in my heart. And this gives me self-authenticating means of knowing Christianity is true wholly apart from the evidence . And therefore, even if in some historically contingent circumstances the evidence that I have available to me should turn against Christianity, I do not think that controverts the witness of the Holy Spirit." This argument is obviously inept, but we will go into it somewhat. If Dr. Craig would affirm this argument's validity then he must also be willing to allow all other religions to offer such evidence as well. I do not believe he would accept this due to the exclusivity that Christianity demands. This tool of argumentation only helps to underscore the weak...

By RickRay ~ S ome would say I was exaggerating things with my title, “How Religion Poisoned My Life”. I've read a lot of stories from ex-Christian.net and most of them come from people in the U.S. Those stories really have shown how religion poisons people's lives. So, my story could be quite insignificant to a lot of people compared to some of those horror stories. As a Canadian I never thought people in my country were quite as crazy religious as fundamentalists in America. I grew up around French Catholics who weren't much on church going, except for my grandmother who was probably the most religious of the bunch. My mom didn't have much use for the Catholic educational system and its religion as I remember her telling me horror stories about how the nuns treated her in school. She sent me to go to a public school system so I wouldn't be exposed to that kind of abuse. Glad she did! I remember my grandmother taking me to church a few times, but ...

By Irish Mark ~ I suppose, I started to get really angry with god 3 years ago around this time, as It was the end of my first year in collage, I actually remember one particular day this time 3 years back, when I was in Dublin where I studied. I had totally isolated myself and was in the park alone. My story would begin by telling you that I became a Christian when I was 15 and my mother brought my to a summer camp , Thinking back I didn't want to go, I didn't want to know any thing about Christianity and what she had said to me as their was a chance we would not be able to go, was "If the opportunity arises for us to go Its Gods will for you to be there". Now this was my summer as a new Christian, this camp was for only one week, It was a conference, take a 15yr old adolescence, away for a week with no-body he knows and people there offer you there friendship because they think you are a Christian So I went along with it, played the part and started to ta...

By Lauren Tyree ~ I 've been an ex-Christian for a year now. I like to express my reflections on apostasy through poetry. This poem is written from the perspective of the faith community that I left behind. I picture the residents in a prison camp of the psyche, reaching out to the one who got away.     LETTERS FROM CAMP we’re sad that you’ve gone and we all say hello with each passing dawn we miss you more so ————- our Leader sends love from His heart to yours with peace like a dove He keeps us indoors ————- (so what’s the air like outside these walls? how gray is the sky? how thick is the fog?) ————- we hope that you’re well wherever you are we really can’t tell you’ve traveled too far ———— it’s cozy in here we’re safe from the storm there’s no need to fear His grace is so warm ———— (see how quickly that limb snaps under your feet! see, you’re helping us trim the chaff from the whe...

By Andrea ~ I remember when I was in third grade. I had a ridiculous fear of pulling out my baby teeth.I had one hanging by a string one time and I left it there all day.I don't know what I thought would happen...I probably saw one of my friends lose their tooth, and bleed a lot,and it scared me.I remember my tooth was so far out of my gum that it was just hanging by my lip,but I still wouldn't touch it.I said it was fine just the way it was,even though it hurt my lip.Finally I pulled it out because I was going to birthday party and I didn't want the other kids to think I was weird.Haha it was all pretty silly. Obviously I grew up pretty quick and got over that.But what if I never did?What if I left it there for weeks?I probably would have gotten an infection and looked pretty silly to everyone. Tooth Pull Humour in Wild West Zone of Port Aventura, Salou, Spain. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I bring this up because it reminds me of how so many people don't take ...

By theFlakes (a.k.a. Brian Kellogg) ~ " We know that reason is the devil's harlot, and can do nothing but slander and harm all that god says and does ." - Martin Luther Dr. Martin Luther's Church Door - Wittenburg, Germany '93 (Photo credit: Mikey G Ottawa ) T his is a quote from a man that I used to admire until I learned more about him and the incredible amount of ridiculous rhetoric that spewed forth from his mouth. This quote entirely encapsulates the christian evangelical fundamentalist view on the human intellect. Why do many who study in higher education institutions leave christianity or at the least only pay it lip service? I think the answer to that is quite self evident. It is not due to the indoctrination forced upon students at higher ed institutions. Many of those students have already received enough indoctrination growing up in their christian homes. No, the truth of what many learn in college sheds honest illumination on the beliefs...

By TheAtheistCrusader ~ I t is absolutely refreshing to see a site for people like me, who have left Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church no less. For 10 years of my life, I blindly followed the Bible, never reading it in it's entirety (only some Bible Study-style, alibical versions). Then one night, when I had an identity crisis, I finally realized: "God and Devil are just epitomizations. Neither exist". Then came the reading the real Bible time. And boy was I horrified. Once I got to Deuteronomy, I just dropped it, and said "This is a nice God. If another nicer God exists, I'll go to him". 1. Believers 2. Religion 3. Atheists 4. Science (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) After this series of events, I was in an identity crisis. I was a Deist , or as Frederich Nietzche would say "Tied on a rope between two spans". I examined all sorts of religions, to see one with a nicer God. Then one day, I went on the Atheist Republic page on Facebook (...