By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ A t this year’s Republican national convention, Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) declared, “Our national motto is ‘ In God we Trust ,’ reminding us that faith in our Creator is the most important American value of all.” Sure, he was just trying to whip up the god believers behind the righteous cause of electing a god-fearing Republican as President. But he got me thinking. Is it true? Do we as a nation trust in god? According to Rubio, belief in a god is a more important American value than freedom, honor, or anything else. Now that’s a strange notion, to my mind. ‘In God we Trust’ became the US motto in 1956 during the great communist scare whipped up by Senator Joseph McCarthy , apparently to differentiate us god-trusting Americans from those godless communists in the Soviet Union . In more recent times, in our religion-drenched Congress, the motto was reaffirmed (after brief debates) in 2002 and again last year. Apparently, it is absolutely vital th...

By TheThinkingAtheist ~ In the Bullshit Department, a businessman can't hold a candle to a clergyman. - George Carlin Detail - Glory of the New Born Christ in presence of God Father and the Holy Spirit (Annakirche, Vienna) Adam and Eva are represented bellow Jesus-Christ Ceiling painting made by Daniel Gran (1694-1757). Post-processing: perspective and fade correction. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) R ecently, after some personal problems, my situation turned out as such that I had to spend some time with my best friend's family. Not a day, or a week, but 4 months. Now, I knew this, but they were religious and practicing Catholics. I still thought "What the hell, I don't think it'll cause any problems. I know how to talk to people". Then I was 17, and I thought that it would be pretty fun to be living in the same house as my best friend, who was also heavily religious. I myself am an agnostic-atheist, meaning that I am %98 sure that there isn't a God, ...

By Carolyn ~ I am NOT a christian. It feels so good to say this ... The cross has always been a symbol of separation to me. Several years ago I noticed something in the words "here" and "there." How does one get from there to here? Get rid of the "t" -- the cross. Without the cross I am only "here". I am no longer separated from myself. Inside me is a place that does not move, to which I do not need to travel, and which goes with me wherever I go. I like "here". In 1995 I was 42 years old and leaving evangelicalism, in which I was raised. For the vast majority of the time, my experience with christianity was tortured. Times of peace were outdistanced by angst, fear, loads of shame, and private terror of a dark, punitive, tyrannical god who had hell in his hip pocket for me if I didn't love him, believe in Jesus, believe I needed to be saved, think the right thoughts, and in essence, make myself perfect -- whatever...

By Michael Sherlock ~ 1. Set in the (remote) Past W ith regards to this limb, Professor Vandiver says: “Myths are stories set in the past. Myths do not deal with what is happening today, or this week, or even last year, we don’t have myths about current time. Myths are set in the past, often in the very remote past.” (1) I think first, we need to establish what exactly constitutes the remote past, and what the likely purpose would be, for setting a myth in the remote past. The word, ‘remote’ as it relates to the term, ‘remote past,’ is defined by the World English Dictionary, as being: distant in time (2) This is a rather vague definition and doesn’t really help us define what Professor Vandiver meant, when she said; a myth is often set in the remote past. The etymological root of the word, remote, may be of more assistance. The English word, ‘remote’ stems from the Latin ‘remotus,’ being the past participle of the word, ‘remove.’ (3) So, the remote past is a...

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ “One day it’ll all make sense.” I have heard this phrase many times from Christians, even pastors and apologists. But I’ve never been able to make sense of it. When they use this phrase, they are arguing that if something in their religion doesn’t make sense, like some Biblical event or claim, one shouldn’t be troubled by that fact. One should just go on believing, because it’s in “The Book.” It will all be explained to you after you die. Is this some sort of “argument from ignorance?” I think the epitome of this attitude is found in what Tertullian said about the Resurrection: “I believe because it is absurd!” This is a man who has been called the “founder of Western theology, ” and he seems to have believed that the less believable a claim, the more likely it is to be true. By any reasonable standard, this guy was barking mad! By this standard, it is more likely that JFK was killed by 6 elves and a dragon than by Lee Harvey Oswald . Well, whi...

By Mark Dell ~ I was working at a person's home last week; I install alarm systems. When I was there I discovered that these people were Christians and I overheard a conversation — they were talking about god healing people. They talked about a man who had a cancer. It was blocking part of his wind pipe. He was prayed for by a friends.  He claimed that the following day he had noticed a noticeable improvement with the cancer and that he could breath better.  He went around and told everyone that god had healed him. The following week he went to the hospital, expecting the doctor to tell him it had gone. He told the doctor how GOD had healed him! After a scan it turned out that the cancer growth had moved slightly, which is why he could breath better. Two months later he died from it. Listening to those Xtians talking about god healing made me sick. The old line of "god works in mysterious ways" came in. They couldn't understand how god had suppos...

By Andy ~ This is an update to http://new.exchristian.net/2011/03/ptsd-from-leaving-christianity.html . I finally got up the guts to confront my old church in the letter below. I'll post their response if I get one. RE: Has a New Era Begun in the ICOC? Subject: Dear International Church of Christ Senior Leaders, I am a former member of the International Church of Christ (ICOC) and have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder for the past 13 years since leaving the church. The purpose of this letter is to tell my story, ask questions, and close a long, dark chapter of my life. I don't seek your pity. This is the first time I've contacted the ICOC since I left in 1999, having gathered enough courage to write this letter after truly hitting rock bottom. I am now an atheist, mostly friendless, isolated and unemployed. I would believe in God given the evidence, but sadly, there is no convincing evidence anymore. I miss being a Christian. I miss being happy. De...

By Michael Sherlock ~ Change Over Time Continued W e have, as a result of various socio-political factors, only four official sources for the myths surrounding the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Four pseudepigraphical (falsely named) works called; The Gospel According to Mark, which the majority of modern scholars agree, was the earliest of the four (9) . The Gospel According to Matthew, The Gospel According to Luke, and The Gospel According to John. These are our primary sources for the myths surrounding the alleged life of Jesus Christ. Being this is the case, we need to examine the origins and development of these manuscripts, to ascertain whether or not the Christian myths have changed over time. How were the stories in these Gospels originally transmitted? Who told them? And where can we find evidence of change over time? These are the issues we need to address. According to Professor of New Testament Studies, Bart D. Ehrman , the Gospels were ...

By Denise Borum ~ I attended the Pentecostal Church while my mother was pregnant with me. My mother and father began their religious journey at a very young age. I was forced to attend services all day on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. My father felt the need to open the church and close it for every service. Consequently, we ate our dinner in the back seat of the car while driving to the church. For every single service, we had to wait until the last member left the church so that my father could lock up. When there was a revival, we had to attend every night for weeks. Our church believed in...and regularly recited, " Spare the rod and spoil the child ." Needless to say, the rod was not spared in my household. The beatings, not spankings, were so severe that my bleeding wounds had to be treated in order to avoid infection. This severe abuse lasted for years. I was also hit by the members of the church. My parents didn't see anything wrong with my being batt...

By Michael Sherlock ~ T he purpose of this series of articles is to provide the reader with a cursory understanding of not only what constitutes myth, for the purposes of analysis, but of how the narratives which form the basis of the Christian religion, fit into this category we call myth. First of all, myth, as distinct from mythology, refers to the body of traditional tales told by a given culture, or religious group. Mythology, on the other hand, connotes the theoretical study of that body of traditional tales, or myths. Quite often these terms are used interchangeably, and thus have become conflated to such a degree that, one can use either term and be understood. To be perfectly accurate however, mythology, like any other ‘ology,’ refers to the study of, myth. This article will be employing the characteristics of myth, as laid out by one of the world’s foremost scholars of classical mythology and classical literature, Professor Elizabeth Vandiver . (1) In her lecture se...