By cj ~ G od as we know is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Even though the hairs on our head are numbered and everything happens according to gods plan or intelligent design, are we more powerful than him? But how awful it must have been for the millions of people who were born with birth defects, (by god's design), such as bad eyesight or hearing before man invented reading glasses and hearing aides. People of past generations needed good eyesight and hearing to watch for predators and look for food, if they didn't have good senses, then they were killed or starved to death, and they call this intelligent design? And as we get older, we lose our close up vision and without man-made glasses, we can't make a living or even cook meals. Thankfully, man cured 'gods perfect plan' by making glasses, hearing aides, etc. How about the bad design of mental health issues or seizures that god allowed innocent babies to be born with? Superstitious primitiv...

By Becca ~ I was a Christian ever since I can remember. My mom never forced religion on us as kids because she was raised in a sheltered Christian environment as a kid. My mom got pregnant with me at a young age, and would tell me how people at church would always look down on her for being young, pregnant and unwed to my father (who later on fathered many other children with other women, but that’s a story for another day.) She was deeply hurt by the cruel judgment from both church folk and family, telling her she made a huge mistake and a “sin” in the eyes of God and how she could never raise a child on her own (this said from my father.) Needless to say, as far a single parents go, my mom did a pretty good job raising us kids and working two jobs at the hospital to make ends meet in our rundown apartment in southern California . Nevertheless, I grew up on a Christian faith and bible stories and church from my grandma, who would often attend a seventh day Adventist church and w...

By OatmealPanda ~ A few of you may remember me from my post a couple of years back called, " An Honest Question ." For several weeks, back in late 2011, I visited this site almost daily, and often, multiple times in a day. My visits coincided with a number of things in my life: the diagnosis and acceptance of my youngest child as autistic (like his sister before him), the finalization of my divorce, my first personal experience of anti-depression and anti-anxiety medications, and what was my most recent (but neither my first, nor probably my last) spiritual crisis. Before we go any further, I want to say this: although I did not find everything I was looking for here, I am so grateful to the many of you who tried to help me find it. You aided my journey considerably, and I would like to share some of the things I learned, in my brief sojourn here: 1. No matter where you go, there will be many, many people who are genuinely kind and want to help you. To all of yo...

By paige ~ I 've spent hours upon hours pouring over countless stories on this website and I would just like to thank everyone for contributing and helping me along this process, guiding me through it and letting me know that I m not alone. This website has been a vital intsrument in allowing me to finally 'see.' To begin, I've never been really strong in my faith despite being raised in Christianity. We'd go to Sunday School and learn about how much Jesus loves us, and well, you know the rest. But it never really stuck with me. I'd always resolved to get closer with God, but never quite got around to it. I'd never really been comfortable with openly sharing my faith with anyone or inviting them to church. In fact, God wasn't on my mind more times than not, so the thought usually didn't occur to me. I simply went through life, with the basic knowledge that Jesus was our Lord and Savior, he'd died on the cross for our sins and through him...

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) ~ A ccording to William Lane Craig , one of the best known Christian apologists of our time, Science and religion are not adversaries, but allies, in the search for truth about how the world works. This is according to an essay Craig has posted on his web site, ReasonableFaith.org titled, “What is the Relation between Science and Religion .” Now, if you think “reasonable faith” is an oxymoron, you get no extra points, that’s just way too obvious. Craig’s essay is one of the finest examples I have ever seen of how a very smart theist can support his delusion with clever use of his intelligence and education. Like a world-class magician, Craig puts on a dazzling display of smoke and mirrors, and pretzel logic, that cleverly diverts the attention of the reader, and himself, from the obvious. He almost manages to make the elephant in the room disappear. I will quickly summarize Craig’s major points, then we will discuss the elephant. There’s no need to...

By M. Raffaele ~ I posted a story awhile ago when I was 16 and, to be blunt, it was hurried and fictitious. Not to say that I was not truthful, but rather I, at the time, was in denial of the truth behind my choice to leave my superstitions where they belong. I figured out much later, through years of therapy (I am schizoaffective), the birth of my doubt and the eventual "death" of my faith. After leaving MHS due to years of mental abuse at the hands of the "powers that be" and disgusted how vulnerable children were systematically conned into a vicious class war, I became a serious cocaine addict living with my mother and grandmother. My mother had progressive MS with early onset dementia, and my drug abuse took the place of my MHS brothers and sisters as my coping mechanisms. For two years, I chose to forget how bad my mom's illness progressed with the help of an eightball and a needle, to varying success. But, I still prayed. Even though I called my...

By sar0987 ~ O ne conversation. That’s all it took. I knew my faith was paper-thin, or really hadn’t existed at all. I’ve been on here reading testimonials and articles for the last couple of months trying to build the courage to submit my own. Only one other person in the world knows how I truly feel about Christianity. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been here all along. I think it was more wishful thinking and peer pressure than actual true belief. As it’s been stated on this website many times before, Christians come in many forms and they can put you under a tremendous amount of pressure. Logically, you shouldn’t worry if your wife is going to leave you just because you don’t share her beliefs. Right? Let me start this off properly: It all started five years ago. I’d only been out of high school a year or so. Both my girlfriend and I had pretty unhappy childhoods. I had an abusive father and her parents were die-hard speaking-in-tongues fundamentalist Christians . The pr...

By Carl S ~ W ell, I don't know how accurate the polls are, but a large percentage of the U.S. population is supposed to believe in angels. (And it looks like the more science and medicine advance, the more credit will be given to angels, and “God,” and “Divine intervention,” whenever someone is cured or saved from a disaster.) Judging by the responses to Animal Planet's program on mermaids, this makes sense. You might wonder, then: if there are mermaids, there must be mermen and merchildren, right? And why should angels be feminine, except to soften up the rigid God's image? After all, the Catholic Church has spent centuries creating saints to take the place of those ancient gods - those specialists invoked to answer specific prayers for particular needs. Angels were fabricated for the same purposes. (And considering the potions, alcoholic and otherwise, imbibed by ancient seers, it’s no wonder they hallucinated angels. Naturally, syphilis, STD's, putrid food, ...

By blacksunETHER ~ Yes Massa, We’s serve yo’ God PRELUDE: M y people! We were kings and queens. Keen observers of the sky. Masters of alchemy. Warriors of of valor. Teachers of great wisdom. Masterful craftsmen of rock and sand. Respecters of nature. Honorable guardians of the ever so delicate balance of life. Let nothing deny this heritage! Shackles! The brute force of oppression cemented the fate of many Africans crossing the treacherous waters of the Atlantic. The seaman upon these foul stench vessels would not have for-seen their hand in one of the most destructive holocausts known to man. Nor would they have for-seen the vestiges of slavery, in the shapes of proverbial shackles encapsulating the mind of the modern Negro. ORATORIO: Part I Growing up in church is ubiquitous in the American Black experience. The church has served as the beacon and cornerstone of many black communities. Emotionally induced songs, call and response, thunderous shouts of joyous pain and...

By BJ Odin ~ I have spent a lot of time here reading the testimonials and blog posts huddled over a barely-working iPod Touch in bed when I can't sleep. About a year ago, I finally renounced my faith that I had carried like a burden for the first seventeen years of my life, and while I'd love to sever the last sickly tendons of doubt in my new doubt, it isn't that easy. I was raised in an extremely sheltered and isolated semi-fundamentalist home. I say semi, because while dancing and secular movies and music were okay, pretty much everything else was not. I was taught from as far back as I can remember that if I slipped up once, I was hellbound. And oh god, was I terrified. I was forced and bothered to go to church every Sunday and Wednesday, no matter if I was sick, crying, or begging not to. I hated it, but I still thought I loved God. And through my childhood and teenage years, while I loved God and believed everything to a T, I hated going to church or doing g...

By Valerie Tarico ~ H ave you ever thought about starting a new religion or perhaps a hometown franchise of an old one? Perhaps you’re just looking for a career ladder in a religious enterprise that already exists. No? Maybe you should. Religion is big business. There are lots of options ( over 30,000 variants of Christianity alone), and if the scale is right it can pay really, really well . Creflo Dollar, founder of World Changers Church, has an estimated net worth of $27 million. Benny Hinn comes in at 42. Squeaky clean tent revival pioneer Billy Graham bankrolled around 25. Even Eddie Long who has been plagued by accusations of sex with underage male members in his congregation counts his bankbook in seven digits. You say you don’t have star power? No worries. Millions of ordinary ministers, priests, missionaries, religious hospital administrators and other church employees earn solid middle or upper middle class incomes in the God business. The pay is good, and for most pos...