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The Narcissism of Religious Belief

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By Boatman X ~ I was raised in Christian Evangelical Fundamentalism . I chose a different path many years ago, and formed my own spiritual beliefs. I do not try to convert anyone to my beliefs. These beliefs are my own, my choice, my guidelines for living. I've just spent the holidays with my family, who are unrecovered religious Christians. They study scripture, and beseech God in prayer, and relentlessly try to reconvert me to their beliefs. In their passion to convert me, I see only their attachment to their personal perspective on reality, colored by their Bible and the cultural norms of the particular sect to which they pledge allegiance. Pure Narcissism, I think to myself. I'm so sad for them, and sad for myself as they've never even inquired as to the nature of my own spirituality. Nor would they respect my beliefs if they ever did ask. Pure Narcissism, to hold forth your holy book and believe that your purpose in life is to convert everyone around y...

Free From the Matrix

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By Being Human ~ L ife sure is an interesting road. A few years ago I would have thought that coming to this site was an act of Satan. Now, I have never felt more free. I'm really thankful for all of the help on exchristian.net, and other atheist websites. A show that has really helped me is the Atheist Experience . They give wonderful answers to really stupid christian arguments. With that being said, here's my story. I would like to say that my family is really wonderful. I wouldn't trade anything in the world for them. However, like most of us, we came from families with religious backgrounds. I was raised Catholic. Luckily, my family isn't crazy fundamentalist, but I still got enough religious bullshit. I went through the whole works: Sunday school, first communion, and confirmation. Everything was going great. I went to church, prayed, said the rosary once and a while. I suffer from OCD and anxiety, and doing these things helped make me feel be...

I Knew This Was Coming

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By Joel H. ~ I got a call from my uncle last month asking if it was true I had doubts in Christianity. Yes I replied and we both agreed to sit down and talk about it later that day. Sometime before then, my mom had told him about my situation and translated it as though I was a Christian with doubts, not an Atheist seeking the truth about their former religion. After I told my parents I was an Atheist, I thought my mom would just let me be. When I was reading Christopher Hitchens 's God I Not Great, she broke her silent rage and told me what I was doing was wrong. If my uncle could help "bring me back" as if I was going to the doctor to be cured of a disease, then her anger with me would end. When I got to his house, he invited me in and we began right away. He asked what was my problem. I said I questioned the bible over its many contradictions and why such a loving god would turn around and become evil to others. After this, I wasn't able to get a word in as ...

Lucifer, Lord of Music

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By De-converting ~ I t’s been only a few short days since my story was published on this site. In that time I’ve been absolutely blown away by the kindness and support that has been shown to me by all of you. Never before in my life have I been shown so much understanding and compassion by complete strangers. Thank you all so much. As sort of an afterthought, I had linked my music website at the end of my last post. From the increase in my site views, I figured that several of you have gone there to check it out. That, coupled with your encouragement for me to keep posting on this site, has caused me to decide to share with you my journey of music, which closely ties in to my religious journey. The importance of music in my life cannot be over-estimated. As a child—around 4 years old—I would simply sit at the piano and touch its keys. It was so beautiful to me. I was fascinated by it. My older sister played the violin and I would go into the yard and gather two sticks and pret...

I finally snapped wide-awake.

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By Josh ~ T he fact that christian faith is an enormous fabrication recently became suddenly clear to me. I was raised in a baptist christian family, but thankfully it was pretty easy-going. By the time I became a teenager my mother and stepfather pretty much allowed me to choose whether I went to church or not. Even though I wholeheartedly believed in Jesus and the entire bible for that matter, I avoided going to church simply because I did not feel comfortable in it. The singing, the fake faces of "love and care"--I absolutely abhorred it. Jumping ahead to when I was 19 and in college, I fell in love with my first love. I had known her since I was in first grade and we had always been close friends. We are very similar and most notably we are both very intelligent. We also both had very similar christian upbringings. Her parents are far more hardcore about their faith than mine are and that tended to adversely impact our relationship. However we pressed forth...

In God We Trust

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By Carl S ~ C onsider the traditional references to the character of God as depicted in Abrahamic faiths . Is this God trustworthy? Adam: "you created this paradise for us, gave us curiosity, and knew we just had to investigate that tree. Why did you put it there in the first place, if you knew kids just have to know? This is a case of obvious entrapment. Then you punish us for being human?" God: "You must admit, paradise can get pretty boring, even for me. Trouble - now that's exciting! Just wait till Eve has a baby; all the suffering will be worth it! By the way, who are you puny-minded brats to question me? If I want to trick you, that’s my right." Abraham : “I nearly killed my son because of you. Why?" God: “What? You can't take a joke? It was a "test" to see if you’d really do it, and because you were willing, that's good enough for me to reward you with truckloads of progeny. Lighten up." Noah: "My lord! I had n...

The Talking Snake Takes the Cake

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By Undercover agnostic ~ W hat would it take for young earth creationists to finally close their holy books and wave their white flag of surrender to the fossil record- their silent, but deadly, adversary? I asked myself this question as an article from my msn homepage, titled: “Baffling 400,000-Year-Old Clue to Human Origins,” captured my attention. The teaser for the story asserted, “Scientists have found the oldest DNA evidence yet of humans’ biological history.” Inspired by Peter Boghossian’s book, Manual for creating Atheists,” I used this blurb as a springboard to try my skills as a street epistemologist. I linked the story to my Facebook post, with the following question: “Please forgive me if I step on any toes, but I have an honest and sincere question: How can Christians continue to hold to a “literal” understanding of the Bible’s creation story in light of the sea of fossil evidence which tells a completely different story?” The very question came as a shock to...

Kind of Lost

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By Cody ~ I t's January 1, 2014. A brand new year for all of us. And hopefully a better year for me. Before I begin my story, I feel I should say that I have been clinically diagnosed with major depression and aspergers. I'm a 21-year-old male going to a Catholic college. I have gone to a Catholic grade school and a Catholic high school too. I had a blast when I was a kid and overall my life was and still is good, people like me, I was athletically gifted, good looking, I took good care of my health, and my parents own a Harley Shop which means we were more than financially secure. I still have all these qualities plus some good values (like generosity, care for others, and loving). Even though my Catholic schools were pretty religious, I thought they were pretty good (as indicated by the consistent good reviews in the local paper every year). Overall, they were pretty gentle with the indoctrination of core Catholic beliefs (which has pros and cons). During my high sch...

Withholding the Evidence

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By Carl S. ~ R ecently, in the United States, national media has focused on the experiences of a man who spent 25 years in prison because of a wrongful conviction for murder. At the crux of this injustice was the fact that essential EVIDENCE was withheld which would have proven him innocent. Who knows how many have been imprisoned, are still in prison, because of the same reason? It isn't only the innocent who are deprived of rights because of withheld evidence. Those who are obligated by law to judge the guilt or innocence of the defendant are also involved. Justice is not served without full disclosure of the details as these directly apply to the cases. Strictly speaking, without evidence, there is no case, but merely hearsay, accusations, and even implications of guilt targeting the individual. The poet Ogden Nash commented, "There are two kinds of sins: those of COMMISSION and those of OMMISSION." The "committed sins," we are continually reminded...

Get over it!

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By Klym ~ H ey fellow Ex-C friends! I have missed you all for the past several months and am just now getting back to a regular reading of your magnificent posts! I went back to check on my previous article, The Virtuous Woman , written last June 2013, and found a posting by "Michael" that plainly told me I am going to hell and that he will pray for me. How considerate of him!!! Here's what he posted, three months after my article was published: Michael • 3 months ago− + One of your statements: "I'll be damned..." may be more true than you know. One of those annoying little bible sayings is that "whoever denies me (Christ) will be denied by my Father in Heaven). Yes, I'm guilty of taking that line out of context because that is what your entire article is about, taking the promotion of virtue out of context. For Heaven's sake, what is wrong with you? You are so upset over OUR tax dollars being spent to promote virtue for women. How is t...

Wanting them to believe the myth...Am I wrong?

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By Johan ~ F irst, a bit of info about me: I am a divorced father of two sons (12 going on 13, and 7). My kids live about 500 miles away with their mom, and I only have them during school holidays. I have been living with the most perfect woman ever the past 4 years, and I'm planning on marrying her soon. My awakening I used to be a devout christian, but during a very turbulent time in my life, I couldn't understand why God was doing the things he was doing. Things that bothered me most was how he could allow people I know to do the horrible things they were doing, coupled with the whole "only baptized persons go to heaven" statement. This particularly was a big issue for me, since there are millions of people who never even heard of Jesus. I then set on a quest to really get to know him, and come closer to God. Ultimately, the more I searched and researched, the more I realized that I have been believing in a something that made absolutely no sense. Needles...