By Carl S. ~ T here's an old poem that goes like this: "For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.’” You have probably read of dying humans who have uttered those words. (I read of two classical composers who said, "But I have so much music left in me.") Many individuals have apologized when it is too late for forgiveness from the ones they've damaged. Then there are the regrets for not doing the good that was possible when the opportunities were wide-open. We ought to deal with reality, with the fact that regrets are a part of life; we make bad choices, under the circumstances and place in life at the time, we often didn't have much choice in our decisions. Would those words be the saddest words spoken by a "caring" god if there was one? Would this god say to himself each time he sends someone to hell, “I should have done more to make myself understood." And what of, "If I had stopped the Holo...

By Ben Love ~ O kay, so God is supposed to be eternal. Right? Granted, none of us can really understand what “eternal” must be like, feel like, or look like. But one thing we do know: to be eternal is to last   forever —no beginning, no end. Eternal, then, does   not   compare with time. Time is the measurement of a finite interval of existence. That is to say, time has a beginning, and time has an end. And in between this beginning and end is the   space of   time. We call this space/time. And the whole of space/time is personified by what we call the Universe, or,   all that exists materially . Thus, God and the Universe are diametrically opposite to each other. One exists (theoretically)   outside of   time, in the limitless realm of eternity, while the other exists   within   time. Now, if the Creationists are correct, then these two diametrical opposites are intrinsically related to each other, because one (the eternal) must...

By Carl S ~ Constantine's conversion, by Rubens. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) O nce in a while, I stop at the library to take out a DVD film. When reading the plots on the jackets, I keep noticing how many of them involve the words, "and their lives were changed forever." There has to be a market for these movies; guaranteed money to be made, because there are so many of them. It isn’t just movies. Books with that theme are popular, too. In fact, the forever-life-changing-experiences are nourishment for religious proselytizing. The most famous is of course that of Saul, who did a 180 degree from persecutor to apostle after being knocked off his horse onto his ass. The Emperor Constantine was not converted to Christianity until he was dying. Did he have a near-death experience to cause his conversion? The scientific evidence for NDEs, as purely natural phenomena, is so well documented by now that the mere mention of them should be cause for yawning. From time immemorial...

By Irish Mark ~ I find that one of the best ways for me to go on in life, is to help others get over their struggles. Back in May 2012 I wrote an article called “ Growing in strength as an ex believer ." Its now been nearly 3 years and I just want to reach out to those who hurt and give them a story so that they may not have to go through the pain I went through. Getting over Christianity has been one of the hardest things I've had to accomplish in my short life. It's on par with being abused as a child as the two go hand in hand. I'm now nearly 26 and when I left Christianity I left it with such an anger that I was driven to drink and drugs. I'm now 20 months clean off both drink and drugs and currently attend AA and NA meetings. When I was trying to get over religion I remember I used to listen to christian music and cry in reminiscence of days gone by. For me religion was my first addiction and just to clarify one thing in AA and NA they speak of a...

Holy Trinity by Fridolin Leiber (1853–1912) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) By Toonforever ~ A year or two back, a friend of mine (also an atheist, but without the indoctrination history I had, nor the particular urge to explore this sort of stuff over and over again) made an interesting remark as we were bantering over a hair-splitting topic. I’ll paraphrase, because I don’t remember his exact wording, but he basically said: The church’s big mistake was making god out to be All-Powerful . Once they made him Omnipotent and Omniscient , they made him completely impossible. I’ve been thinking that through lately. The more I think about it, the more right I think he is. In fact, I think that they very “biblical” definition of god by Evangelical standards provides enough logical data to actually  prove  that the LORD ( YHWH /Jesus/Holy Spirit) does not exist. Let’s clarify our definitions. In the context of this argument, when we say God, we specifically mean the E...

By Valerie Tarico ~ I’ve never been happier since I quit my 30-year addiction to Jesus.” – A Former Believer T o a medical researcher, the word addiction has a specific biological meaning. But in common vernacular, it means approximately this : the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, such as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma. Based on this definition some religious experiences seem a lot like addictions—at least that’s what former believers say. Blogger and former Christian Sandra Kee , looks back at her family history and sees religion and addiction as a messy tangle: “My family for several generations was in a dysfunctional and addictive religious life, using God (or what we believed about God) as a drug. Many of the family who left religion simply traded for another addiction. The generations that entered into religion did so to escape alcoholism and other ...

By kucingnoire ~ H i Dad. First off, I'd like to say that I really appreciated our talks when I was home. For maybe the first time in my life, I felt like you really heard me. It's a credit to your maturity and wisdom that you were able to respond so graciously to me, wine-drunk and petulant as I was in certain moments. I truly appreciate that, and it was encouraging to me. When we talked about those conversations establishing a good foundation that we could build on, I meant it. So, let's build. Right now: I'm depressed. I have a hard time sleeping a lot of nights. I have a hard time getting up in the morning. I have a hard time getting excited about anything. I am anxious. I drink too much. I smoke too much. To borrow the phrase you used to describe the France years: I am treading water. This is not entirely your fault. I take responsibility for my decisions. I own my bad habits. I reference my current situation not to hold you responsible for it, but...