By Karen Garst, The Faithless Feminist ~ And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden , in the east; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (Genesis 2:8-9) And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, `You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. ...

By Thomasina Belle ~ I know a lot of you can probably relate to me, so I'm going to use this platform to vent. I really really appreciate this site. I am the lone liberal ex-christian in my large devout conservative family. I am the “donkey” in a room full of elephants yet I am the “elephant in the room.” With our election over and my anger somewhat subsiding, I just need some fellow ex-Christians to share the love. I have friends who think like me philosophically, but not many who have a similar background. The following is a perfect vignette to illustrate my family and me: A couple of years ago with my parents and two of my siblings, we got on the subject of gay marriage. I try, I really try to keep my mouth shut, but this time immediately after my dad said “it’s in the Bible!” I blurted out “The bible’s full of contradictions.” You see, I had been reading some Bart Ehrman and Skeptics Annotated prior to that and was well on my journey to agnosticism. My sister cried, “...

By Carl S ~ B elievers find something wrong with unbelievers: If you don't believe, they'll tell you, it's because you have chosen not to. (By the way, what's wrong with that?) They all maintain belief is necessary for morality. So let's rethink this unbelief thing. Unbelief is as necessary for believers as belief. I maintain, along with Eric Hoffer , that it takes an incredible amount of unbelief to make belief possible. In fact, much more unbelief than belief is involved. You have to constantly disbelieve the evidence, the realities of life that keep contradicting those beliefs. The contradictions in the various creeds alone create suppressed undealt-with doubts within them. This has always been true. You might say about this, "Tell me something I don't know." Or maybe right now, you don't see things that way; if not, you soon might. Sometimes the obvious takes a long, long, time to be recognized. Speaking of important discoveries and propo...

By AnonAgno94 ~ I scribbled this down a few weeks ago: I had a moment today at work when I had a breakdown. The situation itself is not worth explaining, but the outcome of it is. At times, departing from religion leaves me lonely and cynical of the world. What is the point of life? Of people? Why should I care? A Yellow-winged grasshopper (Gastrimargus musicus) caught in a barbed-wire fence. The yellow back wings are usually only visible when in flight. This image was captured in the few seconds during which the unfortunate grasshopper's head was stuck in a barbed wire fence. Australia is currently experiencing a locust plague. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) But today as I was crying, my coworker hugged me. At one moment, they held my face in both of their hands, and they said how nice of a person I was, and I felt such empathy that it struck me very deeply. They said very kind words today that I just can’t get past them. When I was a Christian, I often imagined Jesus a...

By Karen Garst ~ I f you have never heard the term “cultural relativism” before, rest assured you are not alone. One really has to work hard to keep up with the new words and phrases that have popped up in the last few years, particularly on social media. Cultural relativism can be defined by this type of statement: “Women’s wearing of veils in certain Arab countries is just part of their culture and, therefore, we should not criticize them.” It is also reflected in the comment made by Secretary of State John Kerry when asked about whether our ally, Saudi Arabia , should allow women to drive. He responded that this decision was “ best left to Saudi Arabia ,” thus refusing to take a stand for the rights of women. But Secretary Kerry and cultural relativists are making a serious mistake for one simple reason. Women don’t have a choice in these countries to decide for themselves whether they wear veils or whether can drive. It is this issue of choice that underlies all basic huma...

By Rae Blackwood ~ D o you remember the last thing you said to me? Do you remember our last conversation? I do. We were standing in the kitchen. It was dark out, but the lights were bright inside. You were complaining about our beloved Otis having one single flea. You wanted to kick him out of the house because of a single bug. We argued about it. The next morning you were dead. You killed yourself. I questioned myself, I blamed myself and others for years. What could I have done? Could I have made a difference? Could I have talked to you, treated you different? But the answer is no. Did you think this was going to be an I’m sorry letter? It’s not. As a matter of fact it’s the opposite. You always told me you were a bad father. You always manipulated me into feeling sorry for that confession, as if it was my fault some how. The thing is, you were right, you were a very bad father. The first memory I have of you, I made up. When I was a teenager, you asked me wh...

By Carl S ~ T he 1962 movie, " Gigot ," (pronounced: zhih-GO) features the Catholic comedian Jackie Gleason as the title character. It's about a middle aged deaf-mute and the young girl he befriends in Paris . The young lady is the daughter of a well-known prostitute, and Gigot is the laughingstock of the city; so both of them are outcasts. Gigot spends time showing the girl the sights of the city. I still remember one emotionally powerful scene, even this many years after seeing the movie: In the center of an empty gothic cathedral at mid-day, the two of them look up and see the life sized crucifix hanging above the far-off altar. The girl asks, "Who is that man on a cross?" Gigot stares, and throws out his arms, searching for a way to explain what "that man" means to him. He cannot speak. In frustration, he pounds his fists on his mouth. Gigot (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I mentioned this scene to my Christian wife , hoping to explain m...

By Lethargic Sweetheart ~ I have recently started questioning the Christian faith I've been raised to believe in. It happened when I was reading my Bible and stumbled upon several passages I don't agree with (those passages being the ones that condone rape and state that you must marry your rapist), and I realized. The vast majority of the things in that book are the complete opposite of what I believe in. Having been raped, I can not in any way, shape, or form understand how a loving god could make you marry the person who did it. In fact, I couldn't remember the last time the Bible gave me comfort; instead, it filled me with anxiety, depressing thoughts, and feelings of worthlessness. And thus, a tiny revolution sparked inside my mind. And I let go. If you're anything like me, you probably know where I'm coming from when I say that I still have doubts. At the moment, I refer to myself as agnostic. But the longer I stray from my religion, the more... fr...

By Scott S ~ S o my story isn't much different than anyone else's: raised conservative christian, kept out of mainline churches for most of my young life because organized churches were "too corrupt", met mainly in people's homes on Wednesday nights for most of my childhood, home schooled, virgin 'til I was 23... Pretty boilerplate stuff, right? Fast forward 10 years. I'm married, have three kids and am a member in good standing at a local bible church, where I even volunteer to teach sunday school to 6th graders. And every day I wake up, I feel like the biggest fraud who ever walked the earth. Why? Because I don't think I believe in God, or the supernatural, or heaven, or hell, or any of it anymore. And it hurts. It kills in fact. I've had so many suicidal thoughts over the last few months (related both to the idea in my stupid brain that I can't get out about there being no God, AND the cesspool which is my marriage most days), ...

By A happy Ex missionary ~ T his is the second time that I write a text to post on this website. My first text was two years ago and it is titled “ Just to get it off my chest ”, being about my struggles and hopes as a new ex Christian and ex missionary. It has been three years now since the last time I stepped into a church and, thanks to much effort, I am in a much better situation than the one described in my first text. I managed to graduate this year and got my English degree (in only three years instead of four, by taking more classes than usual). I also started a Postgraduate course and now I am a master’s degree student of literary theory (in Brazil, many universities are public and, therefore, free) I still have to share an apartment with a flatmate, but he is a very nice person, so it’s ok for now. With this introduction made, I now can really get into the issue I would like to bring you all. Last week I attended a seminar on translation. Although my master’s research i...

By Carl S ~ O ne person I mailed my commentaries to wrote back, "I don't want to hear any more about your hatred of religion." If you're familiar with my comments, you find they're not hateful, just logically critical. But this person, like many brought up to not challenge the status quo, thinks religions should be spoken of only positively. This author may be dismissed as a "hate-filled diatribe writer" (Dietribe: an indigenous people who carefully monitor what they eat?) by those who cover their ears and say, "I can't hear you!" Please keep in mind I'm merely revealing the layers of deception religions have robed themselves in. There's an old American tale about two trains racing down the track, one northbound and the other southbound. They collide. An investigator talks to one man who tells them he saw the trains, "from the ridge of yonder hill." The accident investigator asked him, "What were you thinking wh...