Is Santa Or God Real?

War On Christmas

How Do We Know Stuff

Prove There Is No God

Were you there?

Salvation Explained Simply

What Is Truth

No, The Bible Made Me An Atheist

Recently a knock came at my door. It was a pastor from a local church who was 105 if he was a day. He was bent over and time had not been kind to his face and hands. He handed me a tract and told me how I had a lovely house. As a former minister I recognized that pattern. Compliment first. So, he eventually got to "Are you a member of a faith based church?", thus excluding them apostate Catholic and Prevyterians who don't believe in the real god as he does. I told him straight up "I'm an atheist.". I could see his demeanor change immediately like he had some dust to shake off his feet and very soon.

Before I could say anything else he said "Oh, you believe in evolution".  Hmmm.. "Well, the evidence seems pretty strong."  He retorted "We got to have gotten here somehow", as if that completely destroyed the theory of evolution. He was done with me and turned to go down the steps. I was concerned he might stumble so I helped him down the steps and the he went on his way.  I suspect he later prayed for my soul. 

Later as I pondered this I felt he was dismissive and sized me up that I fell from grace because of evolution. I started to consider going and visited him at the church and clear up what I felt was a misconception about me. Evolution had absolutely nothing to do with my de-conversion. It never hit my radar until years later. 

Why had I become an atheist?

Growing up I had been guilted into believing Fundamental Christianity, Seventh-day Adventism in particular. I don't believe anyone comes to Jesus any other way. Why would you? You are first told you are this horrible sinner and being young, especially entering puberty, this can be preyed on.  Even younger you are so dependent and learning the rules you can be easily convinced you are the problem. Then when you accept this and are told now God loves you, like Santa Claus, you will get many gifts. Then you feel elation. Who came to Jesus any other way? It is strictly feelings. We are not entirely rational and most of our decisions are emotionally driven. Christianity takes advantage of that. 

Life went on. I went to college, became a minister. Of course the only thing I had was Scripture. I thought the more I read it and the more I followed it the better person I would be. But I found myself reading text that made no sense or did not coincide with reality. Why did all those magical things happen then, but not now? I would sub-consciously bypass these things because I had been told more would be revealed, but within me there was a build up how many of these just won't be resolved. A perfect god, a perfect book. Why was it so much looking like humans wrote it without a whole lot of internal consistency. I start reading all the apologetic material and again found it unsatisfying. However, when I was questioned I would regurgitate the arguments pretending I believed them when I did not. Fake til you make it. I believe Lord, help my disbelief. The problem was I could not let it go. I felt it was very important to resolve this cognitive dissonance. On top of just getting why SDAs were right I had to get why the thousands of other denominations and religions were wrong. It was a house of cards, soon to fall. It would have been best if I had not studied. The foundation of guilt loaded on me and the desire to deeply understand Scripture and apologetics was the major first step to my de-conversion. 

I wish I had of thought faster when the pastor came to my door. This is what I would have told him among many other things. My expectation would be he would have pulled out the pat answers and since he was 105 any honest thought would have been crushed. It was very painful for me to come out of the crushing guilt, but I am now very comfortable in my own skin.  Be yourself!

Does God Speak To Man

Jesus Loves The Little Children

Action speak louder than words.

Christianity - You Cannot Escape Easily

You cannot escape until you realize you are a prisoner. Christianity taught me I was a prisoner in sin. They shamed me and feigned love. They took advantage of my naivete. It took most of my life to understand I had become a prisoner. But the key was simply there around my neck once I woke up. Once I realized the problem the solution was inevitable while painful.

Some of us have had bad religion soaked childhoods, but most of us had long ones. None of us can help the things life has done to us, and once they are done they make us do other things until at last everything comes between us and what we would like to be and we have lost our original self. A paraphrase from Eugene O'Neill. You are not lost forever, you can free yourself from these things. Have patience, care for yourself, giving yourself a break.

When I was child I spoke as a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put away childish ways. I no longer believe in shame from the book of or believers in myths. I had been shamed to believe I would be this immoral child of hell if I gave up Christianity and became an atheist. My big surprise was my morals did not change and in fact I was now more honest, which if there is a good god he would honor that the most. Put my experience in their prophecy fail category.

Christian Disproves Evolution

Freedom OF Religion

Can Religion Cause Murder

Moral Indignation

Moral Indignation is jealousy with a halo - H.G. Wells

We all have met those kind of people. Religion, fundamental Christianity in particular, attracts those who are insecure and need a stick to punish others ("you are going to hell") and need a skirt to hide behind ("It is not me saying it, it is God").

As Dylan wrote

You got a lotta nerve

To say you are my friend

When I was down

You just stood there grinning

You got a lotta nerve

To say you got a helping hand to lend

You just want to be on

The side that’s winning

...

I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

And just for that one moment

I could be you

Yes, I wish that for just one time

You could stand inside my shoes

You’d know what a drag it is

To see you

Song: Positively 4th Street

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts - Bertran Russell.

How Embarrassing Is Religious TV?

The Terrifying Truth About Bananas - Not By Kirk Cameron This Time

Tower Of Babel - Scientific Ilteracy Or Was God Truly Afraid Of Men?

Can't we just agree the Bible gets a failing grade in science? This really would be a story of self correcting errors if God had just let it go. Why didn't God stop men from landing on the moon or sending the Voyager satellites past our Solar System? How is it different today than thousands of years ago? Oh yeah, science.

Alex, Quotes for $1000 please

Alex Trebek: "Everybody else is wrong and I am the only one who is right."

Contestant: "What do fundamentalists and alcoholics say?"

Humans Did Not Come From Monkeys

When confronted with the human fossil record why do creation scientist not agree on which fossil is an ape and which is human? See Jerry Coyne's book for more info

Humans came from an common ancestor, we are apes. However, Christian "scientists" cannot agree on the fossil record on is it human or is it ape. How interesting.

The Underwhelming Evidence For Christianity

By The Blood Of Jesus

A lot of times I talk about the immorality of Christianity. Most of the time, Christians and even a few atheists jump to defend Christianity by talking about various good deeds particular Christians have done and continue to do. But I wasn’t talking about Christians being immoral; I was talking about Christianity being immoral. What can be more immoral then the vicarious redemption of sin?

The whole idea that I can go and murder someone or work on Saturday and have my sins forgiven vicariously by someone else is a license for crime. Christians often use the analogy of some small offense like a drunk driving charge (which for the record isn’t really a small offense) and they talk about how Judge God lets the offender off the hook because Jesus paid his or her fine. But that isn’t how the world works.

If someone went and murdered someone else and was found guilty, no one would be able to pay the fine of prison time except that person who was found guilty. There is an old expression, “If you do the crime, you will do the time.”

But that isn’t the worst part of the Christian redemption system. The way Jesus allegedly pays for your sins is through blood sacrifice. It is funny that when most Americans hear about some cult sacrificing an animal to the Gods they laugh and think such a ritual is absurd and yet 80% or more believe the same thing.

The whole Christian belief system centers around the idea of blood sacrifice. Back before Jesus allegedly came, the Abrahamic God wanted people to sacrifice goats to him so that he could forgive them for their sins. This is where the term scapegoat comes from. Everyone in the village puts all their sins on to the goat and kills the goat as a sacrifice to God. But God wanted more than just a goat.

Lambs were more desirable to God apparently, because he wanted the people to sacrifice an innocent lamb to show how much they care instead. Let me repeat that last part. God wanted people to sacrifice an Innocent Lamb.

Now of course there is no need to sacrifice an Innocent Lamb or any other lamb for that matter because Jesus is the “Lamb of God.” In other words, he is the innocent blood sacrifice that God needs for the redemption of sin.

Some people will say that not all Christians believe this and that I am generalizing. But the fact is that this whole blood sacrifice thing is a pretty central point the Christian belief system. I really don’t think one could seriously be considered a Christian if they don’t buy into the idea that the death of Jesus was a necessary sacrifice to God for their sins. That is pretty much the whole grounding of the religion. God forgives those who have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus for payment of their sins.

In reality, there is no vicarious redemption for sin. God can’t forgive you for your wrongs. Only those who you have wronged can forgive you. Next time you lie to a friend or family member about something, instead of asking Jesus for forgiveness, try slaughtering an innocent lamb instead. Let me know if that works out for ya.

http://freethoughtsociety.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/vicarious-redemption-of-sin/

Christian Child Abuse

Extreme Wealth Of TV Preachers

What Me Worry? Part 3

What Me Worry Part 2

What Me Worry Part 1

The great philosopher Alfred E. Neumann stated this brilliant proposition in the upside down year 1961. What Me, Worry?

It sums up how best to live and enjoy your life

There are two thing to worry about:

Either you are well or you are sick.

If you are well there is nothing to worry about.

If you are sick there are two things to worry about:

Either you will get well or you will die. If you get well there is nothing to worry about.

If you die there is only two thing to worry about:

Either you go to heaven or hell.

If you go to heaven there is nothing to worry about.

But if you go to hell you will be so darn busy shaking hands with your friends you won't have time to worry.

Faith Is Not A Virtue

Faith is not a virtue, it is gullibility.

History of Jesus

Nye And Ham Aftermath

The 2 Steps To Finding Jesus

The Jesus Test Analogy

If you truly, truly believe the coin will always land on heads.

Here are the Rules of the Game.

1) Heads, I win!

2) Tails, Try Again

The Porno Magazine That Came To Life

Pastor Says Lose The Panties

Forced To Go To Church

Jesus Needs Money

Jesus Was Wrong

Why Christian Prostelizing Works

When Did Jesus ....

Jesus did say "My Kingdom is not of this World". Apparently, some Bibles have that redacted.

Along with these text apparently

Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Matthew 5:42

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Proverbs 19:17

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” Luke 14:12-14

And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Luke 3:11

There are hundreds of text in the Bible about helping the poor and none say to determine if they are worthy. Well, isn't that the point of the Bible to tell you how unworthy you are and yet God sends the rain on the good and evil.

Christians should learn from the Old Testament. Them getting involved in Government is a big fail.

Woman Created Differently Than Everything Else

Why have you never heard?

Why have you never heard someone say "I asked Jesus to forgive me and Jesus replied 'No Fucking Way. You are an asshole. Stop praying to me'" ?

Why has no one come back from a near death experience (NDE) and told us about hell?

The odds must be incredibly high per Christianity (only a remnant will be saved) yet you never hear it.

Church Morality

That Awkward Christian Moment

Creationist Are Creative

Creationist are Creative - Two Definitions Of Science

When you start with a fantasy story that must not be questioned then you must bend everything to it. So distorting already defined words is a ready game for those so inclined. In the recent HBO documentary Question Darwin a pastor is shown saying, if the Bible said 2+2=5, he would believe it and then work it out to understand it. The creative part! How can I make bend reality to make it fit. This is why it took centuries to get out from under religion (aka Dark Ages) and see the world as it is. This is still why Darwin is vilified. This is still why Ken Ham will make up anything to fit an ancient book that he and a billion others believe in. Oddly they cannot agree with each other.

Religion causes divergence. Science causes convergence.

He Loves You ...

Your Specific Religion Is True

There are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way (our galaxy) and an estimated 125 billion galaxies in our universe. If you were to randomly pick a star from everything you know, you'd have a 0.0000000000000004% chance of picking our sun, which is not even at the center of our galaxy but essentially a rebel outpost. There are 20 current religions with more than a million followers each. There are 41k Christian denominations.

And you think that your specific belief is the correct one?

The picture above is pointing to our solar system, which is a spec in the galaxy.

What A Difference 2000 Years Can Make

God Is A Bullet

Have mercy on us everyone.

Concrete Blond

How I Know God Is A Real Man

He blows shit up.

Every notice in the Bible and apparently in nature when he is pissed he frickin' hates discussion. He just nukes Sodom and Gomorrah. He tells his people to kill every man, woman, child, infant and animal in towns. He punishes with tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and such. Uses a 10-lb hammer instead of a scalpel. God punishes America because of homosexuals. Hmmmm...couldn't just punish the homosexual? Doh!

He has a real bad aim. He tends to hit the mark but sprays all around as well.

He is a red zone. Only black and white thinking.

You screw up in a 70+ year life and you are going to burn for ALL eternity. 

He loves the part of creating kids, but would rather not stick around for the day in day out care. No one alive has actually seen him. And the ones who want him beg for their Daddy to come home.  Why won't Daddy come home, Mommy?

Jesus-Gate

Evolution - Where You There?

The End Times. Come Lord Jesus Quickly.