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Religion? No thanks. I'll just continue in my atheism 2008-02-03 14:43:38 By Bob Patterson1: I don't believe in a god because I have yet to see, hear, or feel one. Neither have I seen any credible evidence that anyone else has. 2: I don't believe in your god because there are thousands of gods... What makes your god (out of 10,000 gods) the 'real' one? Ever notice that believers follow the religion of their parents? 3: What is the evidence for your god? If you tell me the bible, I'll have to assume you never read it. Much of the bible is the rantings of maniacal lunatics. Is that the best your god can do? 4: If, in fact, your god is the factual real McCoy, 100% of the world would know it. 5: Why does your god get all the credit for everything perceived as good, but never any blame for what isn't? 6: If your god is so great and so powerful, why is there still disease, suffering and birth defects? 7. Only 1/3 of the world's population are in 'Christian nations' which, of course, are only partially Christian? 8: If God is in fact the father of Jesu ...

Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter - Letter One 2008-02-03 14:24:47 This post is part of a dialog, In Two Minds: The Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter, between former minister Brian Worley and psychologist Valerie Tarico . In the series, Brian Worley, an ordained Baptist, describes some of his encounters with Christian friends and family since he deconverted. In Letter 1, he asks Dr. Tarico to comment on an exchange with his brother.Dear Dr. Tarico,The last time I was with my Christian father, he cussed me out because of my beliefs. I looked him in the eye and said, “I got what I needed to know from you today.” (I had traveled a long way just to visit.) Then, I just turned and walked away. Below, I have posted a letter from my brother. Our relationship has never been the same since I left the faith.Brian,I feel very privileged that you chose to send me your propaganda I know that you hope to win converts to your dark world but what I choose to do is add you to my blocked senders list. I believe that most of your old friends and family have come to ...

Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter - Part Two 2008-02-03 14:23:54 This post is part of a dialog, In Two Minds: The Anatomy of a Christian Hate Letter, between former minister Brian Worley and psychologist Valerie Tarico . In the series, Brian Worley, an ordained Baptist, describes some of his encounters with Christian friends and family since he deconverted. In Letter One, he asked Dr. Tarico to comment on an exchange with his brother and in Letter Two, Valerie Tarico responds.Dear Brian,Your experience, I’m afraid, is familiar to many former Evangelical believers.Even though I have researched some of the worst of Christian history, the Evangelical child in me continues to marvel at things that are said in defense of the God of Love and Truth. After all, I believed in the fruit of the Spirit. I believed in Jesus who told us to turn the other cheek. So, I was shocked when I first read profanity and threats of personal violence against the stewards of exChristian.net, losingmyreligion.com, and even the Ontario Center For Religious Tolerance (religiou ...

God the psycho 2008-02-03 08:44:02 Pat Condell remarks on the curse of monotheism. ...

A few observations from an ex-Christian atheist 2008-02-03 08:33:38 By ColinI have been floating around on this site for only a few months now, even though my own de-conversion happened more than 15 years ago. My wife is still a Christian (if a very lukewarm one) and I happened to read one of her magazines that a superheated fundamentalist Christian friend gave her. In this magazine, there was an article about this very site. The article did not mention the site by name, (probably because they did not wish to encourage foolish young sheep to leave the fold), but how intelligent do you need to be to Google “Ex-Christian”?I noted that the author of that article never posted anything on this site – a wise decision, in my opinion.This is not my testimonial, which I have submitted previously, but I do wish to tell everyone who visits this site, that everything you read here about de-conversion is true:It is not a process that takes place in a few days or even weeks – it takes years, more probably decades. It is usually the result of doing an in-dept ...

Why I Became an Atheist 2008-02-03 08:32:28 Former evangelical minister John W. Loftus would like to announce that his latest book — "Why I Became an Atheist" — will soon be released by Prometheus Books.For about two decades John W. Loftus was a devout evangelical Christian, an ordained minister of the Church of Christ, and an ardent apologist for Christianity. With three degrees--in philosophy, theology, and philosophy of religion--he was adept at using rational argumentation to defend the faith. But over the years, as he ministered to various congregations and taught at Christian colleges, doubts about the credibility of key Christian tenets began to creep into his thinking. By the late 1990s he experienced a full-blown crisis of faith, brought on by emotional upheavals in his personal life as well as the gathering weight of the doubts he had long entertained.In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, Loftus carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious ...

Q&A About Atheists and Atheism 2008-02-02 06:24:03 By David GleesonDo atheists hate God?No. Consider: Do you hate Santa Claus? Or Zeus and Poseidon? The fact is, atheists just don´t believe in "God" or gods. You can´t hate something you don't believe in.Why don´t atheists believe in God?The reasons why an atheist doesn´t believe in God can be as varied as the beliefs of believers, but it usually boils down to a simple fact: the atheist just doesn´t see any evidence for the supernatural in general, and God in particular. If you are a Christian, think about why you don´t believe in Zeus or Shiva. That will tell you a lot about why atheists don´t believe in your god, or any god.So atheists think there´s no greater power than themselves?Whoa! Who said anything like that? Atheists believe we are just one ordinary life form that managed to evolve on a rock that circles one ordinary sun in one unremarkable galaxy, in a universe of 100 billion such galaxies and ten thousand billion billion such suns. Compare that world-view to the typ ... Amp

Morality and the 'new atheism' 2008-02-02 06:17:45 By Benjamin O'Donnell A common criticism of the so-called “new atheists” (who I prefer to call the "new anti-dogmatists") is the "problem of morality": how, many religious critics ask, can we be good without God? Isn’t the fact that people are good, that people can tell good from evil, evidence for the existence of God? Even if God is a myth, isn’t He necessary to inspire people to acts of goodness and to keep them from falling into immorality? And in any case, don’t we get our morals from our religious traditions? A key problem here is that this “good without God” criticism is really at least five different arguments jumbled together. The argument from scripture First comes the argument from scripture: “how can we know what's good without a book of rules, like the Bible?” This is the one that Richard Dawkins so ably rebuts with his "cherry picking" point in his recent best-seller, The God Delusion. The Bible is full of horrible acts and recommendations. It also con ...

Pastor Charged With Grand Theft 2008-02-02 05:58:47 Miami-Dade Police say Pastor Gaston Smith used your tax dollars for his own personal vacations, grant money that was supposed to go to the low-income community he has spent years serving, but Friday a new name that is already involved in scandal came up in the investigation.Officers arrested Smith Thursday night. He's a well respected figure in the Liberty City community, but police say he stole from the very community he has been honored for serving.Smith has received awards and commendations from a number of institutions, including Congress and Miami-Dade County. He is the senior pastor at the Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Liberty City, and he has spoken out on many social issues in the past.But police say, while he may be well-respected, he is a thief. They have charged him with 2nd degree Grand Theft.The police investigation reported that in July of 2005, Rev. Gaston Smith deposited the grant funds into a Washington Mutual bank account in the name of Friends of MLK, Inc. ...

Pastor charged with theft 2008-02-02 05:50:07 A Scott County Pastor has been charged with stealing $900 from his church.Pastor Joe Moran, of Stamping Ground Baptist Church, was arraigned this month on theft charges. He pleaded not guilty.Moran tells 27NEWSFIRST the allegations are nothing more than a big misunderstanding. He says he made a mistake when he deposited a check for $900.50 into his personal account.He says the check was written out to him and was sent to his personal address.Some of the 100-member congregation have left the Church and have asked Moran to step down. But he says he did nothing wrong and that he will not be leaving.Moran will be back in Scott County Court on February 21 for a preliminary hearing.STORY LINK ...

Understanding divine justice 2008-02-02 05:28:57 By EnjjptLet me get this straight...God made man perfect in His own image. Then God put the perfect man and woman in a perfect garden to live for all eternity. God put a bunch of trees in the garden and declared one off-limits. Since man was made perfect in the image of God, he would be incapable of doing anything evil or wrong, he was perfect just like God. But since God is all-knowing, he knew even before He made the off-limits tree that Man would partake of it, and thus He is guilty of setting Man up for failure. This is no different from an adult placing a tray full of cupcakes in the middle of a room full of toddlers and telling them not to eat them and then getting angry when they do. No parent would expect children who know no better to obey such a command, because they understand the nature of children.So God, in His just and righteous anger over His creation eating the fruit off of the forbidden tree, decides that the offense is so egregious, so heinous, that it is a capital ...

MySpace deletes hacked Web site for atheists and agnostics 2008-02-01 16:10:57 It isn't easy being godless online. For the third time in three years, what may be the largest group of organized atheists in the world is struggling to stay on MySpace, said a Cleveland State University assistant professor who founded the site for nonbelievers. MySpace deleted the 35,000-member "Atheist and Agnostic Group" on Jan. 1, a little more than a month after hackers broke in and renamed the group's site "Jesus Is Love," Bryan Pesta said Wednesday. MySpace has ignored repeated requests to restore the group's site, including an online petition with more than 500 signatures, said Pesta, who was the group's moderator. "These actions send a clear message to the 30 million godless people in America that we are not welcome on MySpace," Pesta said. A MySpace spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment. Pesta started the group in 2004 as a social networking site "specifically for godless people." Atheists are more likely to be geographically spread out, and the online group pr ...

A funny thing happened on my way to my liberal arts degree 2008-02-01 06:07:38 Sent in by Norm “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.” 1 Corinthians 13:11-12.When Christian acquaintances learn that I am a former fundamentalist that became an atheist, their shocked response is, “What horrible trauma did you suffer at the hands of some evil person to cause you to lose your faith?” This is expressed with an expression of a combination of fascination and horror, as if they were looking at a poisonous snake.But the only horrible thing that happened to me was a liberal education. Of course, the most horrible thing that could happen from a Christian fundamentalist's standpoint.But, I should start at the beginning of my story. My parents were moderate Christians. They occasionally attended church and never ind ...

Why people laugh at creationists 2008-02-01 05:59:41 The following are 15 short videos are copyright-free for educational purposes. Feel free to mirror any or all of these videos with or without accreditation wherever ignorance abounds. For ease of viewing, the 15 videos are grouped in threes. In other words, each of these players contains tree videos. This is part of a superb series of videos exposing the funny stupidity of creationists and why they deserve to be laughed at. In each case the creationist statements are shown to be outrageously stupid by even the most rudimentary knowledge of science. -- Thunderf00tEpisodes I–IIIEpisodes IV–VIEpisodes VII–IXEpisodes X–XIIEpisodes XIII–XV ...

If I could still believe, I would 2008-01-30 14:37:54 Sent in by ChrisI have been a believer in Christ for more than 15 years and now I must explain what has happened to my faith. There have been a lot of questions from family and friends, so I wrote this letter as an explanation of sorts. To put it bluntly, I don’t believe in God anymore. To finally come out and say that ‘I do not believe’ has been one of the most heart wrenching experiences of my life. I have been a zealous Christian apologist and I know most of the arguments in favor of the Christian faith intimately. I have a cross tattooed on my arm with the Greek letters for Christ above it. I know many of the key Bible verses in the original Greek as well as English. I am very familiar with all of the church history and the ‘evidences’, and have used them in debates with others who were not Christian. I have at times been a youth leader and have filled in worship leader playing guitar or bass. I have lead small group studies; my evangelical credentials are obvious to all ...