Coming Out Godless Perhaps one of the most moving types of stories are ones of personal experience. The idea here is to encourage atheists, freethinkers, and other unbelievers to come out, in my hopes of normalizing humanism. I'm not trying to deconvert anyone. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 6 0 5 2054

Articles from Coming Out Godless

Story #22: "The Shafts of Light Found Me" 2007-08-13 16:30:00 (Via Alexis)I never went looking to become an atheist. I went to a Christian and Missionary Alliance church in St. Pete., Florida from as early as I could remember, singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World, Red and Yellow Black and White, They are Precious in His Sight...” While I am glad the song helped make me non-bigoted, now I realize it was a call for us to send missionaries all over the world and CONVERT these little children, whether they needed it or not. We’d tiptoe past the big church” where the grownups sang songs like “How Great Thou Art.” It was the late fifties and I wore dresses every week – I was shocked once that a girl wore a skirt and blouse instead of a dress. In the summer I loved the arts and crafts part of Vacation Bible School.The first flash of light came when I was looking at a plaque on a bedroom wall in my house, saying “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and Thou Shalt Be Saved.” BELIEVE? BELIEVE? I was ab ...

Story #21: Jamie Guinn's Story 2007-08-13 15:13:00 (Via Jamie Guinn)I wasn't raised in a religious home. My parents divorced when I was five and my dad, my little brother, and I, moved to Chickasha, OK in 1990. I can't say that I ever thought about a god or religion, at least not until I started dating a girl who went to church. Since I really didn't fit it socially to any group I had a lot of fun at church, and so I got saved at 14.Looking back I think if I would have had better critical thinking skills I never would have bought into religion, in the same way my dad didn't. Unfortunately, I didn't have those skills, and I bought into all the fascinating claims about Christianity right off the bat.Thinking that it all was real I couldn't think of anything more important to pour my life into. From the beginning I was hardcore and lived the life. I also dived head first into reading my Bible, or reading only books that supported the Bible. My world view focused to the precision of a laser, I narrowly blocked out anything else.The n ...

Story #20: "What WOULD Jesus Do?" 2007-08-13 12:50:00 (Via Rich Black)My parents never attended church, to my knowledge. They certainly never went while I was living under their roof. My Mother, I suppose due to her upbringing in North Carolina, had some screwy notions about Sunday, however. She had a standing rule, in fact, that we could not go out and play on Sunday unless we attended church. Otherwise, please don't ask me to explain the logic behind it, we would be committing some kind of sacrilege. So, if I woke up on Sunday morning and it was raining, in which case I knew I wasn't going to be allowed to go outside anyway, I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Otherwise, I hopped out of bed, dug out what passed for my Sunday-Go-To-Meetings and trundled off to whatever church we were directed to attend at the time. Usually a Protestant or Reformed Baptist of some sort or another. Definitely not EVER a Catholic or so influenced one. Again, something sinister there, to be avoided at all costs.Anyway...I was not cut out fo ...

Story #19: "Losing my Religion" 2007-08-13 12:43:00 (Via angelsdepart)I was raised in church. I know that this statement is not profound. Roughly 80% of Americans are raised in church. Now don’t get me wrong, when I was young I believed in this stuff intensely, but some of the questions I had then were profound for a child. I remember being in Sunday school at about the age of 10. I was having difficulty taking the story of Jonah seriously. I remember saying to my teacher “the great thing about the Bible is that even the stories that are not true still have value because they teach us morals.” My teacher responded that my statement was true but that the Biblical stories had even more value because they were true.One time in youth group (a term for a church geared towards young teens) I was in charge of putting out a column for the church paper to represent our group. I wrote an article about how being drunk was wrong but drinking was not. I mean how could drinking alcohol be wrong if the foundation for our religion (Jesus) drank w ...

Story #18: "My Road to Atheism" 2007-08-13 11:15:00 (Via Secular Skeptic, Part I: What Took Me So Long?)My road to atheism was long and difficult. I’ve only actively identified myself as an unbeliever for less than a year, but the questioning started long before that. I’d like to explore, for my own benefit, and hopefully the benefit of anyone under similar circumstances, what took me so long. I come from a family of 7th-generation Mormons. On my mother’s side, the first convert was a man named James Lake, Jr., who was taught and baptized by Brigham Young himself in the late 1830s, shortly after the foundation of the church. On my father’s side it wasn’t much later, as one of my ancestors was taught and baptized over in Europe by one of the early missionaries. People on both sides of my family came across the plains in the wagon train with the pioneers, and much of my family tree around that time is gnarled with polygamy. Today, the vast majority of my extended family is Mormon, and the vast majority of my friends, t ...

Story #17: Cassandra's Story 2007-08-10 15:25:00 (Via Cassandra)I would like to share a bit about myself.I was raised to believe. We attended church, but it was sporadic.My father was a Vietnam veteran with dependency problems. He was a drug addict and alcoholic. As children, we were exposed to, and even allowed to use drugs and alcohol by our father and later our step-father.My parents divorced when I was 6. My father eventually ended up in prison for attempted murder and my mother remarried, another alcoholic, this one highly abusive, mentally and ,at times, physically.My father became "born-again" in prison. And when he was released he had arranged for me and my siblings to be "saved". We went through with it. I was nervous about it even then. I wasn't sure "why" exactly, I just knew that the people at his church scared me with their loud, erratic behavior. They spoke in tongues, fell on the floor, flung their arms up in the air, and dang near did everything short of drooling all over themselves. That was unlike any church I had ...

Story #16: Colin Walker's Story 2007-08-10 13:25:00 The following is my tale and struggle with coming out godless and seeing the world for what it really is; a vast and wonder filled place. Enjoy.This is a true story that everyone should hear (or in this case read). When I was a young boy I like many of the other children I grew up with, believed in God and the concept of Heaven. I did not know why, maybe it was childhood conformity or peer pressure, but whatever it was, I could not clearly define why I believed in what I believed in. I was a member of the Boy Scouts of America (a heavily Christian organization). I would pray and attend church with my friends and fellow Scout members. Then one day, I began to think about it all. I began to wonder why I believed in what others believed in. I began to think that maybe, just maybe there was more to life than worshiping an invisible super-being and his Hercules-like son (half man half god). I had been raised by my parents to believe whatever I felt like believing in. Never in my childhood d ...

Story #15: Hasan Khan's Story 2007-08-10 12:47:00 I am an ex-Muslim from Pakistan (now an atheist). My path towards freedom from religion started when I was in 10th grade and 15 years old. I began to have much doubts concerning existence of god and the veracity of the attributes awarded to him. However, the news of my doubts spread among my class mates and i was beginning to be branded as some type of an infidel. Worse came when a religious teacher approached me to guide me towards the so-called right path (its almost a death sentence to be awarded as an infidel over here). However, i was able to keep out of further trouble owing to my good grades. At the same time however, i somewhat reverted back to faith due to pressure from peers and family.The next phase began 4-5 years ago when i became acquainted with the works of great British philosophers like David Hume and Bertrand Russell. This phase was intoxicating and i began to feel the knots tied around myself from religious teachings begin to lose and the air of reason pouring in. I ...

Story #14: Allen M's Story 2007-08-10 12:07:00 I'm not that old, a little under 17. I don't remember a lot of my childhood, a few little patches of memory up until I was about nine of ten. I suppose I never believed in god, although my memory kicks in at nine, at this point I was a little scared because I didn't get that 'special feeling' in church that people always talked about. I promptly freaked out, prayed as often as I could, carried a small bible with me, and generally did all the things good catholics do.Eventually, in the Summer of 2002, we moved to a town called Visalia, California. My mother, both a Catholic and Republican, took me to a shop called 'The Crystal Barn'. As you probably guessed, I was stunned at all these 'alternative religion' books. I picked up a few, and that started my spiritual marching. I guess it was just excellent timing, because we had just recently gotten a half decent computer, and my parents were letting me use the internet more and more. I studied Wicca, the LeVeyan Satanism (more accu ...

Story #13: Giovanna Marchese's Story 2007-08-10 12:03:00 (Via Giovanna Marchese)I was always a very religious person. I was born into a Sicilian-Catholic family. I went to Catholic school and was the kid that always had questions on religion because so much of it didn't make sense. But I was brainwashed very well and bought into it 100%.Then the teen years hit. I met this wonderful Southern Baptist boy at 15. He brought me to his church. I loved it, but now more questions came up. How come his church puts down what my church believes in? Why do we have different beliefs? So I begin bible study with a friend who is Evangelical Christian. She teaches me so much and shows me all the great things God does and all the things I need to do to go to heaven. All these years of being a Catholic I thought I was going to heaven if I was good, then I learn it has nothing to do with being good, it has to do with saying a prayer that I swear to believe in Jesus as my savior.So I head on down to my Catholic Church with bible in hand and full of knowledge o ...

Story #12: Sevtap's Story 2007-08-10 11:36:00 (Via Sevtap)My family are “followers of Ali”, but my parents soon became atheists so I grew up with atheist parents. Even my relatives which are still “followers of Ali” say they don't take it too seriously, I believe its much easier for them with that label in Turkey compared to being an atheist over there. Two years ago, I was at a relatives funeral where nobody said they think that he is in heaven or he is watching us or any of those things. My father told me that none of our relatives would say such outrageous stuff without being ashamed of so much stupidity.My mum told me that her grandma was a Sunni and she told her kids and grand kids about god and Satan. But as soon as her grandpa would hear that, he would always say "stop scaring the kids with that bullshit".I was lucky. I had to make my own decision after reading and talking to religious people. I even went to Church and got lessons at school. I went because of the stories I could listen to. For me, it was nothing el ...

Story #11: Jesus [#1]'s Story 2007-08-10 11:30:00 Well, I went to Catholic school all my life. My mom is a Catholic born and raised, and my dad is now baptized. Ever since I was little I had questions but the only answers my parents could give me was that part of having faith was to accept things for what they are without question. As you can imagine that was never a fulfilling answer, and I was determined to find the truth. From the time i made that decision until last year I took and agnostic observers stance. I didn't really become an atheist until I saw Richard Dawkins on an episode of the Colbert Report promoting his book The God Delusion. My mom and I constantly argue about religion, but my dad seems to appreciate some of the insight into life and the origins of religion. My friends always have questions about atheism but none of them seem to look down on my choice. ...

Story #10: "My process of De-Conversion " 2007-08-10 11:05:00 (Via Richie MacCool)I have had so many Christians write me and comment on my blogs over the last few months to the effect of questioning my ever being a Christian and also to try and make their case for Christianity based on their own experience. I have decided to take a break from my usual blog style of presenting Christianity's lack of facts or at best conflicting facts in order to present to you a Tale of two Richards. The first Richard was the Richard I was born to be. I was born in 1969 into a Christian family. My parents were Youth leaders at their church and from the best of my recollection, I never missed church on consecutive Sundays until I was 34 years old. From the earliest that I can remember we said a prayer before every meal, said our prayers before we went to bed at night, went to church every Sunday and usually on Sunday night and Wednesday also. Although most children who grow up in church like myself don't say the prayer of salvation until they are somewhere betwee ...

Story #9: Jenny's Story 2007-08-09 15:31:00 Ever since I came to realization that I am an Atheist, and began wearing it on my sleeve, I've experienced a lot of prejudice, and encountered a lot of people with preconceived notions about me. People have been prejudiced towards me at times in the past for being a woman, for being young, and especially for being from an upper class family, but it's never been anything I couldn't handle. I never really thought about people prejudging me for my religious beliefs, probably because I've never been a very religious person, and just never gave much thought to how people would react to my lack of belief in a god. Recently, I've been confronted with people who can't seem to tolerate my views on religion. I am a good, compassionate, caring person, with a good heart, and being treated like shit plainly for choosing not to believe in God - a right that I have as a free thinker, in what is supposed to be a free country - is absolutely outrageous. I wanted to share some of the experiences t ...

Story #8: "Erin and Jesus" 2007-08-09 15:15:00 (Via All My Kisses)Erin had long blond hair, great shoulders and real, live, actual breasts. She was smart, cool, and for some reason she liked me. I got up the nerve to sit with her during lunch a couple of days in a row, and then I started walking her to her class after lunch. The long awkward period of saying goodbye outside of her classroom would leave me late for my own class. Finally, one Friday, I swallowed hard, wiped the sweat from my palms and asked her if I could give her a kiss. She said "Yes." I kissed her. She kissed me. It was great. Then she asked me if I'd spend the night with her.Erin invited me to a "Lock In." A "Lock In" is this goofy church youth-group thing. Anyone familliar with youth-groups know just how "Wacky" and "Zany" they can be. So the "Lock In" (I just have to quote it) consisted of the youth group kids and their invited guests staying up all night, that's right, ALL NIGHT, in this cafeteria type room. You were "locked in" meaning once there you couldn ...