© 2004 by Tim Simmons “All right, Mommy, just be patient.” Outside the run-down shack that Lottie Moore calls home, the mid-summer air begins to cool slightly as the remaining rays of sunlight recede into the Mississippi night, draining the warm pastel orange from each cloud. Shadowy mountains emerge from the distance, as if summoned by some unseen signal. A distant blue-white flash on the horizon briefly illuminates a wooden cross affixed to the top of the roof. “It won’t be long now, Mommy.” The cyclic grinding of a can opener droned beneath the high-pitched petitions of Lottie’s gray and white cat while a small television blared from the living room. The cat seemed to mimic the circular motion of the can with its body by turning endless circles. “It’s your favorite. Tuna flavor.” Lottie dumped the contents into a small plastic bowl, mashed it a few times with a fork and placed it on the floor. “There you go. Now, you say your prayer before you eat that.” Lottie

(i.e, me resorting to dumbing down my attempts to educate the masses my including crude little drawings, to delight and stimulate their little minds.) by A. Uiet Bhor My attempts to explain the inherent problems with religion and the urgency of embracing a secular ethical system usually results in a prolonged rant that is dismissed by theists as the ramblings of a disgruntled atheist. In an attempt to demonstrate my thinking on such matters I will keep this brief and include visual demonstrations of why I consider all religion irredeemable, and what actually makes a decent ethical philosophy. Religion is a very complicated phenomenon, and there are many ways in which it can be studied and understood. History, cognitive anthropology, psychology and meme theory have all given us insights into how religion develops and occasionally what is wrong with it. My personal approach is to look at how religious institutions are organised, and what affects their structure has on issues such as

By Eric Merrill Budd (sent in by Jeff Reid) What happens to individuals who have been psychologically abused and morally betrayed by fundamentalist cultic religious groups? how can they recover from the damage done? Physically leaving such a group is relatively easy, but the emotional and psychological departure can take months or even years. This is why many people do not understand how any person can stay within a situation of religious abuse - much the same way that people fail to see how battered women stay with their abusers. Such dysfunctional and destructive groups often use manipulation, fear, and deception to maintain a hold on members. They also shower their prey with unbelievable amounts of affection and approval for staying in the group and meeting their expectations ("love-bombing"). Groups also control and distort information from the outside. Thus it becomes a sin to read any "worldly" publications or "spiritual pornography.&q

"...and be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds," - Apostle Paul. One argument to which Christians are prone to resort revolves around the concept that without a Christian worldview, moral chaos is the result. To a degree they are correct - what we mold our minds with will certainly influence our behavior. Let me explain by relating something I heard on the radio today. The sister-in-law of Osama Ben Laden gave an insightful interview into the mind of an Islamic Fundamentalist on public radio. She has been separated from her husband for 16 years and has adopted a western life-style in part because of the Islamic marginalizing of women. For instance, she talked of how her brother-in-law Osama would not look at her or speak to her because for a man to look upon or speak to his brother's wife is a sin. Since Osama believed speaking to or looking on his brother's wife was a sin, he refused to acknowledge her at all. Our present world wide struggle w

sent in by Lavonne My husband made me aware of this site almost a year ago. It was a "testimony" he showed me today that convinced me it was time for me to share. I was always aware of heaven and hell/angels and demons - the conflict for my soul that I would need to heed lest I suffer torment for all eternity. My earliest memory is of a tornado threatening just before my 5th birthday. Mom assured me that, if a tornado did strike, I would be in heaven for my birthday. I wanted a cake and presents. I responded to my first altar call when I was 7 years old. Mom was surprised, telling me I had "asked Jesus into my heart" years earlier. But that minister said that, if I did not love my brother, whom I could see, how could I love Jesus, whom I could not see" - I John, I think, I don't want to look it up. My brother is 3 years younger. Growing up, I did not always "love" him. I responded to the altar call and the hy

by A. Uiet Bhor I am often confronted by those who ask me whether I think about death, especially as I regard it as the final curtain. Some theists find the idea quite terrifying, I personally think about it very little if at all, I fully intend to die when I am old enough, but until then I see no reason to dwell on the subject. As a total atheist on these matters, the afterlife just seems like naive wishful thinking, but in talking with theists I've discovered that not only do they take the idea seriously, but as a result they think about death a great deal. Also it's consequences have a profound effect on their theology, and even how they live their lives. (Of course, I regard this as an example of the creators of religion taking advantage of people's fear of death and inability to accept mortality, in order to create a series of exploitative behavioural restraints, but that's beside the point.) This has caused me to think about how my views on death, such as

Or, my salute to fundamentalists by A. Uiet Bhor Part one Religions starts out as a series of theological and moral, and occasionally historical, "truths" that eventually become the faith's core doctrine. It is a haphazard process, with various ideologies competing either intellectually or physically, the end result is an amalgamation of sometimes contradictory ideas that are rationalised into one supreme voice of authority. After awhile the core doctrine becomes the status quo, which inevitably leads to people wishing to rebel against it. This leads to splinter cells, factions, denominations, and almost inevitably the evolution of the faith's principal orthodoxy. Sometimes the central authority capitulates and incorporates new ideas or elements as interpretations of the revealed "truth", as in the case of the pro Roman sympathies and pagan mystical elements in Christianity. Or sometimes counter doctrines are created to demonise and ostracise a