by oddbird1963 Image via Wikipedia I believe an unofficial anthem for many who frequent ex-christian.net is John Lennon ’s song, “ Imagine .” Certainly, it is the theme song of the weekly broadcast of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on Air America . Lennon’s goal in this classic musical piece was that the world would somehow join together in unity. I see in “Imagine” an implication that along with no heaven, no hell, and no religion, there would be no Bible in the traditional Christian, Muslim or Judaic sense. In other words there would be no myths and no commandments. If all religions were to suddenly go away overnight along with their sacred writings, would that not actually leave a void in humanity? What would there be to unite human beings together? What ideas could human beings draw upon to capture the collective imagination, inspire us to be better people and provide solace for us in times of inner conflict? The thought of an “ex-christian” bible or a “secular bible”

by Troy Conrad L ately, I’ve had many atheists write to me, asking if now is a good time to become religious again. It seems that the departure of the Bush Administration has awoken the vast majority of the atheist community to the simple fact that theocracy is no longer a threat here or abroad. It is high time to embrace what we once called superstition, dust off that Bible lifted in protest from the Holiday Inn, and delve once more into the church, dear friends. For some, a conversion or reconversion to reverence seems a daunting task. As freethinkers, we’ve gotten a bit rusty in the worship department. When working out the faith muscle, we must start slowly so it doesn’t get overtaxed. Start out at the Joel Osteen level, before you consider going full Falwell. If you’re one of the 5% still on the fence about taking this sacred surge, ponder the inarguable, massive benefit of taking the faith train to Godville. Huge time savings. Take into account how much time you spend thi

By Mriana I need to rant, because I am currently sick of religion and apologize for not responding to many blogs lately due to being sick of religion. Sadly, living where I am, I see and hear it all around me almost every day, but it is worse when it is in my face. Let us start first with Separation of Church and State , which appears to be nonexistent where I live. I tried for years to shelter my sons from Evangelicalism , even here in Pentecostal Land, but that ended for my younger son when he first went into treatment four years ago. None of the programs were ran by churches, but two of the treatment programs were specifically State ran and you would think those horrid Fundamngelicals would not be involved, but they were and even though I signed a statement concerning religious teaching, those bastards had to get their hands on my younger son. When I visited him one day, he said, “Mama, what’s the Rapture?” I thought, “Oh my god! They did it anyway!” and tried to explain it to

A 10-part YouTube discussion between YouTube atheist commentator Thunderf00t and well known Christian evangelist/apologist Ray Comfort .

By Neal Stone Image by mysterious briefcase via Flickr S o here I am. My life is good, not perfect, but good. Happily married, nice home with a nice big yard, motor home, hot tub, good job. I have food in the fridge and my bills are paid. This all has come about AFTER quitting church. My “godly” examples that surround me, friends, family and so on, are always saying I need to get in church and follow god or get right with god. My “godly” examples are people who are always getting fired, can't pay their bills, life is a mess with divorce, dead end jobs. Let's take a closer look shall we. Parents: Total Christian right wingers who think we all need to be in church serving the lord. My step-dad is always unemployed and is always ruining the cars he drives. He fails to pays bills and things get turned off all the time. In fact they are in the process of being foreclosed on. He is always getting laid off or fired from his job. He is rude to his neighbors and co-workers

By E. Chamberlain, MD, San Diego CA Image via Wikipedia S o... Christians say the bible is the inspired word of god. We know we can destroy that claim by a simple honest appraisal of any one of thousands of bible verses. And I think it's crucial that we attack the bible at every turn of the page. But, I haven't seen much in the way of an assault on the Psalms . So, for a change of pace from our more common criticisms of Christianity, this essay challenges the claim that the Psalms are beautiful, inspired, or brilliant. My conclusion is that they are wholly uninspired-- even given the context and culture and level of education of their day. And none of the Psalms could make the top 40 in any year of pop music in my lifetime nor are they "classics" of literature, despite the lip service given them. More beautiful and profound things-- and more truthful things-- have been said by heavy metal and grunge rock bands inspired by alcohol and drugs than by the angel dust

By billybobbibb Image via Wikipedia T his is the story of Joe B., a ten-year-old boy. Joe B. lived with his mother, Mrs. Smith, in an upper-middle class neighborhood. He got decent grades in school, and he was remarkably obedient to his mother. He was diligent in all of his chores, especially feeding his cat Skittles and his dog Fluffy. He would often create artwork and presents for his mother, which she enjoyed very much. For Joe B., loving his mother was second nature. One day, Joe's aunt Lucy came to visit. Lucy watched Joe's diligence and love for his mother. Lucy pulled Mrs. Smith aside. "The only reason Joe B. loves you so much is because you spoil him rotten and give him everything he wants," Lucy opined. "Nonsense! Joe B. is a wonderful boy and he loves me no matter what happens. He is the sweetest boy a mother could ever hope for", Mrs. Smith retorted. "Oh, really?" Lucy shot back. "I bet if I took all his toys away, he would

By summerbreeze Image by Javã Társis via Flickr I recently returned from deep in the Bible Belt , having attended a nephew 's wedding. ( one atheist amongst 300 fundamentalists ! ) My brother and sister-in-law , and my nieces and nephews are the only members of our family who live in the " Deep South ." Prior to moving there, my brother and sister-in-law ( known from now on as Ellie ) were bona fide hippies. they loved everyone they were super tolerant of everyone they were environmentalists After the hippie era they became " back to the land people", organic farming , etc., but they still kept their hippie ( love everyone ) philosophies. Then the worst thing that can happen to any family, happened. Almost over-night they were indoctrinated into ultra conservative fundamentalism. Almost suddenly : they only loved fellow believers they had zero tolerance for atheists & agnostics they viewed the earth / nature thru fundamentalists glasses ( why give it t

By agnosticator Image via Wikipedia M ost Christians in America agree that THE TEN COMMANDMENTS are the pinnacle of morality and think they should be displayed or read at every opportunity. If we all obeyed or valued them, our country would be moral and crime free! At least this is what they seem to saying. But do they realize there are two other sets of THE TEN COMMANDMENTS they ignore ? One version differs considerably with their preferred set, and is found in Exodus 34:14-28. Another version is in Deuteronomy 5:6-21 and is similar to the Christians' top ten choice from Exodus 20:2-17. This discrepancy is only the beginning of their problem. How can purely religious commands (1-4) cause us to be morally good? The first four commandments are about a relationship between the Christian and god. It has nothing to do with relationships between humans, i.e. morality. The sabbath (#4), is not kept by Christians. They keep the Lord's Day. To say the command was changed, directly

By Valerie Tarico Image by zachstern via Flickr How Beliefs Resist Change T he Jesuits have a saying sometimes attributed to Francis Xavier , “Give me the child until he is seven, and I will give you the man.” The Jesuits were a tad optimistic, but ample research on identity formation shows that religious, cultural, and political identity become established by early adulthood and rarely change thereafter except in response to crisis. In fact, even in the face of crisis, core beliefs about who we are and why we are here, can be remarkably resilient. This is due in part to the fact that individual beliefs do not exist in isolation. Rather, each exists as part of a whole network of other beliefs, memories, and attitudes. The more central or important any given belief, the more it is entangled with the rest of our world view. And the more it is tied into the tangle, the harder it is to change. Because religious views are so central, they are particularly resistant to change. To make thin

By WizenedSage Image by Esther_G via Flickr T hose of us who read these pages regularly know well how destructive Christianity can be to society and personal mental health . It is important that we fight this superstitious nonsense whenever and wherever we can. Personally, over the past few months, I have taken any mention of the Bible, Jesus, etc. in the letters to the editor of our local weekly newspaper as an invitation to counter with the message that the Bible is not a fit authority on anything. Frankly, I have been amazed on several occasions at what the editors will publish; with just how far they will go. Below is a letter I wrote which came out in the paper just today. I encourage any and all of you to help spread the word of reason in your area. You might be surprised at what you can get published. “This is written in response to last week’s letter by Gearry Ranger which called Carl Scheiman to task for his earlier letter on these pages. Mr. Ranger’s was another of those al

By Bill J Image by Yersinia via Flickr M ost people view the architecture of life rather simply. This life is a process of purification, or separation for the next world, the real world. This life is like a boot camp, do it right here and you will reap the rewards in the next life, or fail here and find yourself separated from everything good. Most people believe in eternal life, a god or life force. Most people base their entrance into the good life based on what they do now, or how they treat people in this life, fundamentalist Christianity does not. In fundamentalist Christianity there are no second chances in the next life and what you believe now is everything and if you really believe, good works will follow. We can’t really judge a fundamentalist Christian by his or her actions. Have you ever tried? Tell me what you hear. Usually I get answers like, just because I am saved doesn’t mean I’m perfect, or we all have a sin nature to deal with, or I am redeemed but still battle with

By Neal Stone Image by Sir_Robin12 via Flickr Y ou have two children. A son and a daughter. You place a bowl of candy in front of them and tell them not to touch it. You leave the room. They give in and eat the candy, you come in and not only punish them but their children as well who weren't even involved. Does this make sense to you? It makes sense to Christians! Your children now have a large family and many of them disagree with you and refuse to live by your rules. You get angry and dig a series of large pits and throw many of these children into the pits and bury them alive. Does this make sense to you? It makes sense to Christians! You have an enemy who challenges one of your children's belief in you. To prove yourself and your child's belief you kill all the child's offspring, destroy his property and make him sick with boils and suffer great agony all to prove a bet. On top of that this enemy can talk to you face to face, but your own creation can no

By Stephen F. Uhl, Ph.D. Image by Stitch via Flickr I am overly fed up with the use of the term, atheism , as a negative epithet. And I am now just about as fed up with how we tolerate eminent humanist writers saying atheism is a negative concept; it may look like a negative word; it is not a negative concept; it is a nonnegative concept. Now my (mostly forgotten) Greek is probably a lot better than average, so hold on regarding the Greek prefix, alpha, being negative. As for the actual concept of a-theism being negative, I will unswervingly go for the two negatives making a positive here. We atheists are non-believers, non-bullshitters! Are you going to try to tell me that the second term is negative! If something is nonscientific, that sounds negative; if something is nonfalse, that is positive; so is nontheism, atheism. So it is time for all of us atheists to 'quit hiding our light under a bushel.' The term, secular humanism , is not generally as positively clear in its u