by Valerie Tarico A re you an atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinker or some such who cringes at the thought of people being given the Four Spiritual Laws along with disaster relief? Do you think that promoting “eternal salvation” to five year olds is exploitative? Do you hate it that poor parents send their kids to Muslim or Christian madrassas because that’s the only way they can get them pencils and paper? Does it irritate you when fancy creationist museums are better funded than real natural history museums? A new website with a January 1 launch date, may be just your thing. Religious people tend to put their money where their mouths are—more-so, it would appear, than the rest of us, and evangelical fundamentalists even more so than open inquiring people of faith. Yes, I understand the cult recruiting aspect of the whole thing, but the bottom line is that they get things done. In order to advance their tribal truth claims, Pentecostals, Evangelicals, and other fund

by  Charity of Shatter Nicely Image by Cayusa via Flickr I came across an article, post, whatever, the other day titled, There’s No Such Thing as a Former Christian , by someone named Charles Smith. Hmm, I thought, that sounds interesting.  And by interesting , I mean, wrong .  I am a former Christian, am I not? Needless to say, upon reading the piece, I determined that it needed a good fisking. If you scour the world-wild-web for any amount of time using atheism as your search term, you will undoubtedly find pages and pages of sites laced with the famous proclamation, “ I used to be a Christian .” While this may be intriguing to the seeker, desiring a glimpse at the testimony of a formerly professing believer turned cynic in hopes of discovering reasons to remain religiously repulsed by Christendom, or possibly the opposite – looking to see if their retroversion experience is sensible – one thing is certain… there’s no such thing as a former Christian. Except for me, and

by WizenedSage Image by Jason McKim's Old Account via Flickr T his is a gentle reminder for those Christians who may have happened upon this heathen web site by accident or out of curiosity. My message is simple, don’t use your head if you want to keep your faith. Whatever you do, don’t let these people make you think about it. As you and I know, salvation can only be yours through Christ, and the Bible is very clear on this. Remember: “By grace are you saved, through faith" (Eph. 2:8). When asked, "What must I do to be saved?" the apostles answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved" ( Acts 16:31). "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Rom. 10:13). The Bible, in its wisdom, tells us exactly what to think, and then instructs us very clearly not to use our heads on such matters. As Proverbs 3:5 says, "Lean not on your own understanding.” True, the claim that Jesus was dead for tw

by exfundy I f you have read any of my past posts you know that one of my biggest grievances against my former religion is that it intentionally squashed my natural curiosity. A Christian needed only blind allegiance to their pastor, church, and denomination. The day finally came that I had taken as much of Fundyland as I could possibly take. I could no longer suppress the questions. I had to start asking them. At that point the first question seemed to be obvious: "Why the hell have I never been allowed to ask the tough questions?" Even though no one was around to hear me the question made me nervous. For one thing I was going against everything I had ever been taught. For another I might have pissed god off by saying hell in a way that I had always been told was inappropriate. Nervous or not though I had just let the genie out of the bottle and there was no way I was going to turn around. At this early stage I wasn't even close to questioning Christianity

by WizenedSage O n December 26, thousands gathered on Asian beaches and in mosques to pray, marking the fifth anniversary of the Asian tsunami which killed 230,000 people. Will it do any good? No one can say for certain and that is the frightening thing about religion that few believers care to think about. I distrust religion because of one very important and inarguable fact; there is no reality check. This is in part because it is uniquely armored against criticism. If one suggests that a genuine, compassionate god wouldn’t allow the destruction of 230,000 innocent men, women, and children on Asian beaches, the believer answers that god works in mysterious ways, or that we shouldn’t expect to understand the mind of god, etc. To these believers, god doesn’t have to be logical and thus no evidence is accepted against their god hypothesis. The unique danger of religion is that it ultimately depends “…on belief in invisible beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectab

Mr. Deity thinks he's finally proved the existence of other magical beings.

by Marlene Winell T he full-blown fundamentalist version of the “Christmas story” is truly pernicious. In the last couple years, I’ve thought about the imagery of Christmas (the child archetype) and the traditions we all enjoy which can be separate from Christianity ( See previous articles ). This year, I read a piece by Billy Graham called “ You can know the Christ of Christmas ,” and was reminded of all that is wrong with this religion, and how it can taint so much about life. I felt so sad reading this because as a humanist, it seems so wrong to denigrate who we are as human beings. His article was all about how hopeless the world is and how helpless and sinful we are. According to him, the Christ child is great news because of the dark horrible world that needs saving. He says repeatedly that all our human efforts will fail miserably because we must have help from outside ourselves. Graham writes, “Christmas emphasizes the glorious truth that salvation is provided apart from

by NonStampCollector We always hear about the many amazing things that Jesus of Nazareth apparently did, but nobody ever asks about the things that Jesus supposedly COULD have done, being omnipotent , but either didn't bother to do or didn't think were all that important. You know, things like... reducing human misery and suffering... that kind of thing. It occurs to me that if indeed the miracles recorded in the bible were in fact true, and really did happen... then that only shows Yahweh/Jesus to be an even MORE malevolent and cruel being than we see in the old testament , and that's saying something. If the miracles somehow prove that Jesus WAS in fact a god in human form, but all he could be bothered to do was turn water into wine and heal only a few hundred, or even a few thousand people with his magic saliva, then really - what is the use or good of such a god? Think of what a visiting, omnipotent deity COULD have done - but in this case, apparently, chose not

by Carl S Image via Wikipedia W hat are the universal criteria for judging the judges? We could probably all agree the criteria should include fairness, impartiality, knowledge, experience, and an insistence on weighing all of the evidence on both sides in all disputes and claims. In short, we should demand a dedication to, respect for, and a rigid pursuit of the truth. In addition, the judge should, under mitigating circumstances, administer justice with mercy. With these simple criteria, we can ourselves judge whether the judge is honest or corrupt. Let us apply these criteria to the clergy, who claim to be seekers not only for truth, but actually possessors of it, to determine whether they fit into the column of honest or corrupt. It is no wonder then that there is so much trouble in this world since the clergy are so accustomed to being the kangaroo courts of societies and continue to insist on and get privileged status. The clergy not only ignore, but withhold and even suppr

Image by onkel_wart via Flickr by Michael I opened the mind I have today And I stopped Praying when I saw it was just the same It got me thinking what is up above Its your God and its not the God of mine The Problem of Suffering, yeah The Problem of Competence Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind Yet the brain is of the devil, and its requests denied Its need for nourishment is not from communion But from the words of Jefferson, Spinoza , and not men of faith This is a cry to all Think about the harm The young ones trapped in chains Walking on eggshells Poisoning the Brain All you need is faith but is not true that what you can't know can harm you Faith the chain of the mind The shunt to progress The poor give hardily The Rich Prosper Churches grow grander The Poor grow hungrier All to waste to the eyes of God You should be ashamed Your Flock is crooked I believe I heard a promise To prevent that Do you care to cash in on it Or

by Summerbreeze Image by Kurt Magoon via Flickr T his morning, I, a non-believer for some time now, had an unusual reaction to a very religious Christmas song. I was driving alone in a light snowfall, on my way to a neighboring town. The Pine trees were so pretty and sparkly with the fresh snow on their boughs. I was listening to a radio station with non-stop Christmas music, which alternated between religious carols and non-religious Christmas songs. Listening to Gene Autry 's " Rudolf the Red nosed Reindeer " and Burl Ives ' " Have a Holly Jolly Christmas " got me thinking about Christmas's past when my kids were small and believed in Santa...it was a happy/ sad reflection. Then " Mary did you know" sung by Kenny Rogers came on. It's a lovely song, the music is haunting and moving. ( but improbable lyrics ). As I was listening to it, towards the end of the song, I suddenly felt an actual shudder go throughout my body, and th

by Valerie Tarico D ecember twenty-first is winter solstice , the shortest day of the year, which makes the twenty-second the first day of more sun! Let me spell that out. Beginning this week we’re on a path toward “sun breaks” and dry sidewalks, a time when people will take their fleeces off for long enough to wash them, a time that pet poop will dry out enough that your kids can scoop it off the lawn. Anyone who thinks that winter solstice couldn’t possibly have spawned the rich array of celebrations that we now call Yule and Christmas and Divali and Hannukkah and Kwanzaa never lived in Seattle . Solstice means that within a few weeks the days will be perceptibly longer. It means that by mid- January, it will be easier to see the ice I’m scraping off the windshield with my battered health insurance card. It means that crocuses will come up through the grass if I hurry and get some bulbs planted, and the chickens will start laying again. It means that my crazy friends Sa

by the Avangelism Project Image by tab2space via Flickr I hope you don’t define yourself by atheism. Not only is it not fair to define your person by something you don’t have (theism), is lets Christians define you. Especially this time of year. When we evaluate if and how we celebrate the holiday season with any regard to Jesus or to Christians, we're sanctioning the Christians’ idea that they own December. If we define our lives by their mythology, Bill O’Reilly has every right and quite possibly some reason to assume we’re jealous of their Baby Jesus. Christians think they own December because in 350 the pope declared December 25 was Jesus’ birthday and co-opted the existing pagan feasts and celebrations. But adding Christian mythology to pagan mythology doesn’t change the fact that it’s all mythology. Virtually every aspect of the American holiday celebration—the trees, the word Yule and its log, feasting and gluttony, gift giving, caroling, candle lighting, and eve

by exfundy I f you had asked me when I was a practicing fundy I would have told you I was humble. Though isn't being self assured of your own humility somehow rather ironic? Anyway, I really thought I was humble. I couldn't have been more wrong. The Americanized version of Christianity is actually a very selfish thing interlaced with lots of intellectually dishonest humility. Perhaps the most glaring example of my previous selfish beliefs and theology is what I call the "It's All Good Theory (IAGT)." That's just a name I made up for it that I wouldn't expect anyone else to make sense of yet. I guess that means I should explain. So let me throw out a hypothetical though very possible situation to illustrate IAGT. For this illustration try to get back into that Christian mindset. See if you can figure out where I'm going before you read it. Imagine you just bought a brand new home. It's big. Everything inside and outside is top of

by JM, Annoyed Medicinian Lord T his particular work (of art?) makes me want to vomit. It is not the depictions of Jesus that I find sickening, or any of the other symbolic items in this painting. No, what makes me sick about this is that it offers an unpleasantly pornographic view into the mindset of the modern-day right-wing anti-liberal "patriotic" American Christian. It screams "GIVE US OUR THEOCRACY!!!" I was once a Christian. I believed. I prayed. There was a time when garbage such as this painting wouldn't have bothered me in the least. I am fortunate that I had the intellect necessary to figure out what a depraved falsehood Christianity is, and that I stumbled across a wealth of evidence that could lead to no other logical conclusion. If only everyone could be so lucky. Whether or not the world would be a better place I cannot say, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. Well, it is that time of year again. The winter solstice is rapidly approachin

By Wise_Fool Image via Wikipedia I sn’t it hard when everything is going along OK, and then out of left field, something comes along to completely STUFF IT UP! The following information is so important it’s scary. Over the last 5 years the National Geographic has conducted “ The Genographic Project ” to establish human origins. They have tested the DNA of approximately 35,000 people and what they have found will have a profound impact, especially on inerrant bible believing Xtians. Why? The study has shown that ALL males share the same Y chromosome (Male Y chromosome is passed on unchanged from generation to generation), which traces back to a single male – Adam, Garden of Eden , 4000BC, right? – No, the East Coast of Africa, 50-60,000BC (let’s call him Alpha Y). From this extensive, highly documented, and practically indisputable research we can’t help but come to the following conclusions; No Adam. No Sin. No Saviour required. Adam cannot possibly have been the first

by the Avangelism Project I t sort of hit my wife and me suddenly late in our process of deconverting. Every Christian rejects something (or a lot of things) in the Bible. Particular things. Things about which the Bible is very clear. It turns out, there’s no other choice. The Bible contains a lot of paradoxical statements, conflicting accounts that cannot be unraveled and even a formal contradiction or two. It also has commands that the Christian does not wish to obey and descriptions of God that the Christian does not want to worship. What each Christian is telling you, though, in her or his own way, is that he or she is god. Still, Christians can’t reject the Bible entirely. That would be throwing out the baby Jesus with the holy water . The Bible is the only reason to believe certain things they do hold dear. So, in one way or another, they reject what they don’t like. Some Christians will dismiss more of the Bible, others less. Some in pious sounding ways, and others more flagran

by BillyBee T he Holiday Parade was last week. I couldn't attend, I had to work that day. The next morning I spied a curious object lying on the kitchen counter. It was a 1X2" piece of paper with a bible verse printed on it. The piece of paper had been stapled to a candy lollipop. The scripture, Mathew 6:33, stated that we should "...seek first His kingdom", and then all our other earthly needs would be provided. That's what it actually said. I'm not making this up. It sounded pretty clear to me! I then wondered about the people who are honestly and diligently seeking after the kingdom, yet their needs are NOT being met. I smiled when I realized the irony in the fact that this promise was attached to a sucker. Maybe at next years parade they can toss out bible verses that have been seared into slices of baloney...?

by the Avangelism Project F or twenty two straight games, we’ve had to listen to Tim Tebow say that Jesus liked him better than his opponents. Of course, Tim didn’t use those words, but that’s what he said, isn’t it? Thanking Jesus for winning means that he’s the reason you won, but I have a simple question: Why no Jesus talk when Tebow lost? I watched the game and it was never really close. I also saw Tebow throw a bad interception that could have been an easy touchdown. That play could have given Florida a gasp of hope; instead, it effectively ended the Gators ’ hope. Why didn’t Tebow thank Jesus for that? “First I want to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for delivering this loss and preventing me from playing at my normal level of greatness.” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” CLICK HERE FOR MORE PHOTOS Maybe even for a Jesus poster boy like Tebow, it’s just the fact that superstition doesn’t help when life hurts—and for a great player with a competitive fire like Te