By James A. Haught Religion is an extremely touchy topic. Church members often become angry if anyone questions their supernatural dogmas. (Bertrand Russell said this is because they subconsciously sense that their beliefs are irrational.) So I try to avoid confrontations that can hurt feelings. Nearly everyone wants to be courteous. But sometimes disputes can't be avoided. If you think the spirit realm is imaginary, and if honesty makes you say so, you may find yourself under attack. It has happened to many doubters. Thomas Jefferson was called a "howling atheist." Leo Tolstoy was called an "impious infidel." Well, if you wind up in a debate, my advice is: Try to be polite. Don't let tempers flare, if you can help it. Appeal to your accuser's intelligence. I've hatched some questions you may find useful. They're designed to show that church members, even the most ardent worshipers, are skeptics too - because they doubt every magical system excep...

I am re-reading "The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide" by Douglas Adams. If you like science fiction, parody, comedy and veiled commentary on religion all in one, I highly recommend it. The part that inspired this little rant is where Zaphod Beeblebrox, one of the main characters, is on a quest to find the man who runs the Universe. Along the way he is captured and forced to enter the "Total Perspective Vortex." This ingenious device, when hooked up to its victims, forces them to comprehend the immensity of the universe in comparison to the microscopic proportion of the prisoner's life in his or her relationship to the universe. The complete understanding of how irrelevant the individual's life is in relation to everything else there is out there, is horrifically mind numbing. No one ever survives the "Total Perspective Vortex." Mr. Beeblebrox, much to everyone's surprise, does survive. In fact he quite enjoys the experience finding it euphoric....

sent in by "likeafish" I haven’t been around this web site long, but long enough to witness some of the ugliest behavior I have ever seen out of those who claim to represent the Prince of Peace. With only a handful of sites on the entire WWW dedicated to the subject of leaving the Christian faith, and perhaps thousands out there for the purpose of propagating the same, believers choose to seek this site out and attack Dave for what he is doing. And ATTACK is the operative word here. I dare say they’d burn him at the stake if they could. So what is he doing? For one thing, contrary to what most Christians who come here perceive, he is NOT out to change anyone’s mind. He is out to free his own mind and to help others to do the same. He does not ask anyone to think what he thinks or adopt any particular take on truth other than what one finds for them self. This is difficult for a Christian to comprehend because of the theistic and dualistic perspective that guides every ...

AUSTIN — Herbert Washington, whom co-workers at Significant Plastics Inc. say was unduly concerned with the rapture and the second coming of Christ, suffered a serious heart attack when co-workers pretended they'd been caught away without him. Last Tuesday, they lay work outfits on their chairs and hid in a supply room, and when Herbert came back from the restroom, he thought the rapture had occurred. The janitor, an outspoken Muslim, pretended to have witnessed everyone disappear and ran around the office feigning panic. Herbert fell to the ground clutching his heart and screaming, "I knew you'd forget me, Jesus! What did I do wrong?" He was taken to a local hospital. The employees emerged, sobered, from the supply room and gathered up their extra clothes. "We didn't mean to scare him to death," said one woman. "He's just always talking about it, so today we decided to turn the tables on him." Washington underwent bypass surger...

Several years ago when I still arrogantly counted myself among the Lord's chosen few, I took my wife to visit yet another church. Why another Church? We were dissatisfied with the lack of spiritual depth or discernment that we seemed to constantly encounter from those in pastoral and leadership roles. For quite some time we remained optimistically (or should I should say naively?) hopeful of finding some place where a demonstration of a higher level of knowledge and awareness might accompany any emotional zeal for God. It continues to amaze me that those who claim to love the Lord the most, insist on remaining the least read, or the most ignorant, in regards to this very person they claim to love. Church is not the place to have a restlessly curious intellect. However, that is not the point of this article. I said all that to explain how we ended up one Sunday in the "Lighthouse Baptist Church." This church was, and still is, an Independent Baptist Church of the " S...

The fear of death is the primary means of control that Christianity uses to capture the minds and emotions of thousands of followers around the world. Without the fear of death, there is absolutely no motivation for a person to indenture themselves to the life robbing and mind numbing slavery of the Christ cult. Even Paul the Apostle admits that if there is no resurrection then following the path of Christ makes a person miserable. Take away the fear of death and the promise of some future pie in the sky and the premise of loving GOD just because he is god, is thrown right out the window. Christianity continually makes the unfounded promise of eternal life to believers, but it also promises eternal life to non-believers. Think about it: the lambs of god go straight to heaven for an eternal life with their god while the infidels reside in hell forever and ever. It seems to me that everyone is destined to live forever in Christian theology. There is no annihilation in any mainline Chri...

I really love being alive. I love everything about it. I like it when I feel good and everything is going my way, and I find a certain pleasure in overcoming the various difficulties that challenge me as the years roll past. I like being a man. I think being born in the USA where my security is not threatened and where my freedoms are protected is awesome. I love the age I live in. The technological gizmos and gadgets that I enjoy fill my day with wonder and fun. You might say that I "love the world." The Christian message touts itself as being "good news." The message is hopelessly mixed. While claiming to be a positive force, in reality it is riddled with negative pessimism. I was a Christian for 30 years, I know the rhetoric. God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. We have eternal live through His name. We deserve the punishment of eternal damnation in Hell for our rebellion against GOD, but in his amazing love and mercy HE developed a plan to rescu...

by Richard Carrier (1996) "He who decides a case without hearing the other side, even if he decides justly, cannot be considered just" -- Seneca What is an Atheist? An atheist is a person who does not believe that any gods exist. Why don't you believe in God? There is simply no more evidence for Jehovah than there is for Zeus. Christians find no reason to believe that Zeus exists, so they do not believe in him. For the same reason, I do not believe in Jehova. God himself is more than welcome to share an honest conversation with me. Until he does, I have no reason to trust that anyone is a reliable spokesman for any god. Don't you want to go to heaven? I do not believe there is a heaven. But even if a real heaven did exist, and for some reason a god chose who went and who didn't, if that god is a good and noble being he will judge me for my value as a human being, and not for my belief in him. How can you turn your back on true happiness? I cannot imagine being hap...

Thousands of pilgrims are flocking to upper New York State to view this likeness of Jesus Christ which mysteriously appeared on several sheets of bathroom tissue. Mrs. Georgia Logsdon claims that the likeness of Christ appeared while she was suffering from a severe case of intestinal influenza. "I had been sick for days", Mrs. Logsdon recounts, "And I had spent most of my time in the bathroom." "After one of my particularly violent bowel movements, I prayed to Jesus that I would get over this malady quickly. In the process of cleaning myself, I noticed that a section of the soiled sheets bore a striking resemblance to Jesus. I knew then that my prayers had been answered." Mrs. Logsdon reports that upon gazing at the visage of Christ, her intestinal problems abruptly ceased. The healing power of the mysterious image in not limited to Mrs. Logsdon. Her husband, Edward, also claims of being relieved of hemhorroid pain after seeing the tissue. A neighbor, ...

sung to the tune of "Jesus Loves Me" Jesus loves me, every day, Christians prove it when they say, "Read it in John 3:16, the love of God so plainly seen." (chorus:) Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus Loves ME YES JESUS LOVES ME the bible tells me so. I decide to read their book written by their Holy Spook Threats of judgement on each page A loving of God from age to age (chorus) Romans rings a tolling bell for all those He made for hell Comprehend His love today chapter 9 explains His way. (chorus) Jesus wants me to believe that he loves me don't you see But if I reject his song He will make me suffer long (chorus) I love my children just like GOD I chasten them the whole day long If they refuse to worship me My wrath will burn eternally CHORUS: Yes Jesus loves me Yes Jesus Loves ME YES JESUS LOVES ME the bible tells me so.

by Mark Smith 1/31/91 According to the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, Biblegod created from mud and/or a rib, presto-chango, the innocents named Adam and Eve, and placed them in the middle of a wondrous playground called "The Garden of Eden". These two were literally babes in the woods. They would have been a hundred times more naive than any three year old around today. According to the story in Genesis (there are two contradictory ones to pick from, by the way) Adam and Eve were without any "knowledge of Good and Evil". Anyone could have told them to stick their hands into a fire, and they would have innocently done so without question or hesitation. In other words, they were the proverbial "blank slate" when it comes to gullibility. But why is this the way it was? Christians claim these two were created perfect, with no faults or shortcomings whatsoever, and it was only thru their "free will" that they screwed things up; yet they suffered fro...

Here is another interesting submission to ExChristian.Net by T. Simmons: Every Christian I know believes that sex between two consenting unmarried adults is a sin. They throw around words such as promiscuous and fornication but has sex outside of a marriage construct been unduly condemned by Christians? I believe that this belief (sex is immoral unless within a marriage construct) was an evolution (mutation may be a better word here) of some early church teachings because nowhere in the entire Bible does it preclude the above supposed sin. There is no prohibition found anywhere in the Bible concerning sex between two unmarried adults while there are ample passages that presuppose it and imply that it is perfectly fine with God. I am about to back up my argument with a somewhat thorough study of the issue but much more could be said on this topic than the ten pages I have assembled here. I could delve into a theory of how the notion that sex between two unmarried adults is a sin ca...

T. Simmons, one of our regular posters, sent in a nice little story to be posted here for our mutual edification. It is based on the "Atheist and the Bear" joke which is posted below, followed by Mr. Simmon's reworking of the subject. An atheist was taking a walk through the woods, admiring all that the "Accident of Evolution" had created. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!", he said to himself. As he was walking along the river he heard rustling in the bushes. As he turned, he saw a 7-foot grizzly charging him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing in. He tried to run faster, so scared that tears were coming to his eyes. He looked over his shoulder again, and the bear was even closer. His heart was pumping frantically as he tried to run faster, but he tripped and fell. He rolled over to pick himself up and saw the bear right on top of him raising his paw t...

Original article here: ORAL AND ANAL SEX More Xtian drivel on the evils of enjoying sex Now you might start to get the impression from some of the postings or links on this site that I have some sort of out of balance fixation on one particular biological function. Well, I'll leave that for you to decide on your own. It is just my opinion that sex is a normal and healthy part of the human experience, much like eating, sleeping and breathing. I believe it is so much a part of our make up that if the drive toward it is not satisfied in a healthy way, between consenting adults, then it manifests itself in all sorts of weird perverse actions. Unnatural inhibitions which are placed on human beings by pathetic mind control cults tend to result in unnecessary human suffering. A striking contemporary example is the sexual chaos in the Catholic Church. The overwhelming burden of guilt placed on people because they are sexual beings is one more crime we can attribute to Christianity. Alt...