The Pale Blue Dot: a picture of Earth from 4 billion miles away, as told by Carl Sagan.

By The Thylacine This is really an adjunct to one of Sconner's comments in the Bibles to Bagdahd thread. As a young (primary school) kid my parents took us off to New Guinea in the early 1960's. Though conservative and practising xtians they were not missionaries, but government employees. I think that their main reason for going was financial as they had been forced to sell the family farm in the 1960 credit squeeze and had worked out that a term or two in PNG would give them enough cash to buy another farm. Papua New Guinea in the '60's was a place of hope and excitement but it was there that I first learned of the scourge of the missionary. The cash strapped Administration was cornered into a situation where it relied very heavily on missionaries and missionary organisations to provide the absolute basics of education. Outside the major urban centres the vast majority of education was the province of the missionary school. Coupled with the administration's alm...

By Calladus Originally posted April 2007, in the Calladus Blog . I have a long post today that was spurred by the article that Abstinence Only education doesn't work. How odd - religious conservatives keep saying that it DOES work - so I wanted to find out why they would say such a thing. I decided to see if my favorite religious fundamentalist lobbying organization could shed some light. Tony Perkins, President of James Dobson’s Christian lobbying organization “Family Research Council”, is a big advocate of Abstinence Only education programs for teens and pre-teens in public schools. On 23 March ’07 he wrote on FRC.com: … stacks of peer-reviewed research are showing the direct impact of abstinence education, including a peer-reviewed study on America's largest and oldest abstinence program, Best Friends. In Adolescent and Family Health , Dr. Robert Lerner's analysis of urban D.C. participants found that, "Despite the fact that [these students come from schools ...

By Calladus Religious groups have been exploiting the US Military Postal Service to flood Iraq and the surrounding region with bibles since shortly after the World Trade Center atrocity. These organized religious operations operate under the stated goal of sending bibles to the troops, but the results tend to imply another unstated goal, the creation of a “subtle” Crusade that witnesses to and attempts to convert Muslims in and around Iraq. Before the invasion of Iraq one organization, Campus Crusade for Christ , through their Military Ministry set up a program that would allow anyone to send a solder something called a “ Rapid Deployment Kit ”. These kits each contain a New Testament Bible, a written 90-day prayer devotional, and a ‘how to’ booklet used to instruct solders in the methods of witnessing to others. In other words this is a ‘religious conversion kit’ designed to help Christians proselytize and it is meant to be given to new Christians to reinforce their conversion an...

By Calladus "Igor, would you mind telling me whose brain I did put in?" "And you won't be angry?" - Young Frankenstein At one time, I believed that (Christian) religion was required to experience ‘God’s Love’, which is often identified with an uplifting feeling of acceptance and comfort, or of reverence and awe. Religious people often say that they can feel God’s presence in their lives. They can feel forgiveness. This blinding moment of transcendence, of rising above and outside of yourself is often the defining moment in many ‘born again’ Christian’s lives. While I was Christian I experienced this feeling, and was amazed and humbled by it. I no longer believe that you have to be Christian to experience this sensation of the divine. I started thinking about this again when one of my friends recently told me that religion was difficult to give up because she needed the feeling of spirituality it gave her. As an American Indian, she enjoys rising above her ...

by Trance Devotee Download a text version of these quotes by clicking here .

By Ed Current

By Marlene Winell This is an excerpt from my book, " Leaving the Fold: A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving Their Religion ." I would be interested in your feedback. Religion is supposed to be good for you. Yet people get hurt in religious systems, sometimes seriously. I used to think that although damage was done by so-called cults, most religion is essentially benign. It could give you some comfort as a child and teach you some values, but then you grew up and away from it. It wasn’t until I looked back on my struggle to grow free of my own indoctrination, and heard the stories of others, that I realized that this kind of emotional and mental damage can be profound. In fundamentalist Christianity you are told you are unacceptable. You are judged with regard to your relationship to God. Thus you can only be loved positionally, not essentially. And, contrary to any assumed ideal of Christian love, you cannot love others for their essence either. This is th...

By Webmdave "How to Get Rich as a Televangelist or Faith Healer" is quick read that is simultaneously entertaining, informative, and unfortunately, heart wrenchingly on the mark. Author Bill Wilson has written a 166-page volume that is at once funny and in some places, embarrassing -- to me. The embarrassing part was being forced to reflect on how I, members of my family, and many friends over the years have been (and some still are) stupidly suckered by Christian scam artists. From the introduction: "If you were to try peddling a phony medicinal cure for cancer, you may very well find yourself slapped with a lawsuit or even going to prison. On the other hand, if you tell people that that God will cure them of horrible disease if they send you an offering, you are safe since this is your 'sincere religious belief.'" A former Bible college student who admits to being ripped off paying for several years of religious indoctrination disguised as an education, Wi...

“A godless religion that retains all the dogmatic posturing of the faiths it so confidently denies, with few of the consolations” ~ Rick Bayan on Atheism Atheism is a highly secretive religion devoted to private worship of the ultimate, all powerful goddess Athe. The goal of atheists is to destroy society by persuading people to join them in their faith through cunning arguments as to why it's better than anyone else's. Legend has it that Atheists got their powers of persuasion from a four-way deal thousands of years ago between the all powerful goddess Athe, the Ghost of Christmas Past, Xenu, was supposedly left behind by Richard Dawkins, also see: Paradox. Since Atheists are so obsessed with reason, logic, science and math(s) they call their cunning argument(s) "organized religious algorithms" and model them on a computer before heading for the street. The main technique they use is to walk around a typical busy church shouting “you worthless sinners! I am holi...

Mr. Deity is a series of two - to four-minute comedy films created by Brian Keith Dalton and distributed by Lazy Eye Pictures . It stars Brian Keith Dalton, Jimbo Marshall, Sean Douglas, and Amy Rohren. It premiered on December 27, 2006. It was originally broadcast on youtube.com but is now broadcast on crackle.com. -- Wikipedia .

An announcement from Webmdave: The commenting application for ExChristian.Net is seeing changes. Eventually, instead of the Blogger/Google commenting system, comments will be handled by Disqus.com Questions, comments, complaints, compliments about the new commenting system? Leave a comment here or just message me . It will no longer be necessary for anyone to register in order to post. However, those who do register will find a wealth of features such as being able to edit comments, follow the posts of all and/or individual posters, follow comments on all and/or individual threads, receive email updates, create a profile, subscribe to rss feeds and a handful of other great options. One really cool feature is the option of posting a video comment. Another is a threaded reply ability which enables posters to reply directly to the OP or to a particular poster. Note: Anonymous comments (comments by unregistered users) are moderated. Registered comments are not moderated and will appear i...

"RELEASE AND RECLAIM" A workshop for letting go of religious indoctrination and reclaiming your life. August 8-10, 2008, Berkeley, CA, with Marlene Winell. Do you feel alone in your struggle for healing? Come to a supportive and powerful weekend with others who can understand you -- an oasis from dogmatic teachings and judgmental groups. This program is for those wanting to let go of toxic beliefs and recover from an authoritarian religion such as Christian fundamentalism. We’ll rant and rave, tell our stories, discuss the issues, visualize, role-play, dance and draw – whatever it takes to think for ourselves and reclaim our lives. A joyful, empowered life is your birthright and you can start now. WHEN: FRIDAY, August 8, 7PM until SUNDAY, August 10, 3PM. WHERE: A beautiful house in Berkeley, California, with hot tub and other amenities. COST: $320 for the workshop, $125 for room and board. $25 discount given for full payment by July 20. FINANCIAL NEED CONSIDERED and opt...

by Glenn R. Morton For years I struggled to understand how the geologic data I worked with everyday could be fit into a Biblical perspective. Being a physics major in college I had no geology courses. Thus, as a young Christian, when I was presented with the view that Christians must believe in a young-earth and global flood, I went along willingly. I knew there were problems but I thought I was going to solve them. When I graduated from college with a physics degree, physicists were unemployable since NASA had just laid a bunch of them off. I did graduate work in philosophy and then decided to leave school to support my growing family. Even after a year, physicists were still unemployable. After six months of looking, I finally found work as a geophysicist working for a seismic company. Within a year, I was processing seismic data for Atlantic Richfield. This was where I first became exposed to the problems geology presented to the idea of a global flood. I would see extremely thi...

By Webmdave “You were never a real Christian!” That’s been the constant mantra in my life since 2001. Well, to be more precise, it’s never been my mantra; it is the mantra I hear from the mouths of innumerable zealots who feel duty bound to harangue me about my apostasy. If I had ever been a “true Christian,” I was told for the thousandth time in a recent argument over the phone with a relative, "it would have been impossible for me to have every left the fold." Impossible! Conveniently, for the Christian, there is Biblical support for the “no true apostates” position. The writer of I John emphatically declares, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” – Chap. 2 v. 19. In other words, anyone who leaves the church was never a real born again, blood bought believer. Of course the writer of Hebrews didn’t see it that way. That writer s...

By boomSlang Recently I attempted to engage an aspiring Christian apologist on his own blog-site in an attempt to oblige him on his site's supposed mission statement, which in part was to seek to "understand" Atheists. Let it be known that for this endeavor I even made sure to check my normally biting sarcastic edge "at the door," and I did my best to respectfully stick to the facts of the conversation. Well, to no avail, nonetheless. Christian apologist claiming to want to "understand" atheists, I call "bullshit." This person, who by the way, frequently makes guest appearances on this site (ExChristian dot net), and who has also posted his opinion about this site on his own blog, has recently removed our entire conversation, as well as other comments I've made. At one point - a point when he evidently could not address my questions with sound, reasoned answers - this person even sought out the assistance of an apologist "pinch hitte...

By webmdave And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. -- 1 John 2:2 The doctrine of propitiation isn’t something that’s talked about too much in modern Christian circles. Hell, heaven, sin, repentance, prayer, Jim Dobson… these are all topics that get covered constantly, but propitiation? Not in any church I attended. I think I know the reason. The doctrine is bizarre, inconsistent and incoherent to even the most religiously brainwashed. The definition of propitiation is “An atoning sacrifice to gain or regain the favor or goodwill” of God. To propitiate is “to appease or pacify” God. As in the verse quoted above, Jesus’ purported death on a cross was to placate the wrath of a god who supposedly has a considerable grudge against humanity. Humanity just didn’t work out as He intended. So, propitiation is a blood-soaked offering lifted up to appease the wrath of blood-thirsty deity. When this deity sees hemoglobin, he feels...

A two-hour video debate on the historicity the resurrection between Liberty University Professor Gary Habermas and JesusNeverExisted.com Author Ken Humphreys. The debate was held McEwan Hall, Edinburgh University on March 10, 2008.From Wikipedia : Gary Robert Habermas (born in 1950 in Michigan ) is an American Christian apologist , theologian , and philosopher of religion . Habermas is Distinguished Professor of Apologetics and Philosophy and chairman of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia . He holds a Ph.D. (1976) from Michigan State University in the area of History and Philosophy of Religion ; and an M.A. (1973) from the University of Detroit in Philosophical Theology . He is a prolific author, lecturer, and debater on the topic of the Resurrection of Jesus . His work defending the resurrection is often cited in the area of Christian apologetics . He has also specialized in cataloging and communicating trends among sch...

A video by TruthSurge showing how much God loves each of us and how he looks after us all. Matt 10:29-31