By Daelin I used to believe in God and honestly even recently went to a church with a co-worker. They claimed to be open-minded and that they don't force their beliefs on others. I had a great time for a few weeks, but after being told how men and women should live and how homosexuality was an affront to God, I never went back. Something about religion makes people feel so strongly about their views or interpretation of the bible that they will impose their views on others or intimidate others to agree with the way they think. Once I never thought I would be an atheist and I even struggled to call myself one as I've also seen some atheists use their beliefs in a similar method to force those who believe to not be able to express their beliefs. That is also wrong to me as people should just leave others to their own opinions. When people start to talk about how I feel about religion, I tell them that I never read the bible. Their first reaction is to tell me that I shoul...

By Gabe If you have been on Myspace for a while, then you have undoubtedly read several religious bulletins. I wrote a blog recently titled, "Crazy Myspace Bulletins," which examined a popular religious bulletin that has been posted on Myspace several times. I honestly did not think I would find a bulletin more ridiculous than that particular one, but I was wrong. I recently read a bulletin entitled, "Pray for John McCain ." This bulletin would appear to a lot of people as nothing more than a sincere prayer from a passionate Christian for God to intervene in the presidential election, and to grant Senator John McCain the victory. But there are many statements in this prayer that are either contradictory, extremely arrogant, or simply not well thought out. This religious bulletin that I am speaking of is based on the common assumption, by evangelical Christians, that the conservative Republican party is on God's side, while the liberal Democrats are on Satan...

Image by Jeff the Trojan via Flickr By Neal Stone This time I am going to share two stories which will be followed by my point. Back in 2000, my sister, me and a few other family and friends all got ordained through the Unity Church . Our ordination was nothing to do with wanting to be a minister or run a church. We just had so many single kids in the family rapidly approaching marrying age so to save money we all got ordained. After all, preachers around here want at least $250 plus church rental to do the wedding. You could easily drop a $1,000 or more just for the church and minister. This from churches who ware always looking for ways to attract more members. Hello, churches and weddings!!!! Anyway I have done four weddings so far. I don't advertise, just get asked by friends and co-workers. Usually in situations where they can't afford a minister or they back out at the last minute. Just pay me what you can afford and I'm fine with that. Keep in kind I am n...

By Galen Image by almoko via Flickr Occasionally, the Mormons or JWs will knock on my door and offer their Mormon Bible, the Watchtower, or whatever. I wanted something brief to trade with them, so I put together the following 2-pager. The Bible as Primitive Nonsense Christianity is based on the stories and claims of the Bible. If the Bible is not largely accurate history, then Christianity has no foundation. Thus, either the Bible is dependable, historical truth or Christianity is just superstitious mumbo-jumbo. How could we prove the authors of the Bible were superstitious myth-believers and not skeptical, genuine wise men? We could begin by considering some of the creatures they wrote about in the Bible such as witches, wizards, sorcerers, spirits, ghosts, giants, dragons, sea monsters, satyrs, and unicorns. Modern science can't come up with the slightest trace of evidence that any of these creatures exists or has ever existed. This stuff was just made up. If someone we don...

By DocMike I love finding obscure Bible stories the kids never hear in Sunday School . Here's a nice little tale about one of the Bible- God 's favorite people, Noah . Apparently, after the whole ark thing was over, Noah planted a vineyard so he could get drunk whenever he wanted. One day, he got so drunk he fell asleep naked in his tent. When his son, Ham , wandered in and saw Noah's "nakedness", Noah got pissed off. Genesis 9:24 says, " And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him." I'm not sure what Ham did, but it sounds like Noah was mad because Ham didn't cover his eyes. So in retaliation Noah cursed Ham's son, Canaan , to be " a servant of servants." In fact, Canaan (Noah's grandson) would become a servant to Noah's other son, Shem , because of what his father did (or didn't do). It's very complicated and it really makes you wonder what the fuck kind of message the autho...

By Pat Condell

By Tim Whiston In common usage, the word cult refers to a group of social outcasts who practice some obscure religion. Often there is a pointedly negative connotation to the beliefs and practices of such a group. However, a more accurate application of the term would focus not on the bizarre nature of a group’s belief, but rather on the behavioral, cognitive, and organizational impact the belief system has on the participants. Whether a religion is built around the alleged spirits of giant mushrooms, or a carpenter from the Middle East , it can reasonably be called a cult when certain characteristics become evident among those who follow the faith. Here is a simplified list of “symptoms” that can be used to identify members of any cult: A belief in the core cult dogma that is independent of facts, logic, or even one’s own intuition. In other words an absolute and blind acceptance of any information provided by cult leaders and literature as undeniable fact. tendency to isolate from t...

By Courtney Here's my thoughts on atheism and intolerance, posted in my brand new blog, an amalgamation about anything and everything, at http://readaboutcourtney.blogspot.com . I'm a longtime fan of ex-christian and thought I'd finally post some of my thoughts on the site. -- Courtney -- Here's the thing: even the title will alert people that I'm going to be offensive, whether I am or not. In fact, just being an atheist is offensive to so many people in this country. Anytime an atheist asserts her views she has a unique disadvantage. Before she even begins explaining her position everyone is already on the defensive. It is seen as much more acceptable for a religious person to assert her beliefs with complete authority than for an atheist to do so. Atheists are one of the last groups it's still ok to slander. If an atheist says, "I believe you're wrong, and here's why," she will almost certainly be met with accusations that she's condesc...

by Valerie Tarico Within a few days of each other, on opposite sides of the world, on opposite ends of the wealth and privilege spectrums, the faithful filled two stadiums. In one, in Kismayo, Somalia, 1000 Muslim believers watched the stoning of a 13 year old girl—Aisha was her name--condemned for adultery because she dared to complain about being gang raped. In the other, in San Diego, California , thousands of Evangelicals sang and swayed and pledged their bodies and souls to the purpose of stripping gay men and women of equality under the law and specifically the right to marry. Like Aisha , those men and women have names. One of them is named Kent. Another David. Another Will. I know because I love them , as Aisha’s broken parents loved their daughter. The horror of imagining a thirteen-year-old raped and stoned is so enormous that it is hard emotionally to put the two events in the same bucket. And yet we must, if we are to understand what is happening to our country an...

A video series by TruthSurge An eleven-part series where TruthSurge shares his knowledge about the Jesus Myth theory as espoused by the likes of Earl Doherty .

By Azsuperman01 A series of videos looking at the most common arguments for the existence of God.

By David H Hi Everyone, I'd like to share a narrative I wrote for my writer's group, the objective was to write a piece describing God as if he were sitting in front of you. Under His Robes God is sitting across from me, his long, generous robes and silky white hair flowing to every edge, so no part of the chair is visible; he appears to be floating. I squint, scrutinizing his visage. Nearly invisible, are tiny jutting angles at various points all over his body, which is very curious, so I ask, "May I?" Reaching over to lift one of the folds in his robe. "If you must." He responds. So I very carefully raise a portion where one of the jutting points is visible. The fibers stick to, but easily lift from, very small wooden braces that look like wooden rollercoaster scaffolding. Curiosities taking hold of me, I keep pulling the fabric away, muttering, "This can't be real," and revealing only more and more latticework. His face and hands now appe...

By Neal Stone Benny and Dana : You came to our website the other day and proceeded to put us down and call us foolish. I am sure that this was in Christ's love you did this, and you were only concerned for our souls and wanting to save us from our sins. You and another poster proceeded to put us down. Why? Because we believe differently from you? Because we say what you don't want to hear? Perhaps it's because you can't handle that Christianity isn't perfect after all? You said we were angry, resentful and had issues. You are right on all accounts. But we are at least honest and open about this. We are also working to resolve these issues as well. That's why we have this site. Christians have tons of sights for the same exact reason, to find resolution to the issues in their lives. Our issues were caused by the religion we were taught to live and most importantly, by people like you. We were told if we served the Lord that the following would happe...

By Valerie Tarico, Ph.D. When moral and spiritual ideas were handed down via oral tradition, they could evolve with the cultural and technological context in which they existed. Some stories were repeated often around the fire while others, less favored, eventually faded into the hazy past. Uninteresting details might be omitted by a storyteller, others elaborated. New implications might be extracted—rules, roles, and ideas about the natural world--depending on the needs of the era. The gods themselves matured. The advent of writing changed this. On the one hand, writing was one of humanity’s most powerful inventions. It allowed information to be transmitted directly between people who didn’t know each other. It allowed knowledge to accumulate. But it also allowed ideas –especially those that couldn’t be tested—to stagnate. Written words are frozen in time, a snapshot of the mind of the writer at a specific point in history. Allegiance to a set of civic, moral or spiritual writings all...

Image of Sam Singleton Annotated by God, through Sam Singleton Atheist Evangelist One of my beloved sisters was thoughtful enough to deposit on Brother Sam's mental linoleum the following inspirational message tracked in from the Web. Instead of shit-canning it like the rest of the bilge that washes anew across the bow of the 700-foot floating studio and transmitter MV Sister Singleton (from which broadcasts the 100,000kw pirate station the Voice of the Ozarks as it plies international waters), I felt led of God to annotate that motherfucker in his name. God did the actual analysis; I just took it down word for word. The inspirational message ( sic throughout) starts out: As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because his son started kindergarten. And God says: 9/11? Whuh? I don't remember anything major ever happening on any 9/11. Are you sure you've got the date right? Hold up. It's coming back to me. There was a fire or something. That guy's k...

By TheOtherRainMan The following is an article from my blog ' The Deist Fool ' that I wrote a while back. I added some more info and personal commentary. Andy Sachs: That's not what I... no, that was different. I didn't have a choice. Miranda Priestly : No, no, you chose. You chose to get ahead. You want this life. Those choices are necessary. - The Devil Wears Prada This conversation between Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep 's characters come at the end of the film, The Devil Wears Prada. Hathaway's character (Andy Sachs) is responding to a comment made by Miranda Priestly, editor-in-chief of a famous fashion magazine (Streep's character), who said that Andy was becoming a lot like her. The quotes above are Andy defending against the statement, and Miranda saying in a hatshell, you picked this path. I find this similar to what Christians call " God 's Will". For those who have no clue what "God's Will" is, it can be summed up li...

By Neal Stone We've all heard that said before. How imitation is the best form of flattery. In the Buybull (Gee, finally spelled that right.) we are told Christians aught to "come out from among them" and that Christianity is pure and to avoid the world. Yet many of the aspects of Christianity are influenced by worldly traits and activities. Let's start with hymnals. Sung in churches for decades and still sung by churches who do not want worldly Christian Rock in their churches. Yet the majority of hymnals are taken from old bar songs that were sung in pubs. This was to attract worldly people to church so they could be "saved." Many churches justify this by saying that people's lives are changed for the better. The fact is ANY organization that makes it a goal to help others can actually do so religious or not. And we all know about Christian Rock. This also came about for the same reason as above. Blend rock and Christians music to attract oth...