By Mriana M y alarm went off and I woke up to a local United Methodist Church advertisement, which stated, “If you have values, then people trust you.” Then some mumble jumble about Methodist doctrine concerning values and the man ended with, “Come visit Schweitzer United Methodist Church...” This was not the dance music I like to awake to of a morning with one or all three of my cats wanting my loving attention, nor was it the sound of birds celebrating the spring morning, much less my values, but rather an assault to my morning senses and thought processes. Not to mention, my cats had no clue as to why I suddenly jump to smack the radio with annoyance. First thing in the morning, before one has a chance to become fully conscious, they are told that unless they have Christian values — in particular, Methodist values — they are not trustworthy. This is a very bad message, especially when one first wakes up in the morning, and it begs the questions, “Values? Who’s values? Are you...

By WizenedSage I t occurs to me that rainbows have a great deal in common with Jesus. When we see a rainbow, we see a magnificent, beautifully colored arc across a vast expanse of sky. It has the power to transfix one with its awesome presence, its beauty. It is clean, it is perfect, and the colors are always in perfect order. For all of this, perhaps the most interesting thing about the rainbow is that it is not really there, up in the sky. Rainbows are seen by the eye when there is rain or much water vapor in the sky opposite the sun (the sun must be behind the observer and low on the horizon). The light from the sun is refracted (bent) within, and reflected by, the water droplets. Because the water droplets bend different colors (light frequencies) differently, the colors seen in a rainbow are always in the same order, top to bottom. The refractions and reflections are just physics, of course, but take away the eye, the observer, and there is no rainbow. There is nothing up there in...

By KSS Image by Travis Seitler via Flickr I wonder why the Bible is used a source book for morality ? I was listening to local Christian radio and I found it distasteful to hear them trying to raise funds to put "a Bible into the hands of every child". Why is that a good thing? I am amazed the Bible is used as a book for moral teaching. I have a young child that just started Sunday School. The things being taught are shady, to say the least. But looking at the 'curriculum,' I can see things getting more difficult for me to stomach as the children grow up. If the teaching was all nice, I would be OK. But it's heavily spiced with blood, murder, God's anger, cursed humanity, etc. It's like a dark play, theatre noir. And the fact that it is presented to young minds as "absolute truth" is a big concern to me. It also worries me that the pre-teen children in Sunday School are very well versed and "know so much". They can recite all these Bi...

I went to elementary and high school in the rural South in the late fifties and sixties. There was no Internet, and information sharing was much filtered. One knew that there were such things as atheists and the really strange -- vegetarians, but there was no real sharing of the reasons for their "evil or odd" beliefs. The entire authority structure in the home, school, and government was all of one religious opinion. To seek to resist that power and expose ones self to rejection would have taken a great deal of psychological independence. It would have been like putting a target on at a firing range. For the same reason in Martin Luther 's day to resist the Pope took an incredible courage but to resist religion itself would be unthinkable. Fish might swim in different directions in the water but to jump out on the land???? The very solid scientific theory of evolution in my schools was not taught in in any serious way as if it were true and this was more than a hundred...

By The New Heretics I n psychology we began learning about the effects of childhood guilt, which unchecked later turns into shame. This was spoken in the context of abusive family situations, and led into a long discussion on dysfunction. I came to find that I suffer from these symptoms of guilt, but I was not “abused”: we just called it being Christian. It can rightly be said that as a person believes themselves to be - so the are (or act). If you believe yourself to be fat, no matter how thin you get you see yourself as fat. If you think you are a loser, you tend to behave as one. If you believe yourself to be bad - you tend to behave that way. Self-image tends to dictate all, and is a demon that is very hard to fight. For those who come from physically or mentally abusive situations there is this deep-seeded twisted sense of self that must be broken with a new sense of truth. This truth however becomes very hard to know or fully realize since it is in direct opposition to years of ...

By Valerie Tarico Image by carf via Flickr S ometimes I get letters from former Christians—the evangelical/fundamentalist type—who are also parents. “What do I say to my kids?” they ask. “I raised them to believe that without the blood of Jesus they are evil sinners. What a horrible thing for them to think! I feel guilty.” “All of their friends are members of our old church, so we keep going. I don’t want to tear them apart, but it’s getting harder and harder for me to pretend.” “When I try to talk to them they just cry. They think I’m going to hell.” No matter what age the kids are or what the situation, telling them you no longer believe can be tricky. Here are three things to remember. Help them to understand your changes as a matter of spiritual growth rather than spiritual abandonment. Valerie Tarico is the author of The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth and the founder of www.WisdomCommons.org The bottom line is that your personal evolution is very much...

Image by AndyBodies via Flickr Video Peter Singer vs. Dinesh D'Souza : video . Topic: existence of God. Richard Carrier vs. Mike Licona : video , dvd . Topic: resurrection. Dan Barker vs. Mike Licona : video . Topic: resurrection. Dan Barker vs. Hassanain Rajabali : video 1 2 3 . Topic: existence of God. Dan Barker & Richard Carrier vs. Hassanain Rajabali & Michael Corey : dvd . Topic: existence of God. Louise Antony vs. William Lane Craig : audio 1 2 , video 1 2 . Topic: Christian morality. Elaine Pagels vs. Mike Licona : video . Topic: gnostic gospels . Christopher Hitchens vs. Al Sharpton : video . Topic: existence of God. Christopher Hitchens vs. Marvin Olasky : video 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 . Topic: religion and politics. Christopher Hitchens vs. Peter Hitchens : video 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 . Topic: brother vs. brother. Only part of the debate is on religion. Christopher Hitchens vs. Frank Turek : video , audio . Topic: existence of God...

Have you ever wondered, “What’s the point of everything?” asks documentary film producer Roger Nyard "I have, and that’s why the documentary [...] exist(s). "We all share one thing in common -- we exist. But why? I wrote down every question I could think of regarding the nature of existence, and then began asking people all over the globe for their insights." This new documentary is one that I look forward to owning. But, as far as I can tell, it's not yet available on DVD. For screen presentations, click here . Spread the word about this one. "The Nature of Existence" -- More video clips

Hitchens D'Souza Debate http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-Nduv... Dawkins No creator, Just Evolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYB2zr... Sam Harris vs David Wolpe http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jkBCE...

Image by danny.hammontree via Flickr By Mriana T he title for this article is a quote from Holly Near’s song “I Ain’t Afraid” ( http://hollynear.com/lyrics/i.aint.afraid.html ), and I write this rant in the same fashion as her song, because I am not afraid of anyone’s god, but rather what they do in the name of their so-called deity. This behavior keeps me in the closet with my disbelief here in the Bible Belt, because I have been through such vicious and disgusting behaviors before, which I have no desire to experience again. I only hope that one day such behaviors will end and it will not matter if one is a humanist, non-theist, atheist, agnostic, or whatever label they chose for themselves. This past week, Acharya S. was on this so-called Catholic bishop’s podcast. I do not know if his name is necessary, but he appears to be of the First Vatican deal. Those who are former Catholics know what I am trying to refer to and he believes in the paranormal and exorcisms. Not the best...

Image by bradjward via Flickr By David S A s many of you are aware, a Christian pastor in Illinois was killed on Sunday March 8 , in his church, no less. Certainly, a terrible tragedy and I feel horrible for his surviving family. Nonetheless, this tragedy illustrates a common theme I have found among Christians: God had a special plan for this man, and that no way, interferes with His plan for me! In other words, they never consider that maybe God's plan was cut short by this child of God being executed, and that their own lives could fall pray to the enemy as God sits idly by, doing nothing! Someone very important to me goes to a Bible study twice a week and watches numerous television episodes of Joyce Meyer , many in which Joyce proclaims that God has a special plan for all Christians. Of course, this special plan is never divulged, but you can believe, if its from God, its special! Anyway, this friend of mine feels that God has that "special plan" for their life,...