by Doc Mike According to the New Testament , Jesus ' closest friends didn't recognize him after the resurrection. John tells us (in 20:14) that Mary Magdalene , a woman Jesus had a questionable past with, looked right at him but didn't know who he was. In Mark 16:12, two of Jesus' disciples didn't recognize him because he "appeared in another form." And according to Luke 24:16, their eyes were "holden" so they wouldn't know him. Assuming there was ever a historic Jesus and that the Gospels were even loosely based on actual events (which I greatly doubt), I think there is a much simpler explanation. Maybe it wasn't him at all! Maybe the disciples didn't recognize him because it wasn't the same dude! Maybe they wanted so much to believe that he had risen, that they voted in a new Messiah . "Sure, he looks different and walks with a limp, but he knows all the scriptures and what a great story this will make! He rose from the ...

by WizenedSage Image via Wikipedia C onsider the matter of the soul . Ask a Christian when the soul enters the body and he may say at conception, or some number of weeks after conception, or at birth. Ask him how he knows this and the only answer he can give is that he read it, someone told him, or “it just makes sense.” Christians have been arguing amongst themselves about this for thousands of years. Ask him how big the soul is and he may answer that it’s microscopic, or fills the whole body, or anything in between. Again, he knows this because he has read it or been told it. Ask him where in the body the soul resides and he may say the heart or that it’s diffused throughout the body. Again, he’s read this or been told this. Ask four Christians to define soul and you’ll likely get four different answers. Ask him if a six-month old baptized baby who dies will spend eternity as a six-month old baby and watch him squirm. If it happens that the soul simply doesn’t exist, then Christianit...

By Aaron H i. My name is Aaron. I was a Christian for the better part of 24 years. I was very closed minded, fearful, rejecting of any other walk of life, and judgmental of any and all nouns not associated with my belief system. I also had a false moral compass. But that's not what I want to write about today... Within the past 2 months, I have deconverted, and now consider myself mostly to be an agnostic theist. Yesterday, I got my first phone call from a Christian acquaintance, asking me why I haven't been in contact. I explained my situation to him openly, and honestly. He responded, paraphrasing scripture: "Aaron, God will give you over to a debased mind if you want it. You have free will. But you need to know that you’re being a coward by dropping your weapons." This is me paraphrasing his paraphrasing, just to be clear. COMMENCE RANTING: A "debased" mind? Apparently, when a person decides to reject a man made ideology which is riddled with closed-minde...

by Rasputin's love child Image by ladybugbkt via Flickr T hink of the brain as a giant swimming pool. On one end it is deep, the other, shallow. The shallow end has a wading pond for those who cannot swim and detached, but nearby, is the hot bubbling sauna . When a person is introduced to Christianity, they are encouraged to dip their feet in the warm waters of the wading pool. Slowly, they put their legs in a little further until they get used to the temperature of the water. Eventually they immerse themselves in the warm water and become baptized. They are considered "children" in the eyes of god and are encouraged not to drift from the shallows. As they become more confident they may wish to learn more, but the shallows are only warm so they venture out of the pool of thought and into the hot sauna of religious fervor. They are confronted by many others who enjoy the heat of condemnation, the swirling waters of proselytism and the air bubbles of irrational thought. Fo...

by Stephen F. Uhl , Ph.D Image via Wikipedia Y et another blessing of non-theism or atheism for American society could be immense. What if our justice system were so nonreligious that Old Testament type of vengeful punishment of criminals were not necessary? What if judges judged reasonably instead of doing the biblical eye-for-an-eye bit for criminals? Our extremely sick justice system now insists that punishment must fit the crime. Reasoned consequences or responsible restitution is really what should fit the crime, not punishment as such. Taxpayers cough up over $30,000 per year per criminal in prison , violent or not; this exceeds the annual cost of education at most of our excellent universities. We can design and execute really effective probation programs for far less! What if criminals were sentenced according to their ability to be responsible and pay back, make restitution to society in accordance with their offense against society? Violent criminals would stay in jail to pro...

By Valerie Tarico Image by apesara via Flickr. "Change... We don't like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change or we get left behind. And it hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn't is lying." Change Happens The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue. – Antisthenes M y parents, as I’ve said before, were three for six in terms of producing believing children. All of us accepted Jesus as our personal savior. We all entered the “age of accountability” as born-again Evangelicals. But that’s not where we ended up. For each of the three who lost faith, the path was different: One came to see the shame of his homosexuality, not as a personal failing but as a failing of our moral ancestors – which then exposed the host of other moral failings in the Bible. Another was confronted by a small child’s cancer which unearthed a mother lode of buried questions about God’s beneficence...

by Wizened Sage Image by evelynishere via Flickr T he father of an 11-year old girl, who died in 2008 of undiagnosed diabetes, went to trial in Wisconsin . This man and his wife believed that prayer would cure their gravely ill daughter, even after she became too weak to walk, speak, eat, or drink. Dale Neuman told police he believed God would heal his daughter, Madeline, right up until she stopped breathing. Police also said that Neuman “professed to believe God was going to bring Madeline back to life.” Madeline Neuman died because of the false claims of the Bible, but she is only one of millions. Dale Neuman was found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide for praying instead of seeking medical help for his daughter. While I believe he should have been tried, there is another side of me which sympathizes with Mr. Neuman. He is, after all, a victim too. He was scammed, probably since childhood, and now he’s suffering for it. Frankly, I am a bit surprised that this doesn’t happen...

by Neal Stone Image by Akbar Simonse (busy) via Flickr I n my last post we had a Christian show up (tlig_org) who posted the usual Christian stuff then he got blasted by me and a few others from this site. He tried to challenge my claim that my life is better by pointing out hateful and angry sounding comments I made. We are not a bunch of angry, bitter and hateful people here. In fact I have never felt so much support, friendship and understanding as I have gotten from the people who post at this site. If I were to run into a church and announce I didn't believe in their god, I can assure you I would get anything but love and understanding. I have seen my own family treated bad by church ushers because they were living in sin. The irony is the church preached they needed to get right with god, then drove them away when they showed up to do just that. Want to see hateful comments? Read the Bible. How many times were people ordered murdered by God's people? Women raped ...

by Cesar Image via Wikipedia T here aren't many things in this world that I hate but I can honestly say I hate religion. Religion is a cancer, a plaque on the human mind. Humanity is capable of such great things but it's a shame that things such as religion, greed and politics hold us back. So here goes my little rant, I hope this finds its way onto a person's monitor who is looking for some reason to drop religion but just can't seem to find one. So here it goes, my basic reasons why religion is bullshit. 1) Most of the world's religions came about in a time of great ignorance. Forget everything you know and put yourself in the shoes of someone 2000 years ago. No Internet, no TV, no information. How can people who couldn't explain why it rained, why you got sick or why the sun came up everyday possibly explain how the entire universe was created? They couldn't! They were people like me and you but with A LOT less information about the world we live in. Put ...

by JahFe M any people can go through trauma - initially through the experience of growing up in the Christian Religion, and later through the experience of breaking away from it. The trauma sometimes means that people move from a pro-Christian worldview to an anti-Christian worldview. I rejected Christianity very early in life. It took me many, many years before I un-rejected it. This doesn't mean that I adopted Christianity again - definitely not. But I can now appreciate the good things about Christianity – both the teaching and the institution, while maintaining my criticisms of both. I am very much interested in the Bible as a quasi-historical document also loaded with myths. I like to interpret the symbolic mystical knowledge of many of these myths. (But some myths are just naïve collective creations originating in early societies without the benefit of modern science or the culture of critical thinking). It is 'mystical' or 'hidden' precisely because the ...

Another video by ChuckyJesus666 . A debate between a Christian and an atheist.

by oddbird1963 Image via Wikipedia I believe an unofficial anthem for many who frequent ex-christian.net is John Lennon ’s song, “ Imagine .” Certainly, it is the theme song of the weekly broadcast of the Freedom from Religion Foundation on Air America . Lennon’s goal in this classic musical piece was that the world would somehow join together in unity. I see in “Imagine” an implication that along with no heaven, no hell, and no religion, there would be no Bible in the traditional Christian, Muslim or Judaic sense. In other words there would be no myths and no commandments. If all religions were to suddenly go away overnight along with their sacred writings, would that not actually leave a void in humanity? What would there be to unite human beings together? What ideas could human beings draw upon to capture the collective imagination, inspire us to be better people and provide solace for us in times of inner conflict? The thought of an “ex-christian” bible or a “secular bible” ...

by Troy Conrad L ately, I’ve had many atheists write to me, asking if now is a good time to become religious again. It seems that the departure of the Bush Administration has awoken the vast majority of the atheist community to the simple fact that theocracy is no longer a threat here or abroad. It is high time to embrace what we once called superstition, dust off that Bible lifted in protest from the Holiday Inn, and delve once more into the church, dear friends. For some, a conversion or reconversion to reverence seems a daunting task. As freethinkers, we’ve gotten a bit rusty in the worship department. When working out the faith muscle, we must start slowly so it doesn’t get overtaxed. Start out at the Joel Osteen level, before you consider going full Falwell. If you’re one of the 5% still on the fence about taking this sacred surge, ponder the inarguable, massive benefit of taking the faith train to Godville. Huge time savings. Take into account how much time you spend thi...

By Mriana I need to rant, because I am currently sick of religion and apologize for not responding to many blogs lately due to being sick of religion. Sadly, living where I am, I see and hear it all around me almost every day, but it is worse when it is in my face. Let us start first with Separation of Church and State , which appears to be nonexistent where I live. I tried for years to shelter my sons from Evangelicalism , even here in Pentecostal Land, but that ended for my younger son when he first went into treatment four years ago. None of the programs were ran by churches, but two of the treatment programs were specifically State ran and you would think those horrid Fundamngelicals would not be involved, but they were and even though I signed a statement concerning religious teaching, those bastards had to get their hands on my younger son. When I visited him one day, he said, “Mama, what’s the Rapture?” I thought, “Oh my god! They did it anyway!” and tried to explain it to ...