by Dr. Marlene Winell Image by Te55 via Flickr R ecently I had a very short, but encouraging little dream right before waking up. I had been feeling burdened by all the problems in the world. In my dream I got the message that “the butterflies are working to lift our spirits.” I woke up surprised and delighted. Later I shared it with a couple friends who also liked it, amused by the image. Then I mentioned it to a Christian I know, who responded, “Maybe that’s why God made them.” Perhaps some of you who are also “recovering Christians” can help me understand my irritation. My guess is that I’m tired of this pattern of making everything good one step removed from our direct experience. In the typical Christian view, nature’s beauty is always “God’s handiwork.” When you look at a sunset or the intricacy of an orchid, you have to give credit to God and be thankful to Him. Nothing is simply beautiful or amazing for its own sake. This Thanksgiving, lets enjoy and reclaim our g...

by MtlRedAtheist The Holy Bible tells a story of how Elisha cursed some children to be destroyed by wild bears, because they mocked his bald head. Apparently killing children is not immoral when you do it by evoking God's supernatural powers. Why are we allowing our children to be taught this stuff? All music in this video is written and performed by MtlRedAtheist .

by summerbreeze I t's nice to be "courted," isn't it? But, not when you are asked to return to something that caused you so much unhappiness to begin with. Amongst other bible studies, I was enrolled in Community Bible Study (CBS) when I was a Christian. I jumped ship after I realized that Christianity was a lie, and it made me feel so beat-down. After I left, CBS ignored me for several years. Now this past year, they have been continually sending me news letters and forms galore to fill out and rejoin. A few weeks ago, I got fed up and decided to write on the form WHY I left Christianity (I was hoping something just might "register" with someone). Today I received a two-page letter from Mr. Pat Robertson, Executive Director of Community Bible School. I'm sure that he's not the doofus who we're familiar with. Anyway, at first I tore it in two and tossed it in the kitchen waste basket. After a while I decided to fish it out and read it (it...

by Nathan I no longer consider myself a Christian and told my wife, her parents and my parents earlier this year. However, I still go to church with my wife (a “non-denominational, a cappella ” congregation with about 10-12 members) because we have three little ones and it doesn't seem right to make her drag all three out the door and drive 25 miles alone. So I have been sitting in church every Sunday listening to a particularly conservative, literal message and it has driven me nuts. Sunday's sermon was particularly egregious and so I thought I'd write something just to get things off my chest. The guy bringing the message started by saying science is a religion in and of itself, then moved on to saying that god is like wind and gravity; you can't see wind or gravity, but can prove they exist by the effects around you. He moved on to say that the defining characteristic for Christians is the resurrection of Jesus and if you can prove there was no resurrection then ...

Image via Wikipedia I have not read the actual book ( Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion ), but I thought it was an apt title for my own story as a parent, because in the end, even with everything I dealt with as a child myself, I somehow managed to parent beyond belief, at least beyond belief in Evangelical Fundamentalist teachings. This also included beyond the trappings I still had to pull my own self out of as an adult too. I do not know how I did it, but I seemed to have done it. When I was little, I made a vow to myself not to do to my children what my parents, grandparents, and other relatives did to me. This also included on the religious front too. Now of course I did not have children yet, but like every little girl I had dreams about adulthood and family. To this day, I believe I kept that promise to myself and the other day, a conversation with my older son, seemed to confirm that I did in at least one area. When my sons were litt...

King of Kings (Also known as "Touchdown Jesus" or " Big Butter Jesus "), is a 62-foot-tall sculpture of Jesus just outside of Cincinnati . Jesus appears to be rising from the waters behind the amphitheater at Monroe's Solid Rock Church . Music by Heywood Banks , the version originally broadcast on the syndicated Bob & Tom radio show . All images except the first three reproduced with the permission of the web creationists at jeeebus ( www.jeeeb.us ). Accept no imitations!

by Neal Stone Image by benuski via Flickr E ver notice that the Creator of the Universe always needs money -- money that is a monetary system created by man? Ever notice that when one out of 100 is cured of cancer it's considered a miracle? What about the other 99? Ever notice that Christians like to say “Christ is the Answer” followed by “No one can understand the Lord's ways?” So what's the point? Are we supposed to find the question? Friends don't let friends convert to Christianity. Ever notice that those who reject God are “lost,” yet many Christians are still looking for God's Will? Ever notice that Salvation is supposedly free, yet you are expected to tithe 10 percent of your GROSS income after being saved? Ever notice that the amount of money, time and help you give to a church or religious organization is far more than it either ever give back? Ever notice how churches preach about seeking the lost, but once you leave church no one comes knocking on y...

By Valerie Tarico Bas relief of a massage abortion from about A.D. 1150. Image via Wikipedia D ear  Bishops – In our struggle to get health care for all, you saw an opportunity to make sure that American women can’t afford abortions, a way to be the deciders for all of us.  You look at someone like me who has had an abortion , and you see a sin.  Perhaps you think that those of us who terminate pregnancies haven’t thought these things through from a moral standpoint.  Or maybe we are simply less moral than you are:  thoughtless, selfish, or promiscuous.  On the other side of the equation, you believe you know the Divine will.  You claim a position of moral authority, confident that the God of love guides your judgment.  I don’t trust that this is true.   Time and again your predecessors made decisions in the name of God that in retrospect are shameful. My abortion was a profoundly moral decision A council of Christian Bishops included ...

by Neal Stone A ll my life as a Christian I was told to find God's will. I had no idea in the beginning what that was or how to do it. Any attempt to find out resulted in me being pushed aside so the more popular kids could find God's Will. So for a time I fumbled around looking for his will. As time went on I noticed some things that happened while in church. I recall one family who son went in the back yard to play. They called him for dinner and he never came. So they went outside to find him and discovered him face down in the mud not breathing. As I recall the child died. At the funeral and in the halls of the church I would hear that “God had his reasons” or “It was God's will and he has a purpose for this.” Time went on. A man in our church spent every minute not at work at the church working. Sometimes he brought his wife and kids and sometimes he just went straight from work. They never went to the movies or go anywhere on vacation. All his spare time was ...

by Jennifer I have a vivid childhood memory from when I was perhaps eight or nine years of age. I was with my mom in our minivan. I think my younger sister was with us, but I'm not positive about that. I remember saying to my mom, "I'm scared that someday I'll reject Jesus and won't be a Christian anymore." My mother, wholesome and wonderful person that she is, told me that I'd have to be careful. "Just follow Jesus and you won't have to worry about it." I remember other times when she told me that she "worried" and "was concerned" about me, because I was intelligent. "I worry that your intelligence will lead you away from Jesus." As things stand, I suppose she had good cause for concern. I was born into a fundamentalist Christian home. My mom was raised as a Lutheran, not one of the more liberal ones but one of the very conservative ones. My father was raised in the Assemblies of God. Somewhere along the way, m...

by WizenedSage Image by jchihos via Flickr P ascal suggested a wager that boils down to this. Why not believe in god if it might benefit you, and at worst will do you no harm? Of course, we know it can do harm. Many have suffered for years and years over fears of hell for themselves or others. Also, most atheists and agnostics don’t really have a choice of believing. We cannot choose to believe in gods any more than we can choose to believe in fire-breathing dragons; all the evidence that we see points in the other direction. I would like to propose a similar wager which I will call “Sage’s Wager.” In its briefest form, it asks the following. If you want to know how the world really works, why make a leap of faith to believe in a god when such leaps fail most (or all) of the time, and science so obviously works? Most Christians would agree that Christianity requires a “leap of faith” since there is no compelling, objective evidence for the existence of the Christian god. If there wer...

by MtlRedAtheist Image by Dr Case via Flickr R ecently I had a discussion with my Evangelical father-in-law, which went surprisingly well (for a religious debate). It started with an argument between my mother-in-law and my wife and then somehow the conversation got hijacked by us (the men). I know I have to work on that one, seriously. I got involved when my mother-in-law accused my wife of being closed minded for not accepting her beliefs in Creation. Her exact words were, “I wish you could just be more open-minded!” My father-in-laws take wasn’t that we are “closed-minded”, but rather we are “less open-minded” than they are. I obviously disagreed. Here is a summary of some of the points I covered in this conversation. I will be leaving out a lot of the conversation out and focus on a few of the points that I was pleasantly surprised to have been able to make. My father-in-law believes the Bible to be the infallible word of God. He believes it contains no errors and takes it literal...

by Valerie Tarico L ast week a Muslim US army psychiatrist, Nidal Malik Hasan, shot and killed 13 of his fellow soldiers on the Fort Hood military base, injuring another 29. In response to the Fort Hood shootings, some people are blaming Islam. Others are saying Islam had nothing to do with it, that the problem is our war of aggression or failure to care for psychologically wounded soldiers. I believe both are wrong. The relationship of religion to violence is complicated. With the possible exception of Buddhism , the world’s most powerful religions give wildly contradictory messages about violence. The Christian Bible is full of exhortations to kindness, compassion, humility, mercy and justice. It is also full of exhortations to stoning, burning, slavery and slaughter. The same can be said of the Koran. The same can be said of the Torah. Believers who claim that Islam or Christianity or Judaism is a religion of peace are speaking a half truth—and a naive falsehood. The huma...

by The Thylacine Exploit or abuse your family, and end up with a fistful of air; common sense tells you it's a stupid way to live. ( Proverbs 11:29 , The Message ) H ad a fabulous weekend a couple of weeks ago. I thought I was going to the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and catching up with some very old friends -- it was great but that was only a very small part of it all. It turned out that the reason behind the pressure to attend was that a couple I first met while living in a university college (1973, they insisted... a bloody long time ago anyways) was finally tying the knot and getting married. The outdoor ceremony was hilariously entertaining with, among other things the bride being given away by her eight-year-old grandson. As there were no parents still with us to give the traditional speeches, both the bride and groom filled in. Both are professors in their 60's; their public speaking skills are well honed. With good humor the Bride answered the question we had a...

by Tony O Y ou all know that one thing that Xians like to put forward as their justification or rationale for a belief in gawd is that gawd provides “comfort” and “consolation” for the dying, for the grieving, or for those in crisis. I would like to tell you of something that I witnessed which gives the lie to this claim. Please note that I am not generalising to all Xians, I’m simply offering this one thing as a particularly egregious example of the lie of “consolation.” Every word of the following is true. My wife has two very good friends. These friends had a daughter. She died from an undiagnosed heart defect. She was two years old. She was taken very ill, brought into hospital and died the next day despite the best efforts of her doctors and nurses. The funeral was held at the Methodist church that my wife’s family attend. It was, as you would imagine, dreadful. The worst part was seeing the tiny coffin being carried into the church. The time came for the pastor to say the eulogy....

by Sharon: Bachelor of Science UM "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." John 12:24 KJV T his verse, attributed to Jesus in the New Testament, is glaringly wrong. Can you see why? Never mind whether or not Jesus actually lived, or whether or not this translation holds the "true" words of God. For the sake of argument, let us assume all of that is true, and these were the actual words spoken by Jesus, and therefore the actual words of God to us. What is wrong with the above statement ? Where does this statement fail in its assessment of both how to grow crops and how to live ones life? For years I had an organic garden I cultivated and tended. It gave me great joy to learn the intricacies of how best to grow flowers and vegetables. I learned much about germinating seeds and spent many happy hours in my house with small containers of dirt containi...

by Marlene Winell I met Jesus in Golden Gate Park many years ago and he helped change my life. He sent me in a new direction – away from Christianity. I was reminded of it on Sunday, October 25, because it was the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, celebrated with enthusiasm at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco . I wandered through the crowd with my grown son, Ryan, as we pushed our bicycles, enjoying the sights and sounds – 60’s music coming from the bands,tie-dyed banners, the smell of incense and herb, and booths selling candles, New Age books and music, psychedelic art, and healthy food. The event was free, and so was the painting – on your face, cloth banners, or sheets of paper on the ground. Peace signs were all around. The folks with gray hair and fond memories were well represented, but so were young people who missed the Summer of Love . Young girls had long hair and headbands, flowers, and even wings. When we arrived, the band played and people sang along, swaying and cl...