by Neal Stone T he other night I had a dream. I dreamed I was 12 years old and walking through a field. As I walked I saw a long line of people standing at the edge of a great cliff. In some places there were gaps and others walking with me would walk through the gaps and disappear over the edge. As I walked towards the edge someone grabbed my arm and said “Stand with us and in the gap.” I asked why and he said “Because those who fall through the gap fall to death and destruction. To eternal torment and are lost forever. Stand in the gap and be saved and help to save others.” He then continued saying “If you stand in the gap, your sins will be forgiven. You will be free and God will prosper you with a life of peace, love an joy. You will then live with God for all eternity in heaven and he will soon come to close the gaps and take us all home to live forever with him.” I would hear others cry “Who will stand in the gap? Who?” I could feel it tugging on my heart and I so wante...

by Marlene Winell Image by nabeel_yoosuf via Flickr I ’m sure we all remember being told to not forget that “Jesus is the reason for the season,” so if you are recently deconverted from Christianity, this may be a confusing time for you. But I think it’s a good time to do some healing and growth by taking personal responsibility for how to construe the holidays and consciously deciding what to do, if anything. In my view, this is part of the larger reconstruction project of recovery, which involves rethinking and reclaiming responsibility in every facet of life. As examples, I have discussed the importance of taking responsibility for personal “spirituality,” for deciding on one’s own sexual guidelines, and the importance of getting past looking for “God’s will” in making life choices. Christian or not, the holidays can be a time to slow down and consider what’s really important. Since a controlling religion provides rigid guidelines for so many areas of thinking and behaving, b...

by Pat Condell

by David I recently turned my back on Christianity, and in doing so put an end to a 3-year marriage to my extremely fundamentalist wife. She and I are now free to move our separate ways and to be with partners that share our belief systems. My hopes in writing this quick observation would be that some Christian who may be having problems with his faith will read this, use rational thought, and do what I did: walk away from the superstition that is Christianity. Have you ever noticed that Christianity proclaims that those who accept Jesus are going to get special favors, such as supernatural wisdom, special healing from above, and that by accepting Christ as their saviour, and that they are no longer of this world and will be above it? Have you ever seen any evidence in your life to back this up other than their constant reiteration of 2000-year-old scripture? I for one, have not! And that was a big reason that I finally decided that there was a major difference between what I heard ...

An excerpt from the comedian Rick Reynold 's 1992 one-man show ONLY THE TRUTH IS FUNNY . If you ever get a chance to see the Showtime Special or hear the CD of this show, do it. It's brilliant.

by Valerie Tarico S eattle was still reeling from the cold blooded execution of a police officer on Halloween, when the news hit on Sunday that four more officers were dead. Monday, as I was trying to weave my way through a city swarming with blue cars and uniforms, and drenched with anxiety and grief, I couldn’t help wondering about how an erratic serial criminal like Maurice Clemmons ends up on the streets. And since Clemmons was released by Mike Huckabee , the Arkansas governor and presidential hopeful who has made fundamentalist religion the center of his politics, I couldn’t help wondering if religion played a part. It turns out that, in fact, religion may have played several different roles in the tragedy, just as it did in the recent slaughter at Fort Hood. This time, though, Islam had nothing to do with it. At Fort Hood, fundamentalist Christianity created an adversarial, proselytizing , holy war atmosphere, while Islam released the trigger lock . In the Seattle killin...

by WizenedSage Image by LugoLounge via Flickr I enjoy poking my finger in the eye of religion whenever the opportunity arises, and I thought you folks might get a chuckle out of my latest foray onto the Letters-to-the-Editor page of one of our local weekly newspapers. The only editing done to my submitted version was the elimination of the clause, “if the editor has the courage to print this letter,” which was obviously intended to challenge him. Frankly, I was stunned to see this letter was actually published as I gave it about a 10% chance. I think the lesson here is that some editors will publish nearly anything, even calling Jesus a liar, if you directly quote the Bible and turn your comments into questions whenever possible. Of course it also helps that I live in Maine , well outside the Bible belt. The letter follows. “I’m confused. Can someone please explain something to me? In his column on November 19, Doug Wright wrote about church repair and the use of U.S. Government “ h...

Image via Wikipedia By Kris Komarnitsky, author of Doubting Jesus' Resurrection: What Happened in the Black Box? (also available in the UK and as an ebook ). A ccording to well-known proponent of Jesus’ resurrection Dr. N.T. Wright , “The empty tomb and the ‘meetings’ with Jesus, when combined, present us with not only a sufficient condition for the rise of early Christian belief, but also, it seems, a necessary one. Nothing else historians have been able to come up with has the power to explain the phenomena before us.” 1 This view – which is really the idea that Jesus’ resurrection is the only plausible explanation for the Christian origins evidence before us – has been popularized by lay authors like JP Holding ( The Impossible Faith ) and Lee Strobel : “I had seen defendants carted off to the death chamber on much less convincing proof!” 2 It has also filtered down to the lay blogosphere : “The evidence is simply overwhelming. If you believe in gravity, you have to beli...

by Fatalotti H ave you ever heard of someone who's yelled fire in a crowded room in which there was no fire, needlessly causing extreme levels of panic? These people are generally arrested for disturbing the peace. If someone were to get injured during the ensuing chaos, the charges levied against the perpetrator could be even greater, including reckless endangerment, and should someone be killed, it could extend to manslaughter. It goes without saying that the law considers this to be a serious offense because of the great damage it can cause. But what if the perp claiming that there was a fire actually believed that there was fire? And, I don't mean he smelled smoke in the air, or felt intense warmth beneath his feet. I mean, he had had a vision, or believed that a supernatural power had warned him about this fire, and that it was his duty to proclaim in this crowded room about the imminent fire. But, there was no such fire. Would he still be held accountable for his ...

by Neal Stone Image by . SantiMB . via Flickr A ccording to the Bible and Christians, God created the earth and universe in just six days. Let us take a good look at this. Let's assume that this god did indeed create the universe. Then he would have to have extremely advanced knowledge and skill in physics, mathematics, engineering and so on. On top of that he would require an immense power source beyond imagination. So we are talking about someone with incredible power, knowledge and skill. So herein lies the problem. With all this power, knowledge and skill god seems to have a few issues regarding a couple of other skills. Communication and planning. Communication. Given all his wisdom, power and ability to see the future as well as the past god's only communication to us is a book so confusing, convoluted and riddle with mistakes (he can create the universe, but not handle a handful of authors and document copiers????) called the Bible. On top of that those that claim ...

by WizenedSage Image by arti47 via Flickr F or those believers and fence-sitters who occasionally visit this site, I offer the following for your consideration. The following passage is the very foundation statement of Christianity, so what it means is very, very important. John 3:16: “ For God so loved the world , that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life .” So, god is making a really big sacrifice for us, right? Well, that depends on your point of view. Here’s what I see in that passage. “Your birth offends me. I can forgive you, but someone has to die.” Once we scrape off the sticky sweet frosting of words like “love” and “gave,” isn’t that the real message of that passage? You may think god is doing the sacrificing here, but isn’t he also the one demanding the sacrifice, and rather arbitrarily, since he makes the rules? And, like any good TV huckster, god adds, “But that’s not all! If you worship me, I’ll let y...

by Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899), from The Works of Robert Green Ingersoll Vol IV W hen I became convinced that the universe is natural — that all the ghosts and gods are myths , there entered into my brain , into my soul , into every drop of my blood, the sense, the feeling, the joy of freedom. The walls of my prison crumbled and fell, the dungeon was flooded with light and all the bolts and bars and manacles became dust. I was no longer a servant, a serf or a slave. There was for me no master in all the world — not even infinite space. I was free: Free to think, to express my thoughts Free to live my own ideal Fee to live for myself and those I loved Free to use all my faculties, all my senses Free to spread imagination’s wings Free to investigate, to guess and dream and hope Free to judge and determine for myself Free to reject all ignorant and cruel creeds, all the “inspired” books that savages have produced, and all the barbarous legends of the past Free from popes and...

by Valerie Tarico It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. – Charles Darwin L ast week, as I was driving a carload of middle-schoolers to a movie, the kids started talking about their teachers. I couldn’t help overhearing, “ . . . He’s a great science teacher, but he doesn’t believe in evolution.” Two days later, a friend reported that her 15-year-old daughter had just returned from at a junior government retreat. “They argued the pros and cons of teaching intelligent design in schools, and she said there were some very compelling arguments on the pro side.” When I repeated the story at the dinner table later, my own daughter mentioned a school mate who feels conflicted about his biology curriculum because his family doesn’t believe in evolution. Charles Darwin published his world-changing work, On the Origin of Species , 150 years ago this week. What he proposed was breathtakingly simple. It can be re...

by David J Pastor Billy Joe Daugherty " You Can Be Healed: How to Believe God for Your Healing " is a book by Billy Joe Daughtery , founder of Victory Christian Center (VCC), Victory Christian School (VCS), and Victory Bible Institute (VBI). Daughtery was also the interim president at Oral Roberts University (ORU) of which he and I are both alumni. In addition to being a graduate of VBI and ORU, I am also a founding member of VCC and a former student of VCS. In VBI, we had a class that was so important to him that he taught it himself. It was on healing. To summerize a semester in a few words, the premise was that Christ died for our sins and also our healing. Not only is salvation a free gift for all who accept it, healing is also a free gift for anyone who believes. I won't claim to know who wrote the various parts of the bible or why, but a plain text reading of several of the authors would lead to this interpretation. Last month, Billy Joe Daughtery was dia...

by Carl S Image by bondidwhat via Flickr F irst off, for any Christian reading this, what do the words “Lead us not into temptation” mean? I know that’s from the Lord’s Prayer, the Perfect prayer, of which there are two versions. It means that, out of all those fruits in Eden, the lord deliberately pointed out that you shouldn’t eat those of that particular tree he deliberately planted there, according to your beliefs. It also means that the hands placed so close to certain organs are not allowed to touch and play with them. In fact, there are many examples of the lord’s tempting. You can blame Eve and the serpent all you want, but guess who put the boiling pot of water just where the child would tip it over onto himself? There is a line in the movie “The Princess Bride”, where the serf tells the padre, “I’m not buying what you’re selling.” All those reverends, popes, rabbis, imams, seers, etc. are selling. In a free market for religion they’re out with sales pitches, putting up adver...