sent in by Josh Hello again. I'm currently stuck at a Christian college at the moment (transferring out at the end of the semester) and we are required to go to revival services this week. The minister has said some interesting things that I thought I would share with you all: 1. Yesterday, he presented the example of a person who lives an upstanding and moral life outside of the framework of Christianity. He said that these people live like this because they have God's laws in their hearts, even though they don't realize it. I disagree. I think that Christianity is not really unique in many of its major teachings. All of the major religions essentially share many teachings, such as not to murder, not to steal, not to lie, etc. I think now that the "creators" of these religions simply used logic and rationality to come up with moral laws that would benefit society and applied these as being divinely given. That's how you get Buddhis

sent in by Neil Sweeney I was brought up in a predominately Roman Catholic upper middle class family, we where all Irish (me, my brother and my sister where the only ones born and raised in England). My mum and my mum's mum where the only authoritarian people in my family that weren’t Catholics, mainly because my Nan’s first husband died and she started losing her faith and she divorced again and the church wouldn’t let her back in (not all forgiveness now is it?). My mum followed my Nan and together they became spiritualist - kind of like Catholics but very reformed and more open to ideas and other religions. I went to a Roman Catholic Primary school; still to this day do not understand, as it was one of the worst primary schools in the area. There I started to question it all when these teachers there never gave me any real support in any thing. See I had meningitis when I was about 10 months old; the doctors though I would die, I came out with no obvious problems; tur

sent in by Paul Johnson From the beginning... First off, My name is changed here, due to the fact that my mother searches my name on the internet regularly to find out information about me. With this being said... I am a 22 Year old man who grew up in southern Indiana. Religion (Christianity) is not just a Sunday-Wednesday night thing in my home town, It is a way of life. There is no less than 20 various Christian churches in my hometown of 20,000 people. Therefore, hardly a soul you can approach that doesn't belong to a Baptist, catholic, church of god, etc. I grew up in a Nazarene church. For those that do not know, they are fairly strict and Hell is a huge topic for Sunday sermons. As well, nazarenes believe that you can only go to heaven if you have been saved from your sins.. And if you sin again, you have to get saved again... As a child (age 8 forward) I would pray constantly for fear of going to hell if I screwed up during the course of the day

sent in by Abby I was born into a Catholic family. My mom was raised Catholic her entire life, but my dad became Catholic once they were married. I went to a Catholic Elementary school for 9 years. 9 years! However, despite being raised in such a way, I wasn't brainwashed. As soon as I heard of Evolution, I accepted it as fact. It made so much sense to me. I don't think I ever thought all of the stories in the bible were real. I never thought people who practiced different religions went to hell either, although I was shocked to learn that there were other forms of Christianity other than Catholicism(and even I wonder at this. I'm the the bible belt for goodness sake!) Anyway, every so often, I would get slightly more entusiastic about religion, only to have it lapse back into the regular lakc of interest that encircled it. I hated going to church. It was (is) boring, long, and pointless. About 4 years ago, I started to take a closer look at what I was be

sent in by James I too, am a non-believer. I have lived in the south all my life but was not raised in a religious environment. My ethnicity is half-Japanese, half-Caucasian. I do not look Asian, so all my life I have lived as a white man. My beloved mother was the Japanese military wife of my father who is a southern Alabama native. Although my father was raised in the Bible belt, there was not practiced religion in our home. My mother never forced me to learn any of her beliefs, but told me of her experiences in Japan. Buddhism and Shintoism were the prevailing beliefs that she had been introduced to. She had a hard life as a child in post-WW2 Japan, but she taught me that love for family and one another is paramount. My brother was born when I was ten with Down’s syndrome. My father took several tours of duty overseas, but we stayed stateside. The burden on my mother was tortuous. Nevertheless, she managed to learn the American language, culture, how to drive, and even got her

sent in by Steve Where to start-I was "converted" to christianity at the young age of 13, when kids who became teenagers should be out enjoying life. I got all crazy for christ and all, then that started 6 or 7 years of my life being assimilated in the "christian borg". Later on in my my life as a "babe in christ", my dad started telling me that i should start tithing. Being a blind christian, i did so. In the summer of my transition of my 8th-9th grade year (keep in mind I went to public schools) I went to this "youth conference" not far from me. Nothing more than a bunch of fascist old men who never had a life preaching to teenagers about how bad they are and if they dont stop with their ways, god will punish them. The first sermon of the second day of the conference, was loriented around teen relationships. SImply put, they said that teens shoulnt date until they're 25 years of age, and the COMMANDED that anyone t

sent in by "Now a Freethinker" Ah, where to begin. Prior to my momentous conversion to the faith, I was just your average high-school grad about to enter university. I supposed I would have classed myself as "Christian" at the time, although I didn't read the bible, go to church or anything. I imagine many people classify themselves in a similar manner. Then, I went to university. I don't know the cause, exactly. Maybe it was fear, and loneliness at being away from home? Initially I was drawn to Roman Catholicism simply because of the pomp and ritual. It gave me a sense of comfort and belonging. One night I watching TV...some "Jesus" show was on, and that's all it took. I "converted" that night, and launched myself into a flurry of study. I ended up at a Baptist church that had just gotten a new preacher...and he was a staunch 5-point Calvinist. I got one heck of an education from him. I was made aware

sent in by Steve I have spent much of the past year reevaluating my lifelong encumbrance with Christianity. Here and now I relinquish all claims to its glorious promises. I have come to understand the concept of God in a new light. Perhaps man was not created in God’s image as we’ve been taught. On the contrary, perhaps God was created in ours. We’ve taken our limited understanding of the ultimate absolute and applied to God our temporal characteristics. In doing so we have limited the unfathomable, unknowable expression of oneness to a caricature of ourselves. This would explain the obvious evolution of God from the earliest writing of the Hebrew scriptures to the writings associated with the new covenant. God shouts from the mountains in the beginning in peals of thunder, tempests and fire. Then God steps behind the scenes speaking only through the prophets and at their bidding. In the new covenant, God is banished to the realm of spirit and mystery. Finally, God cann

sent in by Fox Mackenzie I never really concerned myself overmuch with the details of the faith I belonged to, I just knew CCD school (still don't know what those initials stand for) was nothing but glorified brainwashing, and I was sick and tired of watching grainy filmstrips about the life of saints. I made my first communion, and all I remember about it was a little song-and-dance routine they made us do, and frolicking through a field of dandelions with my friend Erin, dressed in white and wearing my mother's wedding veil and a circlet of satin rosebuds around a statue of Mary, which in retrospect seems like a pretty pagan thing to do, ironically. Aside from the decidedly cardboard-like taste of communion wafers, I didn't take anything upon leaving the faith that I hadn't brought with me, through common sense, into it. So why'd I leave? Simple. I made a deal with god, he reneged, so I up and left. Over the years, when asked that question countle

sent in by Kevin Haas At first I was mad, I've been lied to my whole life about this god/supreme being. Told I had to follow this one account of someone else's life. Argh! I am here to tell you that I no longer accept it, I am no longer mad, but rather now I feel sorry for those still stuck. It is a little like escaping from the “matrix.” I want to free other minds, but most are not ready to be freed. They are too dependent. I have often thought this maybe that is one of the hidden messages behind the Matrix movie. I was raised Catholic. I was even an alter boy; not abused by a priests (as far as I can remember.) I never once attended mass on my own after my parents stopped forcing me because I did not live under their roof. That was not the point where I “lost the faith”, but it certainly seemed like going to church on Sunday was a waste of time. I don't blame my parents they were just passing what had been done to them. I live in the Bible Belt. I was not

sent in by Andy I'm glad I've found this site because I was raised a christian and I've goten really annoyed because of christianity. Here in the UK a lot of people do beleive in god but they don't read the bible or go to church so they don't really understand why I get so annoyed because of it. My dad has been a pentacostal preacher since before I was born and I was always told to go to church and sunday school (where my dad taught) since I was very young. Most of the people I knew at church were very nice and they tried their best to teach us the morals in the bible (as well as trying to edit out the rape and intolerance). I started to wonder if the bible is completely true. I kept hearing about dinosaurs living millions of years before humans, the ice age and cave men. They didn't seem to be shown in the bible and I also started to wonder how every race could of originated from adam and eve. I didn't think about it too much but eventually I