sent in by Lady Sidhe works Simply put, I started reading the bible. I was just really indifferent religion-wise, before that. Never really thought about it, never really impacted my life, wasn't a churchgoer, wasn't a proseletyzing believer. It was just something that was there. I started reading the bible just for the hell of it (no pun intended), and it just annoyed me that God was portrayed as this vengeful, violent, warlike, intolerant murderer. That's not how I saw God. I figured, "If God were perfect, the way He's supposed to be, he wouldn't have human failings. God of love, my ass." Then I read Ken's Guide to the Bible. THEN, my boyfriend at the time suggested Wicca. I laughed it off. Witch? Please...but to humor him, I picked up a book by Cunningham called "The Truth About Witchcraft Today," and it all came together. It was like I finally found my beliefs written down coherently. That's all it took, and that's how I got whe...

sent in by Lady Sidhe works Simply put, I started reading the bible. I was just really indifferent religion-wise, before that. Never really thought about it, never really impacted my life, wasn't a churchgoer, wasn't a proseletyzing believer. It was just something that was there. I started reading the bible just for the hell of it (no pun intended), and it just annoyed me that God was portrayed as this vengeful, violent, warlike, intolerant murderer. That's not how I saw God. I figured, "If God were perfect, the way He's supposed to be, he wouldn't have human failings. God of love, my ass." Then I read Ken's Guide to the Bible. THEN, my boyfriend at the time suggested Wicca. I laughed it off. Witch? Please...but to humor him, I picked up a book by Cunningham called "The Truth About Witchcraft Today," and it all came together. It was like I finally found my beliefs written down coherently. That's all it took, and that's how I got whe...

sent in by joe blow I was born into a very strict southern fundy family, grew up in private school, My family is all involved in the Ministry at some level, pastors, missionaries, I was a youth pastor at one time. I was looked upon as a uncompromising leader in the church. I naturaly found bible studys interesting, I commited whole heartedly to the Faith, I led bible study & prayer groups in public schools, I led downtown witnessing teams, I led youth groups and preached at the pulpit a few times. Almost all my sermons were on the subject of GOds Unconditional Love.. A concept I still hold sacred and the biggest reason why I reject Christianity and its pardoxical hate filled theology of Eternal Hell and Hereditary Transmission of Orginial Sin Doctrine. Secretly I admired,respected and justified the " brave and honorable" christians who bombed abortion clinics. I took christian theology and biblical literalism to its most logical conclution and could justify all sorts of ...

sent in by joe blow I was born into a very strict southern fundy family, grew up in private school, My family is all involved in the Ministry at some level, pastors, missionaries, I was a youth pastor at one time. I was looked upon as a uncompromising leader in the church. I naturaly found bible studys interesting, I commited whole heartedly to the Faith, I led bible study & prayer groups in public schools, I led downtown witnessing teams, I led youth groups and preached at the pulpit a few times. Almost all my sermons were on the subject of GOds Unconditional Love.. A concept I still hold sacred and the biggest reason why I reject Christianity and its pardoxical hate filled theology of Eternal Hell and Hereditary Transmission of Orginial Sin Doctrine. Secretly I admired,respected and justified the " brave and honorable" christians who bombed abortion clinics. I took christian theology and biblical literalism to its most logical conclution and could justify all sorts of ...

sent in by Roy This is a long overdue post . I would have liked to post this way back earlier, but due to my work commitments, I have decided to post this a little later than I would have wanted to, especially since Pope John Paul II's death. Better late than never, so here goes. I have, for the past ten odd years, declared myself an atheist. And for some reason, people do not have a accurate perception what atheism truly entails, especially religious fundamentalists, who approach me from time to time, attempting to pry me away from the clutches of medieval demons and beasts. Perhaps, before I begin to broach on the subject, it is perhaps prudent for me to explain what atheism means to me, or to the majority of atheists out there (If there ever is such thing known as a atheist majority, that is). Atheism is a state of non-belief of any phenomenon, creatures, deities, demons, objects, and everything that cannot be validated by the basic tenets of science. Over the years I have had m...

sent in by Roy This is a long overdue post . I would have liked to post this way back earlier, but due to my work commitments, I have decided to post this a little later than I would have wanted to, especially since Pope John Paul II's death. Better late than never, so here goes. I have, for the past ten odd years, declared myself an atheist. And for some reason, people do not have a accurate perception what atheism truly entails, especially religious fundamentalists, who approach me from time to time, attempting to pry me away from the clutches of medieval demons and beasts. Perhaps, before I begin to broach on the subject, it is perhaps prudent for me to explain what atheism means to me, or to the majority of atheists out there (If there ever is such thing known as a atheist majority, that is). Atheism is a state of non-belief of any phenomenon, creatures, deities, demons, objects, and everything that cannot be validated by the basic tenets of science. Over the years I have had m...

sent in by anonymous Well I started out in the religion realm as a Muslim, born to muslim parents. At the time that I can remember first becoming a Christian I was in a foster home, and the family was Methodist. My brother and I were the center of a really nasty custudy battle between my mother and her ex. Some genius judge decided to sentence me to foster prison, I mean care. I had a hard time dealing with being away from my parents so my mother tried to help me deal with it all by teaching me to pray. Religion in our house had been open and never pressured onto us, I was the kid who begged to go to Mosque to hear stories about God, Heaven, Angels and Miracles. Of course she being Muslim, taught me to pray in Arabic. When we talked about God we used the Arabic word for God, Allah. My foster parents went nuts the first time they heard me say Allah. So instead of being left at a neighbors when they went to church, I was taken along to enjoy the Christian "Truth". I stil...

sent in by anonymous Well I started out in the religion realm as a Muslim, born to muslim parents. At the time that I can remember first becoming a Christian I was in a foster home, and the family was Methodist. My brother and I were the center of a really nasty custudy battle between my mother and her ex. Some genius judge decided to sentence me to foster prison, I mean care. I had a hard time dealing with being away from my parents so my mother tried to help me deal with it all by teaching me to pray. Religion in our house had been open and never pressured onto us, I was the kid who begged to go to Mosque to hear stories about God, Heaven, Angels and Miracles. Of course she being Muslim, taught me to pray in Arabic. When we talked about God we used the Arabic word for God, Allah. My foster parents went nuts the first time they heard me say Allah. So instead of being left at a neighbors when they went to church, I was taken along to enjoy the Christian "Truth". I stil...

sent in by Jason I grew up believing that I was in the one True denomination in the one True religion. I was a Seventh-day Adventist, God's chosen remnant church, commissioned with spreading God's truth to everyone, including other Christians who had the wrong message. Basically Seventh-day Adventists believe that the final dividing line between God's faithful and those who have fallen away, is whether you go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. Pretty stupid, huh? The reason I was able to agree to believe that for so long was that I only knew other SDA's. I never actually had to think about how ridiculous the whole thing was. Then I went to a non-denominational high school and realized how cruel and arbitrary that dividing line was. These people are going to hell because they go to church on the wrong day of the week? It was ludicrous. It was about that time that I started searching for information about Ellen White online. There was all kinds of informatio...

sent in by Jason I grew up believing that I was in the one True denomination in the one True religion. I was a Seventh-day Adventist, God's chosen remnant church, commissioned with spreading God's truth to everyone, including other Christians who had the wrong message. Basically Seventh-day Adventists believe that the final dividing line between God's faithful and those who have fallen away, is whether you go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday. Pretty stupid, huh? The reason I was able to agree to believe that for so long was that I only knew other SDA's. I never actually had to think about how ridiculous the whole thing was. Then I went to a non-denominational high school and realized how cruel and arbitrary that dividing line was. These people are going to hell because they go to church on the wrong day of the week? It was ludicrous. It was about that time that I started searching for information about Ellen White online. There was all kinds of informatio...

sent in by Stormwarden My name is Stormwarden, and I am an ex-mormon. To be honest, I quit the church well before the last straw. Having read The Bible cover to cover and the Mormon Trilogy as well, I felt I believed it less and less. I was baptized at age 10, and became a member of the priesthood at 14. The last straw came the week of 9/11/01. I saw then the hypocrisy of not just the Mormon church, but of so many others as well. They claim to be of mercy, yet these places are usually the first to throw the switch. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell only confirmed my thoughts of the Xian faith. They didn't look for a moment at the truth of things: a combination of religion and historical blindness (much of our messes started with the Reagan administration and its meddling). I quit that day. I have yet to inform the church or my parents that I have done so, nor do I wish to yet. I want to get away first. As for what I am now, I am honestly not sure. I will admit I have far more sympath...

sent in by Stormwarden My name is Stormwarden, and I am an ex-mormon. To be honest, I quit the church well before the last straw. Having read The Bible cover to cover and the Mormon Trilogy as well, I felt I believed it less and less. I was baptized at age 10, and became a member of the priesthood at 14. The last straw came the week of 9/11/01. I saw then the hypocrisy of not just the Mormon church, but of so many others as well. They claim to be of mercy, yet these places are usually the first to throw the switch. Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell only confirmed my thoughts of the Xian faith. They didn't look for a moment at the truth of things: a combination of religion and historical blindness (much of our messes started with the Reagan administration and its meddling). I quit that day. I have yet to inform the church or my parents that I have done so, nor do I wish to yet. I want to get away first. As for what I am now, I am honestly not sure. I will admit I have far more sympath...

sent in by Jen I was raised christian. My parents are divorced and I spent half of my childhood with each parent and each parent had different beliefs but were (and still are) christians. The first half was with my dad. He attended a Church of Christ. They believe music (even in church)is a sin, dancing is sin, etc. along with all the usual "sinful" things like cursing, impure thoughts and so on. My dad made me go to church everytime the doors were open. I remember always falling asleep it was so boring. Even if I was sick he made me go. He was very strict and everything was a sin. If we rented a movie that had anything remotely suggestive in it he would go nuts and make me turn it off. He read his bible all the time. I remember once buying a teeny bopper magazine and he got really mad and told me not to buy another one because it had lustful pictures of boys in it (who were fully clothed mind you). He would tell me that if I sinned he would go to hell too because the parent...

sent in by Jen I was raised christian. My parents are divorced and I spent half of my childhood with each parent and each parent had different beliefs but were (and still are) christians. The first half was with my dad. He attended a Church of Christ. They believe music (even in church)is a sin, dancing is sin, etc. along with all the usual "sinful" things like cursing, impure thoughts and so on. My dad made me go to church everytime the doors were open. I remember always falling asleep it was so boring. Even if I was sick he made me go. He was very strict and everything was a sin. If we rented a movie that had anything remotely suggestive in it he would go nuts and make me turn it off. He read his bible all the time. I remember once buying a teeny bopper magazine and he got really mad and told me not to buy another one because it had lustful pictures of boys in it (who were fully clothed mind you). He would tell me that if I sinned he would go to hell too because the parent...

sent in by Sandy My parents were Christian, my grandparents were Christian, everyone a Christian. However, my Christian parents divorced when I was five and my mother married an agnostic. I still went to church occassionally off and on throughout my early childhood, teenage years and twenties. At age 30 I got serious and wanted to truly live a life pleasing to God. The road from there was hard. I started noticing at first the NT laws that were being broken by just about every single Christian I knew. They were watching evil movies, living the greedy life, some were snobby backstabbers, but yet claimed their love for God/Jesus. When I would, in a loving and gentle way, point out that God says right here that it is NOT okay to do these things, I would be immediately given one or all of the following speaches..."You are bordering on legalism, God doesn't expect us to be perfect, all sin and fall short of the glory of God!" Being OBEDIENT is LEGALISTIC??? I was doing...

sent in by Sandy My parents were Christian, my grandparents were Christian, everyone a Christian. However, my Christian parents divorced when I was five and my mother married an agnostic. I still went to church occassionally off and on throughout my early childhood, teenage years and twenties. At age 30 I got serious and wanted to truly live a life pleasing to God. The road from there was hard. I started noticing at first the NT laws that were being broken by just about every single Christian I knew. They were watching evil movies, living the greedy life, some were snobby backstabbers, but yet claimed their love for God/Jesus. When I would, in a loving and gentle way, point out that God says right here that it is NOT okay to do these things, I would be immediately given one or all of the following speaches..."You are bordering on legalism, God doesn't expect us to be perfect, all sin and fall short of the glory of God!" Being OBEDIENT is LEGALISTIC??? I was doing...

sent in by Jo I was born into a practicing Catholic family. I became VERY religious in my early teens, so I decided to devote my Sunday afternoons to reading the Bible. Well, I was horrified by what I read. I don't like violent movies, so you can imagine how I felt reading the Old Testament. I was also troubled by the sexism of the New Testament, such as wives obeying husbands, man being made for God and woman being made for man, etc. I wondered what if my husband was wrong about something and I was right. Was obedience still required? What if I'm smarter than my husband? Why did different sex organs and hormone levels make men preferred over women in God's eyes? So, my Bible reading started a general process of questioning that destroyed my beliefs. I also started to question why God had to send his son (who happens to be himself, because they are one) to die as a blood sacrifice to eliminate a sin committed by Adam and Eve. If God controls everything why didn't he jus...