By Brother Greg Image by Harry‧黃基峰‧Taiwan via Flickr This is something that happened during high school that I wish I had looked at more directly earlier in life – it might have helped me leave Christianity much sooner than I ultimately did. I should mention that this high school was an American school based in Taiwan. In Taiwan, when I lived there, there where there were a large number of white missionaries supposedly there to convert Chinese people to fundamentalist Christianity. I had a friend in the high school– let’s call him Mike. Mike was a nice guy. He was also quite human. He was proud of his high SAT scores . He was in love with a girl at my high school, and the love was unrequited. He was very opinionated about music, about performing artists, songs, and lyrics. He was someone I could agree with or disagree with, but I respected his intelligence. One day, Mike invited a friend, Steve, and me to a Christian weekend retreat for high school students, run by missionaries, and

Sent in by koosgirl Image by Caro's Lines via Flickr I was raised in a mainline Protestant household. We said grace, had an Advent wreath , went to church every Sunday, etc., but my parents were not overly heavy-handed. Church services were low-key, with the preaching and lessons geared toward positive things--emphasizing God's love for us, how we should love one another, God's mercy and kindness, and so on. I really never knew the negative aspects of the Bible until I was in my twenties and decided to read the whole thing, cover to cover. It was an eye-opener for sure. I remember in particular the story of Job. In our church, Job had always been portrayed as a heroically faithful man, remaining true to God even when life dealt him the severest of blows--and being recompensed by God for the strength of his devotion. So it was rather a shock to get the whole picture. God makes a bet with Satan that no matter how much crap God dishes out, Job will keep coming back for mo

By Donald R. Image via Wikipedia I ended up attending private Christian schools all my life. We were pretty much taught how to be sheltered from anything they deemed evil. So we were oblivious to the world outside of our church faction. Most children after graduation from high school ended up partying harder than the "worldy" folks. They were the children who weren't taught about sex and drugs and ended up getting pregnant at 17 and 18 years old. My father was a pastor and he was very controlling. He knew how to manipulate your emotions and make you feel guilty for not doing things his way. So I grew up battling with my father because I was always one to ask questions as to why we did the things we did. Why we believed the things we believed. Part of me was made to feel bad for being the only one questioning things and another part of me felt I had a right to know why I was following blindly. Just about a year ago I was in bed and I thought to myself, "Man I wouldn&

by Lemsip Image by AmUnivers via Flickr This is following the recent article ' Religion has passed it's prime ' . What would a world look like without organised religion. I'm afraid new religions would form as a way to control societies, nations, tribes, etc. Even some atheists have a vested interest in keeping religion alive even to the point of imposing it on people whose behaviour they don't approve of especially those from lower social classes . I say to them 'well if you think church going is so good why don't you go yourself'. This is where the old adage of Karl Marx 'religion is the curse of the working class' rings true. When I quit going to church for the first time people I knew not just christians were begging me to try a new church. I was sick of church hopping and had realised that it wasn't this particular church and that particular church was wrong but the whole religion itself. I could breathe a bit more as I could wa

Image by Dude Crush via Flickr Sent in by Evelyn I have been reading the posts about 4 months now. I did not start reading the posts because of deconversion, but because I was searching the Internet for a link on spiritual abuse in that link were testimonials of people were abused in United Pentecostal Church . That was the church I was thrown out of. I have been struggling all my life with mental illness and severe childhood abuse . Abuse that you only read about in the papers. Even though my adoptive parents did not go to church they sent me to church, vacation bible studies, and my birth family was Catholic . I was adopted at 3+. I was told that if I died I was going to hell, demons were going to get me and locked in closets and told God was going to get me. I read the bible from cover to cover when I was eight. I know the bible and I wish I had never read it. I have been tormented by it. I never questioned the brutality of it and i did not see how sadistic and cruel the

Sent in by Jeff Image via Wikipedia I had a conversation with someone lately via email and they were asking about how I became a Christian and how I ended up leaving the Christian faith. Most of the time people who are Christians do not see how someone could have been a “true Christian” if they end up leaving the faith, so when they hear that I am no longer a Christian, they assume that I had a false faith of some kind. I wanted to briefly share my story of how I became a Christian and how I came to not be a Christian. I know that many people will still feel as though I was not a “real” Christian, but there is not much that I can do about that. The bottom line for me is that I was honestly a Christian and believed in Jesus and the Bible with all of my heart. I left the faith because I feel that I was bound by my conscience to be honest with myself about what I could and could not truly believe anymore. I grew up in a Christian home but…was not serious about my faith as a teenager at

Sent in by Tim I grew up as a missionary kid in the Philippines . I am twenty years old, an atheist (I guess), and quite enjoying my place in the world. As I said, I am a missionary kid. Both of my parents have been through seminary and are ordained. My father got his master's degree in Biblical Theology and my mom got a Master's of Divinity. My entire family, including my two brothers, my sister and all my distant relatives, is Christian. I went to private Christian schools from first grade to high school graduation. How is it, then, that I don't believe in what my family considers the most important thing in life? The story of my "escape" from Christianity is more a story of never fully giving in to it. Throughout my life, I have been pretty thoroughly ignored by my family. One factor for my neglect is that I'm the youngest in my family; another is that my brother is (or was) an extremely hyperactive, attention-hungry kid. To add to this, I have always bee

Sent in by Daniel Brown My ancestors were forced out of Europe for being Protestants . Since then, many have been preachers, deacons, missionaries, teachers, and professors teaching and preaching Christianity. I, myself, attended several Christian schools throughout my life and at one time was a religion major with the intention of being a preacher. Throughout college, I served as a youth minister and taking several mission trips in the US and abroad. I graduated from a Christian university and worked for a prominent evangelical denomination for almost eight years. Over the past five years, I have thoughtfully examined what I believe. This is the first time I have ever truly taken the time to dig deep and determine what my position on religion is. This is an important step considering my background. I have come to the conclusion that all religions, particularly the three Abrahamic religions , are fabricated, and are nothing more than folklore and superstition. My primary issue with Ch

Sent in by Howie51 During the Western Canadian mini revival of the mid 70's, Hal Lindsey 's morbid book, " The Late Great Planet Earth " frightened me enough to enter the Christian void. Shortly after my conversion , my scientifically minded wife nearly left me, and having survived that crises, re-considered her departure a year later when my insistence on tithing became a hot issue. Sunday services at First Assembly Pentecostal in Calgary were never missed, and Wednesday evening bible studies and sing songs both left me goose bumped and longing for more. My departure for greener pastures coincided with the unexplained resignations of both senior pastors, and gave me my first initiation into church politics. The hot new faith based ministries sounded alluring. Oddly enough, they couldn't ever get enough teaching on tithing, and the congregation were harassed every Sunday by a glassy eyed businessman extolling the virtues of giving till it hurts and then some. Th

Sent in by Gary Image by TitaniumDreads via Flickr I am an ex-Christian from New Zealand , and while we don't have the same variety of ridiculous Christian offshoots, we have our own quirks (which everybody is obliged to "respect" regardless), such as a recent case where a 14 year old girl was killed in an exorcism where water was poured down her throat to cleanse her of demons. The religion in this case isn't apparent, but it looks to have parts of Christianity mixed with native Maori legends. The case is coming to a close, and the defense of the "divine healer" appears to be one of "she truly believed in the healing power of water, and who are you to judge?" It will not surprise me if the judge acquit him. And this is a part of what drove me away from christianity - the fact that no two people can agree on a wholistic definition of the religion. Some take the bible literally, others "interpret" it with the guide of the " holy sp

By Autumn a predestined tragic end... , originally uploaded by chromatophobe . I grew up in churches. My parents used to change churches if they felt a teacher “wasn’t being true” to the bible. I remember changing churches as being a huge upheaval because all my friends were at church, so it meant going through a long process of making new friends and learning my place in the social strata. I was homeschooled from kindergarten through high school , and my parents involved my brothers and me heavily in the day to day activities of religion. It is painful to write about this, because I would define the religion of my youth as being emotionally abusive . The main church I remember growing up in was Calvinist , as were all the churches we were prone to attend. Calvinism has got to be one of the most damaging forms of christianity out there, but when I was a believer, I thought it was the best thing ever. Being predestined makes you feel important, especially when the rest of the time you h

By Joel W. Bizzell Image by jeffpearce via Flickr Growing up in the Deep South , I got birds eye view of religion. To be specific, Baptists . My parents divorced before I was cognizant of the world beyond my mobile and my testicles. My mother's mother was a good grandparent, but not a very warm or outgoing woman -- not mean, but not one to go too excessively coo. My father's mother, who was the polar opposite of my other grandmother, was the stereotype of the southern granny: great cook, loved to spoil children, and had more love in her heart for he kids than possibly anyone ever before. Anyway, I spent a great deal of time with her from the day I was born right up until her passing last month. She was also a Baptist. (I do want to state here that my verbal onslaught on Christianity is by no means directed at her.) Outside of my Grandmother carrying me to Sunday services as much as she could when I was very young, as well as when I stayed with her on vacation later in lif

Sent in by Travis Frey Image by privatenobby via Flickr Hey everyone. My name is Travis, I am 21 years old. I was born and raised as a Baptist . I grew up believing that the Bible was the literal, inerrant Word of God. I strictly believed that all nonbelievers would spend eternity in hell. That thought caused me much discomfort. Especially when I went to a summer camp and they told us that false believers and "lukewarm" believers would get it worse than anyone in hell. I immediately thought of my parents, whom where really Christian in name only. They "believed in Christ" but that was the extent of it. I didn't see the "work of the Holy Spirit " or "the good fruit" in their lives. I tortured myself at night, pleading, begging to God with tear soaked eyes not to send my parents to hell. Also, my brother is agnostic-ish. I would pray to God that He would help out my brother, and give him the gift of faith! My dreams would be full of visions of

By Mriana What I am about to say is offensive to many of our Christian (and Muslim) visitors, but humans are apes and as such, we are animals. Some of us even behave worse than other animals, especially with how we treat each other, the environment, and even ourselves. Other animals sometimes treat the human child far better than humans treat their own species. Even at a very early age, before I comprehended Darwin, we would go to the zoo, and I would see in the chimps and gorillas, “people” much like us, except with fur. Therefore, there was never a doubt in my mind that we have a kinship with other species, including our pets. My relationship, as a child, with my pets was rather unique, as well as appalling to my religious relatives. My pets, for me, were my ‘adopted’ brothers and sisters. Now let us make something clear. As a human, I am an only-child, but I have always loved my pets as though they were my family. In some respects, they were/are and when I say things like, “