Sent in by Chris Let me first say that this site is a haven from Bible spouting Christian people that I encounter. I am a 23-year-old black man who has come to the decision that I despise religion. I have not grown up on it as others may have, but encountered it at the beginning of my teens. My mother converted to Baptist after years of never going to church and began on me and my brother. I will stop on personal story to tell all here (even the foolish Christians) that I converted to atheism because of doubts and the sneaky ways of Christian followers. Let's start with the doubts that fuel my separation from Christianity and other forms of religion. The first being the question is how an all-powerful and all-knowing God can allow such pain to even exist if he is so loving. Then there's the question of how the Bible can speak of the beginning when nobody was there. Another question is why I have to repent and suffer for the sins of an idiot ancestor. And there is the con...

Sent in by Chris Let me first say that this site is a haven from Bible spouting Christian people that I encounter. I am a 23-year-old black man who has come to the decision that I despise religion. I have not grown up on it as others may have, but encountered it at the beginning of my teens. My mother converted to Baptist after years of never going to church and began on me and my brother. I will stop on personal story to tell all here (even the foolish Christians) that I converted to atheism because of doubts and the sneaky ways of Christian followers. Let's start with the doubts that fuel my separation from Christianity and other forms of religion. The first being the question is how an all-powerful and all-knowing God can allow such pain to even exist if he is so loving. Then there's the question of how the Bible can speak of the beginning when nobody was there. Another question is why I have to repent and suffer for the sins of an idiot ancestor. And there is the con...

Sent in by Steve M Well, let's see. I was brought up in a Baptist environment and of course being a young child I believed all that I was told. As the years passed I became a young adult and was still active in the church. Even taught Sunday school for a short while. Now I am 54 years old and have seen many things transpire in my life and have read the "Good Book" and many other books along religious lines. I have come to see that it is facts that count, not bullshit stories that no one can prove or back up. If it isn't fact, then it is fantasy! I have seen much evil done in the name of God! I just love the bit about how God has given man a free will to make his own decisions. God sez, do it my way or do not pass go and go straight to hell! It's like you're sitting in a chair and I walk up to you with a gun in my hand and I tell you this. I put a 44 to your head and tell you, looky here. You have free will. You can do things my way or I will pull the tr...

Sent in by Steve M Well, let's see. I was brought up in a Baptist environment and of course being a young child I believed all that I was told. As the years passed I became a young adult and was still active in the church. Even taught Sunday school for a short while. Now I am 54 years old and have seen many things transpire in my life and have read the "Good Book" and many other books along religious lines. I have come to see that it is facts that count, not bullshit stories that no one can prove or back up. If it isn't fact, then it is fantasy! I have seen much evil done in the name of God! I just love the bit about how God has given man a free will to make his own decisions. God sez, do it my way or do not pass go and go straight to hell! It's like you're sitting in a chair and I walk up to you with a gun in my hand and I tell you this. I put a 44 to your head and tell you, looky here. You have free will. You can do things my way or I will pull the tr...

Hi, My name is Jillian and I am an ex-xian. You may ask why I started my testimonial as if I were at my first AA meeting. It is simple. I see religion like any other addiction. Things are going shitty in your life, you tend to turn to something external. In my case, I turned to Christianity. Like all other addictions though, it makes your logical thought fuzzy, divides and causes hassles and rifts in your family, and you reason with yourself constantly, that it is actually doing you some good, despite the fact you don't actually like who you are on this "drug" of choice; you think it makes you feel better about yourself and who you are, when in reality you just lose all of who you are and become a fake individual, living in a synthetic, "Stepford wives" kind of pseudo reality. I lived the bliss of ignorance for near 2 decades. Believed what the pastor told me, believed the Ark story, believed the immaculate conception of Jesus... or was it the Davidic bloodline ...

Hi, My name is Jillian and I am an ex-xian. You may ask why I started my testimonial as if I were at my first AA meeting. It is simple. I see religion like any other addiction. Things are going shitty in your life, you tend to turn to something external. In my case, I turned to Christianity. Like all other addictions though, it makes your logical thought fuzzy, divides and causes hassles and rifts in your family, and you reason with yourself constantly, that it is actually doing you some good, despite the fact you don't actually like who you are on this "drug" of choice; you think it makes you feel better about yourself and who you are, when in reality you just lose all of who you are and become a fake individual, living in a synthetic, "Stepford wives" kind of pseudo reality. I lived the bliss of ignorance for near 2 decades. Believed what the pastor told me, believed the Ark story, believed the immaculate conception of Jesus... or was it the Davidic bloodline ...

By HeIsSailing And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil – John 3:19 (KJV) I was a Christian for most of my life of 43 years. I fell away for one simple reason: I finally found the claims of Christianity to be unbelievable. I no longer believe in presupposing that the Bible is inerrant and divinely inspired so that I can wrap my worldview around it. I do not trust the Christian Church, run by mortal and fallible men just like me, to know my path to eternal salvation. Like the noble Bereans, I had to investigate the Scriptures for myself, and read them without the filter of Church Creeds to interpret them. And the Scriptures, while more fascinating than any Creed could make them, do not in any way hold as an infallible belief system. But I want to believe. It is so much easier to fit into society when we all have common beliefs. It is easier for people to relate to each other when we all have ...

By HeIsSailing And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil – John 3:19 (KJV) I was a Christian for most of my life of 43 years. I fell away for one simple reason: I finally found the claims of Christianity to be unbelievable. I no longer believe in presupposing that the Bible is inerrant and divinely inspired so that I can wrap my worldview around it. I do not trust the Christian Church, run by mortal and fallible men just like me, to know my path to eternal salvation. Like the noble Bereans, I had to investigate the Scriptures for myself, and read them without the filter of Church Creeds to interpret them. And the Scriptures, while more fascinating than any Creed could make them, do not in any way hold as an infallible belief system. But I want to believe. It is so much easier to fit into society when we all have common beliefs. It is easier for people to relate to each other when we all have ...

By Nicholas B The first time I ever "faked it," I was in jail, and a pastor was walking around the chapel laying hands on the mens' foreheads, praying for our deliverance from drugs, alcohol, and a myriad of other evils we were guilty of or addicted to. When he came to me, I expected to feel something…anything, but when I didn't, I became embarrassed, flushed, anxious. Nothing was happening. "What should I do now," I thought. I fell back and laid on the floor assuming the "slain in the spirit" position, while the pastor went on and on and on praying, all along thinking that I had been touched by Spirit of Gawd. Another time, we were all sitting around the chapel. The pastor asked the "congregation" if any one in the audience wanted an extra measure of faith. I was nervous. I knew he was going to try and see us receive the "gift of tongues." I was paranoid. "Please, NO, don't come over here," my mind scre...

By Nicholas B The first time I ever "faked it," I was in jail, and a pastor was walking around the chapel laying hands on the mens' foreheads, praying for our deliverance from drugs, alcohol, and a myriad of other evils we were guilty of or addicted to. When he came to me, I expected to feel something…anything, but when I didn't, I became embarrassed, flushed, anxious. Nothing was happening. "What should I do now," I thought. I fell back and laid on the floor assuming the "slain in the spirit" position, while the pastor went on and on and on praying, all along thinking that I had been touched by Spirit of Gawd. Another time, we were all sitting around the chapel. The pastor asked the "congregation" if any one in the audience wanted an extra measure of faith. I was nervous. I knew he was going to try and see us receive the "gift of tongues." I was paranoid. "Please, NO, don't come over here," my mind scre...

Sent in by Butch I’ve enjoyed this site and the support I’ve gotten from reading about so many other ex-Christians around the globe for a while now. I’ve been meaning to write my own de-conversion story but never got around to it. What follows grew out of a recent email exchange in response to a monthly column I write for my local paper, usually about freethinking, atheism, etc. First some background: I grew up in a Southern Baptist home with very loving and supportive parents. My childhood was pretty typical and happy. I was saved as a teenager at a revival, made my public profession of faith, and baptized. For the next 10 years or so I was a Biblical-literalist, born again evangelical. I was active in the church, went to youth camps like Centrifuge, prayed daily, had a quit time almost daily, read the Bible incessantly, and witnessed whenever I got the chance. In short, I was “on fire for God” and I was happy. In my early 20’s (in college of course) I start...

Sent in by Butch I’ve enjoyed this site and the support I’ve gotten from reading about so many other ex-Christians around the globe for a while now. I’ve been meaning to write my own de-conversion story but never got around to it. What follows grew out of a recent email exchange in response to a monthly column I write for my local paper, usually about freethinking, atheism, etc. First some background: I grew up in a Southern Baptist home with very loving and supportive parents. My childhood was pretty typical and happy. I was saved as a teenager at a revival, made my public profession of faith, and baptized. For the next 10 years or so I was a Biblical-literalist, born again evangelical. I was active in the church, went to youth camps like Centrifuge, prayed daily, had a quit time almost daily, read the Bible incessantly, and witnessed whenever I got the chance. In short, I was “on fire for God” and I was happy. In my early 20’s (in college of course) I start...

Sent in by notabarbie I began my journey of de-conversion a little over a year ago, although I had had many unanswered questions for years and just buried them; mostly because I felt sinful for even considering them. It has been a long and arduous quest that continues and I'm sure will for a long time. If it had not been for caring ex-Christians on the internet, I don't know what I would have done. They have been as encouraging and honest as they could be and it has helped me tremendously. I hope I can do the same for others once I'm through the really tough parts. I knew what I would lose when I de-converted, but when I was faced with all the evidence I couldn’t continue on. I'm not very good at faking it and just couldn't do it. It was destroying me. My husband knew of my struggles and questions, but it wasn't until I told him I couldn't go to church anymore that he realized the gravity of the situation. He says he understands and that he has his doub...

Sent in by notabarbie I began my journey of de-conversion a little over a year ago, although I had had many unanswered questions for years and just buried them; mostly because I felt sinful for even considering them. It has been a long and arduous quest that continues and I'm sure will for a long time. If it had not been for caring ex-Christians on the internet, I don't know what I would have done. They have been as encouraging and honest as they could be and it has helped me tremendously. I hope I can do the same for others once I'm through the really tough parts. I knew what I would lose when I de-converted, but when I was faced with all the evidence I couldn’t continue on. I'm not very good at faking it and just couldn't do it. It was destroying me. My husband knew of my struggles and questions, but it wasn't until I told him I couldn't go to church anymore that he realized the gravity of the situation. He says he understands and that he has his doub...

By askegg This is is short overview of my life as a Christian and why I became an atheist. This is mainly for those religious people who may state that I do not know what I am talking about, or that I have not studied Christianity in any real depth. There is a slight problem with the Youtube version - it cuts off one of two closing slides and the credit for the music, which called "High Drama" from the album "Pictures" by Timo Maas. To monitor comments posted to this topic, use .