Image by Mrs eNil via Flickr A letter from Transman To all the believers and religious people who come here, I have some small advice for understanding. Quoting Bible verses to us, offering websites and books of apologetics, and trying to bring other arguments or pseudo (or fraud) claims of proof, will not change anything. As many of us have said before, try comparing it with Santa Claus or other fantasy creatures of our childhood. Once you know that they are really just a fantasy, you cannot go back to believing, even if you tried or really, really wanted to. I can't imagine that anyone on this forum would ever go back. Also, to help you a little further, look at the big picture. Most people don't want to insult you, hurt your feelings, or be in any way negative to you, as a person. Often however, when someone says something negative about your particular religion, faith, denomination or god-person, you are personally offended, because you identify with this god, you treat th

Image by Rayani Melo via Flickr A letter from Evelyn Thank you for this website. I was in pain and searching on line for something, and I decided to search for Jesus is a lie, and I found your website. I read the testimonials, and they sounded like my story. I will write a full story of my experience later but today I would like to share an experience I had Wednesday, December 17. I had spent the morning praying for all of my friends, family, and God's forgiveness. The illusion did help me feel better for a while. I went to my volunteer job and I do not know what happened. A customer was telling me how she looks on the positive side and how it took her a long time to learn. Then she started giving me advice about a joining a bible study. My response shocked myself. I proceeded to tell that I thought God was a sadistic son of a bitch and that Mary had sex with a man and got pregnant, and I would defend anyone's right to be negative. I said more things. I was angry. I told her

From B.R. Christianity is an ethos that penetrates all of life and provides answers that are useful in some cases. For example, answers about how to deal with bitterness that otherwise in a bad case of bitterness would eat someone alive, like a bad cavity that eventually abscesses. If Christianity is not true, and someone comes to recognize that, they still have the problems that Christianity tried to solve, but they are without a solution any longer. While Christianity may not have been correct, was at least practical and useful at some level (Christianity would not exist were it not useful at some level for solving the problems of the human condition . It transcends the mere critiques of Marx or Nietzsche for example). At the same time, I am not saying that we should follow a system, or indeed, give our lives for something that is not correct. In fact, the formerly Christian and now agnostic's position in practical terms seems temporarily at least worse, and rather dangerou

Image by assbach via Flickr From Paul D I would like to say a big Scottish thank you to all the people whom have written testimonies that have been so helpful and comforting to me. My own story is rather long and complicated, and I need to think about how to word things before I go ahead. Until then I am writing this as a reply to all the Christians who write comments on this site in order to convince, scare or browbeat us back in to Christianity. Christians, you are completely missing the point by quoting Bible verses and trying to reason with us, and this is the reason why: You Christians claim to have had a wonderful, life-changing experience, in which the Holy Spirit now lives in you and has given you the very nature of Christ. You say you are full of the Holy Spirit, you are transformed, made anew, born again, etc., and have the love and grace of God in your hearts, and so on. The reason your words fall on deaf ears is not because Satan has deceived us, but because you are

Image via Wikipedia A letter from DJ I am coming to feel less and less at home here in the Bible Belt , and I wondered if anyone could make a suggestion as to a good place to raise my kids religion-neutral, without being harassed and looked down upon. The more specific the better. Thanks.

Image by Stephen Poff via Flickr From Emily Listen to your mind, and not your heart; The pumping of blood is not an art. Not by design or purpose, intent, Were the systems of your body meant. By natural cause they came to be, Just as you are, and all you see. As by nature we are discerned, From nature can our place be learned. A cousin to all that lives today, We are unique... In one percent of our DNA ! I hope everyone enjoyed this off-the-cuff poetry, inspired by the " Listen to Your Heart " post. This is my first of hopefully many submissions here on ExChristian.net. Though I post only once in a blue moon, I check the site every day for everyone's very insightful comments. You folks have encouraged me to stop being the timid, credulous girl I once was, and become the independent-minded woman I am today. I'm looking forward to posting my ex-timony after finals. :D -Emily

From Jackie i pity those who do not listen to their hearts, but furthermore, who do not listen to Christ. Most of you have been Christians or at least "believers" for most of your lives. How is it, that NOW you decide to turn away from God? Has He not been there for you since He came to you? Have you not any wisdom when Satan is deceiving you? God has shown you the truth, yet you still deny Him. Listen to your hearts. Put all the worldly things aside, and truly listen from within. ...then what do you hear? God Bless

A letter from Jesse I found this site through a search i did on google. I started reading through some of the testimonies and was really interested so i kept on reading. I actually am a Christian, but i'd like to share my testimony as well as long as its alright. I grew up going to church a couple times but by family wasnt really the church going type. My family ended up leaving the church because the pastor was stealing from it and doing other corrupt things. It wasn't until i was a Softmore in high school that i ever went back to a church and i only went there because i was invited by a girl i liked at the time. I ended up staying, very skeptical but at the same time i had met some great people so i kept coming back. My softmore summer i went to a camp and asked Jesus if he was real to show me, and if he did i would follow him. I began crying as i felt an extreme happiness. Come over me, it felt so right. So I took a leap and gave my life to Jesus. Later during that camp i wo

Roman statue of the goddess Luna/Selene . Image via Wikipedia From James As I have been reviewing many of the articles on this website I have noticed something that needs to be addressed. Like many of the people here I have had a religious past - Christianity, New Age , Unity, and Wicca . The one thing I have noticed a lot in the articles is the equating of the discrepancies in the Bible with proof of the non-existence of a deity . Disproving the Bible does in no way disprove god. It only disproves the divine authorship of the Bible. Disproving any particular religion does not disprove god either. Religion, and religious texts, are the by-product of people who ponder the questions about god/gods and how they interact with man. What began as innocent stories and speculations, over time became sacred texts and then religions. This is undoubtedly where the bible came from. Bible criticism has brought many bible facts to light through research and very timely investigations. Many are tu

A letter from Benny This website is pathetic...You bash pastors for asking money for their religion and you have a donate button right on the front page... If you left Christianity and have no religion then there is no reason to recruit anyone else... what is it going to win you? A darker non-existence when you die? What then, if you "express" your non-christianity then you get to be some kind of spooky ghost that floats around the earth after you die? Just another attempt at making money, just like you are accusing church people of doing...sad, so sad... And I had hoped people really were sincere about their religious doubt, but you fools just are hoping to capitalize on it...figures...

From Matthew I have been de-converted for around three months now. It's actually been much better leaving a religion that had scarred me emotionally. Primarily, I had an emotional reason for questioning the religion. Now, through my journey, I am compelled to think about answers to What about earth and the human race? Don't these things witness to some kinda higher power? How do we rationalise that? What do we hold onto when facing problems in life? How do we endure it, and what do we hold onto? How do we get finally out of this religion thing once and for all? I don't want to go back into the shell for reason because of fear or unfulfilled answers, but I want to be free totally & be at peace with my existence. Looking forward to your comments.

From John I Googled ' Catholic lies' to see what would come up ... and here I am, with you. I was reared catholic and ditched the insanity of catholicism as soon as I could. why? well, if the teachers of Christianity taught by slapping the crap out of kids and kicking them (a priest in high school almost broke my shin bone), I wasn't going to be much of a student. Catholicism has nothing to do with faith or spirituality and everything to do with the collection of wealth and political power. The church's methods have been among the most brutal in history. speaking of history, a good primer is the book on Faith, part of Will Durant 's brilliant series, " The Story of Civilization ." I like what my Aunt Ruth, your typical intelligent, educated, thinking and thoughtful atheist says, when speaking about the ideas of gods: Why all the mystery? did this intergalactic hero really need to create an earth and solar system billions of years ago and then only 2000 y

Sent in by Jason I just discovered this website today. I wish I had found it about a year ago. I recently moved from Tucson, AZ to a small town in central WA. I grew up in the Midwest and was a devout Christian until I was 15. I finally realized then that I was surrounded by hypocrites and people judging my every move. Now I am happily married to a woman who had a similar upbringing. Christianity was shoved in her face until she couldn't take the B.S. anymore either. We were married in Tucson where we had lots of friends with very similar beliefs and a good support system. We have a beautiful 5-year-old daughter and wanted to live in a small town in the Pacific Northwest . We live in the best school district with small class sizes, and there is virtually no crime here! We live a modest life, and we both have good jobs. Our neighbors have three kids 16, 9 and a 5-year-old. They are a very nice family from Mexico with whom we let our 5-year-old go over and play. Our daugh

From Jonathan I have been viewing the posts on this site for a couple of months now. I feel very connected to the people and the stories that I read on here. I would say that I am a spiritual person that leans towards humanitarian thinking (I have not studied it much) and more agnostic than atheist. I was going to a United Church of Christ church and loved the spiritualism there, but not the push to be a liberal activist. With that little sliver of who I am I want to know how everyone has survived there families that are worried about them, praying for them, still believe god has a plan for your life and that it will manifest itself. I have turned to my parents as of late for support because I have been living a desperate, unplanned (without goals) life for the past 10 years (I am 32). I have struggled with addiction issues these past 10 years too (I have a theory that this happens to a lot of people raised as I was) and have tried 12 step groups, but I found that they reminded me

From ML I was a Christian. Jesus was my rock, my world, my everything. My curious mind got the better of me. I found that Jesus was the sun. And now I don't know what to hold on to!!! I know the truth now! Where to, from here???? Child of Horus , Mithra , Krishna , Dionysus , Jesus....

A letter from Ashley If you all don't believe in God or Jesus, why does this website exist? If in fact you truly believed there was no God, would you need to argue about it? If you dont believe in God, why are you talking about Him? You're talking, arguing, and making statements about a being that ceases to exist in your mind. How does that even work? By discussing Him, you are really proving that He is a being worth being contemplated and discovered. Just a thought.

From TM As I continue to "molt" away the last vestiges of my Christian faith, it's letters like these (from a church I used to visit) that only confirm the absence of any god: "We have all been praying for little baby Levi, unfortunately he passed away early this morning. Please pray for his family, especially his parents. As you can imagine they are taking it very badly! They really need prayers and comfort form God right now!" Prior to this, there were many heartfelt and no doubt sincere prayer requests for this little baby. I guess god felt it best he just freakin' die. Gee....thanks Jesus!!!! Jesus can go F*** himself. If Jesus exists within the framework of the Bible then I'll gladly suffer forever in Hell, shouting "bullshit....you're a goddamn liar" from every day of my torment!

From Dave AC I was directed to this website after talking through email with an individual who participates at this sight. In my search for answers to the question of what is the purpose and meaning of this life I am exploring all systems of beliefs found within religion and those not a part of formal religous rites. My current thoughts and question to this group is this: I was raised in a religious home where my parents were very kind to others, accepting of those who were not of their faith and willing to give volunteer service as encouraged by their church. I have tried to follow their example which has brought joy to myself and family. I embraced many of the teachings and related to parts of the dogma of their church. There are other parts that I do not agree with. I also say that I have the same thoughts about humanists, atheist's or whomever..(I am sure how to identify the groups that are similar but with small differences) There are parts I agree with and some that I don'

A letter from Arthur P I have sympathy for your position. You have been lied to by a false religious system of trinitarian and hellfire dogmas. These things are not actually taught in the Bible. There are better translations than the King James Version and that translation has corrupted the verses referring to something much different than what they have been twisted to say. An example is the doctrine of a hellfire of torment. There is no such thing in the Bible. You are either alive or your dead and unconscious to anything as far as final judgment goes. The trinity, which I won't even give the capital letter to, is a lie. It is not found in the Bible and even they, (The trinitarians), themselves cannot site it anywhere in Scripture. It is a dogma made up by men such as Athanasius who believed that Christ is "fully human and fully divine" when Christ himself had testified quite to the contrary that he was God's son and that their wills were two distinctly separate th

From Still Undecided I wanted to ask for some feedback from anyone who posts on this website or anyone else who wants to respond. I have been actively seeking answers to my doubts and questions off and on for many months and have done a lot of research online, including this website. I've read " Misquoting Jesus " by Ehrman and " God Delusion " by Dawkins. What I would like to ask is "if you could recommend 3 books to me that you have read and found to be the most helpful and enlightening, what would those books be?" There are so many available books on the subject that I don't know what to go to next. I am eager to get on with this, cut to the chase you know? So, any recommendations? Thanks for all input.

This letter was just sent in from a Charismatic believer named Rick who lives in the Bible Belt. He's been overcome with the Spirit of Prophecy, apparently, and felt compelled, so it seems, to share his ecstatic exuberances with us. Hear the Word of the Most High: Your fathers knew that I was God and many prayers were offered for the freedoms you now enjoy. I set this nation on a hill to be a light to the world but now you are filled with darkness and sin. The stinch of your sickness and perversion has filled My nostrils and I Am even now ready to send forth destruction to the whole land. Those who are called by My name have failed to stand against the sin that has overtaken this nation. Your complacency has allowed the evil one to come in and rob, rape and kill. Your failure to do My Word and not just hear has allowed all manner of evil to creep into your very lives. Even now there are some reading this and saying, "What sin? What have we done that this nation should be broug

From Eric I have never practiced any religion and consider myself an atheist. I found this site because I was searching for information about the “Fathers of our Country”. I always argue with my Christian friend who strongly believes this country is based on Christian beliefs which is the furthest from the truth. I have always said religions of any type are dangerous. The stories I have read here have only laminated my opinion on how damaging religion is and how it must remain separated from government. I gave many of these stories to my “Fundy-xtian” and he just says. They are not Christians. I of course say, you just don’t have an answer. When he quotes the bible I tell him it’s pointless because I do not believe one freaking word of the piece of crap. Reading your stories makes me so thankful that my parents did not put me through this torture. My parents both had strong religious backgrounds but kept my sisters and brother out of it. I had a great childhood, I am very close

From SConner I wrote a letter to my local newspaper -- Bible Sends Frightening Messages -- and a few weeks later I received a letter (ground mail) from a person, who had to set me straight, on what the Bible really, means. I would love your responses, so I can send them to him, personally and then give him the web address to Exchristian. I’m hoping he has an email, but I suspect that maybe he does not. I think, perhaps, he is a Jehovah Witness and he might not have a computer – you don’t want JW’s exposed to information and he sent the letter to me personally. He could have submitted it to the Dispatch but it was never printed nor was it found in the web-only letters section, of the Editorial Opinion page. Anyway, have at it and have fun. My letter: This letter is in reference to the Sunday letter "Bible basics influence voting decisions," by John W. Hoberg. Although loving your neighbor as yourself is a commendable and virtuous ideal, the Bible itself is not unequivocal in

From Jeff M As people being free of Christianity, I was wondering what do we do now, as socially responsible people? We see all around us the illogical initiatives of Christians such as Intelligent Design and Creationism, political maneuvering, and general poisonous rhetoric. So we know that they are wrong; we know they are trying to rationalize lies and myths; we know they are passing these lies on to the next generations and trying to change the society to conform to their false ideals. But what do we do? Should we protest politely in front of churches? Join organizations and efforts like secularhumanism.org for largely personal discovery? Do we shout out to stop the madness and be modern-day Martin Luthers? We all share a similar story, and have ended up in the same place - realizing Christianity just isn't true. How can we - or should we - share with and convince others to save society at large? Thank you for any comments you may have!

From Brent OK, I have a question. I had been a Christian for 27 years when I started questioning my faith. I began seeking information about other religions and atheism. Over the past two years, I have searched my heart and mind to come to a conclusion for what I truly believe. During the past week, I decided that atheism made the most sense. Based on the invisible pink unicorn theory, I felt that god/s could not possibly exist. Within three days of making this decision, something strange happened. First, let me say that the paranormal is something I really believe in. Two days ago, early in the morning before dawn, my three-year-old daughter started screaming out in terror from her bed. At first, my wife and I believed that she thought a bug was in her bed. My wife managed to calm her down for the time being. About 10 minutes later, she screamed out in terror again. This time, I had a nauseous feeling come over me and I became very anxious. My wife tried to calm our daught

Hi everyone! I enjoy your site, especially the testimonies of others who've left Christianity like me. The ones that interest me most are ex-Christians who've joined other religious groups. So my question is: Are there any Bahais out there and what drew you into the Baha'i faith? I'm asking this question as I'm interested in the Baha'i faith and would like to touch base with other ex-Christians who've found more fulfillment among the Baha'i. Thanks!

From Freethinking Mom I have been visiting this site on a regular basis for almost a year now. My husband and I de-converted from Christianity in December 2007, and I have posted the odd essay here. Today, however, I come asking for advice. We have three kids. A daughter aged 4 and 18 month old twins. We live in South Africa, and the crèche my kids go to have a loosely Christian foundation. Please understand, this is not the fundamentalist type Christian schools that I have heard so much about in America. They have bible story time and they pray over their food. No hellfire and brimstone nonsense. Unfortunately, the area we stay in is predominantly Christian, and there are no secular pre-schools in our vicinity. We are also not prepared to move the kids to a different school. How do I go about raising my kids in a non-religious home, without confusing them? They are taught at school that you should pray before each meal. At home, obviously, we do not subscribe to such a belief.

From Hoo-Haa Hey there - I've recently found the site and enjoyed listening to your highly engaging, entertaining and intelligent podcasts on the variety of truths I know hold dear - those of anti-theism aka atheism. Like many, I was brainwashed by the xian cult from an early age, slowly throwing bits and pieces of its iffy 'Gospel' into the bin until nothing regarding the 'c-word' but anger and frustration remained. I took a few wrong turns on the way - stumbling into so-called 'liberal' xianity and even gnostic xianity as the result of some kind of guilt flashback in my early 20s. I tripped over paganism and the occult on my way out of that, soon to be rescued (bizarrely) by study of the tarot (a suprisngly excellent map of human psyche when stripped of all the mystic psychobabble and outrageous claims of fortune-telling) and, more recently, the candid, atheist rants of is-he-isn't-he-for-real, Anton LaVey... So, now in my 30's, I'm left deligh

Sent in by Gloria I am telling my story here today because I have a question that I hope someone here can answer for me. If I can find understanding on this last issue, I believe I will be at peace with my decision. I was raised in Protestant churches from the time I was in elementary school. My father never attended but my mother and siblings all did. I believed my mother to be a Christian because of her Christian walk but it wasn't something she voiced particularly. She was a quiet woman and I was a reserved child. I remember responding to an altar call to be saved as a 7 or 8 year old, doing what my pastor said I needed to do and believing that I was born again. Of course, I didn't understand much of what that meant but I do know that from that time on, I was very conscious of any thing I did that might be considered a sin and was sure to confess it that next Sunday in church. Many other times in the next few years I again went to the altar, unsure that I had truly

From Billybee Hi to all, I have been an Atheist for over 15 years. In that span of time I have sought and found satisfying answers to many many of my questions. However there is one question that has never been adequately addressed to my satisfaction. That question is simply; Now what do I do? I've spent countless hours reading and listening to discussions on Atheism. Undoing the tangle of indoctrination has been a feat in itself, but I can happily say that I finally am free from many of the poisonous effects that my childhood indoctrination and adolescent assumptions wrought. I've tried my best to be more careful as to what I can reasonably accept as factual. My favorite component of my Atheistic worldview is having the luxury to be skeptical and simply grant myself permission to be undecided until I've heard more than one side of any idea. I've been through a range of emotions on my journey into freethought. Shock, fear, anger, frustration. Joy, anxiety, resentment an

From Tom: I have been visiting exchristian.net since the past month and I find it very interesting. Are there former ministers who have been to bible school or have studied theology intensively? Is there anyone here from South India? Especially someone who a pentecostal? I am currently a pentecostal from South India (Kerala) but since last year I have been very critical of Christianity. Reading the bible and really thinking about it, the whole thing brings forward may too many holes for christianity (Firefox shows up a typo when I type christianity with a lower case C-hmmm-supernatural) to be a one stop shop for truth. I have slowly started to move away from christian beliefs and have been inching my way to atheism. And in most areas I have started to find answers that gives me some clarification. However there is one aspect that stumps me and I have not been able to find any solid articles regarding it. It's about prophecies. And by prophecies I mean the ability of some pastors

From Alex: Hello all. I'm looking for some input on an experiment I am considering. Before I get into the details of my experiment, a little back story is in order. I'm a 19-year-old guy from southwest England. I was brought up casually Christian. My family isn't particularly religious, but the schools i went to happened to be Christian. I became an atheist when i was around 15 and haven't looked back since. I was never really into it, to be honest; the only reason I believed was because I didn't know there was an alternative. Religious studies in my education was a joke; 90% of the curriculum was about Christianity, and while other religions weren't shunned from the lessons, they were treated with a definite undertone of "check out how silly the non-believers are". In recent years, I have become a little obsessed with researching religion and atheism, and as many of you will understand, it has strengthened my atheism. I have felt an astronomically hig

From ATF This is about an upcoming PBS TV special that will air in Novemeber this year. http://www.orlandosentinel. com/entertainment/tv/orl- exodus2108jul21,0,7755323. story The Nova program will premiere Nov. 18. PBS presented a clip and a panel discussion at the summer tour of the Television Critics Association. The program says the Bible was written in the sixth century BC and that hundreds of authors contributed. "At least the first five books of the Bible come together during the Babylonian exile," says producer Gary Glassman. The program challenges long-held beliefs. Abraham, Sarah and their offspring probably didn't exist, says Carol Meyers, a religion professor at Duke University. "These stories are unlikely to represent real historical events, but rather there's some kernel of ancient experience in there which has survived and which helps give identity to the people at the time the Bible finally took shape centuries and centuries later," Meyers say

Commenting using Disqus Disqus is a comments system that’s new to this site, so I thought we should take the time to run through it to make commenters comfortable with and proficient at using it. What is Disqus? Disqus, pronounced discuss , is a service for blog comments. Disqus enables bloggers to make the conversations on their blogs more interactive and manageable. Our distributed comment system connects readers across blog communities, while empowering publishers in promoting their content. In short, using Disqus is a better way for people to participate in conversations initially started by blog posts. Check out how Disqus enhances the discussion on this blog . How does Disqus work? Like your average blog comments system. With a few extra perks. a compiled a little guide is below: Sort comments What? … You can sort the order of the comments to your own whim: By Oldest, Newest, Hot and Best. How? … By pressing the above ‘OPTIONS’ button. Please … Only reply when the Oldest or