Image via Wikipedia A letter from Siarhei Hi guys, only few days ago I have started to seriously consider leaving my faith and I am trying to get as much info as possible now to help my mind and ease my doubts. Just wondering, 1) how did you dismiss the stories about demon possession/exorcisms. I've hear a ton of them in my years in church, and even from close friends and their relatives, so they are not lies. Is there another explanation to " demons " obeying the name of Jesus, and coming out of people with screams, laughs, and other weird stuff? 2) The Resurrection story- why did disciples were willing to die if they knew it was all a lie? 3) What about miracles of healing, provision, etc.? 4) What about people with near death experience who claim they saw Jesus, Hel , Heaven , but other claim they see their past lives, which is a case for reincarnation . Thanks, Appreciate your answer as I am at the beginning of my journey. S.V.

Hello. I wanted to tell you that my memoir, " Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America--and Found Unexpected Peace ," is available now in bookstores and on Amazon . I'd be honored if you'd buy this book and forward this announcement to your friends to help spread the word. I also have a calendar up on my website so I can see if I'll be coming to a town near you. I also wanted to share with you just some of the glowing reviews of the book. From the Christian Science Monitor: "Lobdell is a gifted writer. Avoiding the disparaging polemics that often characterize the debate between nonbelievers and people of faith, he turns his own story into a fast-paced, engrossing tale, one that is sure to be popular with nonbelievers, but deserves to be read by Christians as well." A starred review from the Booklist: "Lobdell's spiritual journey fascinates, not least on account of the irony of his trajectory from agnosticism to be...

From Paul Nichols I'm 23 years old, about a week away from my 24th birthday. Recently, I have had serious doubts about a God existing with all the terror and pain that is visible in our world. In my heart, I knew that if there was a God, he or she probably wasn't someone I would want to be around anyways. Anyone who could watch the brutality of this world and not do something about it when they could is not my ideal God. I remember watching a documentary about September 11th that my girlfriend said was terrific, and it was. However, while watching the film I started to feel the same pains that my original doubts brought to the surface. So much unnecessary death and why? Because the hijackers believed that what they were doing would bring them many virgins in the heaven they were seeking. The thought made me cry uncontrollably, which was very embarrassing in front of my girlfriend. The problem that persists for me after the realization of a world without a God is my ut...

Image by the mad LOLscientist via Flickr A letter from Mr. Incognito I just need to get this off my chest. My situation now is that although I lost faith 18 months ago, I’m still with the Christian girlfriend whom I met 9 months before my de-conversion. Although she’s pretty liberal in some ways (and pretty), I’ve just had an argument with her over the evils of Creationism and have realised possibly the main threat to our relationship, and it‘s not simply religion: I get angry about being lied to, while she doesn’t! She thinks I should stop being angry and bitter. ”Anything for an easy life”, she likes to say. “Anger rots the soul” (to which I replied it didn‘t seem to do Jesus any harm…). I’ve just successfully managed to get her accepting evolution again after a two year lapse (the lapse was due to a famous English proponent of pseudo-science ), but now to my complete dismay she tells me she has no problem with other people still believing in young-earth creationism - “peopl...

Image by Allie's.Dad via Flickr From Roger Like all others here, I am joyous to see that this site exists. The religious influence in my life was very minimal. My parents had us go to a Christian, Lutheran church until we reached a certain age to make our own decisions (basically, we stopped going before my teens). Additionally, I was very fortunate since the pastor at that church was very non-opinionated and open minded. If it weren't for him and his attribution that human kindness is inherent in all of us regardless of spiritual affiliation, I would have a deep seated hatred of religion beyond the ability of logical reason and understanding. He was very good at not always preaching, saying god, lord, Jesus in every sentence, or a constant thump of the Bible. Why, you may ask, am I talking of this pastor so much? Well, it turns out that one person that attended that church often, sexually abused hundreds of kids, myself included. He was a devout Christian, crucifixes plastere...

A letter from sueetness This is officially my first post - having accidentally briefly told my story on someone else's thread. Since having reconnected with someone who is 'trying to save me' and having never in my life been religious, I find myself looking for signs. Like I want the answer to come to me, as I hear it comes to others through some event that makes them see that they NEED to accept Christ into their lives. I do believe what happened to Jesus. I do believe that he was executed on a cross and I think it's a terrible story and one that happened to many people back in the day when humans were uncivilized savages with no minds of their own. When the ones who took power and control led Hitleresque regimes. I believe he was an amazing person who did have a mind of his own and whose dying wish was that no one should suffer as much as he. I haven't read the bible. I have seen MANY people who claim to be Christian, doing terrible things - almost like they...