Religions and beliefs give people permission to act insane in public without feeling guilty and judgement by the same people that feel the need to act insane.

OK, two things:

(1) The co-author of the study is a tongue-speaking Christian who is also a subject of the study? And they call THAT science? Plleeeaase!

(1) "A recent study of nearly 1,000 evangelical Christians in England found that those who engaged in the practice were more emotionally stable than those who did not."

That is either pure, unadulterated bullshit, or British pentecostals just reflect the local culture--that ability to express little emotion.

Most pentecostals I know are a little bit wacky--pardon the generalization.

These tounges speakers are Wack jobs! I have seen more aldutery, lies, deception in the tounges church then any others by far!These people are as fake as you can get..and many are plain weirdos.
I went to a Penti church one time and had some fat women run around sceaming speaking in bull shit yelling....WTF?? Then she "hugged the pastor" this stuff is so fake..Why dont these people ever speak in tounges when they are alone? Why they always have to do it around other weirdos.

When I was a christian, I heard tongues spoken twice and once heard an "interpretation." I was both awed and freaked out by this and took it as the absolute proof that god existed. After finding out that other cultures and religions can also speak in tongues, I am no longer amazed by this circus act. I can't think of a more useless ability than babbling inanely in a so-called foreign language in order to impress others. It also gives me the creeps.

I'd like to hear from some former "tounge-speaking" ExChrisitans on this subject. I personally never experienced it, because I was too fucking honest to feign a religious experience. I remember when I worked for a christian church daycare when a group of women took me into the sanctuary and started praying over me and I was on the floor crying and I just wanted them to stop. They kept praying that I would get baptised in the Holy Spirit and recieve tounges as evidence of that. I remember knowing that it wasn't going to happen and wondering if there was something wrong with me or them. That same church had a guest "prophet" visit and he was "laying hands" on this guy. He had one hand on the guy's stomach and one hand on his head and he kept telling the dude to speak the tounge that the lord had given him. I could tell that the guy didn't want to fake it, but the preacher wouldn't let up so the guy starts babbling and the preacher was like "That's it!" What a crock of shit!

I never wanted the "gift", so a Christian will say that is why I never recieved it, but I have sincere Christian friends who have begged God for it and never gotten it, because, they, like me, are incapable of bullshit and won't fake it.

If anyone here at EX-christian "spoke in tongues" or sincerely believed you had please respond to this "study"

I believe people actually can do it, while not faking it. "It" being a bunch of bs. But the fact that people from other religions do it proves to me that it's not anything supernatural.

I wrote this before and I'll post for you Nvrgoingbk.
My visit to a Holiness Church

Several years ago, I attended my first—and so far only—worship service in a "Church of God," sometimes called a "Holiness Church." I have refrained until now from publicly commenting on what I saw there, mostly because some of my friends are Christians, and I don't want to offend them. On the other hand, what I witnessed bothers me, and I think that I should talk about it.

The Holiness service was held in what might have been the most impressive church building in a small Alabama town. It began with relative informality, as is often the case with Protestant services. The congregation sang a few songs. Then the preacher gave a sermon that was much less fiery than I'd expected. He might have been reading aloud from the county deed book, such was the lack of emotion or conviction in his voice. The sermon revolved around the world's need for "peace," which the preacher sagely defined as "the absence of war." Just before the closing or "testimonial" phase of the service, the whole congregation—which had until then been divided by sex on either side of the aisle, with the men on stage right and the women on stage left—gathered before the altar and held a lengthy prayer.

It was the testimonial phase that gave me qualms. What seriousness the congregation had kept until then quickly evaporated, as each member tried to out-do the others in their degree of being possessed by the Holy Ghost. One young man, who may have been one of the younger deacons of the church, had a long-practiced technique of whipping his head three times in rapid sequence at least once per paragraph of his eloquent testimony speech. Other men did other things, such as feigning a speech impediment.

But although they tried mightily, the men simply could not equal the women in the shenanigans of being filled with the spirit. The women testified in order of decreasing age. An elderly woman, in the midst of her testimonial, suddenly began uttering syllables of baby talk. And the entire congregation, except for me, pretended to understand her fully. I wish that I could have interviewed them separately afterward to get, from each of them, a translation. I wonder how they would have compared.

A middle-aged woman, in the middle of her words of divine adulation, started having "fainting spells" as the spirit overcame her, but somehow she always recovered from her near-fall before she could hit the floor and bruise herself. I suppose that you might say that heavenly angels had been dispatched to hold her upright. But I noticed that the soles of her shoes remained squarely in contact with the floor, and from what you could see of her legs, beneath her long dress, her muscles were at work in this business of arranging for a fall and for the subsequent recovery, every time.

A young lady in her mid-20s started roaming the congregation while cooing, "Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo," over and over. She would approach a member and gently touch his/her face with her fingertips, as though imitating the touch of a feather, and she'd have done it to me, too, if I had not frowned her away. (By this time, the falseness of the proceedings had fairly disgusted me.) So instead of feathering my face, she started pawing at her own, still cooing away.

But it was the last (and youngest) female who took the prize for the most extravagant behavior under the influence of the Divine Presence. She was about 14 years old. She began her testimony, and being young she had not worked out a standard line farther than two sentences, whereupon she unfocused her eyes in the usual manner. Assuming a blank-faced "I'm a puppet on strings" attitude, she raised her arms out before her with her hands curved inward and held at arms' length. Then she began circling before the altar and flexing her mouth between open and almost shut, apparently trying to give oral sex to God. Instead of demanding an instant stop to this outrageous spectacle, the adults in the congregation, including the preacher and the deacons, clapped and shouted their approval. (For some reason, the men were louder than the women in voicing this approval.)

I don't think that I'd respect a God who took his offerings after the manner of Bill Clinton from Monica Lewinsky. Beyond that, it was evident to me that every member of this church had practiced some technique or other to get momentary attention and approval from the others, using religion as an excuse for behavior that, anywhere else, would have been considered abnormal, foolish, or obscene. A psychologist could probably explain the social factors at work better than I can. I can't help wondering how the hell (excuse me) a church with such customs ever got started.

I never attended another worship service at any "Holiness" Church of God. Even though I am not a Christian, and wasn't one then, I was more offended than amused by the put-on displays of spiritual highness.

Thanks Anonymous II for your amusing recollection of a not-so-holy spectacle. I have seen some crazy shit too.

What I'd really like to see however, is an Ex-christian who actually spoke in tongues (or thought he/she was) to respond. Anyone, anyone...? We'll probably be hardpressed to find even one, because I think that what drove us all to find out the truth about Christianity is also what kept most of us from ever recieving the "gift of tongues", which is the fact that we were incapable of BULLSHIT! That's what it was for me.

Lorena and Michelle also made good points.

Lorena, your observation of the fact that the co-author of the study being a tongue-speaking Christian makes the whole thing biased and a crock was great. Somehow, I missed that part. You are also right regarding evangelical Christians in England supposedly being more emotionally stable than those who do not speak in tongues. Emotionally stable when compared to WHO and WHAT exactly?!? What BS! Evangelicals, whether they speak in tongues or not, are highly dysfunctional people. I should know-I was one of them and was surrounded by them! I would venture a guess that a congregation of many hundred or thousands of church goers would reflect the same statistical correlation as any other group of people in the world. There are those who function well in society and then there are those who don't. Being a tongue-speaking Christian doesn't guarantee ANYONE sound mental, physical or emotional health and in fact often leads to the exact opposite!

Michelle made the point that people from other cultures and relgions also manifest the "tongue" speaking that goes on within the Christian church. So true! They are also known to enter trances, cast out demons in the name of THEIR god, etc. How many times have we seen Christians be "slain in the spirit"? It's just a mimicking of the spiritual trances we see in other cultures. How many "exorcisms" has the Catholic church performed, and what makes their practice different from an African tribal priest having a member drink blood out of an animal's skull to expel THEIR demon?

I spoke in tongues for years, and can still do it today.

While in the arms of delusional thinking, I believed it was GOD speaking through me. It's embarrassing to me now, but that's what I honestly thought was going on. You might say I had magical thinking.

Of course, if it was true that GOD was speaking through me, and the others around me that displayed similar thinking, then of course everything we proclaimed at the authority of scripture.

So, now that I've escaped, what do I think?

Simple really: It's called having a creative imagination, coupled with a desire for significance and the ability to reach back to the time when language was nothing but sounds -- baby talk.

Every human being can babble, in fact we all do it as infants and toddlers. Many people can reach back to that time and resurrect that lost ability, especially under the stress and pressure of religion.

It's certainly nothing supernatural nor magical.

And, it's humiliating to admit that I was so easily deceived by the charlatans preaching this goop.

I was in Fundy church one time and had a Traveling Evangelist "Teach" everyone how to speak in tongues...he called all those who wanted the "Gift" and they were all instructed to get deep into meditation of the lord and open there mouths on the count of three and let the spirit utter...he counted 1...2...3...Speak!!! and everyone started mumbling. I once heard a woman ina Prayer circle repeat over and over Makanaka Makanaka
Makanaka Makanaka Makanaka Makanaka....everyone looked at her as though she was off left field..no one gave an interpretation. Weird

By the way, the person that I heard give an interpretation is now getting a divorce from his wife and they have both become alcoholics. And I used to think these people were so holy!

Makanaka, makanaka, makanaka. Too funny!

i am a 20 year old Australian and i have just decided to leave the church. i was not brought up christian but went when i was 18 and instantly fell in love with the fun and welcoming atmsphere.

i have, and still can, speak in tongues. i have also been prayed for and had very intense spiritual encounters that have felt very real. i was prayed for and told to start talking, and the tongues just came out. for me tongues does not feel very spirital , i found it strange that i didnt know if i even believed in God and could do it, i just wanted to belong.

i feel that people have been very judgemental in their comments. these experiences are often very real to the people thay happen to. i do not believe in God but i belive there is a spiritual world, from what i have experienced there has to be.

my friends feel that tongues is a way of speaking to God, something that only he understands, the devil cannot understand it. they belive that its like a direct access line, and they find a great deal of comfort in that and in not knowing what they are saying.but they say the can often feel the difference between whether they are praising God or praying for something. there has also been a case in my church when a lady was speaking pure Hebrew without realising. another lady(who knew the hebrew language) later went up to our pastor to ask whether this lady knew hebrew. she had never even heard the language spoken. now that doenst make me belive in God but it does make me believe in something spiritual.

the reason i have chosen to leave church is because i cannot accept that jesus is the only way to salvation and if you do not accept him you will go to hell. i also find the many discrepencies in the bible a big problem, as well as the whole denying your true self thing.

but please do not judge these peole too harshly. yes there are many people who fake it, often because they feel they have to to be accepted. but there are many many people with which this is very very real to them, their whoole lives revolve arouncd their faith, and without it they would be completly lost. i almost envy them sometimes.
thankyou and i hope this makes sense.

Scientific studies are not scientific if funded by those who want the outcome to be one way or another.

"Speaking in Toungues" might also be a state of brain much like conscienceness and unconscienceness. Lucid dreaming, or being half awake or in a meditative state. Not everyone is wired to do this. I know some in my family would babble or talk in their sleep, for instance.

I have "spoke in tongues" but not in a religious sense. If one is very very tired or very into a semi-trance state, sometimes it can happen.

Listen to people who meditate, some may make sounds that are unintelligable.

If they want to do an unbiased study they shoudl study the patterns, pitches and such (even via computer) of those "speaking in tongues" to see if there is a language pattern (which may be different between different individuals) and if that pattern is the same with each instance in that same individual but at different times. Then try to find out what that person was thinking/doing or going through in life during that week/month/whatever. And see if there are patterns.

Would be an interesting scientific study.

It may be no more than the human brain (which we still do not know very much about, scientifically) does this in some people as a way of resetting or resting or solving problems, much like sleep does.

Here are a few examples of other "crazy shit" that goes on.It doesn't stop at "speaking in tongues', people have been known to writh and hiss in the aisles like snakes etc...

"One lady who played the keyboard and weighed about 115 pounds was on all fours, snorting and pawing the ground like an angry ox or bull. It was obvious that she was surprised and a bit frightened by what was happening, but at the same time she seemed determined to follow the Spirit's leading (p. 178).
Perhaps a quote by Rodney Howard-Browne might help us understand how and why "Christians" can be so gullible:
"I'd rather be in a church where the devil and the flesh are manifesting than in a church where nothing is happening because people are too afraid to manifest anything. Every time there is a move of God, a few people will get excited, go overboard, and get in the flesh. Other believers will get upset, saying that couldn't be of God. Don't worry about it either. Rejoice because at least something is happening … If someone comes in the meeting, rolls around on the floor, laughs in the Holy Spirit, and does it in the flesh, at least he's not getting drunk or taking dope" (No Laughing Matter, p. 66).

The Toronto Blessing is a physical phenomenon that manifests itself by a participant engaging in fits of continuous laughter or guttural utterances such as making animal noises, for varying lengths of time. This laughter and other noise is considered to be, and is believed by many, to be a manifestation of the Holy Spirit and an indication of the blessing of the Holy Spirit being poured out upon the participant. The phenomenon reveals itself mainly in the presence of many people, primarily during a religious service and also continually throughout the preaching of the message during that religious service. The phenomenon may affect a single individual, several individuals or an entire audience.

Hi Emily -

What you said made a lot of sense. Not only your experience, but that of many people is that glossolalia can be a part of a trance-like spiritual state. It feels real because from a physical standpoint it is an altered type of consciousness.

As you point out, that doesn't mean there is any supernatural explanation. I would question what you heard about Hebrew. If the lady who speaks unlearned Hebrew could demonstrate this for the Randi Foundation, there might be a million dollar reward waiting for her.

I love your thoughtful approach.

It's not the results that are speculative (although there is definitely bias concerns)... its the causal origins of acts/behaviors, and that is as baffling as diagnosing why someone believes in god. If someone attributes a sore foot to a god, how do you test the causal origin? You have to know what you are looking for, before you can identify it, its one of those paradoxes of life. The best that a scientist can do, is attempt to emulate the event, by using causal factors. Not an easy process to say the least, nor does one solution predicate itself as a singular solution only.

Hopefully, people read any findings with a grain of salt and understanding, else, whatever they read becomes what they want it to represent.

My guess, is, and this is just a guess. You won't find any rocket scientists among congregations where they are speaking in tongues, or prominent skilled surgeons, or gifted classical musicians, or accomplished authors, or those of any vocation that takes an inordinate amount of intelligence or expertise.
Those with any exceptional thinking ability will gravitate away from such nonsense, and look back upon it as a phase that they went through on the way to mental maturity. Unless of course they are doing it just for fun. I have seen some really smart people do some strange things, as avocation.
Dano (Just a guess)

Huh. And once, I thought that "speaking in tongues" meant that EVERYBODY could understand what you were saying, no matter their native language (Like at Pentecost, which is a pretty good story :) ), instead of the exact opposite. And everybody pretends they do understand... the Emperor´s new clothes.

Meanwhile: how about this explanation... If you turn on a TV, but it doesn´t receive a channel, all you get is white noise. It´s picture and sound, but no information.*

Seems fairly similar. As speaker said, it does occur in many "extatic" religions, from Derwishes in Islam to Houngans in Santeria.



*Yes, I know the white noise is actually background radiation and therefore subtle information.

I'd like to see the study compare their results to stage hypnotisms.

Although I do think speaking in tongues is a bit different, as webmaster explained, I think a lot of this phenomena can be related to the same thing as done by hypnotist magicians.

Except these church people have worked themselves into their OWN 'hypnotic' trance-state, and so aren't receiving any specific orders to do tricks or whatever.
So they just do whatever comes first to their head, ie. run around, collapse like jelly, laugh, etc.

On stage you see people who say they can resist hypnosis, then next minute they are clucking like a chicken, or worse.

I think the same can be said for supposed exorcisms.
The person seems normal, but once the exorcism begins they become aggressive and act all 'daemonic'.
I think it's just some kind of hypnotic suggestive trance.

If they're really not open to the suggestion it won't work, as has happened to my brother in an attempted exorcism, as well as my mother in an attempted 'slaying in the spirit'.

The medical term is "Oralis Diahreais stupidius",...and I had it for twenty years.
The cure is returning to sanity!

I wish I could be in one of these church. When it's my turn I will go "what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck.." and see how others respond to my speaking in tounges. I also wonder what happen if I choose to grep other women's ass in this divine state of mind.

I agree 100% with Space Monk. It's got to be some sort of self-hypnosis and from all the feedback here, it seems to happen on varying levels; from a simple lowering of inhibitions to full-on trances. And many people do report hypnotic traces as being pleasant in retrospect.

I see nothing inherently wrong with it since it seems to be a great stress reliever.

Please Trust me when I say it's FAKE!!! All of it! FUCKING FAKE!!!

Not everyone fakes it. Like emily said, there are a lot of people who speak in tongues sincerely (like there are a lot of ppl who still believe in jesus sincerly). When I was younger, my family attended an apostolic church where dancing in the aisles and speaking in tongues were regular happenings. When you spoke in tongues, it was the holy spirit talking through you. And for a long time after that I would always speak in tongues, especially when I felt burdened and wanted to pray but didn't know quite what to say. It wasn't a trance or anything...I'd just kinda start babbling and believed it was the "spirit" giving me words to say. Whoa, I'm getting all kinds of flashbacks now...sunday school...benny hinn crusade...*cringe* Anyho, years later, after I had decided against the tongues doctorine, I attended a church with a friend, and the holy spirit happen to fall on this particular service. One of the elder women started speaking in tongues, and by speaking in tongues I mean darting her tongue in and out like she was a looney toon. I was so disturbed. I just told my friend that I didn't feel "led" to go to her church anymore.

I used to speak in tongues. I was never comfortable doing it, and I stopped doing it when I first began to suspect that religion is bullshit. Most of the people were obviously just babbling. Just like the webmaster said, I also feel like a fool for believing this garbage. Looking back, the funniest part about it to me is the other congregants thought they could "interperet" the babbling as a message from god himself.

I am an ex-Christian who has spoken in tongues. I will admit, that I never have done so in church service, though I have witnessed the process many times. My experience came when I was in Viet Nam. I hadn't been in the country for very long. I was on perimeter guard duty at around 1 or 2 am and came under small arms fire. The squad leader was hit. I grabbed the radio and intended to call, "Charlie Pappa, Charlie Pappa, Echo One." (Command Post, and I was in E platoon, 1st squad.) What came out was the same gibberish that I've heard spoken in church so many times. I think believers become so excited that they loose control of the speech center of their brain. Of course, some fake it for the attention. Others, have the experience and assume it is an experience from God.

Scapegoat (facts4u.com)

To Scapegoat above, thank you for serving in our armed forces and happy belated Veteran’s Day. (My Grandfather, as my mother tells me, was a Green Beret in Vietnam.)

The mind is a very powerful thing. It can create, destroy and rebuild, all the while analyzing every minute detail. With so much information and even varying diversity in the levels of consciousness, one can easily see why strong believers in the Christian faith or any other faith for that matter could speak in tongues. What would surprise me more, would be the inflicted person having no background in Latin and speaking Latin fluently (being that was what the first testament of God was written in, it would only be suiting to speak the actual language of God).

However, what we’re seeing here with this “study” is more oppressive Christians trying to explain their beliefs scientifically and failing miserably. It’s obvious for the most part that if you go to Church, you are seeking spiritual guidance, and that is fine, but usually that means you’re struggling with a problem. And when that spiritual guidance fails or it uplifts, whichever way it goes, it sends a very strong emotional shockwave in the brain. These kinds of things, when prompted to stress by a combination of such things as religious obligations, peer pressure and your own will, can cause anyone to blabber uncontrollably. It’s called shell shock.

“There are no atheists in foxholes.”

The shamans, and shysters who have always appointed themselves as messengers of God have always spoken in tongues, and still do. When that preacher stands up there on that pulpit and says totally meaningless crap like: "You must be born again in the spirit", and similar shit, it is the same thing as speaking in tongues. He doesn't know what it means, the congregation doesn't know what it means, but they all accept it as having great significance, and go skipping down the road of life as if they have been blessed by it.
Dano (exbullshittedist)

For what this is worth, about 20 years ago my wife, children and I moved to Raleigh, NC. We visited several churches looking to join but never felt comfortable in any of them. My wife became friends with a lady who lived a few streets away and in the course of their conversations; the lady said that she, her husband and family had started a “home church”. She enthused to my wife how wonderful and spirit filled it was, that her husband spoke in tongues, and the services were strictly bible-oriented. My wife expressed interest in anyone who could speak in tongues so the lady invited my wife to join and my wife convinced me to come along, although I was very leery about it. I’ve since learned not to doubt my instincts.
On Sunday morning we went to their house. I assumed there would be other people gathered there, but it turned out to be just the husband and his wife. Their children were told to go outside and our children joined them. We said a quick prayer, asking that God lead us in this time of worship, and then the husband began conducting the “service” from his La-Z-Boy recliner. He said he spoke in tongues and the spirit would just come upon him while he was reading the bible. He then misquoted, or paraphrased bits and pieces of scripture followed by shouting “You know this is true…you know this is all true!” His wife sat to one side and quietly whispered “Yes, Jesus, yes lord!” to everything he said. Suddenly his eyes rolled up, he flopped back into the chair and began babbling some strange chant. It sounded more like growling and throat clearing with his tongue stuck to the top of his mouth, while he’d open and close his mouth like he was forcing out air. His arms and feet jerked around while he whipped his head back and forth every few seconds. This went on for close to a minute when he suddenly looked right at my wife and me while he was still making this strange sound, and with a startled expression on his face, he stopped. I waited for his wife to offer a translation of whatever he just did, but she kept her eyes closed and quietly said “Thank you Jesus, thank you for your spirit.” The guy looked at me, my wife, and then at his wife and calmly said “Well, that wasn’t speaking in tongues. I just felt the spirit move me to do that.” I asked him what it was then, but he opened his bible and began reading as though nothing had happened. A couple of minutes later, after shouting “You know the bible is all true!” he suddenly did it again. He flopped back in the La-Z-Boy, began shaking his hands and feet, made a gurgling sound, and began rapidly going “Jabah-Booleh-lah-Bwauhhh-Jabah-booleh-lah-Bwauhhhhhhhh” over and over. (That is as close as I can phonetically spell the sound he was making.) He kept this up for about a half a minute. I saw one of his eyes open and look at my wife and me. Since we were apparently not reacting the way he hoped, he again instantly stopped. I found this amusing, peculiar and began to think the guy was nuts! I knew that, according to scripture, there was supposed to be someone to interpret tongue speaking, but his wife said nothing and he offered no explanation. I looked at my wife, she looked back at me, shook her head, and we indicated that, as far as we were concerned, the “service” was over. He asked to say a quick prayer, which we acceded to and he prayed for “his word” to be “revealed to my wife and me, that we would know the truth”. I must have facially indicated that I was disgusted with this performance because he quickly went to the door and called his kids into the house, hit one of them as they came in and almost hit my youngest son. Had he struck my son, based on how I was feeling at that moment, I probably would have just been released from serving 20 years for killing the guy. We promptly left and only saw him one more time, when he came over to our house two days later to try to convince me that he DID speak in tongues and that his was the only “true interpretation” of God’s word.
I have not heard anything more about him, but when I read about people like Jim Jones, David Koresh and Fred Phelps, I can’t help but think this guy is another one of these crackpots just waiting to spring his version of “christianity” on the world.

I'm interested to know if there is any scientific evidence out there that can reject the idea of speaking in tongues. Anybody know of any scientific study?

In regards to the post by warnepiece, I think speaking in tongues is seen in the Christian community as a way to talk to God on a different level. I'm not saying that I fully accept or reject speaking in tongues, but that guy had to be faking it. His only motive seemed to be getting a rise out of his guests and show his apparent amazing spirituality.

I spoke in tongues for years. I can still speak in tongues! Yet, here I am, an atheist.

Every baby speaks in tongues. It's called baby talk.

Here's a link for you: LINK

In reference to Anony's inquiry...

I'm interested to know if there is any scientific evidence out there that can reject the idea of the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Anybody know of any scientific study?

Wow, it's truly amazing to see the number of people that actually posted such one-minded, generalized, remarks. Honestly. It's so sad to hear the horrible situations you have all faced. One time i went to a local grocery store and bought some sour cream. Once i got home and supper was ready, we opened the sour cream only to find it was molded. Now, that was sad. No sour cream?? What were we going to do? Well, we didn't call and complain, actually we just threw it out. I'm sure there was some good reason why the store had molded sour cream on the shelf, maybe it was the last container, maybe it was shipped to them that way...who really knows. But, i didn't stop going to that grocery store just because i had one bad experience. Actually, i just went there today and got some milk. It was good. In case you haven't caught on, the point is, just because you have had one bad experience with someone who claims to be of a certain church, religion, company,... doesn't mean they will ALL be that way. MOST IMPORTANTLY: If you look at PEOPLE you will be let down EVERY TIME. And when we face that situation, no matter where we are, sometimes we just have to throw it out of our minds! Just like i threw out the sour cream. Unless there's only a little mold, then i would just take out the mold and leave the untainted sour cream. People are People but: GOD IS STILL GOD!! and GOD IS STILL GOOD!! If you don't believe it will happen, then it won't. No matter who spits on you! But ultimately, who are you hurting?? Me, ha NO! God, haha NO!! The churches? The saints? I don't think so! I just pray that GOD will have Mercy.

Now, if you think i'm crazy, go ahead and think it!! At least now you know a little bit about me. And by the way, I've been baptized in Jesus Name and spoke in Tongues when the Holy Ghost Came, and Ever since that wonderful day my soul's been satisfied!! THANK GOD!!! I'm saved and I know that I'm saved! There's not a greater feeling in the world!!

Thank you all for reading this comment. I love you all and I pray that someone somewhere will just stop and think before they take one person or one situation and use it to judge a multitude. Thank you again.

Anonymouse said:
"Just like i threw out the sour cream. Unless there's only a little mold, then i would just take out the mold and leave the untainted sour cream. People are People but: GOD IS STILL GOD"
----
Hey Anony-mouse xtian,

Have you taken ANY time to read through this site before posting to it?

For most of us, the primary problem wasn't that the people were like sour cream, but rather that your GOD IS LIKE SOUR CREAM.....well, making the HUGE assumption that your god exists for that statement.

Can't you xtians get it through your skulls that most of us did not leave your god because of people, but rather because we opened our eye's and realized THERE IS NO GOD to worship!!
Your sour cream god's dogma is full of mold and needs to be tossed out, just like your bad sour cream from the store.

Your so called god is anything but 'good' buster.
Try reading the OT and it might wake you up to how 'good' your god is.

Now, do you have any real proof that your sour cream good god really exists, that you can share, other than your lame feelings of such?


ATF

"And by the way, I've been baptized in Jesus Name and spoke in Tongues when the Holy Ghost Came..."

Yay! babytalk is the proof we've all been looking for!! This brings back fond memories of faking tongues at the Penticton Vineyard Christian Fellowship several years ago. I did this because, well, I was a True Asshole (tm). But the clincher was, while doing this one evening, a youth pastor there attempted to 'interpret' them. Bwa ha ha! Funniest thing in the world! Stupid people will always do stupid things I suppose... -Wes

When speaking in tongues, make sure you throw in a lot of gutteral sounds like click-stops and the back-of-the-throat "ch" sound from words like "loch" and "chutzpah". Guaranteed to give you that Authentic Fake Godspeak Sound! ;-)

Signs or no signs, studies or no studies, those who don't belive won't believe, because you are looking in the wrong place. Look at your lives, look at your sin, look at your unquenchable thirst that keeps looking for that one thing that would make you happy and accept that you do need something else, you need saving grace and it is only found in Jesus Christ.