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Fundamentalism Screwed Up My Religion
.: posted Friday, October 31, 2003 :::
sent in by Don T. Know
It's sort of funny to have an Agnostic complaining about Fundamentalism screwing up religion. But, upon reading this, I think you'll understand why.
My mother raised us (mostly my sister and I, the two youngest kids) in a Presbyterian Church. In retrospect, it was a "liberal" church – which is to say it wasn't exclusively focused on other-worldly concerns. It also had a this-worldly, humanitarian mission. We learned to try to love all people since God loves everyone. There was no "us" or "them." We were all God's children and we should strive to do our best to get along with others … and to help those in need. Without a creed, it would have represented pure religion as Thomas Paine imagined it: "I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy."
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Freed from religion while still young
.: posted Thursday, October 30, 2003 :::
sent in by Kurt Melin
Greetings to all!
My name is Kurt Melin and i am glad to have found a place in which i can debate and explain myself with other former christians.
My story is not a particularily exciting or dramatic one, but I'm submitting it anyways. I was raised by my parents to be a christian even when I was too young to understand anything in the church or why we went. I went to all of the church functions for most of my childhood, but then I went to confirmation.
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What a time to lose faith, in the middle of Bible college!
.: posted Wednesday, October 29, 2003 :::
sent in by Tom
I have always put the issue of eternal damnation on the back burner of my faith. Going more with the feeling that Christianity gave me and not worrying about such as issues as hell or where Cain's wife came from.
But now I have to ask: What purpose would eternal damnation serve? The human mind can't even comprehend the concept of something never ending. Yet we're to believe that anyone who spends there life (even if it was only a few decades) not believing in a God that never proves his own existence will spend an ETERNITY IN HELL! What the f*ck ever! This is such bullshit. Hell is a neanderthal idea thought up by a neanderthal culture that believed in superstition and fairy tales!
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An Awesome Community Here
.: posted Monday, October 27, 2003 :::
I've read the responses this community have given to the letter, "I need help," submitted by Emily, the 17 year old girl who is deconverting from Christianity, and I am overwhelmed, myself, by the kindness, compassion, encouragement, and depth of understanding in them. And what I realize is that these responses are not just words, they come from REAL people.
Agnostics, atheists, humanists, and so forth, were demonized by the Christian religion I grew up in. As I have made my own journey out of Christianity, I have met people just like you folks here, and see the lie for what it is.
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One Question
.: posted Sunday, October 26, 2003 :::
Hello everyone.
I am no longer a Christian anymore. I recently made the decision, and simultaneously discovered this great site. I found that I could no longer believe in the stories of the Bible, lacking any concrete evidence. I also could not accept some of the terrible morality that the Bible espouses. I am much happier now, but I had a question to ask that has kind of been bothering me for a while.
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Freedom
.: posted Sunday, October 26, 2003 :::
Sent in by Rachel
I grew up as a preachers kid. My father was the pastor of our local church and was always taking us to other churches where he was invited to preach. My mother was the perfect Pastor's Wife, and my brother looked like he was going to follow in her footsteps.
My mother tells me that one night when I was four, I approached her and told her I wanted to give my life to Jesus and 'be saved'. I only remember one thing from this encounter: kneeling by her bed and waiting for SOMETHING to happen. My four year old mind fully expected a light show, a feeling... anything would do. Of course nothing happened I was four years old, not many sins to be cleaned right? By six I was drowning in our church's philosophy. I went to bible camp, started kindergarten in a Christian school, I was witnessing by the age of nine and won a soul to Christ by age ten. I look back and cringe at myself now.
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I still believe in God...
.: posted Thursday, October 23, 2003 :::
sent in by Craig
Neither my mother or my father were what you would call particulars strong Christians but when I joined the boy scouts both myself and my family ended up going to church every Sunday (along with the rest of the scout troop).
There I learnt about god and Jesus and all the other things a Christian should know about and I began to believe.
Now for something surprising, I still believe in God...
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I need help
.: posted Thursday, October 23, 2003 :::
I don't know if I am putting this in the right place, but this is where I figure everyone will see it. I need your collective help as a community.
You may remember me from not too long ago; the story of the 17-year-old ex-Southern-Baptist with depression problems.
It has only been about six months since the first time I said out loud, "I am not a Christian." It has only been about a year since I first began to realize that my beliefs were largely irrational and started to question my faith.
Where I stand now, I am no longer uncomfortable thinking about religion in general; I am firm in my disbelief. However, there are certain things that can...get to me. Triggers, if you will, that set off an enormous wave of emotions, particularly doubt (that I am doing the right thing, etc.).
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I was called a Satanist
.: posted Wednesday, October 22, 2003 :::
sent in by Nick
Let's see. My mother is Catholic, and my father was brought up as an agnostic who believed in God. They married in a Catholic church. My mom is a strong Catholic, attended a Catholic High School, and went to church before marrying my father. When I was born I was baptized, and that was my last experience with church. My mom didn't make us go to church because we were a working middle class family, we really didn't have time, and my mom was nice enough not to force religion on me. Although at school it was a different matter.
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An Ex-Mormon's Tale
.: posted Tuesday, October 21, 2003 :::
sent in by Daniel
I was born into a Utah Mormon family, a descendant of pioneers and Saints who had been without exception faithful in their callings. I spent part of my childhood in Central Utah and the remainder in Southern Idaho, always in the loving embrace of the Church. While still an infant I was already being primed with basic Mormon doctrine. I was a shining star in Primary, a golden boy with golden hair shimmering in the light of the gospel and bright blue eyes beaming the joy of being blessed to be born in the heart of the true church. “A Mormon boy, a Mormon boy, I am a Mormon boy - A rough and rugged sort of chap; an honest Mormon boy!” To this day I can still sing my primary songs word for word. Ah, the many times this boy returned home with an adhesive star upon his forehead!
I recall very vividly my first major infraction of Church protocol. I was seven years old and I was being edified with a Primary lesson on Noah’s Ark. The day before, our family had visited the zoo in Salt Lake City, and it seemed unlikely in my tiny mind’s estimation that anyone might build a sea-going vessel large enough to house all of the animals at the zoo let alone all the animals in the world. Also, I had been impressed with the huge amounts of forage that the elephants were consuming at the zoo, and the logistical problem of feeding every kind of animal in the world seemed apparent to me. I don’t recall verbatim the exchange between wise teacher and enquiring student but it went something like this:
“But how did Noah get all of the animals into the ark?”
“God did it, made ‘em come two by two…”
“But how did Noah get animals that lived far away across the ocean, like kangaroos?”
“God did it…commanded all the animals…and they followed God’s commandment.”
(Do you think there might be two flies buzzing around God’s sandwich as a reward for being obedient? Celestial flies enjoying the blessings of the righteous? But I digress!)
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Why I reject Christianity
.: posted Monday, October 20, 2003 :::
sent in by Mike Douglass
I think with regards to religion, we are born into our particular faiths/ideologies, really, we have little choice. Upbringing, tradition and ultimately fear seem to keep so many locked into blind and unquestioning subservience. One learns very early on in life, that it is wrong to question, that they should simply “have faith.”
I was born into the Catholic faith, and indoctrinated accordingly, and although my parents thankfully weren’t fanatical about it, my brothers and I were still made to go through the motions of confirmation, receiving communion, and the once a week trip to the “lord’s house” to hear the sermons of God’s mediators. I believe I was 12 years old when I began to feel in my heart that something was not quite right with the whole thing, but unfortunately, I was not encouraged to think freely or question, in fact it was just the opposite. Don’t question God, just accept it, do the little rituals, and be like everybody else. This whole attitude of non-questioning servitude seems to have been effectively controlling billions of human sheep for at least 2,000 years! What a racket!
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You Should KILL YOURSELF!!!!!
.: posted Sunday, October 19, 2003 :::
This amazes me! How you put down God! How about you go to http://www.carm.org and find the answers of why God allowed some wars. Further, these false contridictions in the Bible, you didn't take into consideration that through God, all things are possible. Albert Einsten said we use at the most 10% of our brain power, so who posses the other 90%? If you guys REALLY were athiest however, you wouldnt go through all the trouble to make a website, because plan and simple, athiest could careless because in the end it doesnt matter.
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Can a Girl Be the Anti-Christ?
.: posted Sunday, October 19, 2003 :::
sent in by Ellen
It's been a month since I registered here -- a month of gaining strength from being among all of you. Thank you. I don't think I could express the following anywhere else.
My heart starts to race whenever I think about submitting my anit-Testimony because I know truth is required here, and I can't tell it. My story is so conflated with gothic overlays and my own reshaping of memories over the years that I'm not sure I know fact from fiction. I hope a sincere attempt will suffice.
My large extended family, its roots in the American South, was a severely under-educated crew, albeit with gleaming intellect. Most of my family members put this gift of mind into the twisted service of various forms of Pentecostal/Evangelical preachment. Some chose to let neither their intelligence nor their piety stand in the way of their incest.
My parents already had three children, ages six through ten, when I was born. Since she'd almost died with her third pregnancy, Mom was scheduled for an abortion of what would turn out to be me. She found she couldn't bring herself to sign the papers, and instead ran, crying, down the hospital corridor. Weeks after this, Dad was rendered sterile from a case of mumps. These two events were seen by my parents as evidence of Divine Intervention to bring about my birth and to give them the last of their children. These same events were seen, I'm sure, by others in the family as signs of Diabolical Manifestation.
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Parking Lot Preaching in the Bible Belt
.: posted Saturday, October 18, 2003 :::
sent in by Chris "Daye"
I was 15, a Freshman in high school. I left Christianity for Paganism and Wicca. I live in the Southern Baptist capitol of Oklahoma, by the way. The Baptists of the area didn't like my idea much (I actually started thinking for myself! ), so they decided to preach to me. They did so, excessively: at school (both students and teachers. At one point, I was pulled out of my Algebra class by a Bible-thumper teacher so he could preach to me about how worried he is. He even used the words "You think too much when it comes to religion." Fancy that!), at school-sponsored football and basketball games, and even at my house, physically and via telephone, violating my constitutional rights. After about 4 months, I threatene legal action against the school and church, and the harrassment dropped off, for a bit. At one point, however, I was beaten - severely beaten - for being a "satanist".
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Jesus Loves You!
.: posted Friday, October 17, 2003 :::
It is a counterfeit love that is contingent upon authority p |
The Way of the Intercepting Mind
.: posted Friday, October 17, 2003 :::
sent in by Erik
Like most people, I was born into a Christian family. My mother was a baptist, my father a catholic. Luckily, they were both of the "Chicken Soup for the Soul" variety, in that they did not ram church down my throat but just said there was some God up there who loved me and Jesus is his son, and prayer is good...blah blah blah.
Unfortunately for them, I was not in tune with their passive natures. They went to their jobs, took care of their kids, voted in an election now and then. I had more concerns and an eager need to do something about them. My parents would always advise me to just pray to cope with my troubles. That wasn't good enough for me. So I went to church, on my own, to try and "reach" my God. Once again, the sermons I had heard repeated the passivity of my parents: "It's all in God's hands," relax, get through this life and the next will be wonderful. Once again, it was not good enough for me.
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Free at last !
.: posted Thursday, October 16, 2003 :::
sent in by Ian Lowe
I had an unhappy start to my high school years being badly bullied as a youngster: I was intelligent and read a lot in an environment where playing football (soccer) was pretty much the only skill that was recognised.
My mother was suffering her own crisis of faith within the methodist church, and despite my father's protests took my sister and I to the local Baptist Church's sunday school. Within this environment, I suddenly found my intelligence and ability to memorise large sections of the bible being rewarded: I was encouraged and found a little refuge from the beatings in school.
As with most ex christians that I have spoken to, there's a certain disbelief, an almost out of body experience of looking back at my own actions now: I can't see why I was taken in, why I so completely fell for the God-myth. The fact is, fall I did: and hard. I found myself studying the bible to the detriment of my academic studies.
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The Awakening
.: posted Wednesday, October 15, 2003 :::
sent in by Emily
Wow, I have to express my gratitude that this webpage exists. This is a very recent deconversion for me and I am ready to get some things off my chest.
For my entire life, I was raised Southern Baptist. My earliest impressions of religion surmounted to Sunday School cookies and red fruit punch, gold stickers for good behavior, and singing pretty songs. Naturally, the whole atmosphere was pleasing to my childish brain and I loved going to church. My family takes religion very seriously and in this light I would always try and please them. When I was about 9 years old I started reading my Bible. I made it my mission to understand the text completely--front to back, mixing it up for flavor every once in a while, re-reading parts that didn't make sense to me. And I did. I became engulfed in it. I loved this idea of this suffering God--in retrospect, most likely because of some sordid details in my childhood (sexual trauma, etc.) that I will not relate now.
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Free from Christian Mind-Control
.: posted Tuesday, October 14, 2003 :::
sent in by Michael
This is a history of my journey from religious/christian bondage to mental, emotional, and spiritual freedom. I will try to be descriptive so others may get a sense of my journey.
I was reared in a small town in Mississippi. My parents were not really religious but did send us all to the first baptist church(fbc). I am the oldest of 5 children. I am a studious type and enjoyed learning the bible, about god, jesus , etc. My dad's mom was religious and often took us to church. My parents rarely attended church. We were farmed out to fbc from a very early age so my parents could have some peace and quiet to themselves on sundays. I attended regularly for over 16 years.
I accepted it all and jesus as my savior at age 12 and was baptized. I was and am gay and had lots of trauma over god hating me for that and for all my masturbating. I have a high sex drive and was constantly repenting and rededicating my life to god! I had sexual fun with neighborhood boys my age from age ?10 to age 15. We then moved away to the country and I had no friends or play mates. I was active in the church and really believed it all. I witnessed for the lord and was in bible club at high school. I was a sensitive, shy, peace-loving guy. I was ridiculed by members of the f b c youth choir because, on choir tour: I did not stay up late and drink and smoke in the room, I asked them to chill out so I could sleep, I had taken some cuticle remover w me since I had a long time problem with the cuticles growing over my nails, AND ........ well they found it and they started calling me " Mother".
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I Am What I Am ~ And That’s ALL What I Am !
.: posted Saturday, October 11, 2003 :::
sent in by Rex Payne
I am me…unique in the universe; for there is no one exactly like me! Who I am? What I am? And why I am? These are questions that pertain solely to me and my personal evaluation of me. They are questions that are yet to be answered completely, for I am ever changing and evolving on a daily basis. Each new experience adds yet another dimension to the ‘me’ of ‘me’. Whether I slithered out of the primordial ooze some billion years ago, and painstakingly evolved into the complex creature I am today, or was created by an omnipotent deity, are questions that have yet to be answered by the scientific or theological communities, as far as I can determine. I prefer to believe that a divine, universal entity played a major part in my existence. That universal entity is who I perceive to be my God, as I understand Him.
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Babe and Hunk of the Moment – WHY?
.: posted Thursday, October 09, 2003 :::
Controversy is nothing new to this site. Much of what appears on ExChristian.Net creates an emotional response in the visitors. This is to be expected when one considers the nature of the content and the mindset of those who would be inclined to stay more than a few moments. I’ve stated on more than one occasion that I started this site initially as a place to post my testimony documenting my exit from Christianity. It began as a personal place to rant and sort out my own thoughts. In the two years since its inception, the site has grown to include articles written by myself and many others about specific points of interest to persons questioning their faith. Later, I added interactivity including the forums. The interactive portions of the site have grown in popularity and participation. I never really viewed the site as evangelical in nature, or as an attempt to undermine the faith of others. I think anyone who honestly reads the Bible, the development of theological thought, and the history of Christianity, will have all the material they need to undermine their own faith. However, with the apparent explosion of interest in the site, it has at times taken on evangelistic overtones. Some of those with