Webmaster,

Thank you for a great site.

I'm not and never was a christian or a believer, although I have always been interested in the how's and why's behind people's beliefs.
I think supporting people who are losing their religion is a good thing; though some christians come on here not understanding what this site is about, it seems in their so called unconditional love they're not able to unconditionally support people who no longer think the same way.

Although I find some Ex-Christians comments here a bit harsh towards christians, I can see where they are coming from.
I find it interesting that Christians come on this site anonymously questioning the validity of this site, yet it seems perfectly fine to have a 'christianity rocks' site...to support it is fine,to question it seems to be wrong or unneeded and even objectionable or dare I say it, sinful.

Issues I've struggled with regarding religion in general is this:
-god is an all knowing, all seeing and forseeing omnipotent entity.
-he has created us and the earth, and we are created in his image.

How can I sin? How can god be dissapointed in me if he knows all and knows who I am, as he has created me. If he is all forseeing, then surely he would know what I am about to do, before I even know it myself. How can he be dissapointed in my actions?

It also seems he has rather dubious motives. How can he give an innocent grandmother throatcancer, yet grant say someone like Pol-Pot, muderer of millions, the gift to live peacefully till the end of his days?

It seems this all powerful deity, who has the abillity to create a complete world in a matter of days, is quite happy to dish out global disasters (apparently he is punishing us) but has no desire to stop them. When a loved one dies in a tsunami or flood, we hear people say that god in his infinite wisdom has taken them back to his fold and that it was probably his or her time.
We don't question the fact that this deity could have saved all of them, or that he was perhaps even the cause of the disaster in the first place.

But most interesting of all is that as a non believer, I don't get any signs. I don't get voices in my head talking to me, apart from my own voice. I don't speak in tongues, or 'feel' god or jesus in me. I find it remarkable that some Christians do get this; and you would think that since they are already believers, they would need that less if at all?
Surely myself, as someone who in a Christians eyes is a poor misguided soul that should repent for his sins and start believing, should get some sort of sign; a visitation, a feeling, anything, to startle me and make me wake up to smell the christian coffee?

So in my process of understanding I then turn it around. What if I was a deity and I decided to create earth and mankind (and a universe..for a long time we thought we were the center of the universe..it is only in the last few centuries that through science we have started to understand our own arrogance)..what would I create to make people believe?
Why not make it blindly obvious? Why all the conjecture, books written by third parties who claim to speak in my name? Why not have it come directly from the source? And I don't mean a son who looks human, by all accounts acts and is human and martyrs himself for humans.
Why not manifest myself..or put down a sign of some sort that is so far beyond what we can create that we cannot deny it? That is obvious to all..not just the people who believe in me; as there would be no necessity to believe or not to believe. It would be like gravity itself; hard to ignore when you're walking around on this earth. You can decide not to believe in gravity but there is no point as you cannot ignore it; it is so basic that belief about it doesn't even come into play.

So that's where I'm at. I see that people need structure and morality in their lives. There's plenty of that without religion. There was a time when it wasn't there and religion did a good job of teaching people common values. But to me it looks like something that has gone waaaay beyond what it ever needed to do.

I applaud the people who have come to this site and who are examining their beliefs, wether it is to lose it or to keep it.
Just examining it and asking questions means that you're thinking on your own..that is an important thing.

Thanks for reading my rant:)

Joris