My inadequate words cannot express the gratitude I have for you and this web site. For the last year I have been struggling with abolishing my old christian ways of thought and it has been very difficult because of the many years I had convinced myself that christianity is true. Old thinking habits die hard and slowly.
I think I understand now what I have so many times read about brainwashing as has happened so many times in political and religious circumstances. It can take time to rid one's mind of the habitual thinking that had enslaved you for so many years.
I have no one to blame but myself for my continued delusion about my religious thoughts. No one forced me to think a certain way. No one pushed me into certain beliefs under the duress of torture and I admitedly believed and thought the ways of christianity because I wanted to.
So I am the only one to blame for my stupidity and short-sightedness and the continued pain it caused me.
I am not into the victim bit. I made my own mistakes in not listening to my conscience for so long !!!
Actually Dave, that is a relief. I would rather know that my idiotic beliefs were my fault rather than forced on me by some fascist like dictator.
It may seem that one would feel better that one's idiotic beliefs and behavior were forced on them, but I find comfort in knowing that I was at fault. Why? Because that means I am the master of my own thinking and I can change that thinking for the better.
I want to thank you with all of my heart for your web site.
It has recently provided an outlet for what I had been thinking for so long but had almost no one to share with.
To find people who have left the Judeo-Christian-Muslim God religion(s) and relate to them is hard and risky so I am so grateful for your web site.
If you admit you are an agnostic or atheist after being a christian, many people will think you are the source of all evil and want to either proselytize you to death with their religious beliefs or kill you. So I had been reluctant to express my true thoughts.
Though I am new to your web site I have submitted a number of comments to letters and other testimonies. The comments of mine were blunt and sometimes curt but I hope that they will help others and be within the limits of what you want for your site.
I have found this site to be liberating and a source of relief for me. When you leave a certain faith in a montheistic god, you feel like the rest of the world hates you and will string you up so it is comforting to know that there are many others who are in the same boat and will accept you and welcome you !!!!!.
Thank you Dave - Mr. Van Allen!!!!!
I thank all of the other men and women who have had the honesty and courage to speak up for sanity and civility.
If you will, I would like to be a regular contributor. I desperately need an outlet and whatever comments I submit will hopefully help others who are trying to leave christianity.
I am sorry about your journey away from Christianity, but perhaps it was a journey away from a childish faith that needed to mature. (Many adults have never grown beyond a childish faith.) Remember that faith and doubt are not mutually exclusive and can coexist in the sincere heart and intellect. I hope you will continue to seek and continue read, not only the writings of freethinking atheists, but also those of freely thinking Christians, such as Meister Eckhart (ancient), Karl Rahner (twentieth century, a challenge to read), and Gerald May (twenty-first century).
And pay no attention to "Christians" who curse you for your non-belief. There is no violence in God, who is totally loving and merciful.
"Believe the way we believe or you are going to spend eternity in a mythical place called Hell, a place where you will be forever tormented." That is the basic mantra of Christianity. To all of you Christians out there: Can you not see the manipulation in such a code? Can you not see that that is a scare tactic, one that persuades you to believe in the rest of the crap that Christianity spoonfeeds its followers (demons, Satan, a god, and angels)? Can you not see that you are on the losing end of the biggest fraudulent scam in the history of mankind? Can you not see that your hard-earned money is being used to perpetuate this scam?
I take it you are one in the same. Excuse me if I am in error.
I have read through your intro as to why you are where you are in life, in regards to christianity. I must admit that I found your life story,[ up to the place that you are at now] quite an emotional one. I was amazed at your willingness and earnestness to continue your search for truth, despite so many twists and turns in your life. If I did not know better I would of thought that you would be at a much differant place than you are now.
I can say this for sure "you are an honest man".
I have been a christian for about 20 years, and have seen many wonderful things in Jesus name, as well as strange things in Jesus name. I, like your self have visited differant churchs and so on, but dispite the fruit and nuts that seem to exist in churchs these days I do not and can not say that it would change my choice of who to Serve in this wild and crazy world we live in. I know you know what I mean.
I have to say at this point that I am not sending this to you to change your mind nor to say you are wrong. Far from it. You are intellegent enough to see through any plastic christianity and or rhetoric in my word. In all sincerity I just wanted to let you know that I was very troubled by your experience in you relationship with Jesus. Please, I do not want to seem as though I know something about you that I do not. I would like to know how you did all that you did and not have a sense of relationship an all that you did for the one you thought you did know? [just a play with words for fun sake]. I am sincere in my quesion.
It is very obvious that what ever you do it is with pedal to the metal. I would like to say more but I feel that you may take it the wrong way and think I have other intentions.
I will finish with this. I can understand what you are doing and the direction of your ideology. I am sad to have read your experience in regard to Jesus. If you are truly happy in what you do now. God bless you! I hope you will continue your path of searching for truth.
Unlike you, I was raised in a non-religious household. My father vocally and vociferously despised all organized religion and its attendant hypocrisies, and my mother had no interest whatsoever. I consider I had a very carefree childhood in that respect, no fears of holy ghosts or anything of the sort. I have read a lot of books about Christianity and other religions and have had enough losses in my life to be tempted by the thought of life after death, but education, observation and common sense have always won out and I have never converted to any religion.
I have relatives who are pretty much fundamentalists (Church of Christ) and they are a pretty neurotic bunch on the whole. Luckily their early attempts to influence me (books of Bible stories, etc.) had the same effect on me as Hans Christian Anderson -- even at a very young age I knew I was just reading or listening to another fairytale. It all just seemed so far-fetched and improbable. I love my family, but some or them are a mess -- fear-driven, superstitious, overweight, guilt-ridden and MISERABLE!
It makes me glad, glad, glad that I was raised FREE. And by the way, those who think that atheism leads to immorality are so pathetic. One has nothing to do with the other. In fact, with age and experience I have learned that the more a person mentions his or her Christianity, the more wary I should be.
I felt I should write you because my life experience has been in some since the mirror-image of yours. I'm glad you see the light :) and wish you many happy years of freedom from dogma!
I wish to say that, although you may not be able to control it entirely, I am offended by the occasional, unmonitored anti-Semitism on this site. "Hebrew Demon God" being one of the expressions I see used frequently. Yes, the OT is an outdated, violent book. But the Jewish people have LONG ago stopped practicing any of the more primitive and vengeful things in it; unlike, dare I say, some other religions. And about the OT, as Jewish thought developed, the tales are usually regarded either as a grim moral tales about the fallibility of man, or otherwise tales of Jewish history, or semi-pseudo-history if you like.
Christian or Ex-Christian, or Muslim, must you all accept slandering Jewish people and their tradition as all right? Which tradition, by the way, most Christian and Muslims view through bigoted, slanted, or ignorant eyes, having absolutely NO concept of what Judaism is truly like, and having their information filtered through bigoted, slanted, self-serving interpretation of their religious and political leaders. That, however, is the subject of another rant entirely.
I realize that you cannot monitor everything that goes in this site, and I certainly give you the benefit of the doubt about catching everything said. But it would be nice if ex-Christians would have the decency to respect people who suffered at the hand of extremist Christians much more than they did, and for no plausible reason other than mankind's eternal desire to demonize the “other” and/or find scapegoat. Jewish people have been prosecuted for centuries for a crucifixion of a man who may never have lived at all! It’s deranged fantasy at its best, and it’s both angering and painful.
Oh, right. Judaism is a demonic religion. This is why, during Medieval times, 90% of all women doctors were Jewish. This is why the family has been very important to Judaism, and women were respected much earlier than they were in Christianity and Islam. This is why Hillel, a very famous Jewish teacher living some decades before Jesus was supposedly born, taught the concepts of mercy and forgiveness later integrated into Christianity. This is why Jewish people studied in congregations and sold merchandize while Christianity and Islam were off on virtuous bloody crusades, inquisitions, mass murders and the like.
Well, I ranted. Anyway, thank you.