The stench of bronze age prejudice and sexism that permeates the entire bible is overwhelming, and grotesquely so in the ramblings of the Old Testament. The supposed revelations allegedly codified by the bearded raft rider Moses reveal a male fascination with property ownership, a concept which included anything which did not possess male genitalia. It also reveals a patently bronze age male preoccupation with self-worth, self-importance and a gnawing sense of insecurity, matched only by the ability to regurgitate the same immoral and outrageous demands throughout the opening books of what we know as the Old Testament.

The widespread ignorance among believers of the contents of their own holy book is at the heart of the persistence with which the average believer will shrilly proclaim the moral and divine truth of the bible. Such ignorance shields the utter immoral drivel that is the Old Testament, and for that matter the entire bible. It is amusing to consider that should any publication administration be required to consider an age limit for its content, the tales of the incestuous threesomes of Lot (Genesis 19:30-38), who had earlier offered his daughters as objects for the sexual gratification of a town mob, the brutal butchering of the corpse of a gang-raped innocent concubine condemned by the callousness of her master (Judges 19) or the utter immorality of the bible’s position on equality, democracy, science or any modern moral or political standpoint, would render it undesirable fiction with a considerable age restriction. Indeed, it is ironic that in the midst of the puritan insistence on family values, children are allowed to read the stories of the bible but are vilified for purchasing a copy of Playboy under the convenience store counter. If anything, the moral virtues of worshipping the female form in the manner found in such magazines is a considerable improvement on what the bible has to say on the subject.

On the subject of children, one can only be mesmerized at the degree of indoctrination that is required for thinking adults to accept even the demand for child sacrifice as godly instruction. Whilst the average believer will howl in indignation at the mere suggestion that Yahweh would call for such nonsense, even this damnable instruction is contained in the bible (Exodus 22:29) indeed, Yahweh, being a gentleman, had the common decency to apologize for his exuberance through one of his assigned spokesmen years later (Ezekiel 20:24-26), although this admission was backtracked on when it came to his own firstborn.

The willingness of fellow members of our species to accept the patently false claims and self-apparent fraud of religious institutions, generation upon generation, is something peculiar. It appears not to matter to the believer that the concept of god as the bible portrays it, is a thoroughly immoral one. A vile god of child-sacrifice, slavery and child abuse, who enjoys an unquestioned entitlement to our worship, fear and obedience for no other reason than that he chose to create us to satisfy is own insufficiency. Logically the claim to entitlement over one’s own creation is of course diametrically opposed to any concept of free will or choice, and directly contradicts the kind of god most believers will gravitate towards when pressed on the matter.

Yet what typifies all of scripture can be reduced to the insistence of jealous entitlement, the notion that by virtue of being god, God need neither justify his conduct nor his treatment of salient souls. What typifies religion is the exploitation of this ideal to human ends, for by claiming divine origin in relation to scripture, theology and in particular the claims of religious leaders, religion insists that it is exempt from having to justify its claims or rationalize its conduct, but at the same time enjoys godly rights of entitlement. Whether by deceiving small children into believing one of the bible’s versions of creation, threatening the impressionable with eternal damnation in order to secure obedience or by vilifying science and reason, the ultimate desire of a modern religion, which has lost its position of power, is to achieve a balance between keeping the flock contained with the walls of its intellectual pen, whilst retaining sufficient justification through claimed good intent, alms to the poor and professions of goodwill.

What we cannot lose sight of is that beneath this forced façade, the bronze age demands to kill witches, stone children, oppress women and own slaves are not exceptions to some otherwise sterling work of moral teaching, they are the underlying foundation for the existence of religion. We too often tolerate religious ideals out of some misplaced notion of respect, even when in the 21st century religion rambles on about the evil of homosexuality, the inferiority of women, the will of god concerning political decisions or claims to have authority to determine what children can or cannot learn. As a practical example ask a local congregation to provide its mission statement, its position on homosexuality, female equality, evolution or the destination of your eternal soul. This widespread acceptance of the perpetuation of ignorance and patriarchy in a modern setting reminds us of the root cause of religion identified by Napoleon Bonaparte, that it is founded on the fear of the many and the cleverness of the few.

This is precisely why the hypocrisy of religion is so grotesque, so self-serving and so damaging to the human psyche. The god of the bible is not a benign well wisher, but a jealous, demanding, capricious and frightful being who thrives on the sexism, oppression and forced indoctrination of those whose minds are too vulnerable to resist the shrill threats of this torturous dictator or too ignorant to recognise the fallacy in biblical claims. A being designed by the clever to keep the many ignorant, submissive and eternally fearful.

The only thing worse than an unjustified and unquestionable sense of entitlement is such a sense attributed to a mythical figure. It is worse because we have so convinced ourselves that the evil of religion is not of humans by humans but of god abused by humans. To leave room for man-made religion’s claim of a jealous god whose right to power and entitlement is both unending in eternity and unquestioned in the present, is to facilitate a witch-hunt. A witch hunt of all that is objective, reasonable, fair and most importantly, justified.

At thirteen I realized that I was different than many of my friends. While they braided each others hair, and put on make-up, I was listening to the Beatles, and talking about world hunger to those who were older than I. At thirteen there was one major difference that I noted and could not speak to anyone about…I was attracted to both men and women. I started going to a youth group that was held at a church close to my house. All the kids I knew gathered there, and my parents thought I would “adjust” if I participated in an activity that all the kids my age were participating in. I attended for a few meetings before the topic of sex came up …they said that sex was only for men and women, and that sex between members of the same sex was not only wrong, but would be punishable by damnation to hell. This did not sound right in my fragile mind, but I accepted that I was deviant and needed to keep my feelings to myself. Then I met Desiree. Things changed rapidly in my life, because I had never acted upon my natural urges before. I lost my virginity to her, and when a friend of ours outed us to the church, we were both told to leave and never return. It was at this moment I realized that the church was created by the unreasonable mind of man, and could oust you from society for being different. Sex is natural, and further more, homosexual urges are also natural. I fall in the “grey area” of bisexuality which is pinned by the church as “a cry for attention”…Religion is not only a tool to keep citizens under a “thumb” but also a way of keeping deviant behavior out, and keeping “good followers” on the so-called path of holiness (which of course is the path to hate, and war). I could never belong to an organization who boasts that “god hates fags”. If “god” existed…wouldn’t he just smite the un-worthy??? If “god” is a being of eternal love, why would he want his children (gay, straight, transsexual, or bisexual) to live lives filled with torment and persecution….wasn’t the whole point of christianity to live a peaceful life??? As I grew older I became more and more distanced from the church, and have been more and more happy each day since. The church will not tell me what is the correct way to live. Peace, love and happiness to you all.

My story is a fairly boring one, and it mostly starts with my Mom’s story…
Basically, I was born to a 19-year-old mother who was a part of the Catholic church her whole life. She was devout, loved church and she had jumped through all the hoops, so to speak. (First Communion, etc.) But when she had me out of wedlock, she was immediately shunned from the church and her mother – my Grandmother – still holds unspoken judgments. My mom was confused and saddened that the church she had grown up in, the church she had treasured and loved, and even her own mother would throw her away because of something so victimless. She couldn’t find any logic in it. It was this push away from the Catholic church that paved the way for my free-thinking!

While raising me, my parents completely left out religion. I wasn’t exposed to any of my mother’s religious upbringing, nor was I exposed to my father’s stark Atheism – Although, I think it found its way through! I went to church with my Grandma a few times when I was little, but that was mostly for the guaranteed breakfast afterwards. Growing up in California, it was easy to avoid religion in school, with my friends, anywhere. I feel very lucky for that.

When I moved to Colorado at the beginning of high school, I started going to a non-denominational Christian youth group. This was mostly just for the friends I had that went there. And while the loitering and hanging out with my friends was always a blast, the service was always totally uncomfortable. I remember feeling so worked up by all the live music and speaking in tongues that I totally see how the religious could buy into it… But instead, it just drove me away.

The rest, as they say, is history. Coming out as an Atheist to my parents was easy in that I didn’t really have to do it… They’ve always sort of known and my Dad is a stark Atheist, as I said before. I have a few close members of my extended family who are free-thinkers and the rest of my family… Well, we don’t talk about religion much.

My first day in a Southern Baptist church was 2 weeks after I was born. I was always a bit shaken when I saw how emotional people got at certain times, but I was always bit more calm than anyone else. I stopped going to any services when I left home – I always had something more important to do. I went to my old church for my best friend’s wedding, and all my great uncle (a deacon) said to me was that I needed to cut my long hair. I never went back. When my sister started studying Wicca, I tried to find a religion that was internally self-consistent – the closest I came was Buddhism, which I found as more of a philosophy than a religion. I got bored of staring at walls (meditating) so I forgot the whole thing. I wanted to find a Wiccan get-together, as I have heard they have some wild parties, then I found the Jacksonville Atheist Meetup and went and found I was an atheist and among friends.

Let me start this by saying that it’s always been my belief that you should always be true to yourself, to stay honest to your core values as a person, to be open to life’s experiences and lessons, and to love yourself for who you are. No one has the right to damn you for being you, or to tell you what to believe or how to live your life.

I was raised by christian parents. I remember going to church as a small child, and my best friend at the time was the preacher’s daughter. We often played in the church, but I was afraid of the baptismal tub which sat behind the pulpit. But church was more of an annoyance for me at that age because I was forced to dress up and sit still and be quiet. (I was a rambunctious child.) I was 6 when my parents stopped going to church because they felt the members were often rude to them if we happened to miss a Sunday. My parents remained christian, but denounced the idea of “organized religion”.

My parents often talked of god and jesus, but I never took what they said seriously. Growing up, I tended to equate god and jesus as the same line as the easter bunny or santa. Things that are spoken of, but never actually seen. It was just a word, an idea, something I was too young to understand if I couldn’t see or hold it. I don’t remember being all that interested in the stories, and as I grew older, I grew less patient with them.

But I still I thought I was a christian.

When I was 16, I was a really unhappy kid. I was bullied and picked on at school for being different, and had been treated that way for many years. I had few friends, and my own sister had repeatedly emotionally abused me growing up. I realize now that I went back to christianity because I thought that it would make me feel better about my life.

I thought I needed it.

But by then, I couldn’t do it without asking a lot of questions first. I asked A LOT of questions. I prayed, I talked to my friends, I even have a religious poem somewhere. I had to search and figure it all out. I don’t know why I didn’t go in just full of religious faith, but I didn’t. I HAD to ask.

After six months of this, I woke up one morning with the BRILLIANT realization that I had NEVER believed in any of it, which was why it clicked with me. It had never meant anything more to me than just stories.

God had become the distant relative that’s talked about at family get-togethers without ever actually meeting them. You know the name, you know some attributes, but you live your life not thinking about it.

I was never meant to be christian or a god believer and finally having that knowledge was very freeing.

I hid my atheism for two years.

My mom was a teacher at one point in her life, and at times she still acts like it. I knew that at age 16, I was still a minor and therefore, subject to my parents’ authority. I didn’t want to be pressured or forced into going to church and I know my mom would have assigned Bible study. I knew what my life would have been like had they known and I didn’t want to experience it. I felt I didn’t have a choice but to hide it from them.

I came out when I was 18. It’s the best thing I did for myself up to that point. They weren’t happy. But I didn’t expect them to be.

My family thought it was a phase. They expected me to outgrow the idea of atheism or to become bored with it.

Almost 13 years later, and they know now that it wasn’t a phase. I am open about what I believe with everyone in my life.

My mom has said she considers herself to be a failure as a parent because two of her three children are not christian. This saddens me greatly, because I believe the greatest gift she has given to me as a parent was comfort in asking questions, never being afraid to ask, and to be comfortable with who I am as a person. It’s because of her telling me it’s okay to be different that I am me, that I am an atheist when being christian would surely have been the easy way to fit in, to make friends instead of fighting my way through life, being reliable on myself to solve my problems instead of expecting a god to fix everything.

For her, for that freedom to think and question and be true to myself, I am glad I’m an atheist!

I’ve heard and read many stories from people who have given up religion, this is mine.

Looking back on my life I was lucky to have been raised in a free thinking, relatively religion free household. Both of my parents had been raised in pretty strict catholic families. My dad was an atheist and my mom was only moderately religious. The only time I ever went to church was when I went with my grandparents around Christmas and Easter. I was never particularly religious but I did pray to “god” on occasion. My parents never tried to get me to believe a certain way so any religious beliefs I held were because I chose to. When I was a teenager my maternal grandmother became very ill and developed Alzheimer’s. Now keep in mind that my grandmother was strict Irish catholic and devoted much of her free time to her church. Near the end of her life her Alzheimer’s became so severe that she couldn’t use the toilet on her own nor could she walk or talk. I went with my mom to visit my grandma one day and as I stood there looking at how much my god fearing grandmother had deteriorated I wondered, “If “God” is so loving and caring why is he allowing one of his devout followers to die in such a horrible way?” “Why couldn’t she have retained use of her faculties and just fall asleep one night and never wake up?” Soon after that I began questioning the existence of a higher power and as I got older I dismissed religion altogether. The godless life is truly the good life!

I had the good fortune to be raised by nominally Catholic parents who “believe in belief,” as Daniel Dennett puts it. I can only imagine that they took their faith more seriously in the past. When it came to religion, they once explained that they hadn’t had me baptized as an infant so that I could first attend Sunday school and fully appreciate the meaning of the ceremony.

Then they ‘forgot’ to send me to Sunday school.

By the time I was old enough to question the concept of God (as clumsily explained by my parents), we were only attending church on Easters and Christmases. They had no convincing answers for my questions.

By age four, I was conducting prayer experiments: I placed rocks on my window sill (where God could see them better, naturally) and prayed for Him to change their shapes overnight. Those rocks were always the same shape the next morning.

I attended public school and continued to fling the occasional bartering prayer skyward before tests. ‘If I get a good grade on this test, God, I’ll be really good next week!’ My test results only confirmed that my grades were more strongly affected by preparation than divine intervention.

I made no secret of my atheism in high school. Frankly, I was a bit of an asshole about religion when it came up in conversation. It was at school that I was pointed toward George Smith’s The Case Against God by a friendly classmate. My parents still didn’t know anything about my lack of belief.

I remember getting The Case Against God at a local bookstore. I felt mildly embarrassed at the time. It felt as if I was trying to buy porn. The grandmotherly cashier looked visibly pained when she saw the title of the book she was selling to a young teen. She anxiously struck up a forced conversion about some fiction title (Clan of the Cave Bear, I think) and I think we were both blushing nervously by the time I took my purchase and left the store.

As it turned out, the book wasn’t that impressive. Too much focus on Ayn Rand and the pesky assertion that universal negatives can be logically proven. But the book helped me in one regard: It gave me the chance to come out to the parents. I left the book sitting in plain sight when I finished it. (I never made an attempt to hide books from my parents) Later, my mother whispered to me in a half conspiratorial, half disapproving tone that she had ‘found that book.’ The first thought through my teenaged brain was, ‘Oh crap! My porn?’ Luckily, I didn’t voice that question. She went on to ask about ‘that atheism book’ and sought assurance that I ‘still believed.’ And there it was, the perfect opportunity to tell her my thoughts on religion. All thanks to one unimpressive atheist tract. I saw the opening and I took it.

Naturally, my parents assumed that my atheism was a ‘phase’ for several years. They were vaguely disapproving, but never ramped up the church attendance for my sake. These days we don’t often talk about religion, but they are now reluctantly accepting of my position. Along with one of my cousins, I forgo prayers at family holiday get-togethers. I’ve never had any questions about this practice from the extended family, but I would not hesitate to explain if asked.

Compared to many, I’ve had a smooth coming out – especially considering the reputation of the Midwestern locale. I was always able to laugh off the knee-jerk proselytizing of uber-religious students in my school (there were few), I never had to deal with violence from peers or censure from parents, and the school had several like-minded students I could talk to. Even today as a vegetarian atheist living in Indiana, I am surrounded by many religiously-skeptical peers in my academic workplace.

I only wish others could make the transition as easily and organically as I did. Reading other coming out accounts makes clear the potential for backlash in these situations. It was not until after the fact that I realized how fortunate I was.

There’s nothing like a little religiousity to get the blood flowing, as many former religionists know. I came from the Xian tradition coupled with an ample seasoning of humanism. (My bet is that my mom is as close as one can come to being a free thinker as possible but still be vaguely literalist in the cross bit.) BUT DON’T BE CONFUSED: I am a proud agnostic-atheist because agnosticism is only logical and atheism is the general default that follows most readily from that.

I once thought Jesus would have nothing to do with me, based on my popularity. I once thought he was really interested in my letting go of a little pent up tension -one way or the next, to people’s help and not their hurt. I once thought God should alternately be spelled in lower case and upper case letters and Jesse should be substituted for Jesus every here and there -so we could see the meanings of the passages beyond language. I once thought I might one day see a limb regrown. And now … enough is enough.

If people want to be foolish, they should do it while living their own lives -not a prescribed version -but this, only if they’re intelligent enough. And yes, that’s inflammatory. And yes, that’s okay. And no, you can’t count on a government to do it for you. And yes, we should all stop them from trying.

The facts are these, in short: Grew up all my life in a Christian home with over zealous father; comes from some real psychological absurdity he couldn’t have helped -and maybe, no one else could: chemical &/ trauma-induced imbalance in grandmother. My mother grew up with a father that turned alcoholic, abusively, and womanizingly so, too, and she was left to raise her three brothers in this same home most of her younger years -she somehow sustained some wonderful humanism through it all. My grandfather, on my dad’s side, certainly had his problems, but he was always a skeptic, and educator, even if a believer underneath it all -my dad went more fundamentalist on his own or with some help from the older women in his life -his mom and his grandmother who lived with them. (They, his mom & his grandmom, were also into spiritualism.)

I swooned under the influence of paranormal research, meditative apathy, prayers to a transcendent I-never-could tell-quite-what and three counts of full blown depression (the last two for which I took meds): after several Psychology courses, two Dale Carnegie books, Penn & Teller -especially, Season 3 (which I got from my grandparents -dad’s side- three christmases ago), Michael Shermer in his debate on God/Atheism (militant agnosticism!), and Guy P. Harrison’s (Prometheus publishes it) 50 reasons people give for believing in a god, and Bernard M. Patten’s book Truth, Knowledge, Or Just Plain Bull: How To Tell The Difference -these sources really helped, as did a little reflection and appreciation of the glibly persuasive account of god given by Douglas Adams on evolution/god -it’s maybe 5 minutes long, yet better than several books on the subject.

Somehow, I clawed my way to skepticism, secular humanism, and philosophical pursuits. It didn’t hurt that a personality test placed me in a group of real heady thinkers when I was 20. The Tao Te Ching, read largely in a philosophical context several times over a dozen years, really helped me break free of much of the indoctrination before I learned logic, took a couple introductory literature courses, and began to read the Skeptical Inquirer (their FB stuff is quite good, too).

I guess, I made my own extended therapy through literature, philosophy, logic, life’s disappointments and wonderments, and yes, even the Four Horsemen -though I want to see what is better put and more vigorous and erudite than anything they have to say about atheism.

Screw communism and screw capitalism -and no, I’m not so sure about any -ism, -ian, -ish, or substitute for thinking -or feeling, for that matter. But let them play their part if they accept that they don’t want to stand between those who embrace life and those who won’t get in it’s way, either.

Power to the people.

I’m 31 and still have some libido religion couldn’t snatch away from me. Praise whatever you call-it! -I’m celebrating it/me.

Well, over the last couple of weeks I’ve been making a serious effort to ‘come out’ as an atheist. Granted, my status on myspace and whatnot has said ‘atheist’ for ‘religion’ for years now (prior to that I was agnostic, so there was absolutely no response to that change.)  But back to the present (or at least recent past) when I told my mother (A Universalist Unitarian) she was unsurprised and mentioned that many of the people at her congregation (I hesitate to call it a ‘church’, because of the negative connotation that bears) were also atheist. Again, no drama, no negativity. When I mentioned it to my father, (a retired Navy Captain) I did so by saying “I think my own atheism stems from my childhood appreciation of nature, all the outings, and the David Attenborough documentaries that I loved so much.” His response was “I like the documentaries too. I wouldn’t say I loved them, but I definitely enjoyed them.” I should perhaps, mention that my father, although a successful navy officer of 30 years, was known to be somewhat of a loose cannon, even going so far as to tell the captain of his ship (when he was XO) that the ship was ‘godless’, and when I asked him whether he was indeed Atheist, (because of his intense dislike of Christianity) he said no, he’s more of an Agnostic. Either way, he has the same dim view of organized religion as do I, and he seemed quite cheerful for the rest of that conversation (which I take to mean that he approves.) The only negative responses I’ve gotten (aside from some random fundamentalist on Tagged who got pissed when I responded to her ‘Jesus saves’ tags with a quote by Thomas Jefferson on how Christianity was the most perverted system.) were from my GF and her daughter. My GF (a Wiccan) was just annoyed because I’ve been very noisy about the whole affair, and she does, after all believe in a supreme being, the afterlife and magic, and I embrace the concept of ultimate mortality and reject the supernatural, and was kinda going on about that. The daughter was just annoyed because I’ve been noisy and I’m dating her mom. Which brings me to the ultimate reason that I’ve gotten very little in the way of response: I don’t have christian friends. (except maybe my sister) Most of my friends are Wiccan, and really don’t care that I don’t share their faith, as long as I don’t try to preach lack of faith to them. Of the rest of my friends and family, well, my best friend is Buddhist, and again, doesn’t really care, my youngest sister is agnostic, and the older of my sisters, (still younger than me) while nominally still christian, (she became so while dating a fundamentalist christian in high school) hasn’t been to church in years, and with the lack of a support structure (and in the light of her own substantial intelligence, and the sceptical view of the rest of us), her faith has withered. She never, however, was dogmatic (My father would’ve responded pretty harshly to that) and was in a much better position to understand what an atheist or agnostic REALLY is.

Anyways, that’s my story.  I guess I kinda drifted away from it. Anyways, now I’m gonna go order some shirts and hats and wear them around town (including to the local walmart) and see what happens. It’ll be an adventure, ’cause I live in Pahrump, NV (a particularly odious little hick-town).

I grew up in suburban Detroit in a moderately religious household. We attended church most Sundays. I went to Catholic school from K-9. In all this time, I cannot remember ever believing a shred of dogma. I can remember being very young, in mass, looking around at the stained glass, the crucifix, the candles, and thinking this cannot be right. Of course I didn’t recognize myself as an atheist at that time. In fact, I don’t think that I really believed that others REALLY believed. I think I thought it was a bit of a grown-up joke, just a bunch of rituals and practices that mainly served to bring people together for friendship, gossip and community. The biblical passages and stories couldn’t possibly be truly believed by adults. It was only later in life that I truly understood the powerful hold that religion has over the vast majority of people. This revelation did not give me joy.