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.

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!

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 have been an atheist since i was maybe twelve. before that, my incredibly christian relatives insisted upon forcing me into religion. most of my life until the age of twelve, though, i was an agnostic trying to figure out why i was supposed to believe in god. after coming godless, i had several other religious attempts with different variations to see if they were any different than christianity. they were, but not quite enough for my taste. now, i am a proud atheist and refusing to change. faith just never worked for me.

There was no set day. No event. I’ve been an atheist for over ten years. I argued existence in college with buddies and I’ve made it known on occasion to my family for years. Recently, I became active in the movement. My participation includes debating and posting on YouTube, posting the great YouTube vids I’ve found on my Facebook and MySpace pages and inviting my Christian friends to discuss religion.

I’ve had a few friends delete me since becoming outspoken. Sad as it was, I felt very liberated by my decision to make a stand for what I know to be reasonable and good. Surprisingly, many of my Christian friends have been supportive in my endeavors and see the problems I present. Many of them have commended me for having the courage to speak about my views in spite of their unpopularity. I’ve earned their respect. It has been my great pleasure to learn that most of the fears I carried about what people would think are of little merit compared to reality.

Okay, I’ll bite. My story isn’t as interesting as most people’s. The realization of — and reconciliation with — my nonbelief was nothing special. There was no epiphany, there was no grim realization that everything I believed and had been told most of my life was a lie. There was no great divide in my family, no in-fighting between relatives, no friends turning their backs on me, no girlfriends leaving because they couldn’t stand the thought of my burning in hell… On the bright side, there were no more church services, no more preachers, no more readings from that insane, apparently divine, book…

There was just inner peace. That’s all any of us really want, isn’t it?

From early childhood, I was raised in a Christian family; well, as Christian as we could make ourselves appear, anyway. We hosted church groups in our home, we attended church every Sunday, and in general we have always been good, decent people. Hell! I even attended a Christian school for as long as we could afford it. There was a problem, though. My mom was divorced two or three times by around the time I was born, and I’ve been raised by a single mother for most of my childhood. (Oh, and she had a Buddha in the house, which was apparently why our family fell on so many hard times. Digressing.) Though I never realized it in my young naïvité, we were always looked at as freaks. In the world of religion, the pinnacle of naïvité is the thought that being a good and decent person is enough. The sad, pathetic reality of religion is that everybody around you has to pry into your personal life and judge you — from what little they know about the “wisdom” of the Bible — based on what little they know about your situation. Everybody is a spy, a snitch, and a gossip, and nobody will hesitate to turn on you the moment they find some dirt. Nobody will ever stop to listen to your side of the story, because the verdict is already in. When you’re presumed guilty, everything you say is a lie. Where is the peace, the happiness, that common decency toward one’s fellow man?

There are no friends in religion.

When I was still being compelled to attend church, I spent most of the time ignoring the preacher and the people around me who were babbling in “tongues” and pretending they were all one step closer to heaven than I was. They would read the bible out loud, and after every sentence or two, “PRAISE THE LORD! HALLELUJAH!” Then stop every five minutes to pray, as if their god really wants them to keep interrupting. Have you had someone tap you on the shoulder every five minutes to tell you something you already know? Isn’t it annoying?! Bored as I was, I drew. I studied the bible on a depth that nobody in that room could ever comprehend, and realized how bonkers it was. I even started reading evil secular books during church. It was scandalous, but everyone else was too preoccupied with their delusions to notice.

Was my faith being challenged, or was I incapable of it in the first place?

The fact of the matter is, I’ve always been an atheist, and simply was never aware of that fact. I never really believed — even though I said I did — and I never really cared. It was convenient to say I believed, because nobody thought they had to proselytize to me. In reality, I was more interested in video games than I was in pondering about mythical space daddies in the sky. I was more interested in having fun with friends than being manipulated through guilt and fear with people I neither knew nor cared about. Having a choice between attending a youth bible study with people I knew and tolerated and playing Quake 2 online with people I knew better and actually liked, guess which one I chose without a second thought?

It took no thought; God was just never relevant in my life, and that’s just the way it was.

My story is probably not that interesting (until the more recent stuff) since I was never a believer. I vaguely recall kindergarten Sunday school and having doubts about the creation story. My family attended church off and on, due to my mother’s prodding. Mom might be considered Christian-lite and my dad is probably a weak agnostic. As a boy, I recall going to weekend cub scout event but if you didn’t attend the really wishy-washy church service you had to help in the kitchen (it was more fun anyway!). I left out “under god” during the Pledge in school (nobody noticed). A few years later, my mom made me attend confirmation classes but I thought it was a bunch of nonsense. Shortly after that we switched to a more modern Episcopal church where the minister would occasional swear and I even joined the choir (good snacks!). Too busy or not interested in church during high school. As a college student I never attended church but had a couple of strange experiences with the “faithful”. There was the student down the hall who sent 10% of his financial aid to the church and I remember thinking that was just wrong. There was a fundie classmate who was into the whole young earth creationist thing. This kind of blew me away since we were both in the cell and molecular biology program at a large research university. He refused to answer questions dealing with evolution and even showed me his exams with the zeros. I respected his determination but not the arguments. Up until this point I would probably consider myself a weak agnostic, other than a few run-ins with these characters, religion just had little impact on my life.

In graduate school I met a woman who was catholic. She was not that hard-core, though there were a couple of things she was strict about like not missing church and Lent. I cheerfully followed along, perhaps feeling like I did something “good” by attending church. After a couple of years dating, we married and had two beautiful, intelligent kids. Slowly the Catholicism was replaced by fundamentalist protestant Christianity. It started with a Bible study class which lead to Sunday *night* services and sometimes Wednesday prayer meetings, AWANA, Vacation Bible Study and other stuff. Our library is filled with books by CS Lewis, James Dobson, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell and related ilk. I attend Sunday morning service but have made it clear that it is only to “keep the peace”. All of our friends are church members, so it is hard to develop more than superficial friendships. I can only protest in silly little ways; by *not* singing at church, *not* bowing my head during prayer in church, small contributions to the collection plate (to pay for the air) despite several pleas that god will bless us if we cough up 10%. I’ve told my wife she is free to get a job to pay her 10% but she is so tied up with bible studies that won’t happen. In an odd way this has made me much more liberal on many issues. We don’t attend any charismatic churches and I have told her that there will be serious problems if she moves in that direction.

So we have this impasse. I don’t know if religion has helped my wife become a fantastic mother but on other hand I know it has mediocre wife. To be fair, she probably feels the same way about me. We both know that if things were done all over again under the current conditions we never would have had a second date, so yeah, valentine’s and anniversaries are a bit awkward.

As my children are approaching the end of their high school years they will be under less influence from their mother. There are several looming issues pertaining to college. Their mother has really played up very conservative colleges. I fear attending one of these schools will lock them into a network of like-minded peers, alienating me even further. At this point, the kids have what they think of as a strong faith, is it my job to tear that down? This is a very difficult position, whether a secular or christian university, one parent is going to be disappointed. So in some ways I hope my story is a bit of warning to those consider being “unequally yoked”. From what I’ve observed, people tend to get more conservative in their religious views as time goes on, especially when children are involved.