We're Getting More and More Hits!
Click on the image. The hits usually go down in the summer months, so to grow during the summer like we did is superior. I wonder how we'll do come Fall? Stay tuned. People are reading what we write!
Click on the image. The hits usually go down in the summer months, so to grow during the summer like we did is superior. I wonder how we'll do come Fall? Stay tuned. People are reading what we write!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
42 comments:
It shows me one thing. That for the first time many people are able to see Christianity being questioned objectively in the comfort of their own homes. Plus they have the to option to give some input.
Who knows…I just can’t help but feel that Jesus has himself logged on a few times too.
From the Holy Trinity: Great job John!
Ahhhh, the internet! What a wonderful debunking tool.
It seems there are still die hards who refuse to admit there are errors. I've shown them to those that still hold the position of an inerrant bible but they refuse to accept the obvious. When this happens it is best to move on because true is not what they seek but a desire to just win an argument at any cost and I do mean ANY COST! Leaving religion, Christianity, has cost me most of immediate family. They have declared me a heretic and will have nothing to do with me. Keep in mind, this will continue on their part, till I violate my conscience and return to their interpretation of Bible. You might as well say, THE REST OF MY LIFE! Do you think they are right or wrong in their beliefs?
Check out 2nd Kings 19 and Isaiah 37. Someone want to venture why these two chapters are identical?
How about 2Kings chapter 22 verses 11-20 and 2nd Chronicles chapter 34 verses 19-28. Mere coincidence? Maybe God is suffering from Alzheimer's? You suppose he just forget that story had already been told? What's the answer? Come on Bible scholars, give some input here!
Ask yourself why any sane person, who has spent any time studying the scriptures, would ignore the multiplicity of problems and errors found within the book called the Bible. Numerous theists and apologists have posed conjectured theories as to the explanation for these conundrums and even out right contradictions but very few will admit something is wrong or amiss without a vicious fight. This treasured book, by those who claim to be Christians, holds a hope of eternal bliss, when they die, in a place referred to as Heaven and they are not about to forfeit the possibility of going there. The very thought of the whole concept being nothing more than a myth or even a lie sends them into instant denial. Some will even go to such extreme measures, in their fight for scriptural inerrancy, that they will abandon all rational thought or reason resorting to personal theoretical conjecture to justify the purposed issue sighting Faith as reason enough to ignore any problems with scriptures. I, on the other hand, am a seeker of truth and desire to know the facts no matter what issue is on the line. Sometimes facts alarm even me. I will even go so far as to say they can devastate anyone who is not prepared to face reality.
Are you folks still asleep out there?
Wake up, get involved! Rake me over the coals! I can take it, try me!!
If truth were a commodity you could buy or sell, no doubt it would set upon a shelf and it's product grow stale.
Wow, eddie, you must be really bored. What do you expect from a holiday weekend?
I wonder how much of this increase is just from me? I'm here a lot...
Oh eddie, the truth dosn't do most people much good. They spend most their time finding way around, inspite of it, ect. And that's for everyone not any particular group.
Hi Eddie,
you've happened onto the principle of "check your sources". Christians hate that. ;-)
>To encourage more participation we are going to allow anonymous comments without moderation for a trial period. If a Christian wants to embarrass himself by posting something ridiculous we're going to let him.
I think that's an excellent policy. I used to take the emerging side of skeptic v. emerging v. evangelical v. fundamentalist debates in a facebook apologetics group. This played a large role in showing me my ridiculousness.
Few things are more disheartening to a reasonable Christian trying to argue with skeptics than to have a fundamentalist "helping" out and reminding him that his more reasonable positions are the minority among people who believe the Bible. Looking back, it's really quite hilarious.
Why rely on your own efforts to find and communicate Bible discrepancies when Christians can do it for you?
I just looked more closely at the picture. What? You use IE? I thought atheists were supposed to be enlightened. That's just a bad testimony.
(Btw, I'm kind of a nerd, so I did a linear regression on the numbers. You're at 1121 visitors per day, and this is growing at a rate of .81 visitors per day per day.)
Well, BahramtheRed, I live in a small town where atheists are few and far between. The bible belt is pretty dull! My little town of 10K+ has more churches of every denomination than most large cities. Dull and bored is an understatement! I'm virtually a hermit and have been for the last 6 months since I left Christianity. Family have disowned me and I don't have any hobbies to speak of except writing occasionally. You tell me what you think I should be doing.
>Family have disowned me
Ouch! I'm been agnostic since April and out of the closet since June, but my evangelical family has taken it surprisingly well. Even at that, the transition period is rough. Finding a new identity is just hard to do (I'm still working on it...), and I'm sure your situation makes it worse.
Yes Jeffrey, I also preached where I attended for almost 30 years. My dad was one of the leaders, now deceased, for over 40 years. One of my brothers, sibling, is an Evangelist and was at one time my closest friend but no longer. My wife and daughter are about the only family I have left aside from my oldest brother who is of a different denomination and lives quite a distance from me. Even some of my co-workers have started avoiding me. The last 6 months have been the worst, in one sense, of my life. Those folks I used to call brethren and sisters now avoid me like the plague! It hasn't been easy but then I'm not one to throw in the towel without a fight even if it is on a limited basis.
As a life long atheist, I come to this site for good arguments against the bible. There are many great articles, and many great writers.
The one part of this blog that I cant wrap my head around is the deconversion stories. I have personally helped many christians see the truth behind science. Many have abandoned their persecution of the theories of big bang, evolution, germ theory, anti vaccination, astrology, etc. But to date, I have never helped a Christian abandon their faith in their god. Even slightly.
Im quite well educated in the bible. I can refute most of the philosophical arguments for gods existence quite easily. But I will never, and I mean never, understand how someone can actualy believe in this sh*t. And one step beyond that, I just don't understand what happens when someone spontaneously realizes that its all just myth.
I enjoy reading your deconversion stories. And I appreciate this site as a resource. I just wish someone could come up with a logical formula for breaking people of this delusion.
Bart,
You and me both. While I definitely do not think there is a "silver bullet," I do think John Loftus is onto something with his book. Coming at Christians with insider knowledge is invaluable. The other side, in Christianese, is that you are planting seeds. I would never recommend Dawkin's book to any of the Christian's I know, but that is the book that freed me. I had never heard of Loftus, Avalos, Erdman, Babinski or the like until I was halfway through my deconversion.
As for not understanding how people can believe in Christianity, I understand that point of view from "outsiders." But the psychology of being indoctrinated into a highly refined belief system designed to prevent apostasy is complex. There are complex emotional ties that are deeply rooted in the psyche of a believer. I believe that it takes time to retrain neural pathways. So, even though they may know on a factual level that Christianity is false, emotionally and cognitively they are still using their "Christian brain." I have gone through a rearranging period that has taken many months, and I still feel as though I am only partially complete with the process.
Toby said: "While I definitely do not think there is a "silver bullet," I do think John Loftus is onto something with his book."
Thanks! I hope so.
Sorry eddie, that was meant playful.
I know what it's like being alone though. My brother let himself be indocitrinated at 23 by his wife and I havn't heard from him in three years, my parents are life long talker (at you not to you), and I'm the only on at my job and many seem to think it's their job to convert me.
"Silver BULLET".
Interesting analogy.
By the way, Eddie, if leaving religon, something you think is not even real anyway, was really going to cost me my immediate family, I wouldn't leave.
If I thought it was not real anyway, I would value my family more.
So... what, anon, to show that you value your family more than some made up old religion you should lie to them and put yourself in a mental prison? Is that what you are suggesting?
Anon,"To thy own self be true"! I had no intention of losing my family in the way it came about. That was the result my sibling Evangelist brother created out of anger toward me. By declaring me dis-fellowshipped in front of the congregation. You see, most of my immediate family are members of that faith and felt compelled to acknowledge the dis-fellowshipping (NO CONTACT). My intention was to inform them I was leaving the faith and that I no longer believed but it all blew up in my face, so to speak. My brother saw to that.
Dear rooten, YES.
I value my family that much. Apparently Eddie does not.
To each his own.
Bart,
I haven't told my deconversion story as of yet, but what I can say is that the best way to plant the seeds of doubt to an evangelical is to recommend books written by evangelicals that will eventually undermine the faith.
There were two books written by evangelicals that most influenced my thinking and by following the implications of what they wrote is what lead to my leaving the faith.
The two books were:
Darrel Falk, Coming to Peace with Science. It showed how overwhelming the evidence is for biological evolution.
Kenton Sparks, God's Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship. This drove the final nails in the coffin for the inerrancy of the Bible.
Now granted, I just didn't pick up these two books and read them and then deconverted. Mine was a process over of period of time thinking through the implications of evolution and the problems of Biblical criticism.
Thanks for the tip.
Anon, just to set the record straight, you have no idea how much my family means to me. Apparently you didn't read the whole of my last dialog. No hard feelings I just wanted to set the record straight. My family is all I have left and my brother saw to it that was taken away also.
A key point that most wont admit about religion and atheism. A good number of religious folks have the same feelings as atheists do, they are both very devoted to what they believe. That may sound overly simplistic but understanding this key element goes along way when conversing with religious folks. Learn to give respect for a strong conviction no matter what side of the fence you find yourself on. My rights end where yours begin and vice versa. It's a good guide for getting along with an opposing side.
Sounds to me anon has it backwards. Apparently, eddie's family places more importance on the twisted demands of their religion than on their relationship with him. He didn't end their relationship, they broke contact with him. All he did was be honest. He decided not to pretend to be something he wasn't.
To say that eddie doesn't value his family because he doesn't want to be a hypocrite is complete nonsense.
Anon, when you attack someone's love for his family when you don't know the whole situation then you're a troll who is only interested in stirring up trouble.
Once again Anon you don't seem to understand the chronology of events.
My brother's actions of dis-fellowship were not an anticipated reaction when I first left the faith. How does one get fired after they have already quit???
Association with my family would not have been a problem were it not for the dis-fellowship. My brother was embarrassed and lashed out in haste to save face. What do you not understand about this anyway?
Thanks John, you are exactly right and I appreciate your understanding the situation.
Think of it this way - I see disfellowshipping in about the same light as I see the censorship of political opinions.
They're secretly afraid that your arguments are stronger than theirs, and your mere presence makes them feel insecure. :)
ismellarat is right. It is sort of a sub-conscious thing.
Sorry folks, in order to keep porn sent by Walton from offending anyone we must moderate comments. I can't leave it here while Blogger takes their sweet ass time to see it for themselves.
Ewwww, that word verification thing is back. I'd forgotten about it.
Just before you'd tried no moderation at all, wasn't there a setup that was moderated, but without the word verification?
I'd imagine there'd be less work to do on your end if you let the porn through one time and then just banned that user, instead of having to read everything prior to it being posted. And no anonymous posts.
Does blogger have a "report as a violation" feature you can enable?
HELL YES people are reading what you write! I am a recent Deconvert and feel like I have been...uh...well...BORN AGAIN :-)
Christianity is the biggest bunch of crap on the planet. With sites like yours and exchristian.net, the word is spreading like wildfire. The cat's out of the bag. And the timing is perfect what with Saint Sarah Palin's boozing, born-again, knocked-up minor daughter being the poster child for "abstinence"...how's that for deliciously twisted? LOVE IT!
Sam
"People are reading what we write!"
Of course! There isn't a thing on television to amuse us these days. Watching someone "debunk" something they claim does not exist is far better than wasting time on The Simpsons reruns.
Proof that Christianity "doesn't sit well" with your average human being (a post from www.christianwebsite.com) Poor guy writes:
I'm new to the forum but not new to Christianity... I have a dilema and would like some guidance.
I suspect that I have come to a point of spiritual death through loss of faith and through the giving in to worldly temptations and repetitive sinning. In particular I have given in to lust, although through abstenance I have managed to get it out of my life... I have also had to take away from myself, a fluctuating cannibis and drink addiction in order to try and find some truth and happiness or meaning to life. All good it would seem...?
But after all of this, I feel empty, and I'm unable to enjoy things and find happiness in anything, as if I am void of a connection to all that is God and have been banished to live a life in fear, fear and guilt has been the driving force of my existance for a number of years now to the point where I find myself in isolation, I feel dead.
I have done some reading up and everything leads to the fact that it would seem that I am spiritually dead I am one of the fallen. Is there hope? I am going to be speaking to a pastor about this and see if he can offer some guidance.
However, whenever I think about going back to God I have reservations:
1 - Something inside me is afraid of making that commitment, I almost feel that I am not capable and I am doomed to fail...
2 - I fear that the "world" will think that I will be doing it for the wrong reasons as it seems that most of the people I have encountered in recent years either don't beleive, almost as if it is NOT COOL and that one is weak to have faith as they are unable to deal with life on their own...
Any guidance\thoughts will be appreciated... Thanks
Let's see if Satan will give you a reward for this..........
We'll have lots of chrisitian company. Probally you too, if your like most the good chrisitian folk I know (adulters, heavy drinkers, cheats, frauds, and fakes, and that's just people I personnely know).
Anon wrote,
Let's see if Satan will give you a reward for this..........
So very clever! I'm not sure I could ever come up with this kind of witty retort! But I'll try to be equally deft. Here goes:
Let's see if Jesus will give a reward for your post.......
Yeah! I did it! I wasn't sure I could do it. Oh, man it was touch and go there for a second. I thought I was stumped, but then it just came to me, a retaliatory retort, with cleverness the likes anyone has hardly ever seen, except for your post, Anon, of course.
Post a Comment