I think it’s finally happened. My Mom has snapped and lost her damn mind. My Grandmother who lives with her, called me all upset because the landlord called there today to ask about the rent money that was due on the first. My grandmother gave her money to go towards half the rent like she does every month and assumed the rent had been paid.

When pressed, my Mother admitted that she had blown the money my Grandmother gave her on a new Xbox and games for my little brother. She had the audacity to tell my Grandmother that she shouldn’t be upset over it because ’she is strong with the Holy Spirit and God will take care of them’. Her behavior is getting more bizarre and disturbing all the time.

To be honest, I think that new Church she is going to may be behind it all. From the pamphlets she brings home, I think she may have gotten herself involved in a cult that has the facade of a Christian organization. I want to find out more. She is always pressing me to go to one of their services or Bible Studies. I am thinking of taking her up on the offer. I want to see what impressions that place gives me.

On the other hand if I go it will give her hope that I’ll change my mind about religion and she’ll try her hardest to persuade me back to the ‘flock’. As much as I know she is a grown woman who has the right to screw up her own life she has two people that depend on her right now and I don’t want to see them out on the street because she’s living in a dream world. What would you do?

When I was sixteen I was resting on my bed, quite relaxed and as I laid there something miraculous happened: I was suddenly having a vision of the most breathtaking place I had ever beheld. It was a seemingly endless field of wildflowers in the most vivid colors imaginable. Each blade of grass was perfectly formed and a healthy bright shade of green. The sky was so bright and cheerful that I felt it’s warmth spread through out my body.

A second later it was all over and I was so emotionally charged that I wept. I thought, without a doubt that what I had was a religious experience. I thought that the holy spirit must have touched me and that I may have even glimpsed into heaven itself.

I didn’t question this experience, I just assumed. I was a Christian and like many people brought up on Dogma, I was taught that when something spiritual beyond the realm of my understanding happens, it is God. Is it any wonder then why so many people who have these sorts of episodes become fundamental in their reasoning? It’s a powerful, emotionally driven standpoint that often can shield a person from any form of persuasion, no matter how logical.

The thing is that most people don’t question the driving force behind these experiences. They chalk them up to God and leave it at that. Yet, isn’t the human mind easily capable of creating such experiences for us? We all know that our minds are quite proficient at making audio and visual hallucinations. So, how hard would it really be for such a miraculous instrument to replicate a religious experience for someone who is open, willing, and oftentimes looking to have such an experience?

I’ve found that I can create the same state of consciousness I had achieved quite by accident, through the use of deep meditation. So much for a miracle. Ah, well. I think it’s more amazing the human mind itself can produce such fascinating results that one would mistake it for God then if it had indeed been God itself.

I’ve been following this thread and it gave me the idea to touch on this subject. What do you believe?

Seriously, why is it that some people feel the overwhelming need to force puzzle pieces together that just don’t fit? I can’t believe these CDD (Christian Domestic Discipline) people are trying to justify corporal punishment for wives through their Christian faith.

Sure, many of us heard the verse about wives submitting to their husbands in the Bible but I guess I have somehow missed the section on beating your wife’s fanny with a paddle and of course, as to be expected, the defunct logic that women need physical discipline or they will run amok like madmen is used to condone physical abuse. Examine the following exerpt from the CDD Blog:

“An older woman once admitted slapping her new husband when, although admittedly quite gentle, he put his hand were the then quite young bride did not think a man ever had any business touching her. She realized the rules of the game had significantly changed when her husband rather calmly seized her hairbrush and acknowledged that what followed really was a much-needed application in a thoroughly appropriate place!”

A sexually naive woman got scared during her first sexual experience and slaps her husband, so he beats her with a brush. How very loving and compassionate; truly Christlike. Just typing that made me vomit into my mouth a little.

My biggest concern is that these people are going to have children and indoctrinate them with the idea that it is a Man’s godly duty to hit his wife if she gets out of line. If grown women don’t mind subscribing to the ideology that they are little more than a household appliance with a vagina who needs to be physically assaulted on a daily basis in order to feel good about themselves, that is their misfortune. Best of luck to them with their mental defect but contaminating young minds with this garbage is perpetuating violence in the household.

Having grown up in a home where I witnessed my mother being abused, I am really disgusted by this farce. Promoting this kind of dangerous idiocy in the name of God is sick. Just one more reason that I find religion intolerable. People always find ways to twist it into something ugly.

Please watch the above video and answer this for me. Why would people move to a small community without checking it out in depth? I mean if they spent enough time there, they would have seen how deeply entrenched the community is with their religion.

I’m not saying people don’t have the right to live wherever they want to but why subject your children to being treated like leapers? Why haven’t these people moved? It may be a nightmare to replace a house or job but in a situation like that, you can do permanent damage to the psyche of your child. Which is more important?

I think it’s awful for a child’s self-esteem to be continuously pummeled like that in order for the parents to prove a point. Protecting your children should be a parent’s top priority not fighting the machine. Am I crazy for thinking that way? Anyone have that same reaction?

I can’t tell you the exact point that I became an Atheist but I can tell you that I started to seriously question the validity of things written in the Bible at the age of twelve. I desperately wanted to believe in God. I wanted to feel as though some great force in the universe was looking out for me and those whom I loved. I wanted to believe in a magical place of endless joys where you are reunited with loved ones who have passed on. I tried to suppress my doubts, playing the part of a good Christian girl while my mind was screaming at me: ‘Something is not quite right here!’.

My mother bounced us around from one Christian Denomination to the next, searching endlessly for a place that fit her fanatical views. Over the years I accumulated Biblical questions that no one could answer to my satisfaction. Eventually, people would give up trying to answer and tell me that God works in mysterious ways or that I just needed to have faith.

That’s when I realized I was trying to find logic in a book based on faith. No matter how hard I tried to mix oil and water the results would always be the same. I started to look elsewhere for answers. The final straw, was when I read the old Testament all the way through. I was very disturbed by what I read and knew then that Christianity was not the right religion for me.

I looked into other religions but none of them felt right. Most of what I read seemed to be based on superstition and mythology. So, while I want there to be a kind, loving God and an afterlife, I just don’t see it. I would love to be proven wrong one day but as for now, in my mind, evolution is the more viable answer.

I am an Atheist and I am telling all of you other Atheists out there that are in hiding - it’s time to come out, stand up tall and be counted. No more can we afford to smooth people over with wishy washy sentiments when questioned about our faith or stammer uncomfortably when the subject of religion comes up. If we can not show any pride in our own ideals, opinions and views, how in the world can we expect other people to respect them?

We need to be taken seriously and we certainly can not achieve that while cowering in the shadows, bound by silence. Many people think that there are very few of us in the world. It’s time we voice our opinions and let others know that they are not alone. If you are an atheist, please consider joining The OUT Campaign.

You can find more on The OUT Campaign on RichardDawkins.net

Every Sunday I am going to post a video that I find on YouTube that I want to share with my readers. Does anyone know if anybody’s given a satisfactory answer to The Riddle of Epicurus to date? I haven’t been able to dig one up. It’s certainly a very perplexing riddle, for sure.

I was a Christian for a large portion of my life and it’s always bothered me how many Christians I’ve known that tend to use religion as a crutch. If they didn’t want to face a daunting task or take the first step to proactively changing a dire situation, they would  simply sit back and say, “God will handle it”.

Even my own Mother, who is in a horrible situation financially, will tell me that “She knows in her heart that God is going to take care of her.” Aside from prayer, she has done nothing to try and remedy her problem. Does she really think God is going to deposit money into her bank account or pull some strings to get her a killer job interview?

Prayer alone does not solve problems. You have to get off your rear and do things for yourself. If fixing things in life were as easy as getting on your knees and praying for it, then no one would be homeless, starving or terminally ill. Yet, these things happen every single day.

Some people desperately need to learn how to swim well enough to keep their heads above water without using religion as a life vest.  Your life is your own responsibility, don’t expect someone else to tend to it for you or it may fall into disrepair.