30 October 2012 in

Christian Fundamentalism & Sexuality


Evangelicals (middle-class fundamentalists) say they face three enemies: the world, the devil, and the flesh.
The world: other people who do not meet evangelical criteria (non-believers, social Christians, progressive Christians, and the non-Christian religious).

 The devil: primary antagonist of God and leader of demons, with whom the devil calls to engage in warfare with God's angels and evangelicals, typically temptation into sexual behavior.

 The flesh: the physical bodies of evangelicals, and as the immaterial soul is the 'true man,' the body merely exists to carry it around. As it is part of this earth, the body is not trustworthy and is constantly at war with the soul, leading into vice, usually sexual behavior, but also gluttony and pride.

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17 October 2012 in

It's OK to "Spread" Atheism

In any given online forum concerning religion you'll get these thoughts expressed about 'pushy' atheists:

"You atheists are as bad as the fundies!"
"Same assholes, different room."
"Atheism is just another religion!"


Each time I post a quote or article on facebook I wonder if it has an effect on my evangelical friends. They are the reason I post things. Have most of them expunged me from their newsfeed already? When I was a conservative Christian I had conservative Christian friends. Now that I'm not, do the things I say mean anything to them? Am I now "a fallen or lost soul" in their minds?

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12 October 2012 in

Books that Helped Me Leave Christian Fundamentalism


BART EHRMAN - Lost Christianities, etc. 
1. "Christianity" isn't a singular religion; it is a cultural category for many disparate belief structures about the founder, Jesus of Nazareth. Most claim to be the true heir to his ministry on Earth. There is no "one" way of being Christian.

 SIGMUND FREUD - The Future of an Illusion 
2. Religion, in general, serves a remarkable number of personal, existential needs, and is thus not likely to be questioned.

 FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE - The Anti-Christ 
3. The morality and magnanimity of The Christ stands in stark relief from the cultural accretion in his name.

 RICHARD DAWKINS - The Selfish Gene 
4. Evolution by natural selection is fact and theory, informing all the life sciences.

 SUSAN BLACKMORE - The Meme Machine 
5. Ideas and cultural processes can be understood in epidemiological terms.

 PASCAL BOYER - Religion Explained 
6. What we call 'religion' may just be a cross-category byproduct of our cognitive inference systems. There is no 'magic bullet' to explaining religious cultural and experiential phenomena. It is more a weaving-together of many faulty inferences about the world and ourselves into one coherent narrative.

 DAN DENNETT - Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon
7. Inquiry into religious beliefs and practices should not be an internal affair only.

 MARLENE WINELL - Leaving the Fold 
8. Religious fundamentalism is an addictive disorder spread through families.

 CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS - god is not Great
9. Religion poisons everything and is therefore best kept to oneself.

MARTIN GARDNER - The Flight of Peter Fromm
10. Having left religious fundamentalism, you can still be a sensible theist, without apology. Martin Gardner was the last theist (really fideist deist) who made sense.

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