Amen! ahhh. sorry, Old pentecostal habits die hard. I lost nearly all of my friends and many family members when I deconverted. However, I found myself through the difficult process and realized it was my first responsibility as a human being.

To deny oneself is really a type of self abuse, a mind mutilation or zombiefication. The walking dead cannot feel the sand under their feet, the wind on their face, or appreciate the truly fantastic universe we live in. For them life is a warm up for future events. The real good stuff is on that glorious day. The wonderful is later. It's always someday soon. It is never NOW!

Thankfully, I was born again, again and now know that reason is the rule and I have much to learn about the world and my place in it. This awakening has lead me to much happiness and to others like minded, who are true friends and share my journey.

Hi, I spoke with a member of your organization @ the Reason Rally.
He suggested that you might be the person to help me.
Let me give you some background:
I am a member of a Locl group in York PA. We are an activist group, taking part in many activities, such as marching in parades, letter campaigns, local festivals, etc.
Lately I have noticed new people come to our meetings, attend a couple, then disappear.
Because, first we are not what they are looking for & second, because they are not yet ready for what we do.
I have been thinking that there is a real need here for a recovery group. I have thought about trying to start one, but have no real idea how to go about it.
I am an RN with some psyche training, so I think I could host oone.
How does one start a local chapter of your group?
Any special training offered or required?
Thanx

They always tried to push me to be someone defeated I was never,
they wanted to pretend I was crazy in my family;
they always ridiculed and obstructed my efforts to go on in life,
I always had to pretend that I was following their rules so they don't come in a rage "justified" attack toward my persona
that's what this religious people and "sacred" called family always did to me
forced me to be in situations I never wanted just to humilliate a little more
Always covering their actions as love and the name of god
They said they had the right to do so
They tried to suck the life out of me
I still have scars I'm fighting with I'm mostly happy but when memories come I could become suicidal
It's horrible not to be able to overcome all that so easy
I wish I can overcome all that and be healthy , strong and happy

Hi,

I heard Mr. Dewitt speak on the John Osterlind (spelling?) program on 6/14/2012. He was very polite, cordial, and informed. He seems to base his "deconversion" to atheism on the fact that neither God, nor the bible, nor heaven or hell, nor any religion for that matter, can be scientifically proven. He reiterated several times that there is no "evidence" that any of the above exist. While I certainly agree that the above cannot be "scientifically proven," it is equally true that the "lack of God", or the "lack of heaven/hell" cannot be proven. There is no hard evidence proving the non-existence of a deity. There is no hard evidence proving the non-existence of heaven or hell. Ultimately, it takes a leap of FAITH. That's what Christianity and all religion (and even atheism) is all about. Mr. Dewitt still has faith. However, he now places his faith elsewhere. Mr. Dewitt's faith is that "there is no god." If his position is that because there is no evidence, then God must not exist, then his position should also be, because there is no evidence proving God doesn't exist, then God must exist. Because the above sentence is completely contradictory to itself, it is hard for me to see how Mr. Dewitt can be atheist on the basis that there is no proof of God. Mr. Dewitt may more accurately be described as agnostic. That is, he believes that whether or not God exists is "unknowable," but he doesn't accept or reject God one way or the other.

It is an interesting debate. One that is even more fascinating when it can be talked about respectfully. Mr. Dewitt was certainly respectful in his interview with John Osterlind and all of the callers. If God and heaven and hell do in fact exist, we'll know one day. Until then, to each his own.

"There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies?"

"We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."

"What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?"

Richard Dawkins

Good points Mr. Dawkins, and well taken. The point I was making in the earlier post is that, one can be atheist (about God, gods, theology, religion, and even fairies at the bottom of the garden), but not because they can't be proven, but becuase one has FAITH that those things do not exist. That faith is generally based on a totality of the circumstances that one has been exposed (or not exposed) to. For example, some people have never been exposed to a divine religious experience, others have - thus diverging faiths.

Some theological teachings are very useful. For instance, pedophilia was unashamedly practiced by both the Greek and Roman cultures. Today, we call that child molestation, widely due to the influence of Christ's followers.

Further, the status of women has also been elevated because of the Christian world view. In ancient times, women were little more than property. Wives were not allowed to speak in public in ancient Greece. Baby girls were expendable and often killed or left to die. The New Testament concept of all being one in Christ, as well as the concept of husband and wife being a picture of Christ and His Church have forever altered man's view of woman. Nowhere else, before the Christian Scriptures, would you find the concept of sacrificially loving your wife.

The above two examples are demonstrably true, and were not obvious at one time in history.

Thank you for sharing that piece by Jerry Dewitt. Thank you for this site. If you would have told me that a conservative Muslim would be essentially excommunicated from her entire community for rejecting the faith of her parents, I'd completely understand. However, in the process of giving up my faith, I was surprised by how equally this is true for a modern-day, urban-dwelling, contemporary (though conservative) Christian. To be honest, I have not told most people. However, those that know have rejected me (well, of course, they will pray for the demonic forces holding me captive to loosen their hold on me, but until that prayer is answered, they will keep their distance). I have been criticized by my family for some changes I have made (even though they do not know the larger changes in thinking that I've made). It has been difficult to have a relationship with my husband since I told him 6 months ago. However, keeping my disbelief to myself was equally painful. It is still amazing to me how difficult this process it. I appreciate that those who created this site have recognized the need for support and encouragement through this isolating and frustrating life change.

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So glad to learn about this site, through the New York Times. Religion is the culture within which my abusively dysfunctional family thrives, and it still binds my brother to his abusive childhood. He basically believes that you must love and forgive no matter what, in a real intimate face-to-face perpetuation of the relationship (which has not improved), whereas I only know that I do forgive to the best of my ability but do not want to see my abusers any more. He can't understand that I'm not angry, just that I'm "over it" and want to move on. He has fallen very very deeply into religion - probably as deep as his pain - and is indoctrinating his children to the point that I couldn't spend any time with them either ("why don't you love Jesus?" was put to me with grave concern by the 5-year-old on every visit).

Well, I DO love Jesus, and I love people, and I love myself. I love whatever god or gods there may be. I have FAITH, which means that there not a single or even myriad definitive answers or creeds that can satisfy the human yearning - you just have to have faith anyway. Have hope anyway, just live the best you can, anyway. That means, to me, that you can just be yourself!

I never felt that religion was a healthy or natural life for human beings, even as a child, but it's been hard to see my brother disappear from my life when I know that he hurts as much as I do from our past. Maybe some day your organization can help him like you've helped others.

This is a great resource for my life right now. Thank you

Generally I'm a big Dawkins fan but this view annoys the hell out of me (so to speak ;)

"What has 'theology' ever said that is of the smallest use to anybody? When has 'theology' ever said anything that is demonstrably true and is not obvious? What makes you think that 'theology' is a subject at all?"

Although firmly believing that there is no "God" it is quite easy so see a tremendous amount of beauty, value, moral 'goodness' and plane useful advice in the collective wisdom of thousands of years of thinking that make up what we call the major religions (admittedly an awful lot of rubbish and some quite harmful stuff too).

Anybody agreeing with the Dawkins quote above should read Schumacher's Guide for the perplexed or Alain de Botton's Religion for Atheists and give yourself a genuinely rounded opinion.

I don't know... you Americans even do your atheism without much depth of thought.