Arguments that Christians use

Arguments that Christians often use to combat criticism against their faith:
(I know all of these very well because I used them in my former Christian life.)

1. It's a Christian Thing, You wouldn't understand.
Example:"The natural man cannot perceive the things of God because God is a spirit and those who worship Him must do it in spirit and truth."

2. The Bible wasn't written for unbelievers. 
Example: "The Bible was written by God through human hands for the saved. Without divine understanding the Bible would appear to contradict itself and not make sense."

3. You are being deceived by the enemy(Satan). 
Example: "Satan is confusing your mind so that you will never see the truth about God's love toward humanity."

4. You are taking the scripture out of context. 
Example: "This verse may say this, but it really means this. When you breakdown the Hebrew and the Greek, you can see the underline meaning."

5.  You don't want to acknowledge the truth. 
Example: "God is showing you mercy, but you are refusing to accept it."

6. You just want to live in sin. 
Example: "You don't want to submit to God because you don't want to give up your sinful lifestyle."

7. You need to let the love of God turn your stony heart to flesh.
Example: "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's you and me. God wants to save you and shower his love upon you."

8. In hell, you will lift your eyes.
Example: "You don't to take my word for it, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, it will be too late."

9.  I know getting saved can work for you, since it worked for me.
Example: "Look at my life, see how blessed I am, it's the God in me that makes this possible. If you give your life to Christ, this can happen for you too!"

10. You need to be saved for real.
Example: "You think that God is playing with you, but you will find yourself dead, if you don't get serious about living for him. Don't find yourself being counted among the goats."

These approaches take the onus of criticism away from them by challenging you to look at your lifestyle and see how it squares with Christianity. When confronted with these approaches, simply say: "My lifestyle has nothing to do with my criticism of Christianity or the Bible."

Post Christianity Transformation Pt.1 Physical

Upon evolving beyond Christianity, god concepts, eventually into atheism, I also underwent a physical transformation. I was 35, overweight, and not motivated to workout. As I started to challenge all the various sacred ideas in my mind, I also decided to commit to working out regularly.

Some people speak of glory days, when they were in the peak shape of their lives, wishing they could go back. I had no such glory days to reminisce about. I wanted to totally transform my life, and no longer be conformed to the world of christianity and mediocrity. I knew I belonged in the world of excellence. Since I believe I have a excellent mind, I should also have an excellent body to match.

It's amazing how the looming eventuality of permanent expiration pushed me to challenge myself in every way. There were a lot of things I wanted to do, but my time here is running out.

The first I did was change my diet. Evolving past Christianity changed the way I related to everything. I discovered that I was really bothered by the way food is processed in the United States. I started to feel really bad about the treatment of animals that would eventually make it to my dinner table. I obtained a moral conscience with regards to domestic animals. These animals were born to die and the quality of life they had wasn't the best. This lead me to look into becoming a vegan.

I maintained the vegan lifestyle for six months, sometimes "backsliding"by eating cheese or butter. At this point I was regularly hitting the gym, but I had to eat so much food to sustain me. There is only so much veggies, grains, and protein powers a person can consume. I was getting in shape, working out(strength training and cardio), but I could not get my weight to come down. I was getting healthier, but I wanted to look healthier.

So after six months, I reintroduced meat to my diet, however, I opted for locally sourced grain fed beef and free range chickens, whenever possible. At minimum, I started fazing processed foods out of my diet. I also began to intensify my workout. This combination, along with getting enough sleep, helped me to get my weight down to my high school size, except this time, I was in great physical shape.

Back in May, I took a stab at running outside. I would use the arc trainer at the gym or reluctantly use the treadmill when the arc trainer was occupied.  My indoor cardio workout got stale and that's what lead me to running.

I run about 12 miles a week and I love it. I continue to do strength training and I have gotten considerably stronger.

As my body began to change, I also started to change how I dress because I don't have to hide my body behind baggy and oversized clothing. I began to purchase clothing that flatters my body type. I also began to experiment with different colognes and discovered what fragrances suit my body chemistry I used to dress somewhat frumpy, but now I am known as the man who just stepped out of a GQ magazine.

The moral of this essay is I evolved past god and started to truly live. I have found that there is truly life before death.

Can a person be good without god?

Can a person be good/righteous/altruistic/caring/kind without god? I answer with an emphatic"Yes!"

Theists, especially Christians espouse that people need god in order to be good/righteous/altruistic/caring/kind because humanity exists in a fallen state and only god can lift humanity out of its low place. They take goodness out of the natural world and place it in the spiritual world, thereby making goodness something that only god can measure. They believe that the human heart, full of wickedness and deceit, corrupts any innate goodness a person may have. Only through Jesus can a person overcome this wretched state of being.

This idea of the darkness of the human heart ties into the philosophy of original sin, first made popular by the 5th Century Christian theologian, Augustine. I will cover original sin in another post.

Even when Christians secede that one can be good without god, they retreat to this defense: "But good people, who are unsaved go to Hell everyday. It's not enough to be good, you need Jesus!" If a person needs Jesus to be kind, loving, and good, then their goodness should be questioned.

Christians also hide behind this defense: What is a person's motivation for doing good? If they are doing good for any other reason than glorifying god, their good deed is empty, vain. They also say it this way, Only what you do for Christ will last, everything else you do will fade away. As if the actions of a Christian will last eternally, what arrogance! Once again, Christians purport to know the motivation behind someones actions.

For those who don't know, altruism exists within the animal and humanity evolved to practice being good to each other. Of course, the sphere of who people exhibit goodness to expanded over the millennium. Originally it probably started with family, then tribal, then national, now internationally. Naturally, many other variables exist when it comes to how a person determine when to use their goodness.

However the question focuses on if goodness is possible without a need for a god to facilitate this process. Again I say,"Yes!"

Here are 10 ways a person can be good without god:

1. Volunteering for a cause that one is passionate about
2. Mentoring
3. Living with integrity
4. Speaking out against injustice
5. Not being wasteful with money, objects, actions, or time
6. Doing the best at whatever opportunities present themselves
7. Being true to the values that one holds
8. Practicing kindness every day
9. Looking at situations from another perspective in order to foster open dialogue
10. Live and love with passion and purpose

I live to be a benefit to others and I work each day to make the part of the world I live in a better place. If I can help one person through my life or my writing to be a better individual, then my living is not in vain.

Pt.5 Walking away From My Community

I left behind a culture, an identity, a community, and a way of life when I walked away from Christianity.  I thought I was part of a progressive movement designed to help people grow and mature through the power of the good news of Jesus. I spent all of my life defending an institution and religion full of cliques, cliches, and contradictions.

I thought that our version of Christianity would be the one to win the world for Jesus because we were not steeped in any traditions. We were the Joshua generation who had the real and authentic. No longer did people have to settle for the counterfeit demonic secular culture of the world(diabolic mimicry 2.0)We had non-tradtional pastors, celebrities who were not ashamed to speak for the Lord,modern versions of scripture, we had holy hip-hoppers(that's who I was), we were tech savvy, and took the gospel outside of the four walls of the church. We were radicals for Christ.

I became all things to all people that I might save some. For those that used profanity, I would use profanity to reach them. I wanted them to see that the religion of the cross had modern day swag. People would say, "I hate church, and I would say, so do I." I would tell people that we have had enough church and religion, now it's time for Christ and relationship. I would tell them that God doesn't care about you going to church; the church is only a building. Jesus spent his time in the community, not in church. God cares about you getting into real fellowship with him. I truly wanted people to be free and I thought that this freedom only came though Christ Jesus.

Unfortunately, 21st Century Christianity uses the language of freedom without truly allow folks to exercise and practice it. It is still the same repressive religion that it has always been. It has new gloss on it, but the traditional ideas about family, sex, marriage, and lifestyle are the same. This religion also twists the meaning of freedom by telling individuals that being a slave to Christ gives one freedom.

The church that I went to had a saying: "Come as you are to the Lord, but don't stay as you are." The leadership wanted to see people conform to the fundamentalist dogma that the church taught. When folks begin to act free, the powers that be use shame to browbeat the people back into submission. 

Life is indeed more difficult without the support of the church community I came from.  However, to live freely means, to be accountable to yourself for making the most out of your life. No longer do I have to depend on the machinations of a benign or malevolent deity playing chess with my life.

Bonus: Why is it when a person leaves the church, the person is at fault? When will the church assume accountability for leading folks astray and destroying lives?

Atheism 101 Pt.3 What I Believe

When I started to embrace the word atheist, I began to notice how describing myself with that controversial label stopped dialogue with others. People easily became silent. I thought that folks would engage me in conversation, but they did not. I guess they thought the worst of me and my stance. Who knows?

What I gleaned from those awkward exchanges taught me how important a god concept remains to a large number of people in society. I used those situations to think about what I actually do believe in. My lack of belief in god does not make me an empty person, contrary to popular ideas. I believe in lots of things, just not god or the supernatural.

Here is a list of things I believe in:

1. I believe in the potential of all human beings.
2. I believe in freedom.
3. I believe in regular exercise and maintaining a healthy diet for good health.
4. I believe in now and living in the moment.
5. I believe in democracy.
6. Even after all of the atrocities committed by this country against its citizens and others, I still believe in the ideals of the United States of America.
7. I believe in my family.
8. I believe in having healthy relationships: familial, platonic, romantic.
9. I believe in mutual monogamy.
10. I believe in the Detroit Lions. It may take more faith to believe in them than in jesus.
11. I believe in the resurgence of my hometown, Detroit.
12. I believe that education can open doors for people.
13. I believe that power, authority, wealth, and influence should be used to help improve the lives of others.
14. I believe the arts can touch the psyche of people in a way that allows us to experience the sublime.
15. I believe that my life will have meaning.
16. I believe that when I die, I will simply cease to exist.

These three ideas describe me:
Atheist describes my lack of belief in the supernatural.

Agnostic describes my lack of knowledge in objectively measuring the supernatural.

Humanist describes my faith in humanity solving its problems without the need for perceived supernatural intervention. If we wait on god to fix the problems in the world, they will never get fixed. It is up to us to make the world a better place.

Damn, I compromised my integrity!

Back in 2012, I began to realize the difficulties of swimming against the current. Although in this case, the current represented christianity. For most of my life, I identified as a believer in jesus christ and all of my social, professional, and familial relationships had connections through the church. To walk away from that significant network took courage, but down this new road of freedom, I found myself looking back.

As I stated in another post, I experienced great difficulty in the dating scene as a non-believing atheist. During the fall of 2012, I started to come up with reasons why I should go back to church. In the African-American community, the church has social, political, economic, as well as spiritual significance. I felt like I was missing a part of my cultural heritage, not to mention that the odds of finding a non-believing African-American woman in Metro Detroit were slim to none.

Maybe I could go back to church, for the cultural connectivity that it could provide and reject the spiritual parts.  I also felt like I would be more marketable to the ladies, if I could proudly say that I belonged to a church. I thought this through and decided to give it a chance. This gave me access to date some of the best and brightest Black women in Metro Detroit. Access that an educated Black Atheist Man would never have. In addition, I missed playing the organ, being a worship leader as well as being part of that community that I had great familiarity with.

Having grown up in church and been a worship leader for many years, I went back into my metaphorical christian closet and pulled out my jesus gear.(note:just because I no longer believe doesn't mean I forgot everything I knew about church and christianity) Although my dating prospects increased substantially from late 2012 through early 2014, I felt my integrity being compromised and I did nothing about it. I was glad to be accepted again because rejection sucks.

I started to fall back into my former christian ways, I began to read the bible again and even started back tithing. I knew that I could not return to my former fundamentalist christian ways, but I thought I could follow a more liberal view of christianity. I began to read books from Bishop John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, Bishop Carlton Pearson, and other liberal theologians. The irony is most of the women who I dated during this time were hardcore fundamentalist christians, so things still didn't really mesh. I would keep my views about sin, the devil, and hell to myself. Even though I went back, I still didn't believe in sin, satan, and eternal torment.

During the insanely brutal winter of 2014, I began to ask myself, "Is this really worth it to you? What have you gained by going back?"

I felt like I had lost touch with the freethinker that I had become back in 2010. Something needed to happen to shake me up. Thank goodness for the combination of a bad sermon and a grand display of christian ignorance about the scripture at church. These actions along with re-reading entries from this blog, reminded me why christianity is BS.

I wasted 18 months of my life and compromised my integrity dabbling again with christianity. I allowed the loneliness and difficulty of the path of freedom to muck with my emotions. However I am glad that I went back to church and christianity again. Now I realize that I have truly outgrown that infantile belief system and I am ready to truly see the world as it is.

Recently,I have met others on the path of freedom, ergo my journey doesn't feel like it felt before. It feels much, much better. In addition, I have the resolve to live my life to the fullest. I have added outdoor running to my exercise routine, and that clears my head each morning before leaving for work. I am committed to see this freethinking path through to the end of my life and educate folks along the way. Plus, I will expand my dating pool beyond where it is now,focus more on open-mindedness, common interests, and good old-fashioned chemistry.

My top 10 reasons for living god-free

I usually do not like doing top ten lists but I am feeling one today. So here goes...

My top ten reasons for living god-free(in no particular order)

1. No more fear of going to hell because hell does not exist(and neither does heaven)
2. Instead of wasting time praying, I can put my energy into action
3. Extra money since I don't have to worry about being cursed for not tithing
4. I can help someone because it is the right thing to do, instead of doing it for spiritual browning points.
5. My steps are ordered by me and not by some imaginary otherworldly being
6. I walk by sight and have very little use for faith(except when it comes to my favorite football teams)
7. I am free to explore the world without an inherent christian bias
8. Sex without guilt
9. Peace of mind, knowing that my mind is not a battlefield between the holy spirit, satan, and the flesh
10. Making the most of my time on earth because once I die that's it.

Bonus: I can be in awe of the miracle of life that is me, understanding that I have descended from countless people, animals, and microorganisms until I get to compounds, elements, stardust, then perhaps...nothingness.

Reflections of my former self

Recently, I reflected on my christian days and thought about how if my former self could see me now, he would be in total shock! I was a blood washed, tongue talking, prophesying, tithing, church attending christian. I had a strong bias against any belief that would "exalt itself against the knowledge of god." I thought I was being compassionate when I told people that "god has a plan for your life, accept jesus into your heart or face an eternity in hell!" Now that I have left my former life behind, I realize how nasty of a person I was for saying those things. I thought I was showing people the unconditional love of christ, but what I really did was alienate others from me.

Eventually, even as I became seemingly more tolerant as a christian, I still harbored those thoughts in my heart. I would tell people that all faiths are good to live with, but christianity is the only one that you could die with. I thought that my belief was superior to all others, even though I would smile and listen to others of a different religious tradition. I am remorseful for what I thought,said and did. I know that I was cruel to people by only pretending to understand where they were coming from because I thought I had the answers.

Now I work to embrace the differences that people have. The proverbial shoe now rests on the other foot because now I am the person whose non belief gets rejected by christians. I cannot change the fact that I damaged people with my stinking thinking, now I desire to give people the tools to discovering their personal freedom.

I used to think that living by faith in christ was freedom, but it was slavery to a doctrine that had no room for individuality. Now, I want to live in a world where the character of a person holds more weight than their beliefs about god.

Through this blog and my Facebook page, I desire to educate people about how to take steps away from religion. I want to assist people in discovering their freedom. Of course, freedom means different things to different people and I want to assist them on their journey through the words I write on this blog.

One thing that has remained constant within me throughout my life is the desire to help people. Deconversion did not destroy my passion to help others, if anything, I am more determined because my time on this earth will end. I need to make the best of the time I have left because there is no afterlife; this moment is all I have.

Wasting your life away waiting...

One of the biggest issues I have with 21st Century Christianity deals with how it focuses on living for the future as opposed to living in the present moment. The doctrine teaches things such as god has a special plan for your life, god will exalt you in due time, if you don't lose heart, your blessing is on the way, keep holding on until your your change comes, god is faithful to his promises.

While a person waits on these supposed promises, they believe that god will come through for them. When he doesn't, they have a built in excuse for god's failure to grant them their request. Christians usually say that god has something better for them or it is not time for them to have this particular blessing yet. These unfortunate souls waste their lives away waiting for future glory as opposed to living in the present. Instead of being passive about their lives, these folks need to be active in living.

For example, if someone desires better employment, they should put themselves in situations which can allow them to network(get help with a revamp of their resume,volunteer, join a professional group, etc.) instead of sitting on the sidelines of life waiting on a god who does not exist to give them something that they can get on their own.

Also, I must mention how some Christians will use the classic scripture about faith without works is dead when it comes to something that they want to do in the present. For things that they know they probably won't get, they go back to the pseudo-promises listed in the first paragraph.

We only have limited time to live before we expire. This time should be used to enjoy life and use our abilities to make it the best that we can. Putting our mental, physical, and emotional resources in a "god who never shows up or shows out", takes away the autonomy to live as we deem best.

Also, I have been gone for awhile, it's good to be back! I will let you know what I have been up to in future posts.