Conversions: Christian to Atheist

by Jason Boyett
Beliefnet

Today's conversion story isn't a conversion from one faith to another, but rather a "de-conversion" from confident teenage Christianity to atheism. It comes from Ryan Hadley, a tech ninja from Colorado.

"The biggest factor in me losing faith in the Christian God was a specific incident with a very good friend of mine. I believe that the Bible teaches that homosexuality is wrong -- that it is a sin and so should be avoided. I never approved of all the anti-homosexuality hate speech coming from my friends/other Christians... but I did view [homosexuality] the same as lying.  It's clearly something the Bible doesn't want you to do.

Because of this, my faith in an ancient holy book caused me to do the one thing in my life that I regret.

My good friend, who was also a Christian, was in a horrible state. He was torn. He came to me for advice. He liked guys more than girls. But he'd always say he was bisexual. So one day, he asked me my opinion, as a good friend. I basically told him that if he thinks he can make it work with a woman, then that is the direction he should go, according to the Bible.

Against all that was in me, I said those words. If what I was suggesting was so "right" then why did it feel so wrong? And the rejected look I got in return from him felt so sad. It shocked me to the core... that my own morality conflicted so much with the biblical morality.

This made me start reading the Bible in a different way. Not as "this is right" but as "is this right?" God's actions shocked and saddened me, time after time. It completely changed the way I thought... I became a very skeptical person, looking at everything in my life so much closer than I ever had before."

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Foo - Rope

When “Just Believe” Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

Posted by Julia Speck
Recovering Evangelical 

I knew what it looked like to “experience” God when I was growing up in the church, going to summer camp and youth group and on mission trips. I was supposed to read my Bible and pray, and do my devotions and attend worship services and witness to my heathen friends and read books by inspirational authors that taught me how to experience my spirituality in greater ways. Bonus that I had the “Four Spiritual Laws” memorized, went on spiritual retreats and was a part of four zillion Christian organizations. I was the quintessential spiritual girl in my high school. It even got so bad that some kids nicknamed me “Julia Christ Superstar” – but I considered that a compliment. Being self-righteous was my duty and I felt in my heart that I was supposed to judge people in the name of the Lord.

~ ~ ~

I have traveled the world and seen some pretty horrific things. And now I have to wrestle with a God that can be loving and trustworthy but also allow little girls to be trafficked and sold for sex in South Asia. A God that knows about my own back yard when I’m walking the streets of LA late at night having conversations with women who are prostituted that have either become numb to any hope that exists or lost it completely. What answers do I have to offer them? What evidence of a promising and saving relationship with God can I articulate or show them?

~ ~ ~

It has been a long time since God looked as simple as he did in my “just believe” days. I know I can’t just believe – but I don’t know how to have a relationship when we have so many questions. I don’t know what it means to listen and to speak when God is so intangible. But I don’t think I’ll ever figure it out until the Christian community learns to dialogue rather than fight with one another. If we continue to bash one another’s ideas and hold so tightly to how we think God looks – I think God will remain very inaccessible and far away.

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Top 10 guitar solos of all time

Starts @ 3:30

The Blind Man Who Taught Himself To See

by Michael Finkel
Men's Journal

Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. And navigate the wilderness alone. And recognize a building as far away as 1,000 feet. How? The same way bats can see in the dark.

"The first thing Daniel Kish does, when I pull up to his tidy gray bungalow in Long Beach, California, is make fun of my driving. “You’re going to leave it that far from the curb?” he asks. He’s standing on his stoop, a good 10 paces from my car. I glance behind me as I walk up to him. I am, indeed, parked about a foot and a half from the curb.

The second thing Kish does, in his living room a few minutes later, is remove his prosthetic eyeballs. He does this casually, like a person taking off a smudged pair of glasses. The prosthetics are thin convex shells, made of acrylic plastic, with light brown irises. A couple of times a day they need to be cleaned. “They get gummy,” he explains. Behind them is mostly scar tissue. He wipes them gently with a white cloth and places them back in."

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