Greetings fellow non-theists!

First thing you gotta understand about this coming out story is that BOTH of my parents are ordained Christian ministers. Second you gotta realize that I already came out to her as a bisexual, a bit before I was ready, but at least I'm out now, even though it felt wrong, because I feel more .... homosexual than bisexual, but that's beside the point.

I am friends with my mom on facebook, since she lives in a different state. And we…

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February 1 is the anniversary of the death of my father, Hyman William Perlman (1910-80). 

He was indirectly responsible for this blog – and in fact for all the secularism, skepticism, atheism, and humanism that have been the foundation of my intellectual life.  He was the first skeptic I ever met, and the effect was lasting.  Every time Mom would babble on about “God’s will,” he would snap back, “What’s God got to do with it?”

What indeed.  Things may happen for some reason or…

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My father has gone. I do not know what will happen next. I will miss him. He was 79 years old and possibly the most amazing person in my life.

He was generous and kind and he never knew a stranger and he is now gone and I am feeling a great deal of pain right now. Dad was cremated so we had a viewing and a memorial service for him. I did a short eulogy. It had to be short because I knew that my composure would last only a short while.

The day was a day of tears…

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My mom does not respect my non-belief. She insists I go to church with her because all of a sudden her 'house rule' is that "As for me and my house we worship the Lord." To make matters worse the sermon from yesterday was focused on "Bringing children up in the worship" and that you should force you children to go to church. In fact, he said you should have them miss school before they miss church. I'm becoming increasing angry, frustrated and resentful of her. I never had anything against… Continue

Well about a week ago I came out and told my mom I was an Atheist. She didn't go off like I expected her to but she is none too pleased to say the least. She and I had a debate on Sunday when she had woke me up (ironically to go to church) and asked me then and there if I believed in God. Instinct told me to lie and say yes, but she said don't say it if it isn't true and I confessed. She heard me out and tried to argue me down. A couple of days later she asked me if I was ok with the fact that… Continue

I'm interested in this guy at school who is a Christian. He and I are really just friends now and I would like to know if he might want to date. I haven't told him that I'm Atheist and I haven't told him that I liked him (I'm getting to it) but have any of you every heard of or been in this type of relationship? I feel that he himself would be fine with it but I wouldn't want to date him if it would cause friction and distance between him and his parents.

Any thoughts or ideas?

...I doubt anything will.

"After six years of childless marriage, John and Cynthia Burke of Newark decided to adopt a baby boy through a state agency. Since the Burkes were young, scandal-free and solvent, they had no trouble with the New Jersey Bureau of Children’s Services until investigators came to the line on the application that asked for the couple’s religious affiliation.



John Burke, an atheist, and his wife, a pantheist, had left the line blank. As a result, the… Continue

Anyone remember Ava Worthington? She was the subject of one of my first (and admittedly bad) blog posts back in 2008. Carl and Raylene Worthington were her unbelievably cruel parents, the people who let their 15 month old daughter suffer for months before dying. Simple antibiotics would have saved her young life. This is the same couple that lost another child in 2001 under questionable circumstances. Well Carl and Raylene are back in the news.… Continue

My mom and I are both going through therapy over her mother, my cult-leader grandma. So, tonight we had another conversation about religion, faith, faith-healing, Paul, Revelation, and the apocalypse. She told me about her sister's teeth being miraculously straightened, and that she believes in prayer. (My grandmother was a faith-healer, hence the heavy focus on this.) I told her that people of all different faiths can report miraculous healings, that they experience the sensation the Christian… Continue

My brother sent around his new dating site profile for me, sister and mom to review. And he's listed religion as "Atheist but not too serious about it." Woo-hoo! I'm not entirely alone! Now I gotta get back in touch with my college freshman cousin, since he's starting to doubt god belief :)



My mom is an apologist and huge fan of C.S. Lewis. BUT she's also done some early christian writings study, (from all christian sources) so she may have doubts starting to surface. Plus now two of… Continue

Just a summary

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Church to me, felt/feels like a chore. I know the people there will act so holy in church and when they are back home, they go back to their greedy lives. I've always noticed how women would wear their best clothes to church like it was a fashion show. I actually started questioning the bible when I was 12 or 13. I asked my sunday school teacher if the bible was completely valid or reliable after being translated so many times. His answer, I can't remember… Continue

So, I just watched a couple of episodes of Happy Tree Friends on YouTube. I had seen an episode of that little show before, the one where the critters are swimming and dying bloodily in a pool, but that episode struck me as nothing but pointless gore, so I wrote the series off as nothing but an unimaginative excuse to show blood and guts.



Now, probably around six months to a year later, I watch it again and actually see some intelligence in this show. There's cleverness to the… Continue

Mini-rant time!



A conversation between my aunt and my grandmother went like this last Sunday morning upon the appearance of an article in the paper about non-religious summer camps;



G-ma (with shock); "Non-religious summer camps?!"

Aunt (derisively); "I bet they're teaching them that new-age crap"



It's so hard not to speak up in situations like this where people are blatantly and unapologetically bigoted. And that really is the problem. Many people in my… Continue