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Book Feature: Christian No More by Jeff Mark
This book is written primarily for Christians who are questioning their faith. It mixes a story of my own de-conversion with facts about the Bible that, in my opinion, basically show that the Bible cannot possibly be real; it couldn’t have been written or inspired by a god. I show how the Bible completely contradicts many known scientific facts, and I talk about similar ancient myths that clearly served as an influence for the old stories in the Bible.
I also talk about the theology of Hell and how Christianity works primarily to scare people into submission with the threat of Hell. I spend a good amount of time on this, as that’s usually the number one fear of people questioning religion. And I approach this one from many directions. First, I show that even believing Christians have little reason to believe in Hell, as the mentions are very few and vague in the Bible itself. But then I show how those few parts of the Bible are nothing more than rip-offs of other religions, and in turn cannot possibly be real. I logically and systematically break it all down and, in my opinion, leave little doubt that it’s all a big myth.
The goal of the book is basically to show that there’s absolutely no reason to be afraid. I show how the Bible isn’t true, and how that means Christianity in turn isn’t real. And at the end of the book I give tips on dealing with the emotional difficulties of letting go. This site is mentioned in my book…
Why I Deny the Virgin Birth of Jesus
The test read positive. Ayesha’s face flushed; tears formed in her eyes. She was trapped. She would be killed. She was a stain on her family’s honor. Amir, her soon-to-be husband, would turn her in as soon as he found out. She knew she deserved death. The shame was unbearable.
That night she had a vision. The brightness blinded her at first, but gradually she saw an angelic face and it said, “Ayesha! You are favored indeed by Allah! For God himself is the Father of your child. Do not be afraid. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High.”
The next day Ayesha told her fiancé that God had impregnated her, she was still a virgin, and an angel had told her this. Would you believe Ayesha?
An ancient book says a man 2,000 years ago was born of a virgin and was sired by God himself. I once believed this, because I believed the Bible — a book I thought God himself wrote.
I was wrong.
Here are five reasons why I no longer believe in the virgin birth…
Reasons why I de-converted and now consider myself an atheist
I would like to share with the d-C readers, the primary reasons why I de-converted and why I no longer have to consider what some mysterious, mythical, and hideously confusing god feels about me.
- Watching my religious mother and both aunts die of cancer, while begging Jesus/god to save them, and he did not. Not only that but I also worked in the pediatric ward of a cancer hospital in Houston and watched entire churches praying for god to save babies from cancer, and he did not.
- Knowing that between 1900 and 1999, more than 180 million “good” Christians and Jews died in wars begging, pleading and praying to god to spare their lives. And their imaginary god did not. I participated as a co-leader in a therapy program of former religious Jews (many of whom are now atheists) whose entire families were murdered by Nazis in WWII, who asked the same question – “where was god? Many came to the conclusion, that instead of believing a god was going to save and protect them from “evil,” they should have been preparing to save their own lives. Many had tremendous guilt and anger at being lied to since believing those lies resulted in false sense of security (god’s love, god’s protection, blah, blah, blah), which resulted in entire families going to the gas chamber because of their delusions…
The de-conversion story of an Ashkenazi Jew
Hi everyone! My name is Shai, I am 23 years old, I live in a city near Tel-Aviv, Israel, and I am an atheist. As an atheist, I lack the belief in a god, gods, or any other supreme/supernatural being. I believe that everyone on the planet earth are godless creatures that were not created by anything and that the origin of life and its evolution are the product of purely natural processes.
Now that I’ve firmly depicted my worldview, I want to share with d-C’s readers why and how I adopted this rather unusual worldview. (if you lived in Israel, you’d know that it’s quite unusual, although, as far as I know, not illegal, to be an atheist)
I was born and raised in Israel. Since I read that this blog is mainly about Christian de-conversion, my story is probably going to be a bit alien to you. My atheism owes itself to 3 major factors: My personality, my upbringing, and some atheist asshole who sent me some websites about critical thinking and atheism.
First of all, let me tell you a bit about religion in Israel. Israel is defined as a “Jewish democratic state”. Although I bet it sounds to any American/Anglo-Saxon reader to be some sort of cynical euphemism for “Jewish Theocracy” – it’s not entirely true. Israel, on the whole, is a fairly secular nation. But that’s not because Jews are a jolly good bunch who know that personal freedom should trump religious dogma at all costs. First of all, we have organizations here in Israel that are entirely dedicated to removing religious impositions upon Israeli citizens…
A Christian Pastor influenced my de-conversion
The most influential event for me in my de-conversion was actually talking to a Christian pastor.
I was visiting my brother in Kentucky, and prior to going to see Pirates 3 Saturday night, we all went to watch him perform at his megachurch where he plays the drums. As we were getting ready to leave, some of the people in my party were chatting with friends they knew, and while this was going on, the lady pastor there somehow caught wind of my parents’ recent divorce. She took advantage of this and she immediately started asking me very prodding, personal questions.
I tried to defuse them with stuff like “I’m handling it” but she wouldn’t let up. Finally, thinking it would satisfy her, I was frank about my reactions to the whole situation. She then started crying, and gave me a hug (freakin’ awkward) then asked me if I was trusting Christ. At the time I was somewhat of an agnostic Christian loosely clinging to emerging church theology but I really hadn’t used any form of faith in dealing with that particular situation. This quickly devolved into an attempt on my part to defend my faith-position on the fly to someone who was extremely well-versed in apologetics and well-practiced in religious debate (contrast this to me who only ever had to defend a Christian faith to people and was now finding himself unwittingly on the other end of the shotgun!)…
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