de-conversion

YHVH - Conqueror of the Chaos Monsters

The other day, while browsing some Kent Hovind videos on YouTube, I caught an interesting remark. Hovind, a notorious young earth creationist, claimed that dinosaurs lived as recently as 5000 years ago. Our legends of fire-breathing dragons come from our memories of dinosaurs, and that those dinosaurs breathed fire. Now, where did Hovind get these ideas which have no historical or scientific support? I believe it to specifically be a reference to Behemoth and Leviathan, two creatures mentioned in Job 40 and 41. Since Behemoth has biblical reference outside of this passage, I thought I would look into Leviathan, and see what the Bible says about this creature, and various ways in which it can be interpreted. Let’s look up some of the Biblical references to Leviathan. Some Bibles interpret the Leviathan of Job 41 to be a crocodile. This was the view taken by my old church when I was growing up. Ken Hovind believes this to be a dinosaur. Let’s take a look at the description of this beast as given by YHVH in Job 41:

The Lord (YHVH), in expresses his power and might to Job thusly:

“Can you draw out Levi’athan with a fishhook, or press down his tongue with a cord? Can you put a rope in his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? (vs 1,2)

Implying that YHVH can do these things to Leviathan, and poor mortal Job cannot…

Continue Reading 13 comments September 18, 2007

The Best of the Blasphemy

It is a slow and sleepy Friday afternoon, so why not watch some videos instead of doing something productive at work? I have never been a fan of the Rational Response Squad’s Blasphemy Challenge. What can I say, even as an apostate Christian who believes there are no consequences to blaspheming a non-existant being, I just find the whole thing tacky and disrespectful. But hoping to redeem the idea somewhat, I just spent several days, yes days!, searching for the best blasphemy that YouTube has to offer.

So put your Bible down, go grab some popcorn, make your browser window nice and tiny so boss does not see you, and let’s blaspheme together, shall we?

The prize for creativity has to go to this guy. Just the right mix of humor, sarcasm, wit and offensiveness. So help me, I love him:…

Continue Reading 23 comments September 14, 2007

My 9/11 Prayer

It is the evening of September 11th, 2007 - the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on American soil by Islamic Jihadists. I am driving home from work, listening to the ceremonies and tributes paid on NPR. I am nearly home. Just as I round the corner to an adjacent street, I see this new message on the church marquee:

You are reading that marquee right. The good folks at Skyline Baptist Church have seen fit to place this threat of eternal fire to the heathen and the promise of eternal paradise to the saint to commemorate this anniversary…

Continue Reading 13 comments September 11, 2007

Christian Feelings Toward Death

I am thankful for Justin’s article yesterday. It allows us to confront, and even express what our beliefs ultimately boil down to. But I want to here extend this question to Christians. I want to know the ‘modern’ Christian’s view of Death, and the Afterlife. As a Christian, I held the traditional Baptist view of Heaven as eternal paradise for the saved, and Hell as eternal torment for the damned. But since coming online, I am surprised to learn how many differing beliefs there are even amongst Christians.

Justin said in his last article,

Many Christians find it comforting in knowing that death has been conquered, relieving humanity from guilt and fear.

If you are a Christian, I would like to know if Justin’s statement is true for you, especially if you are one who believes in eternal damnation for the unsaved.

Like Justin, I am not trying to entrap Christians into engaging in debate (which I really am tired of)…

Continue Reading 35 comments September 5, 2007

Noah’s Ark - FOUND!!

Well…. maybe…not.

From livescience.com:

Hunt for Noah’s Ark Takes on New Dimension

Posted on September 2, 2007 @ 09:47:27 EDT

Author Leonard David

The hunt for evidence that a 980-foot long feature on Mt. Ararat in Turkey might be the remains of Noah’s Ark has taken on a new dimension, quite literally.

Satellite Imaging Corporation of Houston, Texas has created a 3D terrain model of the so-called “Mt. Ararat anomaly” - making use of stereo IKONOS satellite image data to create a flyover of the site in remote northeastern Turkey…

Continue Reading 63 comments September 3, 2007

Coming to Grips with Christian De-Conversion

I have recently been reading a couple books on addiction, grief and loss. I am doing this because of what I see as the lack of books, support groups, or programs which deal specifically with De-Conversion or Apostasy from Christianity. I have found several books which help one recognize when you are in a dysfunctional or manipulative religious cult of some kind or another, and they have been somewhat helpful. But how does one deal specifically with the loss that accompanies Christian apostasy?

And there is loss. I have been a Christian for my entire life, as far as I can tell. And while I truly am at peace without the threat of eternal damnation looming over humanity, I cannot go that that many years as a devout Christian and not feel a some kind of vacuum left over in my soul…

Continue Reading 53 comments August 29, 2007