The last few days I have had the opportunity to open up a few minds. I have been working on a friend of mine for several months now on opening up her thinking to other ideas besides the narrow tract of...see misery, confusion, pain, and heartache caused by religion in them.  They will put on a brave face and say otherwise, but I know better.  I wish it was a pill that you could slip in their drink

In about a week, I'll be catching up with Johnno. Those of you who've been reading my journal since 2004 will remember Johnno - Mr Johnson - as the teacher of my Study Of Religion class at high school...as I post this entry and wonder how people will reply, if anybody will reply, those feelings are really at their peak. Again, I am sorry. However, I cannot be intellectually dishonest. I simply cannot

So a couple of hours ago I met my mom at her work for lunch (she's working seven days a week now). "Oh!" she exclaimed halfway through our tuna sandwiches, "Skip Heitzig is teaching at Harvest Christian...the issue will give her the impression that I'm just at a spiritual low--it's nothing that can't be easily fixed by a prayer group, right?). This was raw and written with pedestrian language. Boo

I was friends with my neighbor, C, ever since I moved to my childhood home at age 4.  We were about the same age, but he was kept back a year in second grade, so we were one grade apart in school.  Eventually...that made him feel special in a way real life didn't. While I didn't get much out of New Age for myself, I think it did help me be able to view Wicca in a more open manner.  More on that next week

Concurrent with my religious training growing up was exposure to and belief in a lot of other fantastic things.  So, this week's entry isn't a continuation of last week's entry, but more of a "B" story...first seed of doubt was planted. In the next installment... The line between pseudoscience and religion is blurred, as my next door neighbor and best friend introduces me to New Age.  Stay tuned!

Intro There's a funny thing about skepticism, and that is that most skeptics end up becoming athiests or agnostics.  In my discussions with  cutopia  and others, when I brought up my recent interest...and comparing it against the Christianity I had been taught, and it probably played a big role in my wandering from Christianity and exploring other religions.  But that's a story for a future segment

...more accurately reflect what it actually did, and didn't push for them to remove the device from their catalog altogether.   A DUTCH EPIPHANY Summary A Dutch reader submits his description of his deconversion from Christianity. My comments I could relate to this story, it sounded similar to my own deconversion.  I'm planning to start writing entries on Sundays exploring my own deconversion,...

Here are only a couple dozen of the many, many problems with Christianity that cannot be reconciled with logic and evidence. An intellectually consistent Christian must believe… ...the Paranormal.” Skeptical Inquirer Jan-Feb 2002. Larson, Edward J. and Larry Witham. “Leading Scientists Still Reject God.” Nature , 1998. 394 : 313.