Open Letter to Any Christian

This is my response to a message I received from a friend of a family member. Their initial message is somewhat Irrelevant and asked if I was a parent and about free will.

I am not god. I'm not Omnipotent and Omniscient[all knowing] Which god is supposed to be... that means he does know our thoughts, he does know how we will react. he knows everything. He knew it before he created time, the earth, heaven or hell.

To say he isn't Omnipotent, or Omniscient is to go against his word and is blasphemous.
If your religious training taught you to think about it this way, It taught you wrong, according to the scriptures.

Now, God is all knowing and all powerful, according to the bible. He knows the past present and the future. There is nothing he cannot do. [can god create something he can't lift?] That means he knows the words I'm typing before I type them. He knew them before he created the earth. This is written in scripture. He is GOD for chrissake. lol

So, knowing these facts, why did he make me an unbeliever? Why did he make you a Christian?

Why did he make Osama Bin Laden Islamic? Why did he make Hitler such a jerk?

He knew what would happen. yet he made them anyway. I do not think this is Moral. and to claim it is, is wrong and immoral.

You have a higher moral standard on your own, by yourself than God has according to scripture just in my previous statements alone.

We can go further. God says he gave us free will, But with god being Omnipotent and All Knowing he knows what we will choose before we choose it. this is hardly free will.

So according to the bible, God already knew if I was going to be an unbeliever before the beginning of time. Why would he bother creating me then? He knew this about me specifically before he created Adam.

He knew Adam and Eve would eat of the Fruit of knowledge before he said let there be light. He knew this before there was a void.

He knew Lucifer would stake the claim that he was more attractive than god, he knew this before he created Lucifer.

And god Created evil, he claims this.Jer 18:11/ Is 45:7/Ezek 20:25... why bother? Unless he enjoys watching us suffer. Which he may, he works in mysterious ways. He created cancer, aids, cystic fibrosis, Flesh eating viruses, etc, etc. why would you do this? if you are the all loving father, and we are your children, why do you afflict us?

Would you give your kid cancer because they disobeyed you?

Would you sacrifice your child if God Commanded you to and you knew it was god beyond the shadow of a doubt?

Ask yourself this question in front of them and tell them your answer.

I hope you would not... regardless of how firm your belief is.

Many claim god doesn't send people to hell... but I use the same analogy I did before.

I hold a gun to your head, "I love you, always. You have to love me too, you have the choice to love me or not, but if you don't, I'll kill you." yes technically you have a choice. But does it really feel like you do? Of course not.

I know you would not Think this is a morally right thing to do to someone.

Why then when god says, "I give you the free will to choose to believe in me and accept my son as your savior, but if you don't you are choosing to go to hell." What if I say, "No. I don't want to go to hell. I Choose not to go to hell. And I choose not to go to heaven." What then? God would Force me to go to hell. So indeed he does send people.

Yet he already knew what would happen.

This is why I claim that if god does exist, I wouldn't choose to worship him. Because if he is so petty to damn someone for exercising their mind, and critically thinking, and free will that HE GAVE THEM, and to question things that have no evidence, then he is not a Right God, he is not a Just God.

An infinite punishment for a finite crime is not just.

Many also say to me, "What if you're wrong?" To that I say, "If i say i believe and go through the motions even though I know in my heart I don't that God won't see through it?"

This is called Pascal's[sp?] wager. And could be applied to any religion.

What if you're wrong and The Greek pantheon is the correct faith? What if You're wrong and The Norse Pantheon is correct And since you weren't a great warrior you won't go to Valhalla but you will go into the wall of the worthless?

What if you're wrong and the Invisible Pink Unicorn is the true faith? and if you don't Throw sparkles on everything you own, and sing the magical unicorn prayer once every hour you'll be cursed for eternity in the grasps of the green terror Dargon being incessantly burned by his unending fire breath?

And about personal Experiences I ask this:
What is more likely?
1.) The laws of physics and nature were suspended, just for you, in your favor.
2.) You're mistaken.

Plus thousands of people have these same type of unexplainable experiences with their own deities everyday. Why are they wrong?

I know you didn't ask what if I'm wrong, but eventually it comes up and I like to get it out of the way early. [=)]

I hope you read all of this and do think on it. I hope none of it came across as angry, or mean, or malice in any way. This is my personal beliefs on these things, and I do have scripture to back it up, in context. I refuse to take scripture out of context, and find it insulting when I am accused of it.
I look forward to your response. [=)]
-Dai

Family Update

My mother read the letter I wrote to my family concerning my atheism. She was very impressed by it, so much so she suggested I look into ghost writing. (I dare say she is biased though...lol) My grandmother on the other-hand, refuses to read the letter. "Too Blasphemous" is what she said to my mother. She is choosing to not acknowledge the letter.
She is in denial about the letter and I can only speculate as to why. So far no one else has read it either in the family, not because of refusal but because of lack of opportunity.

I am looking forward to my cousin's response/reaction. In fact his reaction is of significant importance and interested to me. He has been a major role model and big brother figure in my life. For this reason I value his opinions greatly.
Though all of this sparked an interesting conversation with my mother. She still claims christianity as her religion. The conversation was about believe and what was of particular interest to me had been when my mother stated, "You can't change fifty years of someone's belief." To which I replied, "Well, what do you believe?"
"That the bible is true." She replied. "How do you know it's true?" I inquired.
Without hesitation she responded, "Because god said it's true." Of course, I asked, "How do you know god said it's true?"
"He said it was true in the beginning." was the reply I received.

"How do you know what he said in the beginning?" I asked her.

She replied, "Because the bible says so."

I then said, "So you believe the bible because the bible says it's true?" There was a few moments of silence, 10-15 seconds, after which she replied with, "yeah..."

So maybe my mother isn't the closet atheist I once believed her to be, but I definitely see doubt in her. I know my grandmother will believe until the day she passes and that she probably needs this belief to get through each day. My mother does not. My Mother is far from a fundamentalist.

I already see doubts in her, and I know that she does ot need these irrational beliefs. I just don't know hot to convey this to her. Not in a way she will not take offense to. Suggestions would be immensely appreciated.
This woman birthed me on March 4th, 1985, I literally owe her my life. Against all odds, as a single woman, she had me. Even though her mother, a fundamentalist Pentecostal, was urging her to abort.
She deserves to live without the oppression of religion. How would, or should, one go about this delicate situation?

What would you do?

Magic and Miracles

Being a magician I am privy to methods and techniques for fooling the human mind. The human mind is surprisingly easily to deceive. So much so that I would dare say that it is predisposed to be deceived.

This leads me to believe that 'Miracles' are nothing more than fabrications, or magic tricks, that have been misinterpreted as divine.

Even now, it's become greatly popular with magicians to call our effects 'Miracles'. I haven't accepted this completely as I feel it is misleading. I think it gives the audience the wrong impression and allows them to believe that us magicians have supernatural or paranormal powers. Nothing could be further from the truth. Any reputable magician will assure you that he or she has no powers what-so-ever, and that it is all just illusion. Personally, I think this makes Magic Tricks more impressive than "Divine Miracles".

Think about this point for a moment. What's more impressive, a person or being with no supernatural powers creating a seemingly supernatural effect or a person or being with supernatural powers creating a supernatural effect? What's more impressive, someone who is not psychic 'reading your mind', or a psychic, who has real psychic powers, reading your mind? I think the person who creates the illusion of this is much more impressive than if someone could actually do it. If it's within your normal range of abilities, what makes it so impressive?

But I digress. The reason I believe the miracles that Jesus did in the bible were mere magic tricks is because they are honestly not impressive from a magician's standpoint. Any magician alive today could recreate his effects. Some have already. Criss Angel makes it appear as though he walks on water.

Practitioners of "voodoo" have 'resurrected' the dead before. There's even effects out there that could make it appear as though you heal the blind. To a lay person all of these things are nothing less than miraculous.

If the biblical miracles actually happened, how do you know they aren't just magic tricks? How do you know the person isn't just misremembering what they heard in the story before they wrote it down in the New Testament? Human memory is far from reliable. To this day I have old high-school classmates who believe I levitated a Lunch table to the ceiling of the cafeteria back in 2002-2003.

One of my friends believed, until recently, that I made initials of someone he was merely thinking of appear on his arm. I didn't, I made them appear on my arm. But these examples Prove that not only is the human mind impressionable, easily so, but that it also will fabricate complete falsities and the person will believe it, and swear up and down that they witnessed it, even though it didn't happen at all. The lunch table is a perfect example of this.

There are people who angrily deny that I do not have powers, and call me a liar even if I attempt to show them how what I did is done, so they won't believe in the supernatural abilities I do not have. But they still stick by that I'm 'blessed' with supernatural abilities, and refuse to believe anything else.

How then, knowing that magic tricks exist, believe the miracles of the bible without evidence to support them? There's evidence to support they were fakes, because the same effects have been done, and been explained. Yes, even water to wine. I did that one as part of an economics project in high school.

And today, these faith healers still use Magic Tricks to con People. Check out the Video below:

Did you see that? Her leg grew. Notice a couple of things here.
1.) How tight the video is on her while the leg grows.
2.) The kind of shoes the woman is wearing, they are slip on shoes.

Now there are a couple of ways to do this effect, below Derren Brown Exposes one:

There's even methods out there for doing it on barefooted people! It's quite impressive and I do some faith-healing effects in my routines depending on if the audience would be receptive of me denouncing the faith healers for the scum they are.

Knowing this, how can a believer believe that these things actually happen/ed?

And knowing the human brain is so malleable and impressionable how can you even be certain of your own experiences of paranormal/supernatural things?

Have you ever witnessed a miracle? If so, even if you doubt it, tell me about it below. I'd love to read about it.

You can watch the whole Derren Brown Special, Miracles for Sale, below. I highly recommend it.
 

Aliens vs God

I posted to the Christians vs. Atheists (Discussion board) about aliens. I asked, “What's more likely, God Exists, or Aliens Exist? Also, Why is the one you chose more likely?” It got some interesting comments, mainly from atheists.

Is a belief in aliens an irrational belief? Is it just as unfounded in reality as the belief in God? I don't know. I personally don't think so. I'll tell you why. The universe is huge. Statistically it's highly improbable that we are the only intelligent life in the universe, let alone the only life. Didn't they find evidence that life used to be on mars?

The bigger question is, If intelligent life does exist outside of our little blue orb, has it visited us? Maybe. It's highly unlikely. The countless personal experiences and even physical evidence that is available seems to suggest they have. But what I don't think people keep in mind is that we could be mistaken about this evidence. Those with personal experiences could be mistake in what they experienced.

For example, I myself am a multiple abduction encounters case. Do I believe in aliens? Sure. Do I believe my encounters were real? I don't know. I could be mistaken.

The first encounter I had was when I was younger, around five or six. It was very dream-like, and just odd. The second encounter I had was when I was 13. I had a friend staying the night with me. At the time I had a trundle bed, my friend was on the trundle, and I was in my bed. My friend, we'll call him Adam, and I awoke suddenly from a shared nightmare. The nightmare involved being held down on a metal table by dozens of small 3 fingered hands with a bright light all but blinding us. After awaking from this nightmare both of us were bleeding from the center of our noses between our nostrils. I of course freaked out a little and went to get my grandparents, whom raised me. Now the doorknob on my bedroom door had always been loose and you have to shake it and turn it a certain way for it to open. When I grabbed it this night it wouldn't budge. Not at all. It wouldn't wiggle, it wouldn't turn, nothing. The twist lock on the knob wouldn't even move. After banging on the door and use screaming I remember the room spinning and I blacked out.

I woke up the next morning tucked into bed. Adam was tucked into the trundle. We weren't bleeding and we both remembered our Nightmares, and waking up from them. We both remembered bleeding from the center of our noses.

Adam moved away just a few short days after that, no warning, nothing. One day he was at school, the next he wasn't. It was that sudden. I haven't heard from him since.

I had a few encounters since then. Most of which were by myself as most alien encounters are. Rarely do people share these encounters.

I dismissed my encounters because of how religious I was. I would pray them away so to speak. I would try and forget about them, I would try and pretend they didn't happen to me, that it was just my mind, or the devil, trying to trick me.

Then I moved to New York. My younger brother [personally adopted as such] Mike and I shared an experience. I remember we were walking around the Lake Osiris Country Club in the middle of the night. It's a Golf Course. We used to LARP and play Paintball on this course. Or just walk around it at night because walking around an abandoned Golf Course at Midnight in New York Weather is freaking amazing.

If you are on Borden RD in Walden, Driving to the Borden RD Bridge [Last I checked it was Closed, I don't know if they reopened it.] on the left there is a Pond on the golf Course. We were walking towards this pond [It's less than a 5 minute walk from my house at the time] when I asked Mike to tell me what Time It was. It was 11:15. I was like, “Cool, let's go chill by the pond” And we started heading towards the pond. Now there is a tree next to the pond, it was a small tree. Mike was behind me when I asked him what time it was. Suddenly, as though I blinked and upon opening my eyes, Mike was in front of me and the tree was less than eight feet away from us. I just stopped, and became very confused. I instantly asked mike what time it was, and he told me Midnight. That's 45 minutes of time that he and I had no recollection of. We weren't drinking, or doing drugs, nothing to alter our perceptions. It was sudden. We ran, as fast as we could, back to my house and went inside for the night. The rest of the night we racked our brains trying to remember where that 45 minutes of time went. We both get flashes here and there. The main thing is the 3 fingered hands. Mike remembers some sort of face, with the classic almond shaped, large black eyes. I remember feeling something cold and flat against my back, like a metal table. But that's really it. I have no idea where that 45 minutes of time went.

Are my experiences proof of aliens? No. Could I be crazy? Yes. Do I expect anyone to believe me? No, I probably wouldn't believe me. Mike on the other hand, vehemently believes that there are Aliens. And has went on to accept the belief that they may have seeded the planet with human life.

Do I believe this? I don't think so, not exactly. Do I believe aliens exist based on my personal experiences alone? No. My personal experiences are not enough to convince me beyond a shadow of a doubt that aliens exist. Now combine that with the suspicious artifacts that resemble aliens and alien encounters, Native American stories about star children/brothers/people, and the Indian Belief in the Gita, which to me reads as though someone is describing Aliens, but doesn't have the words to accurately describe them. All of that considered, then Yes I do believe in Aliens.

My personal experience leads me to believe I have had encounters. But I am a realist, and know that personal experiences are subjective and relative, and what I perceived as happening to me may not have been what it seemed. I am a magician, so I am naturally disposed to be skeptical, because I know that the mind has a wonderful way of creating illusions. Magicians take advantage of these mental properties of their spectators all the time. I could have been hallucinating, what caused the hallucinations? I don't know.

Do I expect anyone who reads this to believe in aliens because of my personal experiences? No, in fact please do not base any belief you have on anything I say. Research the subject yourself and draw your own conclusions.

So is a belief in god more or less rational than a belief in Aliens?

Is my belief in aliens more or less rational than a belief in god?

At least my belief is based on evidence that can be examined, not just my personal experiences alone. Though I guess if I were to be honest, I don't believe it 100%, Because until aliens either reveal themselves, or are publicly outed I won't know for sure.

What do you think of all this? Leave some love below, and let's discuss it.

Why are you so open with your Atheism?

I gets asked that a lot. Why am I so open with my atheism? Why am I so vitriolic?

It's an easy answer, really. It goes back to last year when I first became open as an Atheist.

I wasn't mean about it, I didn't care about religion. I didn't care what others believed. I didn't care at all. Until it affected me. You see, at the time I was contracted through DJs Unlimited Productions. These guys loved me, and my performances. Every time I performed for them they raved about it. It was good times.

Shortly after I accepted my atheism, and changed my religious status on Facebook to reflect this. I stopped hearing from them. Then Jeremy, one of the managers/employees there, who was my main contact, texted me telling me he needed my SSN# Address, etc for their Payroll. I willingly handed over the information. Then nothing. They won't return my calls, they won't answer me on Facebook. You can see to the left and up from here that I posted this question to their wall. They deleted it. So I posted it again, with this screenshot. They deleted it. They refuse to answer my attempts at contact. They refuse to communicate with me in any fashion.

The only rational deduction I can make is because I'm an Atheist.

Since then I've been hurting for income, I've a Wife, Dog, Cat, 170Gallon Aquarium with 3 large Oscars, 5 convict Cichlids, 1 Pictus Catfish, and 1 Pleco, and 2 20 Gallon aquariums to take care of. It ain't cheap. So I applied to go to work at PetSmart. I got the job. The Store manager seemed happy, she was going to call me the next day to let me know exactly what day I'd start and What time. She invited me to stay a little bit after the interview to chat about our pets. Her son and I share the same name, she seemed to like that.

Then she asked, "What church do you go to?" And I replied, "I don't go to church." She looked concerned and asked me, "Why not?" And I said, "Because I don't believe in god." Now keep in mind this is AFTER the interview! On her and my free time.

Then she said, "So are you an Atheist?" And I replied, "Well, I don't believe in god, so I guess so." She abruptly ended the conversation feigning a situation in the back to get away from me.

I never heard from that store again. I called them but she was always too busy to take the call and never called me back.

I live in Pasadena, Texas, so close to houston it's considered part of it on the SE side. The buckle of the Bible Belt. Being an Atheist is Social suicide here. And I have felt discrimination because of this.

This is my answer why I'm so angry, why I'm so vitriolic... because I can lose a Job, and Clients on the sole fact that I don't believe in God.

What has this world come to?

Bars of Babbitt

Bars of Babbitt

An Open Letter to My Loved Ones
by Dai Masters

(Click Through to Family Update)

Dear Family for whom I love,

As I approach my 27^th birthday I feel a strong urge to come out and express myself as who I am, and what I truly believe. Don't worry, I'm not Gay. But I do hope you will reserve judgment on what you are about to read until you've read it in its entirety.

I'm choosing this format to convey this message to you because it's the most comfortable for me. I feel that I will be able to express everything on my mind in a much more eloquent manner than I would through vocal communication. I also feel that this would be the only way I could speak my mind, so to speak, without interruption. I don't mean to offend anyone by that statement, but Aunt Joy, you are the mouth of the family for a reason. (Please, don't kill me!)

I'm not sure where to really begin, so I guess I'll go to the beginning. That seems like a logical choice. As far back as I can remember I've been Pentecostal. Whether it was Evangelical or Apostolic. Every church I went to, every revival, it was Fundamentalist Doctrine. Don't get me wrong, I know that the words Fundamentalist, and Doctrine, are usually negative connotations, but here I don't mean them to be. I know no one wants to be called Fundamentalist, but I was. For a while. At times I felt the calling to even be a preacher. In my little private school I used to preach on our Wednesday services. I remember one in particular, It became known as the 'dinosaur' sermon. It was about God's infinite Power, and an example I used to put God's power in perspective was that maybe dinosaurs were on Noah's Ark, he just shrank them temporarily for the ride.

After the flood he expanded them, and since the flood was such a disastrous event it changed earth's climate and the dinosaurs couldn't survive the climate change and went extinct. It is silly, I know.
Then I remember one that I did on Acts 2:38, and the plan of salvation. Paw paw helped me with that one. It's interesting sitting here, typing this out while thinking about these things. It's almost surreal.
I did a few of those Wednesday services, I volunteered for them, and no one really wanted to do them. I always led prayer in the school. And I did go there a couple of years. I remember enjoying church, most of the time, once I was old enough to understand what was going on and I wasn't just sleeping under a Pew.

I remember carrying my bible to school when I attended public school. But I also remember backsliding. I remember when I didn't want to go to church. I remember how guilty I would get. I remember how hard I would pray for God to give me strength to please fill me with the desire to go to church.
Every so often I would want to go to church again, and then I'd backslide. Back and forth. Most all of my life. I also remember the times I'd fake it and pretend to want to go, and force myself to.
And I had good reason to. I knew someone who experienced miracles first hand. Paw Paw. Who had prayer answered nigh instantaneously! A man who gave it to God. All of it. Regardless of what anyone thinks. Paw paw told me constantly. Nothing of his would be if it wasn't for the Lord, Jesus Christ. The only miracle paw paw told me about specifically, was the Bars of Babbitt. We all know the story, but just in case someone who isn't family happens upon this I'll go ahead and tell it to the best of my abilities.

I'm not exactly sure what year it was, but as paw paw told me, he was on the way home from Beaumont. He needed a certain amount of Babbitt. Babbitt is a bearing material, it can be comprised of many different alloys. It's a Metal. If he didn't get this metal he couldn't finish a huge job, and he didn't have the money to buy it either. So he was Praying for it. When he looked up he saw something shining on the left side of the feeder road eastbound on I-10 Between Beaumont and Vidor. As he got closer he saw it was metal. He also saw another man, an African American, Headed towards him (apparently the wrong way, as the feeder is one way. Or at one time the feeders may have been two way roads, I don't know.) So paw paw sped up and got to the metal on the side of the road first. Upon inspection he realized that it was Babbitt! And it was more than he needed! So now he had Extra! He could finish the job, get paid and feed his family because of these bars of Babbitt on the side of the road.
Because he prayed for it. This story was the evidence I used to justify my belief for many, many years. Yet I remember many a prayer of mine going unanswered. I never witnessed a miracle first hand. And we know, paw paw was the most honest person in the world, and never made up stories like being the captain of a submarine in WW2 or anything dishonest like that...

I always wondered why it was pawpaw pretty much only read the new testament. I have spent many a night with my nose in the bible trying to find answers. What I did find was anything but.

I asked myself, how can I believe something without reading it? I was raised to believe this book is the literal word of god. I was doing God a dishonor by not reading it. So I did. The first time I read it I was younger, and a lot of it didn't stick. But I've read it a few times since. It is from close examination of this text, even down to it's original Greek and Hebrew direct translations, that I have deduced that if a God does exist he is not the god of the bible.

Read your bibles, all of you, The inaccuracies, the contradictions... the unfulfilled messianic prophecies they are all there, and are in black, white, and red.

The questions I asked my self are questions I am sure every Christian asks themselves at some time. If god exists why does he allow so much suffering? If god is all knowing, and knows what I will do no matter what, he knows everything and all things, then how does free will exist? One I asked myself is 'Would I kill my family if God told me to?' If beyond the shadow of a doubt God revealed himself to me, and he is the Abrahamic god, And he commanded to me sacrifice my family as he asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, would I be able to do it?

I would not be able to.

No matter how much I loved God, or Jesus, no matter how much I would want to be in heaven I wouldn't be able to do it. I just can't imagine I could bring myself to do it at all.

I'm tired of pretending to be something I'm not. I'm tired of pretending to believe in God, when in actuality I do not. I do not believe the world was created in six days. I do not believe that we are all descendants from Adam and Eve. I do not believe that god created you, or me. I don't believe in an afterlife.

The last one kills me. But there is no evidence to support an afterlife, there is no evidence to support god. Personal experiences are one thing, and they are subjective and relative. They are not proof. I would want nothing more than after I die to be able to see Paw Paw, but I know that won't happen.

What's the point of life if there is no God? Well, I'll tell you. The only meaning life has to anyone is what meaning you give it. It's a relief actually, not believing in God. It shows me how little we have in this universe, and that this is our only chance to Live. Why spend your entire life oppressing your individuality to prepare for an afterlife that there is no evidence to support?

I'm sure part of this has to do with paw paw dying. How could god let paw paw suffer? Or anyone suffer? How could god let him go through that? Why did god create cancer? These were probably the beginnings of me seriously questioning God's existence. And I've spent countless hours studying the bible since, trying to find the answers.

There are none.

I am so sorry if I offend any of you, it is not my intent. Aunt Joy, I removed you from my Facebook friends list so you wouldn't have to see My struggle with this journey, the anger I had at first was pretty strong. “How dare God not exist!!!” was what I was exclaiming. With every attack, with every comment I've made defaming god. The blasphemy that came out of me when I came to the realization that my Imaginary friend wasn't real. It was traumatic at first. But, that's only because I was indoctrinated, brainwashed. By the Church, by all you guys. I don't blame you for it, I really don't, because you whole-heatedly believe this. You believe in god, and to you maybe he is real... but what evidence do you have of this?

Thank you Aunt Joy, for helping raise me. Thank you for everything you've every done for me, and for all the support you've given me in this life. Thank you for being loud, abrasive, and for just being you.

Uncle John, thank you for being you. You are a very kind person. Thank you for showing me how to install programs on my first computer. Without that I don't think I'd be as well versed in their uses as I am now. Without that, I would have never used the internet, I would have never been able to find the knowledge on anything I desire. I truly appreciate you.

Derek, I owe you a lot. You've been a huge influence on my life. A best friend, a Brother. Yes, at times you could be cruel... [your evil twin.] But in general you were loving, and even though you would get annoyed with me you tried your best to answer any questions I had, whether they be about Star Trek, or God. You exposed me to critical thinking, Free Thinking and to Logic and reason. Without those, I wouldn't be who I am today, and I wouldn't have been able to shed the oppression that is God. Thank you.

Maw Maw, I love you. I am so sorry you are disappointed in me, I don't want you to be at all. I'm sorry that I probably disgust you. I'm sorry you're going to see this as a failure on your part. But it isn't. I came to this on my own, through studying the bible.

Mom, Well, You already know all of this. I love you, and I think you're a closeted atheist. =P

I am an Atheist.

Believe it or not, Atheism is just the lack of a belief in god. That is the only thing that binds two atheist together. They both share this lack of belief. Everything else varies. Political Opinions, personal morals, etc... the ONLY commonality atheists share is they don't believe in God.

I guess, I would have to categorize myself as a Militant Atheist, only because I believe that Religion is a detriment to society, and has held back scientific progress. It has held back medical progress. That without religion we would be much further a long as a society than we are now. I think it is wrong to expose young children to religion before they are old enough to make a decision for themselves. It's like telling a child Santa Clause is real, and then never telling them he's not. Except this Santa commands that babies be dashed upon stones, that the unborn be Ripped from their mother's wombs... and people have the audacity to claim God is Pro-Life. Anyone who claims this has NOT read their bible.

But all of that stuff is old testament right? We don't have to follow the old testament! Not true. Matthew 5:17 Jesus states that he did not come to abolish the old Laws, he goes on to say those who uphold these laws the least and teaches others the same shall not be called into the kingdom of heaven... Hey every-time I disobeyed you guys and you didn't stone me to death... that's not following the old laws to the fullest. Don't forget to repent. That's the loophole.

Mark 7:9 Jesus scolds the Jews for not stoning their disobedient children. And this is well within Context. That's what killed me about reading the bible is NOT taking it out of context. In Context the scriptures are much darker and much more evil.

When is it morally right for anyone to kill a baby(Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9)? Derek, when is it morally right to burn your daughter alive as a sacrifice to god(Judges 11:29-40 )? When is it OK to take virgins as slaves? Or Slaves at all? (Leviticus 25:44-46 / Exodus 21:2-6 / Exodus 21:7-11)

I say never. It's not even OK for God. That is cruel, and immoral regardless of who or what you are. Period.

Those are but a few of the issues I found with the bible and why I stopped believing. I've attached to this letter more, so you can go through and see why I stopped believing.

If I held a gun to your head, and told you, “You have the free will to give me your wallet or not, but if you don't I'll kill you.” What would make that different than god saying, “You have the free will to love me, and accept Jesus as your savior... but if you don't, you're going to burn in hell.”
Think about it.
But wait, didn't I speak in tongues? At least once. In brother Cooper's church. Well, I struggled with this too, but science explains speaking in tongues. It's called Glossolalia. It can be learned from others, and is a form of self-hypnosis. It has been studied by psychologists and Neurobiologists. It isn't supernatural, or Divine. In fact Tribal societies have done this in their rituals for thousands of years before Christ was born. This is scientific fact. And also, there is no biblical support for Speaking in tongues to be evidence of the holy spirit entering you.
Speaking in tongues is a Natural function of the human brain. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossolalia#Scientific_explanations)

I Love all of you, and I hope this explains some of my behavior over the past little while. Excusing myself from prayer, staying away from God conversations, etc.

I miss all of you terribly, and I do love each and every one of you. And I hope you can come to the enlightenment that I have found one day.

Love,
Dai

P.S. I am More than willing to come to any church service, any church to be Prayed through, or for, on one condition. It can be filmed.

P.P.S. Below are all the problems in the bible that I have found, they are NOT out of context. I wouldn't be typing this letter if I didn't think I had biblical backing in my statements. I'm sure there are more, I do hope you go through these, and do look into them so you can understand my reasoning.


If the Bible was divinely inspired, then why would it have so many really obvious contradictions?

[in the actual letter I have 20+ pages of references to contradictions in the bible, old testament and new, and how jesus didn't fulfill messianic prohpecy.]Click through to Family Update

True Believers?

I recorded this video a couple of weeks ago. I think I should have been a little clearer in what I was claiming. I was claiming that people who call themselves true believers are really NOT true believers according to the Bible, the book on which the basis of all their belief rests.

So, what do you guys think? I agree I should have been a little clearer on what I was saying.

My Story

I was lied to. My entire life. From the moment I was born, I was lied to. The ones lying to me didn't even realize they were. They believed in the lie so unquestioningly, so whole heatedly. Does this make it better or worse? Does that excuse it? I know they still believe this lie. To go against this lie is the worst thing one can do, if they believed it.

What lie could that be? Religion. Christianity. Specifically Apostolic Pentecostal. That was what I was indoctrinated in from birth. By my grandmother mostly. I don't personally blame her. I really don't. She believes it completely, like so many. Sunday school every Sunday morning wasn't too bad either. They were filled with the happy stories from the bible. You know, Noah's Ark... David and Goliath... Yeah those are some real keepers.

I didn't log my journey with belief in God, I didn't keep a journal about it nor did I keep a catalog of my ascension into unbelief. Here I will attempt to give you an understanding and look into my journey.

I was born around twenty-seven years ago. March 4^th, 1985. I was immediately circumcised and prayed for with anointed oil, etc. Since then I had been in church every Sunday and Wednesday and most Fridays. Nearly every sermon was Hellfire and Brimstone, so much so that hell terrified me, and I better be a good little pentecostal christian or I would go there. I Even heard god speak through people! It was astonishing and frightening at the same time. I Spoke in tongues, as Pentecostals believe is the evidence of receiving the Holy spirit. It was a crazy train ride.

When I was about eight or nine I was convinced I felt 'the calling' to be a minister, and to preach. I even gave some sermons when I was younger. I stayed on this path until I was sixteen, when I moved to New York. The whole time I studied my bible, and started to see that the churches I attended weren't preaching the word the way it was written confused me. I would argue scripture with anyone who listened.

Moving to new york was a huge turning point in my life. As anyone in New York knows Pentecostal churches are few and far between. I did have help finding one through a youth minister of mine. It was about an hour away from where I lived. And their church services were literally ALL DAY. Not just a few hours in the morning, but ALL DAY. As in 6 in the morning until 6 at night all day. To me this was too long, and if they needed it good, but I sure didn't.

Then I got a girlfriend. A Christian girl, her name Kristen. And boy, did I sin with her. But I would repent each time, and apologize to god for falling to temptation and for him to give me strength. Yet I continued to 'fornicate' with her throughout my high-school career in new york.

I started going to her church every Sunday. It was Lutheran I believe. It was in Maybrook, which is about 6 miles south of where I lived in Walden. The Pastor was an army chaplain who I got into a few different debates with on the scripture and how he needed to tell these people the truth. I'm sure it could go without saying, but he didn't care for me too much.

Eventually I stopped going to church. I didn't need it. My own interpretation of the bible is god inspired, and that's all I needed. I dove into my bible on my own time, and started noticing little contradictions, parts that didn't make sense. Then I read the book of Joshua Beginning to End.

I started noticing The atrocities in the bible being committed in the name of God. I started noticing the downright evil things that God commanded his people. I prayed and prayed on to why this was. And I felt god told me that because the words were written by man, and that men are fallible, they aren't accurate portrayals of god's will. They got it wrong. This happened in a very cryptic dream.

I shed my christian label and then moved on to being agnostic. There is a God, but it is impossible to prove he exists and the bible has it wrong. During this time I moved back to Texas, and then BACK to new york to be with that Girl, Kristen. We Lived together in Hamilton New York for awhile. One of my roommates Rebecca, was Wiccan. I was like, “Holy crap! EVIL!” right? But soon realized how foolish I was. And I learned from her, and ended up taking on the Title of Wicca. I Even gave tarot card readings... and I was accurate. I've witnesses, one of whom I live with currently. These readings took place before I knew what I was doing was called Cold Reading, a technique Magicians and Mentalists use... and well, I am a Magician so I was predisposed to use this technique, unknowingly.

I ended up moving back to Texas, and shed all religious titles. I got married, to the beautiful woman in the photo above, Found out about cold reading, etc. It wasn't until about 2 months ago from now (Now: 2/8/2012). I came to the conclusion that I didn't believe in God, because the lack of evidence for his existence.

Many ask me, “How!? You spoke in tongues, you talked to god! You heard him speak!” At first I struggled with this, but I ask, what is more likely, That the laws of physics and nature were suspended in a moment, for me, in my favor or that I'm mistaken?

Speaking in tongues can be explained, and for me it was learned behavior. Google 'Glossolalia'. I heard god speak, we all hear voices in our heads from time to time. People halucinate. It Happens. These events are not proof of god.

After accepting my acension into atheism I found out about Christopher Hitchens. This man could debate. And quite frankly i am looking forward to reading his books. He and Richard Dawkins make a great case against religion and god. I love it. And well, I have since become an anti-theist. This is my story into Atheism. I know it was boring, but this is the point of view I will be discussing things from on this blog, and hopefully I'll be able to entertain or inform you throughout this new Journey I am embarking.

These are my Broken Analysis.

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my humble little story.