Submission: John Willis in Republic, MO

An Atheist Goes to Church: Episode 1

By Jon Willis

Preface

Nestled on a quiet road in Republic, MO just off the main thoroughfare is a 13,000 square foot warehouse that houses the operations of Destiny Church. Pastor Chad Blansit, a young and
trendily-dressed man leads the congregation which is made up of what I call
"real people." The people that come to this church aren't dressed
pretentiously in an outfit they save only for weddings, funerals and church
on Sundays; these people come as they are, knowing they'll be greeted warmly
and accepted into a community of like-minded believers. The church itself
puts on no pretense with its storefront windows and corrugated aluminum
siding. One doesn't seem to need to jockey for position in the parking lot
since the church's two Sunday services probably split the congregation into
manageable sizes. Through the front doors you'll find yourself in a foyer
with a coffee bar, information center and bulletin board. The auditorium is
straight ahead and is furnished with rows of chairs instead of the
traditional church pew. Lighting in the auditorium is controlled by a board
in the sound booth and an overhead projector displays a presentation
throughout the service. Destiny offers a Facebook profile, a blog, a podcast (available on iTunes) and several "Life Group" programs tailored to age,
gender, and marital status.

My friend, Vicki, attends Destiny Church and invited me to come along when I
had expressed interest in attending churches and blogging about my
experiences. I accepted the offer and met up with her bright and early to
make the drive out to Republic, my 24-year-old NIV Bible in hand.

When we arrived at the church, she pointed out the pastor and some other
staff members to me and after I got a cup of coffee we headed into the
auditorium and sat down in the chairs, which are padded well enough to be
comfortable for the duration of the service. Looking around, I could see
that the median age of the congregation was probably somewhere around 30
with not too many children younger than middle school. In attendance I
estimated about 60-65 people (but my estimation skills are woefully lacking
sometimes so I could be off by 200, for all I know).

Chapter One: The Music Service

The eight-person church band - five men (three guitars, drums and a
keyboard) and three women (all vocalists) - took the stage up front and the
lights dimmed as the timer on the presentation screen expired. The
auditorium exploded with an energetic, contemporary anthem at a volume that
was, in my opinion, appropriate for a rock concert but a little overwhelming
for a church auditorium of this size. The acoustics aren't great. The lyrics
of the songs were displayed on the screen. The band plays well together and
their voices blend into a smooth harmony. The music, while foreign to a
"traditional" church-goer, makes you want to tap your toes.

I have mixed feelings about music in churches. While I feel that the
traditional hymnal music tends to be a little boring, it's easy to harmonize
and fun to sing along because everybody knows it. After all, the hymnals
have contained a lot of the same songs for hundreds of years. One of the
things I enjoyed about church when I was a kid was singing with my family in
four-part harmony. Ah, the good old days.

While the contemporary music is more energetic and up-to-date, it always
leaves me feeling flat because I don't really feel like I can participate as
much. By the time I've figured out the melody and whatever lyrics may be
repeatable the song is pretty much over. However, I can see where people who
attend regularly and become familiar with these songs would find them
immensely enjoyable. In fact, one man in attendance was belting out his
version of the songs from the back of the auditorium with glee.

During the music service everybody stands, although nobody explicitly asks
you to and it doesn't appear as though anybody would care if you remained
seated. Unlike what I've called "yo yo churches," you are not asked to sit
down and stand up over and over between songs.

Thankfully, this isn't one of those churches where people are convulsing in
the aisles and jumping around. That stuff makes me nervous. However, there
were quite a few hands raised in the air for the duration of a song which
I've always found to be a sort of strange practice. I'm not entirely sure
what the people with raised hands feel they're accomplishing (because I
don't know of a scriptural basis for the gesture). Perhaps they have a
question?

Chapter Two: The Introduction

When the last song had been played (I remember four songs total, none of
which I knew) the outreach director, Keith, took the stage and addressed the
congregation with an introduction that I feel was a bit rambling but
ultimately served as a segue into the pastor's message. Keith illustrated
god's accessibility to humans by telling the story of the temple veil that
was rent from top to bottom when Jesus died on the cross (Matthew 27:51).
He said that prior to the veil being torn, nobody could stand in god's
presence because they were sinners and god's presence would kill them
instantly. Here's where I registered my first objection.

God made mankind in his image and loves them. Sure, they're all sinners and
god doesn't associate with sin but he really wants to commune with humans.

Now, this presents two issues for me:

1. Priests were allowed into the presence of god in the Holy of Holies
behind the temple veil. Priests are human and therefore sinners. Why didn't
the priests instantly die? To somewhat counter this issue, the Bible does
speak of ropes being tied to the priests' ankles so they could be removed
from the temple in case they were struck down but it doesn't address the
core issue because I would presume (safely, I think) that not 100% of the
priests who entered the Holy of Holies died. Could you imagine the shortage
of priests?

2. God appeared before Abraham (Genesis 17:1),
Moses (Exodus 6:2-3),
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:9-11)
but none of them were killed instantly. It's obvious that humans can stand
in the presence of god without dying, so I'm not sure what the temple veil
business is all about. Maybe god just really dug on fabulous window
treatments.

Anyway, the point was that when Jesus died god tore the curtain down as a
symbol of his new fatherly relationship with humans, who now benefit
directly from communion with the Holy Spirit. So now we've posited god as a
really great father who is there for us. This registered my second,
perfectly irrelevant objection. Doesn't "God the Father" destroy what
Christians call the traditional family by being a single-parent household? I
mean, I hear objections from Christians all of the time about unhealthy
upbringing when there's no mother or no father in a child's life. Doesn't it
seem weird that Christians claim to have a Heavenly father but no Heavenly
mother, and that's perfectly healthy? That's a total sidetrack! Bad ADHD, no
cookie for you.

So when it came time for the offering, a brief explanation was given as to
how the church uses a little bit of the money to pay bills but puts larger
amounts toward programs in the community (programs which are documented and
seem worthwhile, like food banks). Two ushers carried cloth-lined wicker
baskets down the aisles without lingering too long at any one row and before
you could sing a whole verse of "I've Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts" (which
I'm prone to do spontaneously from time to time) it was over. Very painless,
no begging involved. Kudos to Destiny Church!

Chapter Three: The Message

Pastor Chad took the stage - well-spoken with good projection and a warm
humor - and briefly recapped the series he'd been presenting for the last
few weeks: "MASQUERADE." The series deals with how our imperfect world and
sinful nature lead to us having problems in life like alcoholism, abuse,
unintended pregnancies, addictions, etc. He tells us that we've all
developed ways to hide these problems and mask the pain by putting on a
façade. The goal is to strip away this mask and hand our problems over to
Jesus.

Now, here's where I register another objection: he says we ought to hand our
problems (all of our problems, big and small) over to Jesus because, "We're
not smart enough to fix our problems on our own." Now, I can think of plenty
of problems in my daily life that I'm smart enough to fix. Some people
choose to pray for help finding their car keys and I guess that's fine, but
what happens to your argument when someone finds their car keys without
praying? What happened there? Some people overcome addictions after praying
but other people do it without prayer. I'm not objecting to this because I
find it offensive that he's saying we're not smart. Rather, I'm objecting
because I know it to be false because I've seen how things work in various
circumstances for various people.

The next point he wants to make is that these problems we're having are
ultimately our own fault because of our sinful nature. He illustrates his
point by saying, "God didn't make evil in the garden." Again, I register an
objection. First, god created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
(a.k.a. The Tree of Death!) with beautiful, tasty-looking fruit and planted it right smack dab in the middle of the humans' home where they'd walk by it every day. Second, he
created a talking serpent (it's been debated among theists whether or not
this was actually an embodiment of the devil or if it was just your
everyday, run-of-the-mill talking reptile - I submit that it was Barney.
That's an evil, talking reptile and I would disobey god just to shut Barney
up!) and gave it free roam in the humans' home. Third, he expressly created
the humans without the knowledge of good and evil, which means even if they
were to do something wrong they wouldn't have known it without someone
telling them after the fact that it was wrong. Keep in mind, god knows
everything so he must have foreseen the calamity waiting to happen - kind of
like giving a redneck a case of beer, a gas can and a lighter. So yeah, I
disagree with his assessment.

Continuing on, Pastor Chad reads the scriptural basis for the message,
Psalms 34:18-20,22. Right away I'm put in a position where I'm not sure if he's taking this
scripture literally or figuratively. The Destiny Church Web site says the Bible is inspired,
infallible, and inerrant and I'm assuming this includes the Book of Psalms.
I've always taken issue with using Psalms as the basis for any kind of truth
because it's (presumably David's) personal, emotional poetry. I don't have a
problem with poetry, but I don't try to use it to prove anything (see my
blog post on Psalms). Anyway, if we're taking this scripture literally
then it already fails. Verse 20 says, "he protects all his bones, not one of
them will be broken." Do Christians break bones? Yes. It's one thing to wax
poetic on how god can heal your heart, but to claim that a righteous person
will be spared all injury is pushing it. Perhaps - and I'm just speculating
- this gets explained away because Paul says, "There is no one righteous;
not even one. (Romans 3:10)"

Well, of course you can get injured, you're not righteous! If that's the
case (and again, this is just me thinking out loud) then there's absolutely
no purpose to even include Psalms 34:20 in this message because it doesn't

apply to anybody listening.

If we're using Psalms figuratively then we have an illustration as to how
god can help us overcome our woes...if we're righteous...which we're not.
Yeah, I'm not even sure where this is going. Moving on!

Next up is an explanation as to god's love for us. Pastor Chad uses Romans
8:39 to tell us that nothing can separate us from god's love - and in this case,
he's talking about our problems that we're hiding. The verse says that
absolutely nothing, nothing in all of creation can separate us from god's
love...but what about sin? Or rejection of the Holy Spirit? Or Hell (which
is an absence of god)? I'm not sure this verse is as dead-on as I'd
personally like my scripture to be. But that's my opinion, we'll move on.

Chapter Four: The Invitation

Wrapping up the message, Pastor Chad invited everyone to use the back of the
bulletin to write down the hurt they're hiding. He urged us to "expose those
wounds and expose that hurt" to turn it over to Jesus.

This is where I started to get a little uncomfortable with the tactic that I
perceived was being put into play. As I looked around the auditorium I
noticed some people crying and I'm thinking, "This isn't the way you conduct
a psychiatric trip down trauma lane." I got the idea that Pastor Chad was
preying on people's pain and insecurity to elicit a strong emotional
response. One of the ways in which you can instill dependency in people is
to break them down and tell them you (or Jesus) can rebuild them. Anyway, he
suggested to us that writing down our hurt and getting it out would be a
good start to healing. I tried to think of something and honestly couldn't.
Honest, I'm OK. I promise.

He told everyone to look at the people next to them and look into their
eyes. "You can see their pain," he said, "and you can see that they're
wearing a mask to hide it." I didn't see anybody's pain. Well, except the
people that were crying but that wasn't even a challenge. I think they
forgot their mask, because they were pretty much broadcasting the pain. I'm
not making fun of them, I'm just saying.

After citing various examples of hurt (child abuse, sexual trauma, obesity,
love of country music...OK, I made that last one up) Pastor Chad asked
everyone to close their eyes and in a soothing, hushed voice asked those
people who are hiding hurt to raise their hands. Guilt, anyone? Do what the
nice man says and raise your hand - you know you're hiding something. Then
he asked all of those with their hands raised to come down front while he
led the congregation in prayer. Several people went to the front and waited
while Pastor Chad finished praying. Then he asked the rest of the
congregation to come on up and pick somebody and comfort them while he made
his way around the semi-circle of hurting people to pray for each of them
one-on-one. It was a touching display, and it reinforced the idea that the
biggest benefit people get from religion is comfort and community. I could
tell just by watching these people that they genuinely cared for one
another. It was pleasant.

When all of the praying was done the band got back on stage and did a
closing number, which was one of the songs they had already played at the
opening. I don't know its name. It was contemporary Christian music and
therefore forgettable.

Chapter Five: The Bonus

Throughout the service I had a visitor card with me that I had filled out
with some basic contact information. There were some questions to be
answered like, "Which of these most describes your current situation?" The
answers were all things like, "I don't feel strong enough in my walk with
god" or, "I'm looking for a new church home." Since none of the pre-printed
answers applied to me I had to pencil in my own:
Χ I'm an ex-Christian atheist.

I put my e-mail address on there and would be more than happy to be
contacted. Anyway, the bonus is that I was told to take the card to the
information center after the service and I would get a free gift. I'm
thinking a pencil or a bookmark (which are cool when they're free) but I
wasn't prepared to get a $5 Starbucks gift card. Score a raspberry white
chocolate mocha for Jon!

Epilogue

Going to Destiny Church was a good experience. The people were friendly and
real, the facilities were nice and the audiovisual presentation was helpful.
The community programs the church runs are worthwhile and from all
indications the church's finances are transparent for anyone who cares.
Because I intended to go to a Springfield Freethinkers brunch afterward I didn't

stick around to chat with the staff so I feel like I kind of missed out on
an opportunity to raise some of these concerns directly (and it's probably
not entirely fair that I merely blog about it) so I'm thinking I'll
definitely have to get in touch with Destiny and see if I can schedule a
time to go in and have a sit-down with Pastor Chad. I'm sure it would be
insightful - Chad seems like a great guy.

My thanks to Vicki for allowing me to tag along with her. Stay tuned for
episode 2!

What are you doing this Sunday?

If you don't have plans, you should go to a local church. Take notes through the sermon and talk to the faithful about why they believe what they believe.

Afterwards, write it up as a blog post and we'll share it with the world.

Join the Facebook group here.

And send your transcripts of your adventure to skeptichurch [at] gmail.com

Atheists at World Harvest Church - Columbus, Ohio

By JT Eberhard

It turns out that in Columbus there's a TV mega church called World Harvest. Turns out that Ashley, a co-worker of mine at the SSA (and awesome video blogger), had wanted to go there for a while but was lacking in people to go with. So we scooped up Nick, another co-worker, and made our way out there this morning.

I've been attending church a couple times a month for the last year, and this was the worst experience I've ever had at a church. For one, this was a Pentecostal, heal by laying on hands, speak in tongues, and convulse on the ground type of church. They opened up withthirty minutes of music, which was easily the best (read: least miserable) part of the service. About twenty minutes of that music was a reiteration of the same two phrases (using the same notes and rhythms): 'lord our god is mighty and high' and 'hallelujah'. Consider how insufferable that would be ordinarily, then recall that I'm a music major and multiply your agony by about a hundred and you'll have what I felt like.

It was at this point that I realized I was going to get an ongoing commentary from the lady beside me. She started by telling me that they didn't like religion at that church and that their pastor hates religion. I hope she doesn't plan to sell anything for a career. Her ramblings only got worse the rest of the morning, culminating with things like "You better watch out" aimed directly at me whenever the pastor was preaching about non-believers winding up in hell.

Then came the tithe. At most churches they ask for money, pass the hat, and call it good. Not at World Harvest. We got a forty minute lecture from the pastor's mother about how they shouldn't just tithe, but how they should make a sacrificial offering on top of it. She suggested putting jewelry in the bucket. The idea was that if they gave all they could then the good lord would make sure they got it back and more. To drive this point home she said "You don't think I've got money?" She then went to her purse and pulled out a seriously large wad of twenties and talked about how nowadays giving $2,000 wasn't much at all. Shetold us how she had never known a financial need. She even put her hand on somebody who immediately spazzed out. And the crowd ate it up. Nobody thought "Hrm, perhaps the reason she has so much money is because we're giving 'til it hurts." (Turns out, there's been a lot of that going on lately) She even told one member of the congregation that god was telling her that the congregation member would soon 'come into a financial blessing'. Hallelujah!

She also said they had a report of a miracle: two church members were in car wrecks and came out alright. People who cry 'miracle' for mundane things seem to have a very low opinion of miracles. People survive car wrecks all the time. Atheists survive them, Christians survive them, Muslims survive them, etc. People of all creeds also die in car wrecks, including Christians. If god gets the credit when they survive does he also get the 'credit' when they die? Again, the crowd ate it up. And they gave money: every single one of them. I briefly wondered why the secular movement can't get donations like that. Simple: our dignity prevents it. We're unwilling to promise returns on investments that we're unwilling to provide.

The pastor's mother also assured the congregation that as long as they believed in Jesus that they could not be afflicted. My personal commentator agreed by saying therewas no such thing as a sick day since the lord keeps believers well. The pastor's mother then talked about how she had gotten cancer (without catchingthe irony). She let us know what she told 'the devil': "You're not gonna get me, devil! I'm not going to quit at 75!" I thought to myself "Isn't the life expectancy for women in the United States 80.7 years?" Yeah, it is. If god's looking out for her, he's got a really weird way of doing it. She closed by assuring us that this wasn't about money for the church, but rather about our mortal lives. Praise his name.

I was already starting to get sick to my stomach at this point. She was literally selling good fortune to the congregation. She was telling them that they would make money by giving their money away - and they cheered and complied. After forty minutes of that, mega pastor Rod Parsley took the stage.

He began by telling us he'd wait for everybody [to stand up]. He eventually started even though we remained seated. He opened by hearkening back to the part of the music segment that wasn't hugely repititious, pointing out a line about how Christians were going to see the impossible. He referred to it as a prophesy. Same with the next line from the song about how Christians are gong to see what they've beenpraying for. That was apparently also a prophecy.

He talked about how the ideal patriot/government in a democracy enacts the will of the people no matter what. Such a politician would have been a huge hit around the time when women or blacks were fighting for equality, despite the will of the American public. Personally, I think the idea of protecting the rights of minorities against the tyranny of the majority is a pretty swell idea. Then again, I'm speaking from the position of being a minority, so I'm probably biased. (/sarcasm)

He then talked about how 22 year-old people are really just children with brains that are not fully developed. Yet he has no problem with this little bit in the new visitor book talking about the age group they want to target with one of their ministries.

As I pointed out the other day, kids at this age have brains that are biologically programmed to trust authority as a compensation for insufficiently developed critical-thinking skills. It's how they can so easily be convinced to believe in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. The more I research into high school groups, the more I find groups like World Harvest and Good News Clubs which, unable to convert anybody on the strength of theirarguments, have decided to prey upon those who are defenseless.

Then came a rant based upon a new argument that's been circulating amongst apologists lately: angry rhetoric is leading to humanity's decline. Right. Because previous generations didn't have people vocally pissed off about things. Then there was more assuring people that god has made them powerful. I would give them a chance after the service to demonstrate just how powerful god had made them. More on that later.

He then ranted about our backsliding media, which is filled with movies depicting demonic behavior which, he said, was conditioning us to not believe that demons exist. He lamented that we would liken demons to the Wicked Witch of the West! Heaven forbid.

He then told us that above our heads was divine warfare. We looked. Didn't see it. Crowd cheered.

Then came the usual gripes about secular humanism. Turns out, humanism is to blame for 8,000 teens 'surrendering their virginity' on a daily basis, for people contracting STDs, and I found out that secular humanists like me are possessed by Satan. I wish - I'd be able to rock on guitar if that were the case.

He then talked about someone he painted as the greatest converter of atheists ever: a pastor named Moody. This man was a loner, doing his work without a congregation, staff, pulpit, budget, TV programs (y'know, all the things this church uses). He talked about how Moody wouldn't even let non-Christians into his services - you would actually need a ticket identifying you as a non-Christian to get in! He also talked about how Moody would just take a box out on the street to get to the all the non-believers outside the church setting. Parsley admonished his congregation to emulate this.

Lastly, he griped about a host of things that were problematic with the church.

Christians becoming more theologically illiterate.
Christians becoming more desirous of pragmatic solutions.
Interest in community work escalating (his example: more care about those suffering from AIDS and the poor than in converting to Christ).
Insistence on tolerance, but intolerance of Christians. An example he used was intolerance to those who believe in a biblical definition of marriage. Yes, opposition to discrimination is now 'intolerance'.
The rest was more fire and brimstone, bible is inerrant, yadda, yadda, yadda. I was sick to my stomach from watching them bilk their gullible congregation and placing dogma above good reason. It was the embodiment of every reason that religion must be opposed.

In my newcomers guide the church had given me there was a page informing us about a first-time visitors meeting after the service, which held a line of particular appeal to me.

I could have my questions answered? There's Rod Parsley's face right there beneath it reassuring me that they mean what they say. So I went. For about ten minutes some lady gave a self-aggrandizing speech about her own life in which she attributed minor acts of competence accomplished by just about everyone else, such as finding all her classes in middle school, to miracles from god. She also told us she thought pastor Parsley was a prophet of god. Then they showed us a self-aggrandizing biographical video of Rod Parsley's life. Afterward, a pastor of some sort approached and talked to us. I finally, after about three hours of being preached at, got to divulge my atheism and to ask why I should believe in god.

He began by saying "We know there's a heaven and a hell." I interrupted him to ask how he knew that. His face registered confusion and he said "You don't believe in heaven or hell?"

No.

"Do you believe in god?"

"No, I said I was an atheist."

Then the other, presumably senior pastor stepped in. He was the husband of the lady who had given the narrative about her life. "Do you believe in the devil?" he asked.

"No."

"Well without god, how do you determine right from wrong?"

"I'd be happy to talk about that here in a second, but my initial question should be addressed. Why should I believe in god?"

The senior pastor cited that believers experienced miracles, and he floated a few out. I countered that followers of other faiths experienced 'miracles' (things for which they had no explanation or good occurrences that had a low probability of happening...not very 'miraculous' when you think of it that way) that they didn't find particularly compelling, and I asked why I should find their tales of unexplained events to be evidence for god. I used Muslims as an example. The pastor told me that Muslims don't believe in miracles. I informed the pastor that ten seconds on google would confirm he was wrong (I could have also said that a large number of OT miracles this guy believed in are in the Koran). The pastor said he hadn't looked into Islam and that insisted that he would not do so. I asked how he felt so comfortable talking about what another religious group did or didn't believe when he had just asserted that he knew nothing about it and had no interest in learning. He said he had found the truth so there was no need. I pointed out how it wasn't really fair to expect others to be willing to learn about his beliefs while being unwilling to extend the same courtesy. The pastor said he didn't want me to learn about their beliefs, which became clear after a bit, but I pointed out that his position directly conflicted with Parsley's sermon from earlier.

Ironically, he next asked if I had 'challenged god'. I asked him to explain what that meant. He asked if I had spoken with god or familiarized myself with his word. I asked if he meant something like read the bible and he said, "Now you're starting to get me." I informed him that I had read the bible. He asked if I had 'just read it' or if I had done anything with it. I asked what the difference was. He asked if I had challenged god. I said I had prayed for things, some of which had happened, some of which hadn't (like everybody else who prays). He sad "Yes, but have you done anything with it." We never really got to what he meant by that.

He then told me it was faith. I told him that wasn't a good reason for me to believe since there's no position so at odds with reality that faith couldn't be advanced in its defense (Smurfs? You just have to believe. Leprechauns? It's not about evidence - it's about faith). He responded that his beliefs were the truth. I asked how he knew that.

He then told me that I didn't come to hear the word of god, but that I came to dispute it. I asked him to explain the difference between coming to dispute something and explaining why I thought his reasons were inadequate. Here I had sat through three hours of their message only to be faced with a man who told me I wasn't there to hear their message by a man who is uninterested in familiarizing himself with anybody else's message. Upon digging my way out from underneath the avalanche of irony, I surfaced to hear this pastor telling me that I wasn't ready to receive the word of god. I told him I'd been embroiled in religion for the last seven years, knew more about faiths like Islam than he did, and expressed that I had probably done more theological work/study than most of his congregation. He reasserted that I wasn't ready. I told him that was condescending. He then said we'd have to table our conversation. I invited him to a public debate and gave him my email address. He said they didn't debate the gospel and promptly invited us to leave. I guess god hadn't made him quite as powerful as he'd thought. Any church which talks about reaching out to atheists, as Parsley did for a substantial portion of his sermon, needs to be prepared to answer these very simple questions. This man clearly was not prepared, and it resulted in him kicking us out rather than answering our questions, as the newcomers guide said they would.

If pastor Rod Parsley really believes the story he was spinning about getting atheists in the pews and taking a box out into the public square like pastor Moody did, then he needs to seriously re-evaluate who he promotes to positions of importance. Ditto if the concerns he vocalized about pastors being theologically illiterate were even remotely genuine. If his pastoral team really thinks he's a prophet, they should take his admonitions about reaching atheists and guarding against theological illiteracy more seriously.

There are a few atheists out there who tell me my tactics don't give religious people enough credit, and that all I need to be is more polite and try to connect with them. I call bullshit. Religion is openly dangerous and a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge. It is also lethal to conversation. Conversation cannot occur when one party elevates the importance of believing a particular thing over the reliability of the methodology they used to arrive at that belief. As my exhibit A, look at the senior pastor: as is so frequently the case, it was his faith making him contemptuous of relevant knowledge and keeping him ignorant. That's not a good thing for an individual and it's not a good thing for society. Faith is something to be fought. It is not something to be coddled or given quarter. It is something to be fought tooth and claw and with all the facts at our disposal.

Every Blog Deserves to Get Borned

Hello World!

We (a bunch of skeptics) have decided that we're going to church. No, it's not to rejoice in our belief, but rather our non belief. We're going to ask questions, to get some answers, and to help get the conversation flowing between theists and non-theists.

Are you a skeptic? Have you gone to church? Then we'd love to hear your story! Please send your stories to skeptichurch at gmail dot com for review.

Sagan Lives,

-Skeptichurch