These are not in any particular order. I only wish I had saved more of them because there are SO many other things I’ve read here, and that you guys have said to me, that have been so meaningful, encouraging and funny – I just didn’t think to save it all at the time. I realize I can always go back to the archives and re-read stuff, but it just isn't the same as having all of the "nuggets" in one place!

 

I share these quotes to pay homage to the wonderful people on this site, and b/c I think some of this could be helpful to others. (Some of these don’t include the author b/c I forgot to record who wrote it at the time. If you recognize one as yours please let me know.)

 

Much love and thanks to you all!

 

(BTW, if any of you have some favorite Ex-C quotes to share, I'd love to read them! Feel free to post them in the comments!)

 

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If I could ask god for something, it would for him to be straight, to the point, and clear. To revamp all of his teachings to make it explicit what he wants. That way there would be less division. And to make himself completely apparent to his people. - unknown

 

 

Oddly enough, it was my wife that saw through the hypocrisy when I was still deep in Dumbfuckistan. – unknown

 

 

One of the greatest challenges posed to me in all this was taking something called the "Outsider Test of Faith". That is, I need to use the same criteria in looking at the Christian faith as I do in looking at all the other faiths and religions I actively reject. For instance, I reject the Mormon faith because of historical, archaeological, and textual reasons pertaining to the Book of Mormon. I don't believe in Islam because I don't consider the Quran to be the inspired Word of God, as much as Muslims believe that. I reject Catholicism also because of historical and textual concerns pertaining to what Protestants refer to as the Apocrypha. So, since I reject all of these for historical, textual, and even archaeological reasons, why shouldn't I also evaluate Christianity based on historical, archaeological, and textual data, giving it a fair shake? Otherwise, I would be holding to a double-standard: accepting Christianity on the basis of faith and rejecting all other religions on the basis of evidence. - electech98

 

 

Happiness is a choice, not a privilege granted to you by religion. – unknown

 

 

So many have said it more eloquently than I but once you realize it's a farce you can't go back. How do you make yourself believe? It's hard to lose that entire comforting system but you are gaining your freedom. You get to choose who you want to be. You get to choose how you will live your life. You get to take responsibility for your triumphs. Look back on all the good things you've done in your life and attributed to god and take them back. They are yours! Be proud of yourself. – unknown

 

 

I realized that everyone that I had ever relied on throughout my entire life to be wiser, smarter or more of an adult than me or to lead the way didn't have anything at all figured out better than me. I had grown up thinking that my pastors and church leaders had some kind of inside knowledge on God or something because they were all so much more confident in their belief in God than me. I was finally waking up to the fact that that wasn't the case at all and it was a very lonely experience. It was like being a little kid and coming to the conclusion that there were no real adults, only bigger kids. – unknown

 

 

But let's get back to the man and woman (i.e., Adam and Eve). Not only is it unjust to punish others for their sin, but was it even just to punish Adam and Eve? Did they even really "sin"? Let's think about this. If the forbidden fruit would impart "the knowledge of good and evil" (Gen 2:17) and they did not have their eyes opened until after they ate it (Gen 3:6-7), then how could they discern between good and evil beforehand? Christians point to God saying to not eat the fruit (Gen 2:17), but how could they have known that it would be evil to disobey if they did not yet have the knowledge of good and evil? How could they know that it was wrong to eat the forbidden fruit if they had not yet been given the ability to discern between right and wrong? How is it fair to create people without an understanding of right and wrong and then punish them for doing a wrong act that they were created without the ability to understand was wrong? With such an absurd scenario, how can what they did be "sin"? – Citsonga

 

 

My apostacy grew like an aneurysm. – Positivist

 

 

We don't need a manual for having personal relationships with other persons. A relationship is based on the actual relationship, not a book telling us what phrases to use or specific approved ethical behaviors. If you have to have a handbook to commune with someone, it's not personal or intimate. A holy book defeats the purpose of intimacy. – Citsonga

 

 

Christians can't handle this type of information. They have a belief system that encapsulates belief and keeps it safe from critique. "God is good", end of story. Since you can't change your circumstances, Christianity requires that you change your interpretation of the circumstances. – Positivist

 

 

I don't see "worshiping" as worshiping God, as in some sky-daddy that cares about how many hairs are on your head. I see it as allowing yourself to bask in and enjoy the things that move you, and that loving God is loving yourself, which can be very hard to do sometimes. – Citsonga

 

 

Reading is an experience! And some reading inspires realization of what is inherently "known", but still, that realization translates into the experience of Living. And life reveals itself. – unknown

 

 

But have hope: life is good. Love is good. There are so many good and beautiful things in this world. We don't have to wait for the next world or for secret messages or invisible plans. You are smart, articulate, loving, and kind. Use these things to make the world a better place. If God is real and he loves me, he will come for me. But that's not how things are shaping up, but hey, if that's not faith I don't know what is. – Positivist

 

 

A rose may last but one season but the damn thing is pretty and it smells great. There is no problem with life. Religion creates a problem that does not exist and then tries to solve it. WTF! Life is cool. WOW! Existence is fantastic: pain, warts, birthdays, Disney trips, holding babies in your arms, making love, watching your team win, helping and being helped. Hey, sunsets, sunrises, and fucking mystery out the ying-yang! Atheists-agnostic-mystics like me just know they do not know but we also know no one else knows too! Not knowing is AWESOME. Love, hope, help, friends, relationships and being made of star stuff. Whoa! If this does not stir you up your damn spoon has done fell out your bowl! ROAR! LIVE! Carpe Diem. AWAKE! Religion is a dream bubble. Life is in your face. Life is a WOW! DO IT. – unknown

 

 

If there is one thing I've learned during my time in Christianity, it's that it's DANGEROUS to "wait on God". I've "waited on God" to help me these last three years of my life while I've been going through mess after mess and disappointment after disappointment. Now all the messes in my life have piled up so high that it's impossible to wait anymore. And let me make it clear: it's not like I was just sitting on my ass doing nothing to fix these problems and was expecting God to do all the work - I did EVERYTHING I on my end that I could think of to try to change my situation and I figured if I did my part, God would help me with the things beyond my control. Well, guess what? He never did help. And so basically all the time I spent praying to the wind and reading the greatest piece of fiction ever (the bible) was a complete waste of my time and energy and I could have used that time and energy to try to think even harder of what I might possibly be able to do to help myself. – TotalWreck

 

 

When I was in the phase of deconversion where I had big problems with unanswered prayer, I was very angry (and confused). My faith didn't make sense. What I read in my Bible didn't match my experiences or my observations. My brain was torn in two! I had to change my beliefs, so that I could find peace. - Positivist

 

 

The world operates exactly as a Godless world would operate. – unknown

 

 

We who left are really the only ones who took it seriously. – Deva

 

 

Encounters with the true God never leave objective evidence. People are left wondering it they imagined them or did that happen. You don't have to wonder if you imagined it when you are in an automobile collision. You see automobile collisions are real. - MyMistake

 

 

If you didn't see it with your own eyes or hear it with your own ears, don't invent it with your small mind and share it with your big mouth. – zomberina

 

 

In many, many, ways - life makes more sense to me without god in it. I can stop asking .''why, why''?? Why god this - why god that? It hasn't been fun, but it's definetely getting better. I am so glad you are here with us. We're right here with ya. Hang in there - it does start to feel better.

- Margee

 

As someone else mentioned, for the most part having some sort of ultimate meaning isn't required. It's when I'm feeling really down that I wonder what's the point of it all. To be fair though, when I went through some tough times as a Christian I didn't consider living to accomplish God's will was good enough of a reason either. Your mindset can really warp if you're not careful I noticed. I haven't thought of anything really noble to do with my life. If I do become very successful I would like to focus on poverty but ultimately I'd be quite happy just having a family and growing old with someone; in other words, to go through the complete cycle of life, Lion King style. - Jaded Atheist

 

 

Chlorpromazine can be used to ease one out of a bad LSD trip. With faithamphetamine, the only way out is the Red Pill. It's a one-of-a-kind-one-shot for everybody, but finding it and having the guts to take are the ultimate testament to bravery and character. Well done. You are a true hero. – unknown

 

This idea that god is so pure and so good that he cannot be good and compassionate to lesser, fallible beings also hit me hard in my search. Really? We all must die in his presence? Couldn't the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-LOVING god had made arrangements for this situation without the need for mass genocide again and again and again (not to mention the need to torment forever ALL people who simply didn't believe correctly or were ignorant of the name of Jesus (because BEHAVIOR doesn't matter!)? I always like how Jesus goes on about how his heavenly father is so much better than earthly fathers....pffff. – Gamecock 1973

 

 

The benefit was that once I came to the conclusion that christianity really had no merit, I was free from the struggle of searching for the "truth" in other branches of christianity and even religion as a whole. Now I can focus on me, focusing on living my life (this natural, earthly one), and getting the most out of it I can! – Gamecock1973

 

 

And then, last week, I realised something that affected me profoundly: learning happens in layers. I realised that I was not going to get anything first go, because it is a cumulative effect, hearing and reading something over and over, in different forms, before it actually starts to click. I realised that I needed to continue persisting with the areas I struggled with because eventually I would be rewarded with understanding. And it's started happening- I'm starting to grasp the concept of evolution. I'm starting to get the arguments against intelligent design. It's slowly happening, as I persist. But realising that it wasn't going to happen overnight made me relax a little. – blackpuddin1n

 

 

Suffering does disprove the idea that there is a God who is all knowing, all powerful and good. It's called the Problem of Evil and it is iron clad. Nobody has found a way out of it and philosophers have been debating for years. So either God is ignorant, God is powerless, God is evil or God does not exist. Take your pick. When some kid gets run over and killed by a car either God didn't know it was going to happen, God couldn't stop it from happening, God doesn't understand why this offends us, or God couldn't care less about the child, the child's parents, family or friends. – MyMistake

 

 

You have been making your own decisions all these years - you just thought that god or god's people were giving you the right direction. It is terrifying when you finally realize that it is truly YOU who will be directing your own life from now on. It is liberating, but scary. – Margee

 

 

The main problem with organized belief systems is that it places huge demands on your life, but leaves little evidence to back up those claims. I heard a quote "extrrodinary claims require extrodinary evidence". Christianity is an extraordinary claim that lacks the extraordinary evidence supporting it. If I'm going to base my life around something, it damn well better be right. Of course, the dumbass Christians will say that believing there is no god is an extraordinary claim, but at least that claim doesn't demand you live a certain way. The burdon of evidence is on them to prove it. Especially since their God is supposed to play a huge part in our lives. These thoughts were always in the back of my mind, but I never entertained them until I was forced to confront my doubts. – jackbauer

 

 

I am cursed. I am like “the Princess and the Pea” with all that festering and rankling and niggling of things that don’t make sense. Sometimes I wonder if I must be incredibly stupid. Why would I persist in a faith system that hurts my brain and causes such…dissonance? Why would I persist in vacuuming my house with a broken vacuum cleaner, for so damn long? Well, because I thought it was true. Actually, make that True^TM….Christianity broke my brain. Now, the task is to learn how to think. For real. – Positivist

 

 

Your experience is subjective, and unverifiable. Why should I have to prove anything to you about an entity that you cannot show to exist? How do you know it wasn't a delusion, or a hallucination? Your experience" does not qualify as proof, unless you've decided to redefine the word "proof". You just flipped it back onto me because you know that you cannot prove anything. I say that God is a fart; you cannot see a fart, can you? And you cannot see God. so God = fart. So Fart-God exists unless you can prove otherwise. – Mcdaddy

 

 

I prayed for faith, but reason was so much more fulfilling – roadrunner

 

 

 

 

And lastly, a quote from Margee, who says it so well…

 

I also consider you all to be my friend. If any of the old members up and left - I would be so sad. I love seeing your posts and your name there. I have never met any of you in the flesh - nor, you me - but you guys probably know me better than most of my 'flesh' friends here. And I feel that I have gotten to know you and your personality. You are so close to me in my heart. – Margee