I was pretty much born into Christianity. My parents and I went to a local church every Sunday. There was never really any "baptism" or any similar initiation ceremony... pretty much everyone in the church had always gone there and nobody ever really left either.

I was never really all that devoted to the religion--I wasn't one of the hard-core conservative Christians who think they can inject their religion into everything else, and I never even attempted to "convert" anyone or tell anyone about Christianity.

I never really questioned anything either, at least not until I was in high school. The first thing to go was the Genesis story of Adam and Eve, which could not possibly have happened--humans have been on earth for at least a hundred thousand years now, and evolved from a prehistoric monkey-like creature, as did actual monkeys. They didn't start out with only two (even the Bible contradicts itself on this--it says there were only Adam and Eve at first, but somehow their kids manage to find wives. Hmm...)

Next was the big flood--if a flood that big (if it was even possible--there's not that much water!!) had actually happened only around 4000 years ago, there'd be hardly any diversity of life anywhere other than the Middle East (where all this stuff happened).

About a year ago, I started hearing more about politics, and decided to read into what Christians were "supposed" to believe... and found that pretty much all the conservative Bush-worshippers were going against almost everything of their own religion, especially anything Jesus ever said. Yet they were considered "good Christians" trying to "improve the world" by so many Christians, at least in the USA.

There is no line condemning homosexuality, and hardly anything to support anything else they say... and the War on Iraq would be seen as downright evil by Jesus (and Buddha, and pretty much EVERY non-violent spiritual leader of the past) if he was still around today.

And then I read more about the Old Testament. Murderers were praised as being "doing God's work" back then, and they sacrificed other creatures "for God". A real God would not glorify senseless killing. A real God would not tell humans they're better than other animals and can do with them whatever they want.

Basicly, the Bible was wrong about most things.

By this time (just last year) I had already quit going to church (and had not been for about 2 years), so I didn't have to worry much about others pressuring me to join back in.

I'm a person with a very strong will. I didn't have any of that "guilt" that so many people seem to get when they quit Christianity--I had hardly done anything wrong, according to either the Bible or to my own morals, or to my country's laws. And after reading some of the things they did (which were considered good) in the Old Testament, and KNOWING that those things were absolutely wrong, any chance of guilt about leaving dissolved. I knew that Christianity wasn't as right as it said.

So I looked at other religions. Of course, I never found any that I could really believe. They all had the same problem: putting humans on a level above other creatures (both mentally and spiritually), saying that all things are predetermined, telling people "if you're not with us you'll go to Hell", requiring freaky rituals or sacrifices, having obviously untrue creation myths or views of the world and the universe, and so on.

So now, I'm religion-less. Not an atheist, or even an agnostic... just not a part of any religion either. I don't think there's a name for what I am, except possibly "sane".

I still believe in an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-seeing God, but I think it's pretty much ridiculous to credit/blame God for everything that happens. God started the universe (with the "big bang"), then watched it go. God might've been involved in the very beginning of life on Earth, but after providing whatever it was that started the chain reaction of evolution, God just sat back and watched the universe run on its own. After all, how could a God truly be "all powerful" if he had to make everything by hand?

I also think it's pretty stupid to think of God as a "he". Or a "she" for that matter. A supernatural being that existed before existance wouldn't have a gender. Gender only exists so creatures can reproduce, and God would have no need to do that. I don't believe that Jesus is the "son of God" because the idea of God having a literal "son" is insane. He might've been a prophet, or just a great spiritual leader without any direct influence from God, but he certainly wasn't directly related to God.

I do believe in some form of afterlife, but I think everyone gets to go there, not just one specific religion. Actually, being so caught up in one religion (especially one like Christianity with its tendency to do horrible things "in the name of God"... the Crusades, the witch hunts, Bush, and so on) would probably make you LESS likely to get anywhere.

I don't, however, believe in any sort of "Hell"... those who are truly evil (no matter what their religion) just cease to exist when they die. No eternal punishment, but no eternal anything-else, either.

I'm very glad I got away from Christianity before I was brainwashed into believing anything the conservative, hard-core Bushies say... I just wish I could get through to some of the Christians in this country--especially conservative ones who don't know the meaning of "freedom of religion"--and get them to realize that what they're doing isn't right, even according to their own Bible--and definitely not according to the U.S. Constitution.

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