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Category: Atheism

Do Our Lives Have Inherent Meaning and Purpose?

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meaning of life 2

Those of us raised in Evangelical churches were told that the God of the Bible gave us lives with meaning and purpose. Without God, our lives have no meaning and purpose. Want an awesome life? Get saved! Or so the story goes, anyway.

However, when asked to provide evidence for this claim, none is forthcoming. Does religion give countless people meaning and purpose? Sure, but Evangelicals argue that only their peculiar deity actually gives life meaning and purpose. This means that billions and billions of people go through life living meaningless, purposeless lives. This claim, of course, is absurd.

Babies come into the world as a blank slate. Outside of what DNA gives them, babies have no religious or political beliefs. Virtually all of us begin life with the political and religious beliefs of others — our parents, grandparents, tribe, and church. It is not shocking in the least to see how parental and tribal influences affect how a child grows up. It is not surprising at all that I grew up as an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) Christian and a right-wing Republican. It would be many years before I shook the indoctrination and conditioning of my parents, family, and church. And I should add, it was also years before I cast off the borrowed theology of my pastors and professors.

Evangelical children’s ministries push the idea that it is important to reach people with the gospel when they are children. The older people become, the harder it is to evangelize them. That’s why Evangelical churches have children’s programs that aggressively proselytize children as young as five.

Both my partner and I were saved at age five. We later made professions of faith as teenagers — a common experience in IFB and Southern Baptist churches. Both of us became what our parents and churches made us into. It would be years before we saw our way clear to embrace our own beliefs. I suspect this rings true for many Evangelicals-turned-atheists.

The most important thing parents can teach their children is to think for themselves. Parents have the responsibility to nurture, care, and protect their children. Evangelicals tend to teach their children what to think instead of how to think. From the time I was born, my parents and other influences taught me what to believe. No instruction was given in philosophy or world religions, outside of other religions being heretics or cults. For the first twenty-five years of my life, the goal of my influencers was to reinforce Fundamentalist beliefs and practices. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, these well-intentioned people withheld the truth from me. Maybe they were as ignorant as I was, having indoctrinated themselves in the “one truth faith.” No ground was ever given to other beliefs or practices. The IFB, and later Evangelicalism, was the one true faith. One lord, one faith, one baptism — ours.

Once liberated of past indoctrination and conditioning, I was free to reinvestigate my beliefs. I learned that despite five decades of having religion determine the meaning and purpose of my life, there is no inherent meaning or purpose. Life, then, is the slates upon which we write the parameters of our lives. Atheists are told they live meaningless and purposeless lives, but this is patently untrue. Only people who think God is the end-all make such a stupid claim. Just because I believe differently from Evangelicals doesn’t mean I am lacking in any way. My life has all the purpose and meaning it needs. I have a good idea of what I need, want, and value in life.

While our lives have no inherent meaning and purpose, they do have meaning and purpose — that which we give them every day of our lives. We alone decide what matters in our lives. Truly, to each our own.

As an ex-Evangelical, how do you explain purpose and meaning of your life? Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Evangelical Christian Geri Ungurean Explains Why People Are Atheists

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atheists dont exist

Geri Ungurean is an Evangelical Christian known for her fanatical support of Donald Trump, the nation of Israel, and Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people. Devout in her faith, I would never question whether she is a Christian. When it comes to professed beliefs, I generally take people at face value. If a person says they are a Christian, I believe them, and I expect the same treatment from Christians. Each of us has the right to control our own storyline. Who better to tell their story than the person who lived it?

Unfortunately, many Evangelicals refuse to let atheists and agnostics control how they self-identify. Supposedly, the Bible gives them the right to tell unbelievers what they “really’ believe or whether atheists are atheists at all.

Ungurean had this to say about atheists:

Find a person who not only claims to be an Atheist, but obsesses on pushing their atheistic views on others so as to recruit them; and I guarantee that if truth be told, and this person opened up about their life, you would find an ANGRY person.  You would find a person who blames the God whom they say does not exist, for something that happened in their life.

….

There is a saying that goes like this:   “There are no atheists in foxholes.”  I believe this is true. A lifelong “atheist”  will cry out  “God help me” when faced with death.

….

Do you have a person in your life who claims to be an atheist?  I have many. But I came to the point when I realized that God must be the One who gets through to the “haters.”  The more you push against them, the nastier they become. The more Scripture you give to them, the more they laugh.

….

Love them and pray for them.  There is a man on Twitter whose sole purpose for being on there is to tout his “atheism” in hopes of drawing others to his sad conclusions.

I watched this man for many days.  I wanted to say something to him, but it was as if God was holding me back.  I felt in my spirit to show Christian love to him and most importantly to Pray for him.

We are now friends on Twitter. We can write back and forth in private messages.  This was during the medical scare I had recently. By the way – all tests came out benign (Thank You Jesus).

The Twitter atheist and I would talk to one another about things which were going on in our lives.  He is very polite and compassionate. He knows that I am an Evangelical Christian who will not budge from my deep faith. I know that he claims to be an ardent atheist. So, with that out of the way, we speak as friends.

He has opened up to me that he went to seminary and that he was saved during college.  He knows that my boys (grown) refer to themselves as atheists now. I feel that the Holy Spirit has led me in this friendship.  I pray for this man every day – expecting God’s answer.

I am hoping and praying that the Lord will bring him back. I pray for God’s will to be done in “David’s” life.

But I don’t for one minute believe that he is an atheist.  I believe that something happened in his life which made him bitter towards God.

Brethren, I believe that many of us have these people in our lives. Sometimes, they are in our immediate families. Sometimes they are friends or co-workers.  Show love to these people and do not argue with them. Most importantly, PRAY for them every single day!

The arm of God is not too short to reach anyone, and that includes those who are angry with Him!

Where oh where do I begin?

Ungurean denies the existence of atheists; that when push comes to shove, atheists will cry out to Jesus in their time of need. She has no evidence for this claim other than her own opinion. I’ve been an atheist for seventeen years. I know more than a few atheists who have died, including readers of this blog. Not one of them abandoned atheism. Not one of them embraced Christianity on their deathbed. Is it possible for an atheist to get “saved” at the end of life? Sure, it happens, especially among those deeply conditioned and indoctrinated in Fundamentalist Christianity. Fear of death, Hell, and judgment return, leading the dying person to return to the safety of their religious past. Of course, more than a few Christians have died wondering where the Heaven God is in their time of need.

So, to Ungurean and other atheist deniers, we exist, and we ain’t going away. I am confident that when it comes time for me to die, I will expire knowing that I was right about the existence of God and my eternal future. And if I do, per chance, struggle with these issues on my deathbed, it will be because of how Fundamentalist Christianity fucked up my mind for fifty years.

Ungurean thinks people become atheists because of anger, bitterness, or some sort of negative experience. I can’t speak for all atheists. Every atheist has a unique story to tell. For me personally, I came to a place where the central claims of Christianity no longer made any sense to me; that the claims critical to faith in Jesus are false. Have I, at times, been angry or bitter? Sure, but these feelings came after I deconverted. I was angry and bitter for a time because of how Evangelical Christians treated me post-Jesus. I’ve never been more abused and demeaned than by Evangelicals who savaged and belittled me for walking away from Christianity.

I find it hilarious that Ungurean chastises atheists for promoting atheism, yet she does the same for Christianity virtually every day — as do countless other Christians. Unlike Evangelicals, however, outspoken atheists rarely try to evangelize people. Sure, it happens, but, for the most part, atheists want to be left alone and only share their beliefs when asked or accosted by a zealot.

Ungurean asks her followers to pray for atheists and not try to debate with them. Why is that, I wonder? Is it the fact that most Evangelicals — including Ungurean — are ill-equipped to have a thoughtful, intelligent discussion with an atheist? Is it the fact that outside of giving a salvation testimony, most Evangelicals can’t defend the core doctrines of Christianity, including the existence of God? They wrongly think that quoting Bible verses will defeat any atheist, when, in fact, the Bible is a book of claims, and not evidence.

Let me note, in closing, several of Ungurean’s grown children are atheists. Why has she been unable to convince them to get “saved” or does she think they are still saved, based on childhood religious experiences? Her children, like the rest of us, own their own stories. She has no more right to tell their stories than she does those of atheists and other unbelievers. All that should matter is truth, and to Geri Ungurean, I say, stop psychoanalyzing atheists and engage them in debate; honest, open debate. If you can’t do that, you are just chucking rocks at atheists instead of defending the faith.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Dear Evangelicals, You Are Wasting Your Time and Money Sending Me Books and Tracts

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eternal life

Think of all the people currently living on Earth—approximately eight billion people. Most of them subscribe to some sort of religion, worshipping any one or more of the deities humans have worshipped throughout history. I, too, was born into a devoutly religious family. From the time I was a preschooler to age fifty, I devoted my life to and worshipped the Evangelical God—especially from the age of fifteen forward. At fifteen, I had an experience that is common among Evangelicals. Most of the churches I attended/pastored were Baptist congregations. Making a personal decision to get “saved” was essential to becoming a Christian and church member. While Baptists raised in the church typically make salvation decisions as children, most have subsequent experiences during their teen years. I trace my Christian faith back to an Al Lacy revival meeting in 1972. My parents had divorced earlier that year, and while my parents/siblings stopped attending church, I immersed myself in the machinations of Trinity Baptist Church, attending services every time the doors were open. Trinity provided me with a loving home and a family, and amid my troubled life, the Holy Spirit came to the pew I was sitting on that fall night, convicted me of my sin, and brought me to saving faith in Jesus. From that moment forward, I was a born-again Christian — sins forgiven, Heaven bound, praise Jesus!

Two weeks later, I stood before the church and confessed that God was calling me to be a preacher. In the fall of 1976, four years after getting saved, I enrolled for classes at Midwestern Baptist College in Pontiac, Michigan — a school known for training Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) pastors. While at Midwestern, I met the love of my life. Marriage and an unplanned pregnancy interrupted my college plans. After three years at Midwestern, my partner, Polly, and I packed our meager belongings into a small U-haul trailer and the backseat of a white 1969 Chevrolet Impala, and moved to Bryan, Ohio — the place of my birth, five miles from where we live today.

Several weeks after we moved to Bryan, I was asked by Jay Stuckey, pastor of Montpelier Baptist Church, to be his assistant — an unpaid position focused on improving/expanding the church’s bus ministry and evangelization efforts. We left Montpelier Baptist after seven months, moving to Newark, Ohio — the home of Polly’s parents. After spending two and a half years working with Polly’s father at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Buckeye Lake, I struck out on my own, starting a new Baptist church in Somerset. I would later pastor churches in San Antonio, Texas, Alvordton, Ohio, West Unity, Ohio, and Clare, Michigan. All told, I spent 20,000 hours reading and studying the Bible, preaching over 4,000 sermons, and winning hundreds of people to Christ.

While I would never say that I know everything there is to know about the Bible, I am conversant in all things Bible — especially from a Protestant/Evangelical perspective. I find it amusing when Evangelicals assume that my “problem” is that I don’t understand the Bible; that if I just read certain Bible verses and books or listened to the sermons of this or that preacher, I would see the light and return to the one true faith. And when I say I have already done those things, I am oft accused of lying or being disingenuous. In other words “If you don’t agree with me, you are a liar.”

Evangelicals generally believe that understanding the Bible requires God, the Holy Spirit, living inside of you as your teacher and guide. Without the indwelling of the Spirit, you cannot understand the Bible. Thus, whatever knowledge I may have had as a college-trained Baptist preacher, I am now ignorant of what the Bible teaches; I’m every bit as ignorant as someone who has never, ever read or studied the Bible/Christianity. In no other setting except Evangelicalism does such thinking carry any weight. I know what I know. Just because I am no longer a Christian doesn’t mean I am ignorant about the Bible.

you are loved tract

I frequently receive books, tracts, and other printed/recorded Evangelical material from people who are certain that if I just listened to or read what they sent me I would immediately fall on my knees, repent of my sins, and come to or return to (depending on their soteriological beliefs) saving faith. Yesterday, I received a tract in the mail from a local Southern Baptist. No church/individual name was printed on the tract, but the sender wrote “you are loved” with a smiley face on the back of the tract.

The tract was typical of such evangelistic tools. Published by the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the tract presented a shallow, superficial, truncated gospel that, according to the author of the tract, would save me from my sins and guarantee me a home in Heaven after I die. At the back of the tract was a form for me to sign if I prayed the sinner’s prayer, letting the person/church who sent me the tract know that they could put another notch on their gospel six shooters — another sinner “killed” by the Southern Baptist perversion of the Christian gospel.

Several months ago, I received a short book published by an Evangelical preacher named Peter C. English. English wanted to educate me about where I could find the inerrant, infallible Word of God; that there was one English language Bible that was direct from the mouth of God. I am sure some of you are thinking, “King James-only, right?” Yep, but not just KJVO alone. English believes a particular King James translation is THE Word of God — “the Pure Cambridge Version of the King James Bible.” According to the Pure Cambridge website, this Bible is:

By the term Pure Cambridge Text, I refer to a perfect King James Bible as it was printed between the end of WWI and until 1985, but is now being printed by Church Bible Publishers. If you were to look at the English Bible on a pulpit in heaven, it would match exactly. Every word, every letter, every punctuation mark, every verse marking, every italicization, and every subscript and title would be exactly what God the Father thinks of when he considers the English Bible.

the romans road

I also had a member of First Baptist Church in Bryan, Ohio recently drop a tract on my doorstep. Titled “The Romans Road,” the tract presents yet another shallow, superficial, truncated gospel, one sure to save me if I would just “believe.” Here’s the thing, I used to attend First Baptist in the 1970s. I am well known to the church, so it is unlikely that the person leaving the tract didn’t know who I was. I watched the woman on our RING doorbell camera as she knocked on the door, and not getting an answer, tried to stick the tract in the space between the door and frame. Unable to do so, she huffed and sighed, dropping the track on the stoop in front of the door. Off she went, thinking her littering did its job — saving the notorious atheist Bruce Gerencser.

What do these evangelizers hope to accomplish with their books and tracts? Surely they can’t think that I will be won over to their side by reading second-grade religious material? Not going to happen. I know all I need to know about God/Bible/Christianity. I can’t imagine a theological or philosophical argument I would find persuasive. Maybe, but it’s been many years since I have heard an original, compelling argument for Christianity. All I seem to get from Evangelicals are the same worn-out arguments I have heard my entire life.

To Evangelicals, I say, please don’t waste your time sending me books, pamphlets and tracts. They are not helpful, and I see them as nothing more than reminders of how shallow Evangelical theology really is. You might think that the Holy Spirit will use the words on the printed page to prick my conscience, but, so far, the score is Bruce — 1,000,000 Holy Spirit– 0. You might want to think of more effective ways to evangelize Evangelical-preachers-turned-atheists.

How about you? When was the last time you heard a compelling argument for God from an Evangelical apologist? Please share your experiences in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Is “Does God Exist?” The Most Important Question We Can Ask?

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I recently watched a discussion between Alex O’Connor, an atheist, and Dr. Francis Collins, an Evangelical Christian and former Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on YouTube. You can watch the video here:

Video Link

I have heard countless discussions, debates, arguments, and brawls over the existence of God. Eighteen years in, I’m no longer interested in the “God debate.” I have heard every possible defense of or “proof” for the existence of God. Many of these arguments try to establish the existence of a creator God, a generic deity of sorts that they posit is found in every culture and religion. Such discussions are largely philosophical masturbation, for which I have no interest. I will, at times, engage Evangelicals when they try to claim and prove that the generic deity I mentioned is actually the Christian God of the Bible. Such arguments miserably fail. Why? They rely on the Bible as proof for their claims. (I am using the words proof and prove in a colloquial sense. I know proof is a mathematical term, not a theological/philosophical one.) As a former pastor and theologian, I still enjoy discussing the Bible and theology, though I no longer have the stomach for WWE-style wrassling matches over minute points of dogma. That said, I have yet to have an Evangelical make a compelling argument for their peculiar God’s existence.

Even within the framework of the Bible, there are numerous gods, beginning with multiple deities in the book of Genesis to the insurmountable differences between the God of the Old Testament and the Son of God in the New Testament. There’s no such thing as a singular Christian deity. One could argue that there are more Christian gods than we can count, with each believer shaping his or her God in their own likeness. That’s why, when talking to Evangelicals about the existence of God, the first question to ask them is “How do you define God?” What are his qualities and attributes? Typically, no two Evangelicals will give you the same answer.

During O’Connor’s discussion with Dr. Collins, one idea came up several times; that the most important question any of us can ask is “Does God exist?” I suppose in atheist-Christian debating circles this might be true, but, for me personally, and I expect for many of you who read this blog, answering the question “Does God exist?” is not at the top of your list of important questions to answer. In fact, I suspect, for those of you who have always been atheists or deconverted years ago, the God question rarely crosses your mind, that is, unless a Christian zealot is in your face trying to get you to pay attention to his God and the importance of getting saved lest you die and end up in Hell.

The only time I even think about God is when I am writing an article for this site. Otherwise, God rarely crosses my mind unless I just stepped on a Lego left on the floor by one of my grandsons, leading to me uttering “God dammit” or “Jesus Christ.” I sure hope the Lord appreciates my worship. 🙂

Pondering deep philosophical questions is largely the domain of white, affluent westerners who have time and money to sit around pondering God’s existence and the meaning of life. For most people, their lives are focused on more pressing questions such as earning a living, providing for their family, renting/buying a home, putting food on the table, and making sure they have a running automobile or reliable transportation to get where they need to go. By the time working-class/middle-class people sit down at the end of the day, the last thing on their minds is the question, “Does God exist?

How about you? Is the “Does God exist?” question important to you? Or do you find such discussions boring, reminders of the endless chattering about theology during your days as a Christian? I wonder if I am alone with my indifference towards this question. I have reached a place in life where I simply no longer care. I have far more pressing issues that vex my soul, especially matters concerning my health, family, and economic well-being. Please share your pithy thoughts in the comment section.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Bruce, I Have a Message From God Just for You

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message from god

I started blogging in 2007, a year or so before I deconverted. From 2007 to today, I have received thousands of emails, comments, and social media messages from Evangelical Christians. Many of these believers think that God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives inside of them as their teacher and guide; that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God; that every word in the Bible is true, straight from the mouth of God; and that God either gives them messages to send me by whispering to them in a still, small voice only they can hear and having them put those messages in an email, or by directing them to certain Bible verses to send me that will bring conviction and repentance in my life if I dare but read and accept them.

As of 9:29 pm, on January 8, 2025, every Evangelical Christian who has deigned to send me a message straight from the triune God of the Bible has miserably failed. Every last one of them. Is it that I am so hardened to sin and the gospel that I am unreachable? Or is the real issue I know the Bible better than most of the Evangelicals who contact me; that their messages from God or quotes from the Bible are unpersuasive when measured by skeptical, rational, evidentiary standards?

Most Evangelicals are presuppositionalists (and all of us are to some degree or the other), presupposing without evidence that the Christian God is the one and only true God; that the Bible is the very Words of God. Evangelicals expect atheists and other unbelievers to accept these claims as true without evidence, and if we don’t, we are deliberately suppressing what we know to be true. If you have ever engaged an Evangelical presuppositionalist in a debate, you know it is impossible to have a meaningful discussion with him as long as he holds on to these unsupported beliefs. These are faith claims, and as such beyond rational debate.

You cannot prove the Bible by the Bible. That’s called circular reasoning. The Bible is a book of claims, not a compendium of evidence. When Evangelicals make claims from the Bible, I ask them for non-Biblical evidence for their claims. Just because the Bible says __________________ doesn’t mean it is true. To an atheist, the Bible is just printed words on pages. When the Bible makes a claim, the atheist is justified in asking for evidence to prove the claim. Ken Ham can say the Bible says the universe was created in six literal twenty-four-hour days, 6,027 years ago; that Adam and Eve were the first humans; that God destroyed almost every living thing on the earth with a flood a few thousand years ago; that human language variation began at the Tower of Babel, but these claims are meaningless to me apart from evidence outside of the Bible. Simply put, the Bible is a book of words, no different from countless other books I can buy from Amazon or other booksellers. When you say to me, Bruce, the BIBLE says ____________, my first response is this: “And I should care, why? “

To those God has given a message via Holy Spook ESP®, I ask you: How do you know the voice in your head is God’s? How do you know the message is from God and not the personal thoughts you want to share with me? How do you distinguish between God’s voice and yours? What empirical evidence can you provide for your claim that your message for me is a supernatural communiqué from the God of the Bible? Do you really expect me to believe you just because you SAY your message is from your peculiar deity?

I am an agnostic atheist. I am not an anti-theist. I can be convinced of a God’s existence if sufficient evidence is provided. My “heart” is open to truth, and since God knows where I live, he can cut out the middlemen and talk to me directly. Is this too much to ask for?

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

IFB Pastor Dave Mallinak Explains “Stinking” Atheism and Miserably Fails

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atheism

David Malllinak is the pastor of Berean Baptist Church — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation in Ogden, Utah. Several years ago, Mallinak wrote a post titled Why It Stinks to be An Atheist. As is common in such articles written by Evangelical preachers, Mallinak writes about an atheism that does not exist. He claims to have heard all the atheist arguments, yet he dismisses them out of hand.

Mallinak begins by saying:

If, as the atheist claims, all the world is a product of impersonal forces – the collision of matter and energy – or perhaps, lightning striking mud, then what we really have going on is this gigantic chemical reaction which members of the press somberly describe as “breaking news.” Sometimes the chemicals fizz; sometimes they pop; sometimes they experience diaphragm spasms; sometimes they debate. But the chemical activity from one beaker to the next really doesn’t matter because it isn’t really anything anyway. Some brains spark rationally, and some quite irrationally, and that is what chemicals do given certain temperatures and atmospheric pressures.

Atheism is the absence of belief in the existence of gods. That’s it. Any other belief added to this statement is beyond the scope of atheism proper. While most atheists accept evolution as the best explanation for our biological world and accept scientific consensus for the age of the earth and the universe, not all atheists do. Many atheists are indifferent about matters of science. I, for one, have little interest in discussions about the beginning of the universe. I am far more concerned about the here and now than what took place billions of years ago,

Mallinak would have us believe, based on his ignorant understanding of human minds, that atheists believe rationality and irrationality are based solely on chemical processes. While the brain sending and receiving chemical/electrical signals throughout our bodies controls all sorts of physical processes, including thinking, we must not ignore how external influences, education, experiences, and traumas affect our thinking too. Rationality and irrationality are affected by both nature and nurture.

Mallinak goes on to say that because atheists believe in a world of impersonal causes our lives lack wit, will, wisdom, personality, design, intention, or purpose:

Ideas have consequences. The atheist imagines a world without God – a world of impersonal causes. In the ultimate order of things, there can be no wit, no will, no wisdom, no personality, no design, no intention, no purpose. Thus, Christian apologists have pointed out that nihilism is the only consistent atheism.

While this may be true on a cosmic level, it is certainly not true as we live our day-to-day lives as godless heathens. Sure, some atheists are nihilists, but most are not. The reason for this, of course, is that most atheists are humanists. It is secular humanism that provides many atheists with an ethical and moral foundation by which to live their lives. (Mallinak writes as if he’s never heard of secular humanism.) Humanism gives them meaning, purpose, and direction. Want to call humanism a religion? Fine, I don’t care. To suggest that atheists don’t have wit, will, wisdom, personality, design, intention, or purpose is absurd, nothing more than an attempt to paint atheists in a bad light. Humanism provides a comprehensive challenge to Mallinek’s Fundamentalist worldview. And the good news for humanists is that we are free to draw from all sorts of worldviews as we build a moral and ethical framework for our lives, including Christianity. I have no problem admitting that my worldview is deeply affected by the fifty years I spent in Christianity — for good or ill. I embrace the good things I learned from Christianity while rejecting those beliefs and teachings that cause harm. I view the Bible as a book of wisdom and spiritual teachings, just as I do other religious texts.

Mallinak believes that atheists live in denial of the logical conclusions of their beliefs; those beliefs, of course, as defined by a right-wing preacher:

If we could get our atheist friends to be honest with their own worldview and to follow their premises to their logical conclusions, this is what we would get. And that’s why it stinks to be an atheist. Because once in a while, as someone else has pointed out, the atheist looks around him at all the beauty and all the splendor and all the delights of this world, and feels a strange and alien sensation creep into his heart that for a moment makes him want to contradict his own premises and feel what the Christians describe as “gratitude.” But in that moment of insanity, he stumbles over two roadblocks. First, his atheism leaves him with no way of accounting for the sensation of gratitude, aside from an exalted notion that his feelings are actually things and that they mean something. How irrational in a world of impersonal cause! And then, if those irrational sensations persist, he looks around for someone to thank and finds nobody.

Mallinak lives in a religious bubble that requires a God for goodness to exist; for beauty to exist; and for gratitude to exist. Lacking imagination, Mallinak cannot fathom a world without his peculiar version of God, one shaped by his idiosyncratic interpretations of the sixty-six books of the King James Bible. Mallinak alleges that he has talked to atheists; that he has atheist friends. I question how many intimate atheist friends he might have. IFB preachers have little room in their lives for people who disagree with them; especially people who consider their beliefs and practices harmful, both psychologically and physically.

I have been an outspoken atheist for almost seventeen years. I have answered allegations such as Mallinak’s many times. On the About page for this site you will find the following advice I give to readers:

You have one life. There is no heaven or hell. There is no afterlife. You have one life, it’s yours, and what you do with it is what matters most. Love and forgive those who matter to you and ignore those who add nothing to your life. Life is too short to spend time trying to make nice with those who will never make nice with you. Determine who are the people in your life that matter and give your time and devotion to them. Live each and every day to its fullest. You never know when death might come calling. Don’t waste time trying to be a jack of all trades, master of none. Find one or two things you like to do and do them well. Too many people spend way too much time doing things they will never be good at.

Here’s the conclusion of the matter. It’s your life and you best get to living it. Someday, sooner than you think, it will be over. Don’t let your dying days be ones of regret over what might have been.

I try to live by these principles every day. As far as gratitude is concerned, I give thanks/praise/credit to those to whom it is due. When my partner of forty-six years cooks an awesome meal, I don’t praise a dead Jew who lies buried somewhere outside of Jerusalem. I praise the person who prepared, cooked, and served the meal. When someone does something for me, I thank them. I focus my gratitude on those who matter, and not a deity who is nowhere to be found. And wonder? I am filled with wonder everytime I see my six children and their partners, and my sixteen grandchildren. What a blessing to have a wonderful family. I have a sense of wonder when I watch our four cats run and play with nary a thought of what is happening outside. We are blessed to have lots of wildlife frequent our yard; birds, squirrels, possums, raccoons, skunks, and deer. We also have numerous feral/stray cats that come to our home for food, water, and housing. I marvel at their abilities to survive both the cruelty of their former owners, but also nature itself. Finally, when I look at the night sky I am filled with wonder, grateful that I have been given this moment in time by my ancestors to experience life to its fullest. Yes, I live with a plethora of health problems and battle unrelenting, pervasive pain every waking moment of my life, but on balance, I am grateful to be alive.

Mallinak will reject the locus of my gratitude, but that’s his problem, not mine. He needs a God, a church, and a Bible for his life to have meaning. Having been indoctrinated and conditioned to have a Christ/God-centric life, he likely cannot fathom how an atheist can have a happy, satisfying life.

Mallinak writes:

I would rather worship the Triune God in all His glory and majesty and infinite, loving power and goodness, even if He was make-believe. Yes, I prefer an imaginary God to “the unyielding despair” required by the premises of atheism.

…

But of course, the Triune God is no more make-believe than the sun in the sky. Man could not invent such a God any more than a man could invent himself. If the Triune God Who has revealed Himself in Scripture doesn’t exist, then we cannot explain the world we live in. Morality goes away. Beauty is meaningless. Reason dies. All is meaningless, purposeless. It stinks to be an atheist.

Mallinak would rather believe in a mythical God than accept the world as it is. His ignorant view of atheism has allowed him to construct an atheist straw man, one which he burns to the ground, all the while surrounded by atheists who wonder what the crazy preacher is burning. Much like the deity he worships, Mallinak is torching a myth, Instead of allowing atheists to define themselves, Mallinak insists that he knows non-believers better than they know themselves. How could it be otherwise? He believes God, in the person of the Holy Spirit, lives inside of him, teaching and guiding him through life. He believes this same Spirit talks to him, both personally and through the pages of the Bible. He is certain that his interpretations of the Bible are right, and that his understanding of the Scriptures perfectly aligns with the mind of God. This kind of thinking breeds certainty and arrogance, so it is not surprising that Mallinak thinks he knows how atheists think and what they believe. (Yet, I suspect it upsets him when atheists ignorantly pontificate on what Christians believe without knowildedge and understanding of the religions and its teachings>)

Mallinak concludes his screed with his version of Pascal’s Wager:

Let me invite you to a thought experiment for a moment. Think of this as a spin on Paschal’s wager. If atheism is right, it doesn’t matter whether I believe in God or not. We all die like dogs, and then the skin worms get down to business. But if Christianity is right, we can make sense of the world. If God created the world, then that explains everything – reason, morality, goodness, truth, ice cream flavors, heat and cold, dreams and ideals and disappointments and satisfaction – it all makes sense. If God made the world, then we can justify our innate desires for the good of humanity.

Sigh, right? (Please see Why I Use the Word “Sigh.”) Mallinak’s wager is built upon the foundation of a false definition of atheism and a lack of understanding the humanistic principles by which most atheists live their lives. No matter how much Mallinak protests, atheists and humanists can explain “reason, morality, goodness, truth, ice cream flavors, heat and cold, dreams and ideals and disappointments and satisfaction.” It all makes sense to atheists, without deities and religion getting in the way.

Life is good. May Loki be praised! 🙂

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Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

We Are the Only Hell That Exists

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hell

Evangelical Christians believe in everlasting punishment for all those who die without faith in Jesus Christ. According to Evangelical dogma, the vast majority of humanity — past, present, and future — will end up in the Lake of Fire after they die, forever tortured by God for their sin and unbelief.

When asked where Hell is located, Evangelicals either stupidly say it’s in the center of the earth or, in a rare breath of honesty, say they don’t know. The Hell of eternal punishment exists only in the pages of the Bible. Within broader Christianity, the existence of Hell (the Lake of Fire), its purpose, and who ends up there, if anyone, is hotly debated. For unbelievers, especially agnostics and atheists, Hell is a myth, a theological concept used by clerics to promote fear among church members, knowing fearful congregants are more likely to obey their commands, attend church, and keep offering plates full. Remove the threat of Hell and I suspect scores of people will stop attending church. Without fear, they might be inclined to sleep in on Sundays, watch the NFL, and spend their tithes and offerings on personal needs instead of funding their pastors’ every whim.

When asked if I believe in the existence of Hell, I give a two-part answer. No, I don’t believe in the existence of big H Hell, but I do believe in little h hell. Little h hell is what humans do to each other, other animals, and the planet they live on.

Hell is a creation of human imagination. I explain it this way:

Good News: Hell is the creation of human imagination.

Bad News: Human imagination knows no bounds when it comes to cruelty and violence

I do not fear landing in Hell after I die. I am confident that once I draw my last draw, that will be the end for me; that I will return to the same darkness and nothingness as before I was conceived. I do, however, fear the hell that my fellow humans can and do inflict upon our planet and its inhabitants. Come January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will become president and unleash upon the American people hell that we have not seen in many years. Imagine the hell that will be unleashed by MAGA extremists such as Tulsi Gabbard (Director of National Intelligence), Scott Bessent (Treasury Secretary), Pete Hegseth (Defense Secretary), Pam Bondi (Attorney General), Kristi Noem (Homeland Security Secretary), Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(Health and Human Services Secretary), Doug Burgum (Interior Secretary), Chris Wright (Energy Secretary), Linda McMahon (Education Secretary), Lee Zeldin (EPA Administrator), Kash Patel (FBI Director), Tom Homan (Border Czar), Elon Musk (Department of Government Efficiency), Vivek Ramaswamy (Department of Government Efficiency), and Russ Vought (Office of Management and Budget Director). These men and women are committed to enacting and enforcing Trump’s extremist social, health, education, and economic policies, regardless of the hell they cause the American people and the world at large.

Trump relishes chaos, so we shouldn’t be surprised when his rhetoric and saber-rattling land the U.S. in new military incursions while trying to end conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East abruptly. His threat of withdrawing the U.S. from N.A.T.O. should scare all of us. Trump’s insane commitment to tariffs will certainly cause increased inflation as businesses increase prices to offset tariff costs, as will his plan to cut the social safety net. His plan calls for large-scale immigration enforcement and deportations of primarily Mexican and Latin American immigrants. Doing so will likely tank portions of our economy that rely on migrant workers (many of whom are undocumented). The new Department of Government Efficiency hopes to set much of the federal government and its agencies on fire, causing untold harm to the American people. And Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.? Left to his own devices, Kennedy, Jr. will turn HHS into a health food store, and leave us largely unprepared for the next pandemic.

Of course, the United States is but one country out of 193, each with its dispensers of hell on earth. As of June 2024, there were 56 military conflicts in the world, involving 92 countries in conflicts outside their borders. Famine and lack of sufficient food, water, housing, and medical care remain a major problem in many countries. Increased world temperatures and weather extremes remain a threat to our very existence; that is if a nuclear war doesn’t destroy our planet.

Hell and threats of hell abound, and all any of us can do is help put out as many fires as we can. Yes, Trump is a major hell threat, but his ability to burn everything to the ground except his bank account remains to be seen. Will there be Republicans who will stand up to his extremism? It’s doubtful, but perhaps a few of them will wake up, get their noses out of Trump’s ass, and remember that they serve the American people. The year 2026 will provide voters will an opportunity to right the Congressional boat, thus limiting the damage Trump and his acolytes can do. However, Trump has two years to pretty much do what he wants. Democrats are largely powerless, most Republicans are MAGA devotees, and the U.S. Supreme Court is controlled by right-wing ideology. Protests are sure to come, and I fear violence will follow. Sadly, this will give leave for Trump to unleash “HIS” FBI and Justice Department on protestors and anyone else on his blacklist.

I see little that would cause me to be optimistic. We are in for hell over the next few years. I will do what I can to put out fires or at least keep them from engulfing people and institutions, while at the same time pushing back against Christian Nationalists who see Trump’s presidency as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to turn back sixty years of secular, social, and church-state progress.

I hope I am wrong, but so far, all I see is a raging fire on the horizon. Hell awaits us, and whether we survive remains to be seen.

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Sacrilegious Humor: Coming Out As Agnostic by Emily Catalano

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emily catalano

This is the latest installment in the Sacrilegious Humor series. This is a series that I would like readers to help me with. If you know of a comedy bit that is irreverent towards religion, makes fun of religion, pokes fun at sincerely held religious beliefs, or challenges the firmly held religious beliefs of others, please email me the name of the bit or a link to it.

Today’s video is Coming Out As Agnostic by Emily Catalano.

Video Link

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

Quote of the Day: Why Secular Humanism is Superior to Christianity

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quote of the day

Secular Humanism is about humans and what’s good for them. Christianity is about Jesus and what’s good for him.

— Matt Dillahunty, The Atheist Experience, 2017

Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.