Donna Druchunas's Blog

No time for writing this weekend -- it's canning time! Made a batch of spaghetti sauce yesterday and today we are making salsa and pesto. But, for your reading pleasure, I published Dealing with Doubt: Part 5 of My journey into and, later, out of Christianity on de-conversion.com. Enjoy! Feel free to comment there or here.

I posted part 3 of My Journey Into and Out of Christianity today.

A few weeks ago, ironically when I’d been planning to speak at an atheist meeting, I went to church with evangelical friends. I almost called them fundies, but I’m not always sure what that means any more. These days it carries a connotation of negativity, so I’m choosing not to use it to describe my friends, although I’m pretty sure they still hold to the “five fundamentals” with which the name originated. These were friends from my teenage days in New York, when I was on fire for God, a spirit-filled, born again Christian with a mission.

The experience made me wonder how I got that way, because when I think back to my younger days, I was a nominal Christian. I was born again when I was nine, but I didn’t spend most of my time reading the Bible, praying, or witnessing. But when I was 14, all that was starting to change.

Friends from church invited us to their house to hear a preacher from Texas. Ernie greeted everyone at the door, and Helene ushered us down the stairs into the basement. The long, narrow room was filled with metal folding chairs lined up in rows facing a makeshift pulpit that was nothing more than a cheap music stand. There was no organ, but two electric guitars and a microphone stood in the corner of the room next to a small amplifier, and a tambourine waited silently at the foot of the pulpit.

Read the rest here.

Part 1.
Part 2.

Update: part 4.

This excellent post by John Marks at Purple State of Mind, along with recent events in my own life, inspired me to write this:

I am an atheist and recently spent a wonderful weekend with some old evangelical Christian friends. We had a great time, we talked about everything — including politics and religion — without fighting or calling each other names. It just makes me wonder why other people have such a hard time talking to and understanding “them”… but yet I see it happening all around me all the time. It’s so sad and I really want to find a way to break down these barriers.

I went to church with my friends, and heard a guest speaker say in so many words that Christians had to fear for their lives now that the Democrats are in power in the US. And this week I read an atheist blogger saying the same things in reverse — how Christians are stockpiling guns and are out to “get us” liberals.

Someone has to break the cycle of terror. I don’t mean fear of terrorists, either. I mean fear of the “other” in our own country. The liberals (including most atheists) are terrorized by the idea that the religious right is going to make our country a theocracy and take all of our rights away the conservatives (including many Christians) are afraid the progressives are out to destroy morality, eliminate religious freedom, and take all of our rights away. Both positions are ridiculous in the extreme.

The scary part is that if we keep going in this cycle, it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone has to tone down the rhetoric first. I want to be part of the group that spreads reason and hope instead of buying into fear mongering. I hope it’s not too late and I hope some of you will join me in trying to break out of the destructive cycle we’ve locked ourselves into.

Born Again, part 2 of my story into and (later) out of Christianity, is now posted on de-conversion.com. Enjoy.

P.S. Yes, I know I misspelled that one word. It's the dang movie that completely messed up my ability to spell that. It may be fixed by the time you read the piece.

Here's a talk with my friend, creativity author Eric Maisel, about his newest book. As many of you know, I don't believe in gods, yet I am interested in different religions and spiritual practices and the lives of people who believe different things than I do. Over the past few years, I've been reading a lot of books by atheist authors as well as books about atheism by both atheist and believing authors. Most of the books have been full of arguments for or against the existence of God (or gods), a topic that really does not interest me. A few books have touched on ways that those of us who do not believe in the supernatural can find ways to find purpose and create meaning in our lives, and how we can still participate in a spiritual practice, whether that's meditation, rituals, writing, or even knitting.

Eric's book, The Atheist's Way fits into this last category. When I started reading Eric's books and talking to him in email, I had no idea that he was an atheist. I found a few clues dropped in his recent creativity books, and somehow we started talking about the subject. I was thrilled to hear that Eric was writing on this topic, because most of the other books out there seem to be written by either scientists, professional skeptics, or ex-Christians. Eric is none of these. He's a real person who does not happen to believe in gods.

Although Eric's book does sometimes fall into the trap of putting down others who have come to different conclusions about gods, religion, and spirituality, it is less prone to this fault than most of the other books I've read. No book -- or person -- is perfect, and I've fallen into this trap myself more often than I'd like to admit. Overall, I think Eric has done a great job at helping move the atheist literature forward in a more positive and productive direction. I agree with some of Eric's thoughts and I disagree with others. I leave it to you to come to your own conclusions. Whatever you decide, it is beneficial to listen to and understand different viewpoints. We should be able to talk to and befriend not only those with whom we agree, but also those with whom we disagree.

Here's a description of the book from Amazon:

In The Atheist’s Way, Eric Maisel teaches you how to make rich personal meaning despite the absence of beneficent gods and the indifference of the universe to human concerns. Exploding the myth that there is any meaning to find or to seek, Dr. Maisel explains why the paradigm shift from seeking meaning to making meaning is this century’s most pressing intellectual goal.

Below the fold is an interview with Eric, where you can learn more about his thoughts on this topic.