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Religion / Re: Weirdest Moments In The Bible by ColdHardTruth: 9:47am On Nov 01, 2019
hmmmm

1 Like

Religion / Re: How Questioning My Belief Led Me To Atheism -Former Pastor Wesley Nazeazeno by ColdHardTruth: 9:43am On Aug 12, 2017
Niflheim:
Tomorrow, the christians on nairaland will claim, "But he was not a true christian nah"

Ask these same Nairaland christians, whether they killed any doctors or police officers for working on the sabbath, and they will shout, "BUT THAT IS DI OLD TESTAMENT NAH!!!"

Ask them why you should pay tithes and they will shout, "BUT IT WAS AN INSTRUCTION FROM GOD IN DI OLD TESTAMENT NAH!!!'


MORAL TO THE STORY: Beware of the christian hypocrite, whose lips are always filled with hippo.shit"

true
Religion / Re: Ex-Mormon Matthew Duff details his journey to atheism by ColdHardTruth: 8:03pm On Nov 15, 2016
hahn:

@ bolded. Sounds like a psychiatric institution tongue
I tell you
Religion / Re: Ex-Mormon Matthew Duff details his journey to atheism by ColdHardTruth: 4:56pm On Nov 02, 2016
We have great, incredibly open discussions and I feel his honest love for myself and my family. This helps a great deal considering my wife and kids (and myself) still attend the local congregation (called a “ward” in Mormonism) often. I have no horror stories to tell about local leadership like some others do. They have been loving and supportive.

I was incredibly happy before I was a Mormon. I was a very happy person when I was a Mormon. I am very happy now. My conclusions are different, but I am the same person throughout my different perspectives on life. Some people become quite bitter after they leave a faith. I honestly loved being Mormon, but I believe I have better information and understanding now than when I was a Mormon. That personal, better understanding and information has led to a different conclusion. While I surely disagree with some beliefs (and approaches when it comes to being honest about the church’s history) in the Mormon faith, now I hold no hard feelings against the church. I think the church is a collection of people doing their best with the information they have (they likely think the same of me!). My experience in Mormonism was so positive. But that positive experience hasn’t stopped when I stopped believing. Life is just as rewarding, exciting and meaningful now.

Many people who leave Mormonism are bitter towards the church. I have found a great sense of community amongst other people who have left the faith but lack the bitterness. We discuss philosophical questions, Mormonism and our newfound perspective on it and just life in general. It is a great community.

Changing our foundational beliefs about how the world works and how to make sense of it can be difficult. There is a feeling of loss that comes when you change something so drastic concerning your world view. But life is full of wonder and beauty. You just need to find what makes you fulfilled and happy. For me it is my wife, family, discovering new truths and serving others to reduce the suffering in the world. Those things have stayed constant despite my apostasy. I find great happiness in them.

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Religion / Re: Ex-Mormon Matthew Duff details his journey to atheism by ColdHardTruth: 4:55pm On Nov 02, 2016
I gave every doctrine the benefit of the doubt in the face of contradictory evidence. I moved forward with faith. But, to me, J. Reuben Clark’s insightful quote gave me the permission to not withhold certain scrutiny when discussing spiritual things. It permitted me to let the truth stand on its own (without circular reasoning) to see if it could withstand scrutiny. I started pondering and thinking about the gospel in a new way. Previously I had put certain things on the shelf and said “We can address those in the next life. Those don’t make sense now but they will make sense when our understanding is made whole.” But now I did not put things on the shelf.

I began to extensively study epistemology. I found that what we were taught at church about epistemology couldn’t stand much scrutiny.

I began to believe that if God really loved us he wouldn’t expect us to believe in Him on bad evidence (disregarding the circular logic that is used as a rebuttal). I started searching for truth with a new focus. A loving God would not require me to believe when there wasn’t good reason to believe. I stopped believing in many tenets of Mormonism but believed that there was a deist God who was the cause of my spiritual experiences but who didn’t meddle in our affairs.

Then a co-worker asked me a question for which I didn’t have a good answer. He said “Why is religious faith good?” I gave a few quick rebuttals (this life is a test, we must walk by faith, not by sight, etc.) but his reasoning was far stronger than my own. It was stronger because as a principle it was more consistent and more likely to lead someone to truth. It was more “true” than my current principle, so I had to adopt it.

Driving home from work that day something changed in my brain. It was almost exactly like when I started to believe. When I started to believe something just clicked and I realised I believed. The same thing happened when I stopped believing. It was like something just clicked in my brain. I think of our beliefs as the sum of our experience combined with the morals and philosophical teachings that we are taught. While we choose (in a way) the experiences and teachings that we listen to and accept we don’t really choose the sum of those things. Belief (or lack of it) to me is involuntary. It is simply the sum of many different factors in our life. Some of those factors are chosen and others are not. I do not believe my wife could choose to disbelieve right now – the sum of her experiences, knowledge and teachings currently do not lead to that conclusion. I do not believe that I could choose to believe right now – the sum of my experiences, knowledge and teachings don’t lead to that conclusion.

My experience with apostasy has been mixed. Some people have told me I am going to hell and that I won’t be with my family in the next life. They say I am too prideful and rely on the “wisdom of man” too much or that I am spiritually lazy and that is why I don’t believe. They have many theories about my lack of belief. Others have been incredibly loving and supportive during my apostasy. Mormons are just like most people. Many have been loving and some have been mean-spirited. My wife has been amazingly supportive. While my lack of belief isn’t what she signed up for when we were married she understands, mostly, why I think the way I do. I would honestly say our marriage has never been stronger. I have learned that she loves me for me, not just my status as a Priesthood-holding, believing Latter Day Saint. She loves me as an individual, I know that now, and I know our marriage is trial tested.

My local congregation has been great. While I definitely feel like an outsider now, I also feel welcomed despite our differences. The local Bishop in my area has been great and we meet monthly just to chat.

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Religion / Ex-Mormon Matthew Duff details his journey to atheism by ColdHardTruth: 4:54pm On Nov 02, 2016
www.nairaland.com/attachments/4432066_4212_jpeg939546611241ec4c5c5fae9556c33904

For many years, Matthew Duff was a happy and faithful member of the Mormon Church. But his love of debate and ideas led him down a path to doubt and eventual non-belief

Last year I told my wife I no longer believed in the Mormon Church’s claims. I told her in a rather public, untactful way. My wife continues to believe and we still bring our four children to the Mormon Church. This is my more tactful way to approach the topic. It is a story of falling in love with Mormonism and then falling away. It is about how my life remains fulfilling and rewarding despite losing my faith.

Falling In Love with Mormonism
I was baptised as a Mormon three weeks before my 18th birthday. I had run away from home and moved in with a family of Latter Day Saints. In this small, New England town in Maine this kind family brought me into their home. I had been raised to believe in God, but there was nothing formal about our faith. A talk by a returning missionary who had served in Australia greatly touched my heart and I asked to speak with the local missionaries. That was the beginning of my whirlwind romance with Mormonism.

The message the missionaries presented was a more beautiful portrayal of life than anything I had, up to that time, experienced. I fell in love with what members of the LDS faith call “the Restored Gospel” and studied it constantly. Perhaps more importantly, I changed my life in very meaningful ways. The LDS faith produced beautiful fruits for me at that time. It helped give me strength in areas of my life where I felt most weak. I was happy before I was a Latter Day Saint. I was incredibly happy when I was a Latter Day Saint. Life was great.

I served a two year proselyting mission in Denver, Colorado, after finishing high school and turning 19. I attended Brigham Young University in Idaho for a year and met my wonderful wife Kylee. I was excited to live the life of a Latter Day Saint with her. I then transferred to Brigham Young University (in Provo, Utah) and was a teacher’s assistant in the Religion Department. I loved it. Religion courses were my favourite courses to take.

Falling Away
A few years after graduating from BYU our family (now with three kids) found ourselves living in beautiful Colorado. I participated a great deal in online discussions about faith and Mormonism. A Mormon apostle had encouraged members of the faith to participate in online discussion and I had taken that counsel to heart. I felt our position (and my experiences) was defensible and loved discussing it with others. The hardest people to discuss it with were atheists, however. Discussing the gospel with “anti-Mormons” or mainstream Christians was not difficult, and I found no compelling reasons to doubt my faith because of their statements. But debating with atheists or agnostics was difficult. I simply had no good response for them. After a period of time I decided that “it was reasonable” for someone to disbelieve. I continued to believe, however, because my experiences were “too powerful” to doubt. Maybe more importantly, I believed faith was a virtue, so I continued to believe because I thought believing was virtuous. So while I acknowledged that some may find our lack of evidence and outlandish stories a compelling enough reason not to believe, I felt even more spiritually powerful believing, despite the reasonableness of doubt. That was until I heard one specific quote from a Mormon author, and sat next to someone who had thought many of the principles through in far more depth than I had.

“If we have the truth, it cannot be harmed by investigation. If we have not the truth, it ought to be harmed.”– J. Reuben Clark and D. Michael Quinn, The Church Years (Provo UT, 1983), p 24.


This quote entirely changed my perspective. Previously if someone presented contradictory evidence to Mormonism I tried to figure out how I could make it make sense in the context of the gospel

2 Likes

Religion / Re: Rory Fenton: From "Atheist hating" Catholic to Atheist Advocate/Writer by ColdHardTruth: 9:34am On Oct 27, 2016
Seun , Plaetton , ilovetheline, JackBizzle, Kay17, AgentOfAllah, Ayomikun37 , hahn , sonOfLucifer , frank317 muskeeto , Decker , PastorAIO , ValentineMary , Pyrrho , braithwaite , dragonEmperor , theoneJabulani , lepasharon , cloudgoddess , ifenes , Hopefullandlord , brigance , stephenmorris , thehomer , dalaman , Ranchhoddas , CAPSLOCKED , lilbrown007 , Elohim1, Pastafarian
Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 9:32am On Oct 27, 2016
Pampee:
Wait a minute. I just recently joined Nairaland and wasn't away that there are rationally sound minded Nigerians like u guys. I had already lost hope in Nigerians with these their God delusions and disconnection from reality. It's like a disease of the mind. I am so glad I stumbled onto this thread.
Saying Ray comfort is stupid is an understatement. The guy is a total nut job seriously. I first heard about the documentary from patheos.com on saturday and decided to watch it. COLDHARDTRUTH nailed it in his review. I couldnt say it any better. Keep up the good work

Thanks Pampee
Religion / Rory Fenton: From "Atheist hating" Catholic to Atheist Advocate/Writer by ColdHardTruth: 9:22am On Oct 27, 2016
www.nairaland.com/attachments/4406967_roryfenton11_jpeg5e7fb6c80995cfedca89f40d4dfdc7b4

There is nothing more liberating than simply being yourself. There is probably also nothing harder. For many across the UK struggling to leave their family's religion, this is exactly the challenge they face everyday. I know – I was one of them.

Raised Catholic in Northern Ireland, religion was never sold to me as a matter of conscience, it was a matter of identity. To lose my faith would be to lose a part of myself. So when I started to doubt my faith as a teenager and later again as a student, I tried to sweep my doubts under the carpet, embarrassed that someone might see what seemed to me a failure to believe. All I had ever known was Catholicism and I had learnt to view atheism through Catholic eyes. To be atheist, I believed, was to lose hope, to lose morality and to lose purpose. At first the realisation that I did not believe the religion of my parents was far from liberating, it felt like an illness.

So I sought a cure for my atheism. I became heavily involved in Catholic groups, attending mass twice a week and going abroad on pilgrimage. I focussed on the parts of my religion I did believe in, such as charity, and told myself that belief in the rest would surely come. I remember being on retreat, aged 19, with the intention of finally deciding that I believed in God. Looking back, it does seem incredible that I would head to the countryside with a religious group with the intention of believing in a God I wasn't sure existed. I spent the weekend reading non-stop through Catholic apologetics but yet again I could only agree with the call to be a moral person and even then felt things weren't as black and white as they were presented to me. Eventually I realised that to believe would require not a book but a leap of faith. To simply, blindly, accept what the Church said to be true. I had to believe.

But I couldn't. I couldn't because I didn't. Catholicism went against my beliefs, it went against who I was and in truth I wasn't a Catholic. This realisation was not the liberation it is for some, it was a grim acceptance. But through chance, I heard of humanism. Actually, I heard about it through a priest who was criticising it. "They arrogantly wish to live good lives without God". That sounded perfect.

It has taken three years from then to get to the stage now where I feel truly comfortable and free in not just my atheism but more importantly in my humanism, my belief in good without God. This is why I am so excited to share this. I know how difficult it can be to accept a loss of faith but I also know what it's like on the other side, to be "out" and fully yourself. I wish I could have had access to something like this as a teenager and my hope for readers is that they might be spared some of the struggle I went through.

source

CC RaphieMontella , Weah96 , SirWere , sonofluc1fer , Stephendamsoho , EyeHateGod , FearGodAndLive , LennyCool, Kevoh , Johnnydon22 , Akintom , Hardmirror , GRIMMJOE , CoolUsername , 1990news , JSoE , Etesam , Audray , Edenoscar , DeSepiero , charix , GoodMuyis , jonbellion , menxer ,

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Religion / Re: Abuja Residents Decry Indecent Dressing In Places Of Worship by ColdHardTruth: 9:13am On Oct 27, 2016
eh?

Religion / Re: Watch The Newly Released Movie: "The Atheist Delusion" Free Here by ColdHardTruth: 10:56am On Oct 24, 2016
Fellow Nairalanders can read a glowing review of the movie here


https://www.nairaland.com/3425564/review-ray-comforts-atheist-delusion


Its as good as watching the whole movie

1 Like

Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 10:53am On Oct 24, 2016
jonbellion:
Which purpose did it serve. Ray comfort doesn't have a university education and yet he wants to analyze DNA better than an evolutionary biologist
Talk about comedy

I tell you

"You don't know? Goddidit"

The Banana was a Farce grin

5 Likes

Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 10:52am On Oct 24, 2016
4everGod:


You really did not need to respond to my latest comment you know. I already congratulated you for trying to drop an elephant with a mismatched weapon.

I guess you need to take your anger to CNN, BBC, FOX network and all other major media who gave glowing remarks about it.

No be me do you....Or am I the reason you became an atheist? Write to CNN and BBC and FOX and let them air your comment as true and let billions worldwide see it. Nairaland is made up on perhaps 300 to 500 atheists so right there is your grain of sand.

Lwtmb.

There are LOTS of reviews like this all over the internet

A simple google search is enough

You're the one thinking proving your world is restricted to Nairaland

And before you deny that, its funny how
4everGod:

I am privy to the fact that lots of Atheists eyes got opened by the movie especially the new atheists and lots of them ended up calling themselves names like STUPID...

But you were not "privy enough" to know that there are many reviews like this all over the internet?

Lwtmb. grin

What will your internet be without Nairaland?

Thanks for your attention, it is appreciated

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Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 10:43am On Oct 24, 2016
4everGod:

Likes? naaaah I wasnt the one who painstakingly gathered the monikers of atheists was I?
Funny enough I am privy to the fact that lots of Atheists eyes got opened by the movie especially the new atheists and lots of them ended up calling themselves names like STUPID...The movie has served its purpose and will keep doing so for a bit longer so your weak attempt to rip it up came too late. Your constituency is Nairaland Atheists but alas the world is bigger than Nairaland.
Goodluck as you try to kill an Elephant by using a grain of sand.

Painstakingly? Like I've always done in all my threads? All I needed do was copy and paste, perhaps you're using Charles Babbage's analytical engine so you think I typed every monicker one after the other



Sure? it served the same purpose the Banana did grin

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Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 10:34am On Oct 24, 2016
4everGod:
wow! The movie must have struck some nerves to cause a thread being opened to refute it and all these hate comments.

Here we are seeing not an atheist Delusion but an Atheist deception. Deception in trying to refute the movie quickly especially since it is now accessible for free and everyone can watch it now.

#Atheistdeception.......Coldhardtruth you make a good decoy...wink wink.

Same way his Banana Video struck a nerve grin


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z-OLG0KyR4

He quickly took the video down

Youre Fishing for likes as usual

KingEbukasblog(Naija), Winner01, Honourhim, Felixomor come and like 4evergod's comment

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Religion / Re: A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 9:22am On Oct 24, 2016
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Religion / A Review Of Ray Comfort’s The Atheist Delusion (yep, I Watched The Whole Thing) by ColdHardTruth: 9:10am On Oct 24, 2016
Those who haven't watched it already can Watch it here

Last night, I watched Ray Comfort‘s latest film The Atheist Delusion… because I’m a masochist and it’s one of the requirements.

I’ll admit I was curious what the movie would look like after our interview. After all, the film’s tagline is “Atheism destroyed with one scientific question.”
Since atheism is still around, I figured this must be a new question no one has heard before!

But my atheism wasn’t destroyed. It wasn’t even nicked. If anything, it’s stronger than ever before since the big “scientific question” turned out to be a version of a question we’ve all thought about many times before.

Before we get to the science, Comfort talks about books. Books have a designer. Someone had to illustrate the pages, write the words, put the product together, etc. They don’t come together on their own. They’re too complex, he implies, to have “evolved” on their own. Comfort’s interviewees readily concede this point.

Then he pivots to DNA. It’s complex. It has a lot of information. Surely someone had to create it.
We’ve heard that argument before. William Paley famously said it about a watch, that if you came across one on the ground, you’d reasonably think it fell off someone’s wrist or was put there on purpose. You would never say it evolved like that by chance.
But it’s a horrible analogy for evolution. Richard Dawkins wrote an entire book, appropriately titled The Blind Watchmaker, detailing all the ways that logic makes no sense. Comfort clearly hasn’t read Dawkins’ book since he’s still working off of the same 200-year-old analogy.

However, his subjects, who aren’t well-versed in biology, aren’t sure how to respond to that argument. They want to say DNA evolved, but they don’t know the details, so they appear flummoxed when asked to explain where DNA came from. There’s a reason for that. We don’t know the exact process yet. We have a pretty damn good idea of how it happened, but it’s not like we’ve created life in a lab. We’re working off of theories based on all the available evidence. That’s the best anyone can do for now, and perhaps it’s all we’ll ever have.

Comfort even interviews physicist Lawrence Krauss at one point, asking him the same question about DNA: Could it really have created itself? Krauss goes through the stock scientific answer, including a bit about the Illusion Of Design that tricks our minds. But because he, like the rest of the scientific community, doesn’t have all the answers in a nice, tidy format, Comfort sees it as a sign of surrender.

In Comfort’s mind, everything has to come from somewhere, and that “First Cause” is God. (Where did God come from, then? Don’t ask.)

The entire movie is just the latest iteration of an argument we’ve heard so many times before. It’s God of the Gaps: The Movie. It’s ignorance parading around as evidence for God’s existence. And it’s that sort of faulty thinking that leads Comfort to claim we can’t have “half an eye” (which is the wrong way of thinking about it), and that the alternative to not knowing everything is automatically Christianity.

That’s perhaps the biggest logical failure in the film. Comfort argues evolution is impossible, and then claims that “establishes the Bible” as true. How’s that for a leap of faith? He goes from “We don’t understand this” to “the Christian version of the story is totally accurate,” jumping from Point A to Point Z without any steps in between.

He doesn’t argue that a generic God exists. He doesn’t even pay lip service to other religions. He goes directly from DNA couldn’t have evolved to Adam and Eve must exist.

By the way, we’re only 20 minutes into the movie at this point. And the science portion is done.

The next part is Comfort sharing his personal journey to Jesus with the people he’s interviewing. He tells people, unfairly, “You know in your heart God exists,” as if we’re denying reality instead of rejecting mythology.
He tells one person that he’s fighting the obvious existence of God because “you love your porn.” And he attributes happiness and joy and the “blueness of the sky” to God’s love.

There’s a hodgepodge of arguments about absolute morality coming from God, a commercial for one of his books, and a long segment featuring the “Good Person” test. In other words, all things we’ve seen Comfort do many times before, all of which have rebuttals publicly available. It might have been interesting if he incorporated those responses and built off of them, but he just reverts to the same old playbook.

It’d be unfair to call this movie original because it’s not. It’s not even a sequel. It’s literally the same thing Comfort has done for decades… but with different packaging and fancier cameras. At least his previous movie Audacity was cringeworthy enough to hate-watch.

Much like Christianity, this film doesn’t live up to the hype and leaves you wanting your money back. And if anyone’s atheism is destroyed by watching it, it must not have been very strong to begin with.

source

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Religion / Re: How Embracing Atheism Put An Indonesian In Prison- Alexander Ann's Story by ColdHardTruth: 4:49pm On Oct 22, 2016
Lennycool:
Why do people always get my name wrong its Lennycool. Double n. grin But anyway nice post, Indonesia is even less hostile if it was Afghanistan, Pakistan or the Nigerian North, this guy would have been long gone. Blasphemy laws are so stupid, they basically takes away your right to criticise a subject, especially one as badly defended as religion, the laws require to accept lies as truths without evidence and this is an insult to human intellect
The dude was brave for sure.

noted and thanks

1 Like

Religion / Re: How Embracing Atheism Put An Indonesian In Prison- Alexander Ann's Story by ColdHardTruth: 1:52am On Oct 22, 2016
Seun , Plaetton , ilovetheline, JackBizzle, Kay17, AgentOfAllah, Ayomikun37 , hahn , sonOfLucifer , frank317 muskeeto , Decker , PastorAIO , ValentineMary , Pyrrho , braithwaite , dragonEmperor , theoneJabulani , lepasharon , cloudgoddess , ifenes , Hopefullandlord , brigance , stephenmorris , thehomer , dalaman , Ranchhoddas , CAPSLOCKED , lilbrown007 , Elohim1, RaphieMontella , Weah96 , SirWere , sonofluc1fer , Stephendamsoho , EyeHateGod , FearGodAndLive , LenyCool, Kevoh , Johnnydon22 , Akintom , Hardmirror , GRIMMJOE , CoolUsername , 1990news , JSoE , Etesam , Audray , Edenoscar , DeSepiero , charix , GoodMuyis , jonbellion , menxer
Religion / Re: How Embracing Atheism Put An Indonesian In Prison- Alexander Ann's Story by ColdHardTruth: 1:49am On Oct 22, 2016
“What I posted was for discussion, not to incite hatred,” he said in the interview.

Mr. Aan’s case was among several controversial prosecutions over comments made on the Internet in Indonesia, where Twitter and Facebook are extremely popular.

A homemaker was jailed and charged with defamation in 2009 after complaining about what she said was an incorrect hospital diagnosis in a private email that found its way online. In February, a Twitter user was sentenced to a year’s probation for “libelous tweets” against a former national lawmaker who had been convicted and sent to prison for corruption.

“It’s funny — we say we have freedom of expression, but it’s only up to a certain point,” said Enda Nasution, an Indonesian blogger. “I think we are absorbing all of these new norms, and with the Internet, we are experimenting with what we can and can’t do. Atheism is a no-no, it seems.”

Christian groups and religious and human rights advocates say that rising religious intolerance is also linked to the efforts to promote regional autonomy in Indonesia in 1999 as part of the country’s transition to democracy after three decades of highly centralized, authoritarian rule under President Suharto.

More than half of Indonesia’s 491 provincial districts have enacted various bylaws inspired by Islamic law, or Shariah, in recent years.

“So much power was given to local authorities, and in many cases — in particular in regions where Muslim organizations dominated — there were violations against religious freedom, and freedom, for example, for someone to say they are an atheist,” said Theophilus Bela, secretary general of the Indonesian Conference on Religions for Peace, a nongovernmental organization focused on interfaith dialogue.

While serving his prison sentence, Mr. Aan lay low, reading books and playing chess, and he said that by the end of his time behind bars, he had gone from being an outcast to having friends among his fellow inmates. Now, he is preparing to apply to universities to pursue a master’s degree in physics.

“My case was a religious issue and a human rights issue, both because Indonesia is a Muslim country and because it’s a developing country and new democracy,” he said. “I was just searching for the truth, and everything I felt, I expressed.”

These days, Mr. Aan said, he is still active on Facebook and Twitter, but he never mentions religion or his criminal case.

Source

Source

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Religion / How Embracing Atheism Put An Indonesian In Prison- Alexander Ann's Story by ColdHardTruth: 1:42am On Oct 22, 2016
Growing up in a conservative Muslim household in rural West Sumatra, Alexander Aan hid a dark secret beginning at age 9: He did not believe in God. His feelings only hardened as he got older and he faked his way through daily prayers, Islamic holidays and the fasting month of Ramadan.

He stopped praying in 2008, when he was 26, and he finally told his parents and three younger siblings that he was an atheist — a rare revelation in a country like Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. They responded with disappointment and expressions of hope that he would return to Islam.

But Mr. Aan neither returned to Islam nor confined his secret to his family, and he ended up in prison after running afoul of a 2008 law restricting electronic communications. He had joined an atheist Facebook group started by Indonesians living in the Netherlands, and in 2011 he began posting commentaries outlining why he did not think God existed.

“When I saw, with my own eyes, poor people, people on television caught up in war, people who were hungry or ill, it made me uncomfortable,” Mr. Aan, now 32, said in an interview. “What is the meaning of this? As a Muslim, I had questioned God — what is the meaning of God?” He was released on parole on Jan. 27 after serving more than 19 months on a charge of inciting religious hatred.

Indonesia’s state ideology, Pancasila, enshrines monotheism, and blasphemy is illegal. However, the Constitution guarantees freedom of religion and speech, and the country is 16 years into a transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

But Mr. Aan’s case is one of an increasing number of instances of persecution connected to freedom of religion in Indonesia in recent years. Although Indonesia has influential Christian, Hindu and Buddhist minorities, every year there have been hundreds of episodes, including violent attacks, targeting religious minorities like Christians and Shiite and Ahmadiyah Muslims, as well as dozens of arrests over blasphemy against Islam. Numerous churches have been closed for lacking proper permits.

According to human rights organizations and various surveys, religious intolerance is on the rise in Indonesia, at least partly because of the growing influence of radical Islamic groups that use street protests and acts of violence to support their aims. Some of these radical groups demonstrated in Jakarta, the capital, before Mr. Aan’s trial in West Sumatra in 2012.

“His case very much ties in with that whole trend,” said Benedict Rogers, the East Asia team leader for Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a human rights organization founded in Britain. The group released a report in February warning that religious intolerance in Indonesia was spreading beyond traditionally conservative Muslim bases like West Java Province.

“Of course there would be religious people who would take offense about someone publicly expressing this view” about atheism, Mr. Rogers said. “But I think if it weren’t for this growing Islamism and extremism, Alexander’s case probably wouldn’t have happened.”

Mr. Aan’s troubles began in January 2012 when a mob in the Dharmasraya district of West Sumatra showed up looking for him at a government planning office where he worked as a data analyst.

“They wanted me to stop saying there is no God,” he said. “I told them that it was my right to express my beliefs.”

Police officers were called to prevent any violence, and they instead escorted Mr. Aan to the local police station, where he found himself being interrogated and, within hours, charged with disseminating information aimed at inciting religious hatred. The next day, he was charged with blasphemy and inciting others to embrace atheism.

A court in Padang, the capital of West Sumatra Province, threw out the blasphemy and atheism charges, but it convicted Mr. Aan in June 2012 of trying to incite religious hatred under the electronic information law and sentenced him to two and a half years in prison.

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Religion / Re: Teresa Mcbain; From 20 years as Christian Minister To Full Atheist, Her Story by ColdHardTruth: 5:54pm On Oct 13, 2016
hahn:
Do not worry y'all.
My church is under construction grin
lol, tithes and offering things

1 Like 1 Share

Religion / Re: Nathan Pratt: My Journey From the delusion of Christianity To Atheism by ColdHardTruth: 5:53pm On Oct 13, 2016
grin .
Religion / Re: Why A Preacher Gave Up On Jesus And Became an Atheist Activist; Jerry DeWitt by ColdHardTruth: 5:53pm On Oct 13, 2016
grin
Religion / Re: My Journey To Atheism (A Story Of An Ex Muslim) by ColdHardTruth: 5:50pm On Oct 13, 2016
butterfly88:
indubitably not,he'd be like He was never a christian,,he was never guided by the holy spirit...this here is the peak of hypocrisy

on point
Religion / Re: James Morgan Explains His Journey From Being A Christian Pastor To Atheist by ColdHardTruth: 5:48pm On Oct 13, 2016
^^^
look at this joker
greet your other monicker for us, will you?
Religion / Re: Why I Left Islam And Was Tortured For It- Story Of Waleed Al- Husseini by ColdHardTruth: 5:47pm On Oct 13, 2016
DeSepiero:

The declaration won't really matter. The message NOT the messenger is important.
As for the report, you're sharing verifiable testimonies na.
I want to believe you don't know how the Islam for Muslims operate
Religion / Re: How Questioning My Belief Led Me To Atheism -Former Pastor Wesley Nazeazeno by ColdHardTruth: 5:46pm On Oct 13, 2016
sonmvayina:
there have been so many claims and counter claims on whether God exist or not, atheism or agnostic or whatever you believe. let me make some few contribution, i dont know if this is the right thread.
point number 1: God is not a man.
point number 2: Bible never said there was only one God
point number 3: the Jews worshiped the creator of all who is Marduk, Eledumare to the yoruba,chukwu to the igbos, osanobua to the edos and osalobua to the ishans....etc. the idea is the same just the nomenclature that varies according to language..

i think it is both demeaning and insulting to use human attribute to describe God..God those not know the difference between good and evil, he creates both. to God both mean the same thing..it is us men with our brain that can distinguish two different actions, one good the other bad or evil. it is the creator or God that is responsible for both.(Isaiah 45:7)..The creator sits at the top of the pantheon, which is made up 6 on the right side or the good side and 6 Gods on the left or evil side.(psalm 82 :1-3)..these 12 Gods are all under the control of the creator. in the Yoruba religion they are more than that.. but according to the Sumerians who where the first civilization on earth, ANU, is the most high and father of the Gods. he had 2 sons..Enki(right side) Enli(left side)..but the actual creations of man was done by Enki and his consort Ninmah,.
the Jews worshiped the creator of all (Marduk) who is the first son of Enki. he freed the Gods from the dragon Tiamat and they made him the king of the Gods and men. later on both Enki and Enlil passed there attributes to him..so all men and Gods are under his control..including the devil. they all come to take permission from 'IT'...before they do anything.

so that makes the story of Jesus a mythology...as the messiah the Jews are waiting for is a mortal man. mind you all those Gods had their cults in Babylon, just like in Benin where i grew up, there are ogun shrines, olokun shrines etc....one of such cult was that of Inana and Dimuzi, it is this cult that later transformed into Christianity with inana given a new name...'Mary' the mother of Jesus, she is Lucifer or the light bearer..as Jesus is the light.(john cool..she is also the LovePeddler of Babylon (Isaiah 47) and Revelations 17, 18, 19...she rose herself to the pantheon..she is the real power and savior of the church..something tells me she is making plans to enslave the human race soon, we are gradually entering the apocalypse....a lot of people are going to die...the church(catholic church) has been building her statue outside of the church..it is those image that will be brought to life according to the book of revelation 17,18,19....just what i think...

hmmmm
Religion / Re: Why I Left Islam And Was Tortured For It- Story Of Waleed Al- Husseini by ColdHardTruth: 12:12am On Oct 10, 2016
DeSepiero:


If you aim Muslim audience, as the post suggests, then your aim will be better achieved there. By the way why will you be banned

I have to accept a certain Arab man as Allah's messenger and Allah as the true god etc

Of what use would this story be then?

All those butthurt Muslims would simply click "report"

1 Like

Religion / Re: How Questioning My Belief Led Me To Atheism -Former Pastor Wesley Nazeazeno by ColdHardTruth: 4:42pm On Oct 09, 2016
PastorAIO:


As you don pass Waec now, whish university you wan go?

Lol

A university of Sekundo's choice grin

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