Options
Support for those who have left Fundamental Christianity, Jehovah's Witnesses, and general Christianity
Books
- Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist by Dan Barker who was a preacher for 19 years. Part of the book is online here.
- Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith by Charles Templeton.
Templeton was once a close friend and colleague of international evangelist Billy Graham. Together with Graham, he co-founded Youth for Christ. In the early 1950s Templeton was preaching nightly throughout North America to crowds of up to 30,000. But then, in 1957, he renounced his faith and resigned from the ministry. - From Minister to Honest Doubter: Why I Changed My Mind by John W. Loftus
- Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists by Edward T. Babinski
Sites
- ExChristian.Net - support for exChristians (all Christians, including Catholics, Protestants, new Fundamentalist branches like Assemblies of God)
- Pentecostal and Charismatic: Association of Former Pentecostals (AFP) at Ex-Pentecostals.Org, which also helps people who've left Charismatic congregations, Forums for ex-pentecostals
- Walk Away from Fundamentalism boards
- Seventh Day Adventists (SDA): Ellen White (an important figure in SDA). It's a Christian site critical of the SDA and Ellen White.
- Beyond Jehovah's Witnesses - has links to other sites as well, and another ex Jehovah's Witnesses site. See also Watchtower Observer Org
- Recovery from Mormonism
- ExChristian.Org - testimonials of former Christians
- Internet Infidels - for former Christians who now find themselves atheist
See also: Christianity Meme, about why and how Christianity is a mind-virus.
Choices
- Agnosticism: non-religious.
- Secular web, Internet Infidels
- Why I Am Agnostic by the great Robert G. Ingersoll. His complete works are also online.
- Freedom from Religion Foundation
- African religion:
- Ifa Link, which also has a great many links to more sites and information about the indigenous beliefs of Africa
- Akha spiritual beliefs:
- The Akha concept of Nehvq, spirit and The Akha/Zaqnyiq educational system and oral literature, about the role of the reciter, elders and parents and the way Akha songs are used as an educational system.
- The Akha Heritage Foundation. Besides highlighting the problems the Akha are facing (it seems UNESCO is sending Christian missionaries "to help"), this site also has information on Akha beliefs and traditions.
- Asatru, Vanatru, Heathenry - native religion of Europe's northern countries:
- http://www.thetroth.org/ is among the many sites devoted to this.
- Film: The 13th Warrior, although it is not perfectly accurate, it's a good place to start.
- Atheism: non-religious.
- The Atheism Web at Internet Infidels
- Freedom from Religion Foundation, including Online writings by Dan Barker a former preacher
- American Atheists
- Baltic Religions: Lithuania's ancestral religion Romuva, related to Latvia's religion Dietvuri
- Buddhism:
There are two main schools of Buddhist thought. These are Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. The former is practised in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and the latter in Taiwan, China, Korea. There is also the Zen school of Buddhism in Japan and China. - Confucius' teachings and other famous Chinese spiritual works:
- Deism:
- Deism: The Union of Reason and Spirituality
- World Union of Deists, with a page on Deism - America's forgotten religion: The Deist roots of the USA
- Of the Religion of Deism compared with the Christian religion essay by Deist Founding Father Thomas Paine, author of The Age of Reason. Thomas Paine is the man who created the name "The United States of America".
- Druidry (Celts and Gauls): Irish Druidry
- Finno-Ugric Shamanism including Saami religion, Estonian, Russian and Hungarian Shamanism (related to Turkic religion):
Finland is famous for its great epic Kalevala tradition, which harkens back to the pre-Christian religion of Finland. This tradition was remarkably preserved, in spite of Christianity having been forced upon the Finnish people.- Finno-Ugric religions: English pages
- Saami:
- More information on the Saami people, their history, culture and religion
- Saami religion
- Film: Ofelas (Pathfinder), a spectacular film in the Saami language, by Saami people from Norway. It gives insights into their spiritual beliefs.
- Hellenismos, the ancient religion of the Greeks (Hellenes):
- The Supreme Council of Ethnikoi Hellenes
- Philos Sophia discussion group for the study of ancient Greek philosophy
- Some works of ancient Hellenic authors can be found at The Internet Classics Archive
- Hinduism, Indian religion:
- Hindu Wisdom - pages about the religion
- Online Hindu texts library
- Native American spiritual beliefs:
- Earth Prayers for the Great Spirit
- Native American Spirituality, a brief overview
- Dreamkeeper - a film now on DVD (in the US and Canada), gathers some sacred stories passed down for generations
- Native American Wisdom, editors Kent Nerburn and Louise Mengelkoch
- The Wisdom of the Native Americans, edited by Kent Nerburn
- Pantheism: non-religious, with special focus on reverence for the natural world.
- Religio Roma (ancient Roman religion):
- Nova Roma
- Some works of Roman authors can be found at The Internet Classics Archive
- Shintoism, Japanese religion:
- Shinto Online Network Association
- Explanation of Shinto, from the English version of Shinto Kokusai Gakkai (International Shinto Research Institute, ISRI).
- Films: most films by the great animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata that are set in Japan are steeped in Shintoism, for instance, the magnificent My Neighbour Totoro (Tonari no Totoro), Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime) and Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi), Pom Poko. In fact, even those of their films that are set outside Japan, end up being infused with Shinto values. These films are being released on DVD in North America, Europe, Australia and East-Asia.
- Other Japanese philosophical, traditional works: A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
- Taoism (Daoism), Chinese religion:
- Taoist Restoration society
- Classical sacred texts: the Tao-te Ching by Lao-tzu. There are also several additional translations. This Taoism page has links to other related texts and some more information on Taoism.
- Tengerism, which is Siberian and Mongolian Shamanism, is closely related to Turkic religion: Circle of Tengerism
- Ugaritic, the Canaanite-Phoenician religion: The Major Deities in the Myths of Ugarit
- Zoroastrianism also called Mazdayasni (the religion of Persia and other Iranian people):
There are two streams in this religion. The first is the stricter one that was preserved by the Parsis (Zoroastrians who fled Persia for India) and Iranian Zarathushtis (Iranians who remained Zoroastrian in their homeland even under Islam) which don't allow conversions. The second stream also has traditional Zoroastrian leaders from Iran and India, who see the increasing desire among Iranians to return to their ancestral religion. This stream allows conversions.- The Zarathushtrian Assembly - helpful of Iranians who wish to return to their Persian religion again.
- The Zoroastrian Association of Western Australia. Site of Parsis and Iranian Zoroastrians. Although they do not believe in "conversions", they believe Zoroastrian ethics can be followed by all, even if the rituals are meant only for those Iranians who upheld the religion through Persia's trying times.
- Avesta - sacred scriptures
- Vohuman - A web journal on Zoroastrian heritage
- Shahnameh - The Epic of Kings by Ferdowsi. Though written after Persia fell to Islam, this book is filled with the Persian, i.e. Zoroastrian spirit, mentioning the Iranian High God, Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda).
There's even Jedism, for Star Wars fans and people who appreciate the underlying Jedi principles exhibited in the movies. In the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, e-mail campaigns got some people to put down 'Jedi' as their religion in census forms.
'Jedi' would be 4th faith if permitted in Census - Times Online, February 13, 2003
A campaign to get Star Wars fans to list their religion as "Jedi" would have made it the fourth largest "faith" in England and Wales if census-takers had recognised it as a religion. But the Office for National Statistics decided to incorporate the 390,000 Jedi - or 0.7 per cent of the population - with the atheists. ... An e-mail campaign encouraged fans of the science fiction saga to write "Jedi" as their faith in the mistaken belief that if 10,000 did so, it would be recognised as an official religion.More news articles on the Jedi Census Links
Among those who put down "Jedi" as their religion was Nathan Pye, a Star Wars fan and doctor of physics from Leicester.
"The way of life espoused by the Jedi is a spiritual and socially aware life which is also relevant to today's society," the 30-year-old said. "It is a shame because it has had such an impact on so many people's lives.
"I was five when the first Star Wars film came out and you can imagine the impact it had on so many five-year-olds, and continues to have," he added.