When I first came out as both gay and agnostic, I made a comment in my post about there being certain things in the Bible that, looked at together, made it impossible for me to keep being a Christian. The truth of the matter, is that it’s not little, isolated scriptures here and there that make me have small doubts. It is very big things in the Bible that make it impossible for me to believe the narrative; from Adam and Eve, all the way to Revelation. For the next few weeks I plan on writing a series of posts that discuss a few of the problems with some of the more well known Bible stories that many Christians profess to be, not just parables, but historical truth, in spite of the fact that there is no truly concrete evidence for them. I will also discuss some of the more commonly held Christian beliefs (i.e. Hell, blood atonement, etc…) I am not entirely sure how long the series will be and I may also have out-of-series posts here and there. I am also certain that there are many who have done this very same thing before (and have probably done it better), but this is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a few weeks now, so here it is. I am calling the series “Broken Chains” because (to steal a Christian analogy) I truly feel that once I turned away from religion, that the mental chains that I had binding me, for years of my life, were finally broken.

Disclaimer: For those that read my blog that are Christian, know that I am not attacking you, I am not attacking your beliefs, and I am not advocating for you to be persecuted somehow. If you believe things that I don’t and can reconcile that with the world around you, fine. What I am doing is discussing things that made it impossible for me to believe. These are issues that have led me to where I am in my life. I hope that if you do choose to read these posts, that you will do so with an open mind, you will reflect on your own beliefs, that you will ask yourself if you have answers to the questions that I pose, and also whether those answers stand up to harsh scrutiny. If you can’t handle having these stories and beliefs questioned, then I strongly advise you to pass on reading any of the posts in this series. You have been warned.

James Garcia: 8/19/2015