Below are a few short articles setting out opinions that may be of interest to individuals who have or in the throes of deconstructing their faith. Unsurprisingly, I concur with much of the arguments, opinions, assertions made in the articles. Hope you find the pieces of interest, maybe stimulating.
If the ego’s purpose is to protect itself—to shield from pain, avoid confrontation, and cling to comfort—then is it not possible, even likely, that our idea of God is its greatest projection? What better refuge for the fragile mind than a divine figure to provide answers, purpose, and the promise of something more? What better way to ease the torment of existence than to create a being who can rescue us from it?
Take heaven, for example. For an ego terrified of its own impermanence, what greater comfort than the promise of eternal bliss—a reward for enduring life’s chaos? Heaven becomes the ultimate escape, a way to make every hardship, every sacrifice feel worthwhile. But is it divine truth—or the ego’s desperate attempt to avoid the void?
Consider sin and repentance. The ego, weighed down by guilt, craves relief, and so we create pathways to absolution. Confession, penance, forgiveness—they give the ego a way to reclaim its worthiness, to avoid the crushing weight of its failures. But is this redemption from a higher power—or from the prison of our own shame?
And what of justice? The idea that a benevolent God will reward the good and punish the wicked aligns so perfectly with the ego’s need for fairness, for order in an otherwise chaotic world. But in a reality where suffering is often senseless, does this divine justice exist—or is it the ego’s refusal to confront the randomness of existence?
Then there is the notion of “chosen people.” What could be more appealing to the ego than the idea of being special, singled out by the divine? It soothes the fear of insignificance, granting not just meaning, but superiority. It transforms the ordinary into something sacred, and the struggles of life into proof of a higher calling. But does this chosenness reflect divine will—or the ego’s relentless desire to matter?
Even death itself is softened by the ego’s projections. Immortal souls, reincarnation, eternal unity with God—all of these ease the terror of finality. The ego cannot accept its own annihilation, and so it creates an identity that transcends the grave, an existence that cannot end. But is this eternity a truth of the divine—or the ultimate illusion of self-preservation?
These ideas—the promises of heaven, forgiveness, justice, chosenness, immortality—offer profound comfort. But they also raise an unsettling question: are they reflections of God, or are they reflections of us? Are we truly seeking the divine—or simply crafting an image that fulfills our deepest fears and desires?
I don’t necessarily reject religion. At its best, religion inspires love, compassion, and transformation; it provides a framework for understanding the mysteries of existence. But when religious doctrine lulls us into comfort and complacency—when it offers shortcuts that bypass the hard, necessary work of inner growth—I believe it becomes a barrier rather than a bridge to true spiritual and individual evolution. The promises of salvation or absolution can sometimes rob us of the raw, unfiltered confrontation with ourselves that is essential for growth.
So perhaps the hardest journey is not upward toward a God we’ve imagined, but inward—to confront the raw, unfiltered truths of existence. To sit with the uncertainty, the suffering, the ambiguity, and ask what remains when the ego lets go. What lies beyond our projections, in the silence where the mind can no longer construct its walls?
Maybe it is there—in that vast, terrifying, and beautiful emptiness—that we finally encounter something real. Something divine. Not crafted, not projected, but experienced. And maybe, just maybe, that truth is more extraordinary than anything the ego could ever imagine.
Chris Johns
"The real work of deconstruction is not wheeling in a new-and-improved theology to replace your old discarded beliefs. Religion gets people all worked up over cultivating a better relationship with God, but what we most need is a healthier relationship with ourselves.
People are suffering every day, not because of a deficient relationship with a deity in the sky, but because of a dysfunctional relationship with the person in the mirror. The root of this dysfunction are all the lies religion convinced you about yourself. A few of them are:
I am inherently bad.
I can't trust myself.
My heart is wicked.
I deserve punishment.
I don't measure up.
I am powerless.
I need forgiveness for who I am.
I am worthless on my own.
I can never be good enough.
I need saved from myself.
The peace you lack is not with God, but with yourself. You are not separated from God, you are separated from you. Your challenge is not overcoming your original badness, but staking claim to your original goodness."
Jim Palmer
My greatest revelation came in a moment of quiet clarity—a realization so simple yet so profound that it unraveled everything I thought I knew: I was the creator of my own reality. Every scar etched into my soul, every fleeting moment of joy, every rise and fall—it all traced back to me. It all stemmed from my choices, my perceptions, and my willingness to act or remain still.
For so long, I lived as though life were something happening to me, like a fallen leaf tossed by an indifferent wind. I blamed circumstances, other people, even fate itself, for the emptiness and dissatisfaction that consumed me. But then it struck me, like the first light piercing the darkness of a long night—I was the wind. I had always been the wind.
This realization was both humbling and liberating. It required me to face myself, not with judgment or shame, but with ownership. If I had created my suffering, I could also create my healing. If I had shaped my struggles, I could shape something better, something true. Life was not an unrelenting tide carrying me where it willed—it was a river, and I held the oar!
In that moment, I was no longer a victim of life’s chaos but its co-creator. And with that understanding came the most liberating truth of all: I have a choice. Not over every event that unfolds, nor over what others do or say, but over how I respond, how I grow, and how I use each moment to shape the days ahead. That truth set me free—not because it promised ease or comfort, but because it reminded me of what I had forgotten: I hold the power. I hold the choice. I always have.
Chris Johns
HAPPY BEGINNER’S DAY
Shunryu Suzuki said in Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind:
“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few”
“This is also the real secret of the arts: always be a beginner.”
New Year’s is a secular version of enlightenment or being “born again.” New Year’s is an invitation to look out at the world through new eyes.
May you wake up this day refusing to be defined by your past.
May you look at the mirror and see someone with a completely clean slate.
May you forgive every mistake that you or others have made. May you untether from every grudge and accept this day as an invitation to a fresh start at living.
May you stop carrying the burden of a religion of memorized answers. May you be “baptized” in your own version of awareness, forgiveness and grace.
May you wake up to this day with new eyes for beauty, a new mind unfettered by yesterday’s answers, and with a new heart unscarred by yesterday’s wounds.
Most importantly, may you always be a beginner.
Jim Rigby
"Jesus was not a Christian. He is not the founder of Christianity. Jesus never encouraged people to worship him. Christianity is a religion created later, mostly by Paul and later church councils, in the name of Jesus, but is much different from the truth that Jesus taught and lived. Were Jesus alive today, he would not be a Christian. He would have no choice but to identify as an atheist if his only choice was the "God" of toxic religion.
Jesus is still one of best-kept secrets because his truth has been grossly distorted by those who claim to speak for him. There is a religion-free Jesus who belongs to all of humankind. Christianity does not own or have first rights to Jesus. His truth has universal significance.
It's a mistake to make Jesus a religious figure or front man for Christianity. You have to disentangle Jesus from what you heard at church to find the truth he said would set you free."
Jim Palmer.
I keep a list of absurd things people say about God. This morning I came across one that I added to my list.
I saw a meme that read:
“God doesn’t give you the people you want, he gives you the people you need. To help you, to hurt you, to leave you, to love you, and to make you the person you were meant to be.”
Firstly, the part of the statement that reads “God doesn’t give you the people you want” is an insult. It might as well be translated as follows, “You are not capable of determining what is good for you. God knows better than to listen to your carnal and misguided desires.”
Secondly, God does not send people into your life to hurt you. The pain we inflict upon one another in this world is the result of our brokenness and the ignorance or denial of the essential truths that at the heart of our existence. But the idea that God sends hurtful and abusive people into our lives to teach us something or make us grow, is absurd and false. I certainly hope that all the adult survivors of child abuse, of which I am one, didn't see this meme.
Third, God does not handpick and shuffle an assortment of people in and out of 8+ billion people's individual lives. The people with whom we encounter, interact, and form relationships with is determined by a multitude of factors, conditions, circumstances, and choices, and not divine intervention.
An aspect of every human being's lived experience and personal growth involves learning the skills to cultivate meaningful, constructive, intimate, and mutually fulfilling and loving relationships. This includes learning to set boundaries in our connections with others who are detrimental to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being. We all have a history that includes a few or more relationship shitstorms. Right? We learn from them, do our personal work, become healthier human beings, and do relationships better as more whole people.
It is you, not God, who is at the helm of orchestrating your relational world. Of course, wisdom and spirituality is a component of this, but God is not parading specific people into your life for a divine purpose.
Lastly, the idea that God is doing all this to "make you the person you were meant to be" is a false premise. You were born the person you were meant to be. You always are the person you were meant to be in every moment, and always will be the person you were meant to be. It's not possible for you to not be the person you were meant to be.
Your primordial and fundamental essence, nature and Self lacks nothing. How can you be an expression or manifestation of the "image of God", which is the supreme, absolute, timeless, infinite, complete, whole, ultimate reality, and need to be made into something more???
So, I decided to reword the statement as follows:
"Your fundamental nature or essence is the ultimate reality often referred to as "God". As such, your journey is about discovering, being, and expressing what you are in the context of the lived human experience. This includes partaking in the interdependent web of connectivity with all human beings, and participating in all these interactions, associations, and relationships in a way that calls forth the truth of what you are."
Jim Palmer
