God and organized religion have nothing to do with each other. The truth is – all organized religions worship demons, not God.

The God whom I, as a converted atheist, have come to know and love and trust and lean on is NOTHING like the God portrayed in mainstream Christianity, Islam or Judaism. The God I know as the one and only God is my dad first and foremost.

God doesn’t want to be worshiped. He’s invited us to have a father/child relationship with him, like Jesus had while he was on Earth and continues to have in heaven. Paul called Jesus the first-born among many, and we as born-agains become Jesus’ siblings by default.

Religion is so fake and cloying, it makes my skin crawl. I love God and follow Jesus, but I loathe mainstream Christianity. Roman Catholicism is particularly loathsome. It’s hard to take people seriously who claim to be church leaders when none of them – not one – is actually born again. Oh, they claim “by baptism” to be born again, but they have no clue what they’re talking about; they’re just repeating what they’ve been told. Not one pope has been born again. How can you lead a church of billions if you have no idea whatsoever what you’re talking about? I guess that’s why popes wear the fancy dresses and hats – to distract people’s attention so that their blatant ignorance on all things related to God will not be noticed.

As an atheist, I got that same skin-crawling feeling from religious types as I do now as a born-again. I felt they were playing some kind of lame game that I refused to be drawn into.  The sad thing is – I rejected God because I lumped him in the same category as organized religion. I didn’t realize at the time that God has nothing to do with religion. This confusion is mainly due to religion’s co-opting of God as their mascot. But the God of religion is not really God.

All religions are fascist ideologies whose ultimate aim is to brainwash you into giving them your free will and Earthly wealth. Jesus said that you cannot serve God and mammon; from that alone, we can see that God and religion are not the same.

As an out-of-control, hyper-emotional, self-destructive atheist, I wish someone had sat me down and said: Look, Charlotte – God can help you with all your problems. I know how you feel about religion, but God and religion are not the same thing. God wants to be your dad, your perfect dad. All you have to do is choose to forgive whoever’s hurt you. That’s the deal. Pretty simple, huh? You don’t have to feel the forgiveness, you just have to choose to forgive. God will do the rest. If you want the pain to stop, choose to forgive. If you want to live a pain-free life, choose to forgive over and over and over again. Make it your life’s philosophy. God will help you with that. He’s always waiting for you to ask for his help. He’s waiting right now. He’s here, and he’s waiting for you to ask for his help. He won’t help you unless you ask him, because he respects your free will. He would never force his help on you, because he respects your free will. No-one else can help you like God and no-one else loves you like God. He knows everything and I mean EVERYTHING about you, and he still loves you. And he will never leave you, unless you want him to. But once you get to know him, you’ll never want him to go, and you’ll wonder what took you so long to ask for his help.