A great many people are dragged into their religion by their parents and they are brought up believing in a great many absurdities they later find impossible to accept. By the time they're able to start thinking about discarding what they know full well to be a lie, they have expended a great deal of emotional and financial investments and are unwilling to admit to themselves that they have made a costly mistake. Such is human nature.

Another common reason for individuals to fall into the religion trap is to adopt a religion as a solution to a temporary or fatal crisis. The death of a loved one, the contemplation of one's own death, the failing health of self or others -- all often lead the hopeless toward adopting a deity belief in the futile attempt to cure the problems one is experiencing -- or at least attempt to explain the why of one's problems if they are incapable of solution.

Here at The Skeptic Tank we get a great deal of e-mail and paper mail from individuals who are trying to work up enough courage to ask for assistance in just walking away. It's a difficult thing to do when an individual has invested his or her whole life, emotions, and a great deal of money to nothing more than wishful thinking. It's very difficult to do when one is frightened of one's own eventual and unavoidable death.

Asking outright for help is also contrary to the indoctrination all religions engage in to keep members from not only seeking honest, scientific answers to life's questions, but from asking any such questions. Asking for help is forbidden under the Authoritarian fascism of the religion's priesthood -- across all brand names.

Because of this fact of human nature, a lot of the hate-filled, resentful, very strange mail we get here come from people who are trying to work up to the point of walking away without asking outright for help. By making themselves look angry, hurt, and resentful, they can convince themselves they're being pious. The mere fact that they're expressing their mock piety in E-Mail indicates a desire for help.

The Solution

A way is needed for individuals trying to leave their religions to find the courage they need and the resources which can help them without having to ask for help or even letting it be known that they're looking for help. Youths who are dragged to churches by their parents need logical arguments and scientific facts to explain to their parents the absurdity of deity beliefs so that they don't get passed-off as simply "In rebellion."

The Skeptic Tank hopes to provide a Walk Away Package which people can download when they feel it's time to walk away. No one needs to know. Individuals may review the materials within and contact the references and resources provided anonymously and get the help they're looking for.

How Will This Work?

At the bottom of this document there will be a link to a file called WALKAWAY.ZIP which, when clicked upon, will send the Walk Away Package. Since the package will be constantly updated with up-to-date materials, references, and contact information, the bottom of this page will indicate the revision number of the Walk Away Package and the date it was last updated.

Comments by people who find the Walk Away Package helpful are desired (as are comments by atheists) so that the materials can be updated to best assist those who are still searching for the courage to Walk Away.

WalkAway.TXT Contains many helpful testimonials from people who have
        successfully walked away from religions.  The hypocrisy,
        racism, hatred, and bigotry one starts to see when one starts
        to walk away is only part of the healing process.  The fact
        that many religion's mythologies can't be true is another primary
        source of courage one can draw upon to finally walk away.  There
        are helpful resources for books and organizations which can help
        people walk away as well.

Answers.TXT One of the more difficult problems people trying to
        escape religions faces is their masters' dictates that all
        of the stories in the contemporary versions of their
        mythologies are historically accurate.  Though all followers know
        that their mythologies are fraught with contradiction and
        scientific error, their admittance of fraud is placated by the
        apologeticists who contrive elaborate and complex falsehoods to
        try to convince the must-believer.  One such liar is Josh
        McDowell -- an uncredentialed apologeticist who has made
        himself famous for his ability to lie convincingly to those
        who want to believe no matter the cost to their ethics.
        This short text provides a sample debunking employing real
        bible scholarship and exhibits the difference between honesty
        and lying for ones' gods.

GodsWord.ZIP A highly useful and detailed document which covers
        the scientific errors and many contradictions in the classical
        Christian mythologies.  This exhaustive work would be quite
        helpful for anyone who wants archeological and anthropological
        evidence which negates entirely the accuracy of the Christian
        bible.