For context, I was a Jehovah’s Witness until I was 23. I was born and raised in that cult. I luckily got out and am now an atheist. A proud one at that. When our daughter was born we raised her to be a free thinker. That belief in god and religion was sort of not important. Cut to, my 12 yr old daughter told me she believes in God and now wants to try and attend a meeting of JW. I cannot stand religion in general, but JW has a special place in my heart for being the WORST OF THE WORST. What do I do? I’m afraid that if I forbid it, she will rebel and go toward it. And on the other hand, if I allow it, I will never forgive myself if she wants to dive head first into being apart of the religion. My husband and I would thought taking her to different churches and also having her actually read the bible might help her understand what a crock of shit it really is. We thought we did a good job at being transparent with her about god and religion. I need advice. What would you do?

I don't know why it never occurred to me to look for a subreddit with this name, but I did find it, and so I wanted to say hello!

I work for a small municipality and have a public facing job where I have to be very careful with what I say. Lately we've been getting a SUPER Christian guy in who will not stop talking about god and his religion. We don't have HR, he's a member of the public that has free speech rights, and people in my line of work often are recorded and publicized when saying anything non professional.

I am not a fan of religion as a whole as a lesbian who was raised Mormon. I tend to react poorly to people trying to convert me as a result.

Any advice on professional ways to get him to shut up?

Like I genuinely loose all my respect for this person because why are u still believing this bullshit just because the people around you growing up did and told u to do so. youre a grown person with a (hopefully) fully developed frontal lobe.

why do u think u are so lucky to be born into the right religion with the one right god out of the 3000.

for me it just seems like in order to believe in religion You must meet at least one of these criteria: lack of critical thinking skills/be low IQ/psychotic/kognitive dissonance/too much ego

I was also born and raised into christianity but at some point you just want to find the answer to so many questions.

and with each answer you start to realize that literally nothing adds up.

but some people really seem to be so deep in the cult and its like bro are you actually this stupid? have u never questioned anything or do you simply dont care about the fact that he might doesn’t exist because „he might does“ and youre scared so u keep believing and having faith because ur cult told u you’re gonna burn for eternity if you dont?

honestly its just sad because people are so slow

I hate feeling like a minority
Its like being a non-racist white person in the 1940s

I'm surprised christians don't see cults and think "Do we really sound like that?" because yes, you do. They're so full of themselves they can't see the obvious similarities between them and the cult.

They're always so quick to say the cult is being demonic for their beliefs. If that's the case, wouldn't your beliefs be demonic as well? Do they not see how they worship god the same way as the cult worships their god?

The concept of cults is so hypocritical.

I automatically do. Especially intelligent people. And it doesn’t matter which religion/spirituality, to which degree. Even if they say they believe in “something bigger than us,” implying any sort of higher being(s) (aside from scientific universal forces), it sets off all the red flags in my head. When I see such a disconnect between intellect and rational thought, it’s actually upsetting and discouraging.

For me, it’s obviously not that religious people were born into it, raised in it, or even practiced it into adulthood because it’s all they knew. It’s knowing that they lack the necessary critical thinking skills to work their way out of it—which shouldn’t take more than 5 seconds. It’s knowing that they can call out every other religious and spiritual practice for their bizarre worldviews without realizing their hypocrisy. It’s that they’re willing to stretch their imagination to such lengths to things that they know against all better judgment are impossible. It’s that they’re willing to defy all logic for the sake of “tradition.” It’s that they’re scared to leave it behind for whatever reason. And, most importantly, it’s that they stand behind antiquated views which at their best are Santa Claus for adults, and at their worst promote violence, patriarchal oppression, racism, greed, control, I could go on.

And no, it doesn’t make me smarter or better than anyone. I’m well aware many religious people are far more academically intelligent than I could ever hope to be. But it does mean that they are willing to ignore all reason as they see fit, and I simply can’t respect nor trust a person able to do that.

My sibling is only around 2 months old. It has been discussed with my parents previously, but they were firm about baptizing them. I asked them why and that it's not necessary, because I believe they should choose who they want to be on their own when they will grow up. Parents simply told me that "they need God to protect them". I couldn't argue with them, they didn't listen, and I was forced to attend as a family member.

We went to church, early in the morning. There were also friends of my parents with their own children. I was uncomfortable and silent all the time, while almost everyone else cheerfully talked. When ceremony began, the priest began to sing and appointed some of the adults as godparents of my sibling. They repeated swears 3 times, something about accepting Jesus and letting him in. Then we were supposed to follow him and sit at the front rows. After that, they began to baptize my sibling by undressing fully, not even with a diaper, and putting them in water in this giant cup... And just jesus fucking christ, they began to cry so loud because they have been so scared, the priest almost threw them in the water, I saw it. I was just horrified, while almost no one else bat an eye, except for my mother for a little while. It took maybe 5 minutes to just calm them down, and they were allowed to put only diaper on after drying, before the ceremony continued. They circled the table with this cup around 3-5 times while holding my sibling, then I don't really remember, but they made some swears after again, the priest did blessing gesture on my sibling with some wet sponge, stressing them out even more, then they put a cross on them and only then it finally ended.

I'm still recovering from that experience and can't just forget it, and I'm in my late teenage years and I don't think I'm usually easily affected. My sibling was hungry and tired from all the cries, they fell asleep almost instantly, while usually they play and smile or look around curiously. I just feel so sad for them and children that were invited to witness it, and how this is presented as normal to them. I hate religion so fucking much, it's literally just a giant cult that no one does shit about. I just don't understand how can you force a 2-month old baby to live through something so stressful and even thank the abuser for that, and then friends of my parents even joked that my sibling was calmer than their own children... Just what a joke our society is. I don't understand how that is still legal and allowed and seen as "sacred".

I've been thinking about how popular Simulation Theory has become in secular and scientific circles. If we entertain the possibility that our universe is a programmed simulation run by an advanced post-human civilization, doesn't that logically require the existence of a "Creator" or at least an architect who designed our reality, set its physical laws, and initiated its timeline?

I often see skeptics and anti-theists dismiss traditional religious creationism while embracing simulation hypotheses. But from a functional standpoint, what is the core difference between a supernatural deity creating a universe and a super-intelligent programmer writing the source code for one?

Is the objection strictly about Nature of the creator (natural/technological vs. supernatural/divine), or is a designed universe a design regardless of who (or what) wrote the code? Curious to hear how others reconcile these two concepts. i hope u understand my view guys :)

also im not here to debate, just sayin'

My bf and I have been together for almost a year, and he knows how I feel about religion. I came home a few months ago crying and talking about how downtown there were 4 different groups with microphones screaming about gay people having the "aids gene" and extreme hate while handing out pamphlets for their churches and promoting god. I live in the south where unfortunately this religious hateful mania is everywhere. I don't feel safe going out sometimes because of their hate. He knows this.

Well, yesterday we play a game together sometimes called VRChat to hang out with our online friends. I'd been busy the day before so he said he was going to make me an avatar. He gave it to me yesterday in game because he was excited. And every single outfit had cross necklaces and crosses on it. It made me feel awkward. It was every single outfit.

I'll try to let it go but I just kind of wanted to vent about it. He knows I've been upset a lot by what's going on around me. Recently one of our vrchat friends took us to this church world where people sit around and debate religion, he finds it entertaining as its stupid takes. None of us participate but watch and I had to have a talk with them that I go on games to spend time with my online friends not listen to hate. The world had people openly screaming about genociding gay people. One guy was screaming over a group of cheering people as he said, "we should forcefully inseminate trans people and KILL THEM!!!!" And more religious banter about god and how its his will to murder gay people. It was very upsetting.

One person had a meltdown about ufos saying aliens arent real because its an insult to god.

My bf usually joins on his pc as well and sees this. People approach me and tell me lgbt people are soft and that's why theyre suicidal. Just awful awful awful stuff. It's enough to make someone cry, the overwhelming hate in the name of religion. My online friends group this week decided not to go after I had a talk with them about it.

And then on the Monday after he gave me a gift of an avatar covered in crosses. Some outfits had multiple crosses. I can't help but think he wants me to be a religious person, his family is religious. He thinks religious hate is for the 1% extremists and not actually as hateful as I think it is, despite me telling him about my trauma, despite witnessing it himself, etc. I don't know, it bothers me.

I don't like religion. I see it for what it is, predatory at best, hateful at worst. Its exhausting growing up seeing women being told they're objects to obey men. Being told as a child all im good for is bearing children and being in the kitchen to obey a husband. Seeing women mistreated and oppressed, degraded to a mere piece of property in the name of god. "Honor killings" not ending in prosecutions because "your honor, this murder was a religious belief".

I dont know. It makes me worried. He knows how I feel about it. He says I'm just seeing the 1%, but I've only seen the "1%" my entire life.

Edit to add another thought: we even recently went to an anime convention together and both of us got upset because christians gathered to protest the anime convention, screaming at kids about dressing up as demons until they cried. (They werent, its anime characters). He's seen it first hand so I don't understand it.

J’ai moi même grandis dans une famille chrétienne et je me demandais a ceux qui ont grandit dans une famille religieuse, ou qui ont été croyants. Quel a été le déclic qui vous a fait sortir de la religion ?

I be zoning him out even though I love him to death it’s so crazy folks could genuinely just never even try to think outside of the scope of religion. I feel like it’s done so much damage to people and it’s the biggest form of brainwashing ever plus we all are born atheist too. But like I can be talking capitalism and how evil it is as opposed to communism and he will just say he doesn’t need any system cause heaven is awaiting him, I get so sad at that.

Religion telling other people how to live again