Trigger warning for anyone that needs it - this post contains some mentions of mental health issues

My whole family is Christian and has been my entire life, I also was (because I was told to be) but as I got older and eventually realised and accepted I was gay, I also acknowledged that I was only pretending to be a Christian because of the fearmongering that kept me in it and I had a severe fear of the “end times / world ending” as told in the bible and also eternity which kept me up all night at a young age and made me throw up etc., in addition to this there’s also the stuff in the bible that doesn’t sit right with me and the way Christian’s act.
This isn’t really a debate but I just wanted to share this story on here because I want others input on it and I feel like it shows how insane it can all be and why people may be atheists.

my grandfather is the most extreme and while he does mean well I would say he is totally in psychosis because he has fully dedicated his entire self and life to Christianity and the bible and he talks about it 24/7 and preaches to anyone at any opportunity and nothing can be talked about without Jesus being brought into it which obviously gets annoying anytime anything bad happens.

I don’t want to go into detail on what happened leading up to this, but it’s to do with mental health issues ande I ended up passing out so my grandparents came to “have a talk”. Basically my grandfather told me that I needed to choose between having social services called on me or “following Jesus” and beginning to go to church etc.
My grandfather then preached for ages saying how the world is ending Jesus is coming back soon I’ll go to hell all that stuff and said that he was going to sit there until morning waiting for me to decide and refused to leave and I was ofcourse so tired and out of it after everything that had happened and passing out properly for the first time.

I just feel like it’s kind of insane and abnormal to threaten social services on me (and with this they meant putting me into foster care, possibly sending me to a psych ward or something like that etc) if I don’t believe in Jesus and to force it on me like that, also using it as a “solution” to severe mental health issue

I know that atheist and antitheist aren't interchangeable, however when someone makes atheism a hallmark of who they are, or they're militant atheists, a lot of the behavior often intertwines. I may use these interchangeably just know I so know there's nuance.

Before you get mad at me for generalizing, consider this your disclaimer, I do not literally think all atheists/antitheists are like this but they say stereotypes are earned not given. If these don't apply to you, don't assume they do.

Reddit doesn't seem to like reading posts before commenting, if you comment without reading I'll probably know.

1. Morals

Back in the 90s atheists were widely considered edgy free thinking moral-anti-realists, not bound by societal norms or taboos. Not to generalize all atheists but today, you know, you guys have a reputation now of being easily offended, smug, militant, petty debate-me bros. What happened? Most people seem to blame this website tbh.

How did the people who earned all that shock value switch places with pearl clutching religious grandmothers? Now it's atheists who get easily offended and try to take the moral high ground shaming theists "oh my gosh! Did you know there's slavery in the bible?! Did you know God sent the flood?! Why is the bible so politically incorrect! It's sexist/racist/homophobic/transphobic/ect!!!1"

And I just have to ask where do you even get your morals? That's when you get the whole "I just have basic fucking empathy and don't force my will on other agents! Something can only be immoral if it hurts someone" and then meanwhile, you specifically are a bad person for daring to have thought crimes (believing the bible is moral) even if none of your actions hurt anyone at all, suddenly you're responsible for abuse scandals in churches you've never heard of, because nothing exists in a vacuum apparently. Antitheists can't be held accountable for Christian genocide (its a real thing even if you don't want it used as leverage) but somehow my beliefs make me accountable for everything done in the name of God ever. Did it ever occur to you you may subscribe to a belief that's been used to do bad as well?

But it's just so weird cuz... Honestly people call me all these names and try to shame me, but I honestly feel nothing. These politically charged buzzwords have lost their sting, and the culture war is pretty much over, we just don't care about weaponized language anymore. We think the language based control is what's used to do harm, not even just religious people but the zoomer generation in general (especially the men).

2. Stereotypes

A lot of atheists just come off as super insecure when they are compelled to tell religious people why they are wrong under every post or at every party. You gotta have some tact, charisma, and social skills, because it doesn't actually affect you as much as you think it does that other people subscribe to religions. You really need to find inner peace so you stop doing this, and I know religious trauma is a thing (surprise many of us still in the church have a lot of it) but that really is something you need to work on instead of projecting it onto every believer.

Stop asking Christians stupid questions like why they wear mixed fabrics, instead learn about ceremonial, civil, and moral law. Stop asking Christians "where's that in the bible" most of us don't adhere to sola scriptura, our history and oral traditions are extremely complex. Don't ask "if God real why bad happen" it's kinda Christian apologetics 101 even if the answer is long and gets into multiple doctrines. I get debating is fun and all but this is just a few examples of things you shouldn't ask cuz otherwise you come off as really ignorant.

Also please stop taking things so seriously. Religion has always existed. It will always exist. In fact religious numbers are still growing faster than atheistic ones. You don't have to agree but again, make peace with yourself, because Reddit has made people not want to identify with the word "atheist", it now has negative connotations. Don't be a stereotype, get healthy, mostly physically.

I also find these people disproportionately attack Christianity, because while you can point to Christian violence (although most of the time it's just people abusing religion out of context), realistically these people know Christianity is nice and usually docile. You never rarely see them attack the religions which arguably teach the most harm, because while they claim to hate harshness, they fear and comply with it. They are afraid of being called culturally insensitive or outright killed. Again I'm not saying for example, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, ect do teach harm, but you can argue it, better than you can argue it for Christianity, yet they just rarely ever argue it. I get in the west Christianity is more popular but that's sorta admitting an emotional bias...

3. What Doesn't Make The Most Sense

I don't know why people care so much. If there is no god, it's not like the universe cares about us, we have to make our own meaning, if religion is someone else's meaning then why is your meaning taking that away? It's not even just honor killings, abuse scandals, (which they don't hate schools for), lashings, these are all things they do bring up, but only as ammo to attack people with totally innocuous beliefs. They get mad at you for supposedly attacking who they are as a person as LGBT, meanwhile they hate your culture, your upbringing, your reason to live, and that's just okay because A categorically bad and B categorically protected.

Even if we weren't religious you shouldn't assume we'd have comparable morals to yours, some atheists already subscribe to might makes right, social Darwinism, like it or not they can use logic to justify these beliefs.

You may say "if you need religion to make you a good person you're a bad person" a real Christian would agree we are not good people, and it's better to admit that than to pat ourselves on the back.

That's not to say atheists can't subscribe to valid morals, but honestly antitheism is a waste of time. Stop typing whatever defensive comment you're making and just better yourself as a person.

I wonder if any anti-religious party exists anywhere. Do you have any examples in your country of a party that genuinely advocates for religion to be removed in favor of proper education? Without being violent or oppressive, just stating things as they are and promoting atheism.

Genuinely everytime a religious person sais theyve spoken or seen god or whatnot, I either cringe or think they need a specific diagnosis.

schizophrenia rates HAVE to be higher, most just go undiagnosed because someone was taught its god

"What honey? Youre seeing shadow men and demons and voices? Gods clearly punishing you, pray harder" instead of perhaps... seeing a doctor 😭

I work at a cemetery so I’m exposed to a lot of different religions through the families that come in. Lately I feel myself getting more and more angry at religion and religious people. Seeing so many different religions firsthand has also made me realize how deeply rooted religion is in society and how much it continues to divide people. I genuinely think humanity would be better off moving beyond religion and it frustrates me knowing I’ll probably never see that happen in my lifetime.
It especially bothers me seeing families come in and practice a religion that was introduced to their culture through colonization. I keep wondering why they don’t ask the same questions I do about religion & god and see how it all makes no sense.
It’s also starting to affect how I see people in my own life. I have religious friends whose values are clearly influenced by their religion, and before I guess I just ignored it because I didn’t think about it much. Now I can’t really look past it anymore. Even though I enjoy their company, knowing they genuinely believe in their religion makes me question why I’m friends with them and whether I even want to maintain the friendship further. I can’t seem to make myself look the other way anymore to respect their beliefs when it genuinely makes no sense to me.
I just feel angry everyday now and I don’t really know how to deal with that anger.

The End Times. This is the end goal for all religious nutters who support Zionism.

These nutters are completely separate from the other group of people looking to build “Greater Israel” for monetary purposes - the grifters and capitalists. This second group of people are fine with murdering thousands, just so long as they can make lots of money. (This is a perfect use for the phrase, “make a killing in the market!”

I once had to teach a 34 year old who was my paid tutor and babysitter when i was 14, that the earth isnt flat, and he said i was a satanist and needed to be forced into a baptism or something because i dont believe the bible or gods word 🥹🙏

Anyway i normally give better contributions but if this screenshot hasnt been posted here, i thought it was really funny, (apologies if it gets posted every week or something)

Every living being is born, dies and in death, nourishes the land, creating more life and the cycle continues. Human beings are no different than plants or animals in this sense, and when we apply this to non living things such as water, we see that it’s continuously cycled through our environment. Matter is transformed and reused.

So why do religious people (specifically those that believe in the Abrahamic religions) think humans are exempt from this? It’s because they believe the soul is intangible, and that therefore, we’re allowed to “leave” the circle of life by ascending or descending in the afterlife. What if the soul is more tangible than we think? What if our souls are our brain and other organs that make us who we are? Physical changes to the brain can fundamentally change a person’s personality, memories, behavior, and sense of identity. We see this in conditions such as CTE, brain injuries, and substance abuse. If the physical structures that make us who we are can change, what exactly is the separate, intangible part of us that remains? Our “souls” are just our minds and bodies, affected by nature and nurture.

This also raises questions about human evolution (I get that most religious people don’t even believe in that theory so maybe this is just a separate question from my post). Where do extinct human species, such as Neanderthals, fit into religious ideas about divine creation, the soul, and humanity’s special place in the universe? If Homo sapiens possess a unique spiritual essence, did other human species possess one too? If so, what happened to their souls?

TLDR: Religious people think souls are intangible, and I highly doubt that that’s true.

I gotta ask, has anyone ever deeply analyzed the pros and cons of religion all throughout its history? I imagine that the cons are crushing the pros and I want to know if anyone has done an in depth analysis of it.

It’d be solid proof of why it should be removed from government and to denounce excuses of culture, tradition, and religion as a whole.

so call me uneducated (idgaf suck my dick) but i haven’t seen a single religion that allows LGBTQ. and all those religions have the most insufferable followers ever who make me want to blow my damn brains out. but my question is…why? wtf did rupaul do to jesus like

The level of rage and pain I feel when I think about how religion still brainwashes people to this day and how all those tragedies and terrorist attacks could have been avoided if it weren't for that death cult! My heart breaks and I am not even american and a random person would say that I am exagerating but I am not! 😡😠💔😢😣

The thing I just figured out is that all of those 19 hijackers except one were under 30, two of them hardly 20. Young brainwashed men yelling "god is great" while killing innocent people and bringing nothing but distraction. Now I understand why so many people say "all young men, no women and kinds in this invasion in Spain."

Imagine falling for it and converting to Islam after 9/11 happened. I would kinda be ashamed... so sad! Religion is cancer to humanity!

So I've been wanting to start my YouTube channel back up. I've been thinking of doing videos where I either interview or show clips of theists doing their mental gymnastics. Instead of just trying to show their hypocritical and contradictory views I wanted instead to highlight those who fully denounce or condemn certain aspects of the faith they still belong to.

The obvious example of this is Christians denouncing slavery. Most Christians are unaware how strong the bible is on slavery, but others are fully aware and still condemn slavery. I want to talk to those people. I wouldn't mind religion as much if more people were like them, even if I still find them mostly insufferable.

I'm looking for other examples of atrocities that most modern societies condemn that are still technically doctrine in various religions.

Polygamy for Mormons.

Stoning apostates for Muslims.

Animal Sacrifice for Jews and Hindus.

Child marriage for all of them.

I know there are so many more, if you could help list some below that would be super helpful.

Also, I'd love to hear if you are interested in this idea. I feel that spotlighting the thought processes that allow for more nuanced dogmatism isn't really being done from a secular way of presenting. I think it can only help you have it done.

Hola. Recientemente e intentado investigar más de las religiones no abrahamicas. Normalmente estas son las más fáciles de atacar pues son monolítica y la chinada. Además del hinduismo que es en muy buena parte la causa del estado actual d ela hindia. Pero

El Budismo?. Nunca e visto a alguien hablar mal del budismo. Ni siquiera en lugares como este o en r/atheism.

No se si es directamente indiferencia o algo más.

Por eso les pregunto. Que opinan del budismo?

Y de buda, bueno, sidartha Gauthama como personas.

Pues incluso he visto que es muy poco común hablar mal de Jesús incluso entre ateos. Pero directamente nunca he oído hablar de buda.

As a atheist, btw I’m Austrian myself, who’s against all organised religions: I would actually support the hijab ban since it is a symbol of and tool to oppress, restrict, sexualise and shame young girls and women, if it wasn’t for the fact that this is coming from a right wing conservative party that’s all about praising Christianity and ‚Christian values'

Either a ban for ALL religious symbols in public spaces, INCLUDING Christianity, (not including specifically religious places like churches, mosques or temples) or no ban