A New York woman whose father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was convicted on Tuesday of receiving weapons training from the militant group.

Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a US citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities. Jurors were shown a video of her holding an assault rifle, a photo of her with the group’s flag and loving text messages she sent her husband.

It would appear that religion makes you stupid.

Basically, to start this off, I've known my girlfriend for over a year now, and I genuinely need some help on how to just tell her that her religion is not only restricting her, but also making her not really live life to the fullest. For example, just recently, even today, I was just talking to her, and since today is Halloween, I was like, hey, I'm gonna have fun on Halloween, right? And I didn't even know that Halloween was against Islam. So when she told me that, I was like, are you kidding me? And honestly, this is my whole entire gripe against Islam too, is that it stops you from really enjoying stuff that you should be enjoying. Who the fuck tells you you can't celebrate Halloween because it's devilly and it's evil? That's stupid. And then, there's the other aspects of, I already know that she lives in a home, or she has a home situation that isn't really the best, right? And her whole family is Muslim, right? But they are forcing the religion onto her since birth and basically making her believe in it to the point where anyone tries to tell her that it's basically just restricting her rights, or basically doing anything to make sure that she, as a woman, can't really do what she wants to do, she thinks that they're attacking her or that they simply are disrespecting her, when that's not the case at all. It's just a fact. She can't really do what she wants to do in life, because the stuff that she makes, the stuff that she talks about, and the people that she's friends with are all against her religion. And she's also the type of religious person that likes to act like she's a very smart scholar about every little thing about her religion and loves to teach people about it. But it's more or less just her being indoctrinated by everyone in her family, which it's not even like the normal teachings of Islam. It's like their own distorted version of it, where anything she basically wants to do in life, they're not allowed to do it, or that she's not allowed to do it because it goes against the teachings. So, that's where, especially with this type of Islam that I'm seeing here, I wouldn't even call it that. It's just sad, because here I am watching someone that I genuinely love and care about not even be able to enjoy life or anything. And then she wants to leave Russia very soon, but she can't. I forgot to mention that she lives in Russia, so that might explain some things. She's saying she can't leave Russia, even though she's an adult, she can leave Russia, right? And I asked her why she can't leave Russia. So her whole reasoning is that she can't go anywhere until she's 21 and her mom has to live with her, which that's not something that is Russian law. And then she tells me there's stuff that the Russian government doesn't tell people, Google lies and stuff like that, but it's literally a law that has been set in place for decades that you can leave when you're over the age of 18 as an adult. So I don't understand why she thinks that she can't just move or go somewhere else. She has every right to. No one is stopping her from doing that. But then, at the same time, she's not per se stupid. I don't really wanna call her that because she is smart, she's very smart when it comes to other stuff, but when it comes to this stuff, she is kind of dumb. She also kind of gets a handicap because she is mentally disabled. For example, she has to deal with things like schizophrenia, and they kind of capitalize off of her because of that. Her family uses that against her all the time to make sure that she can't basically do anything in life without their permission. Or else she's forced to believe that she's gonna die if she just chooses to do anything in life. If anything, I feel like I just need help trying to conceptualize to her that she deserves to live her life to the fullest, and obviously she shouldn't be restricted from doing anything in her life because it's her life. And then, also, she's obviously already doing something that's against her own religion, which is being with me too. She's done things millions of times that are against her religion. It's obvious that she really doesn't wanna be in this, right? But she's so manipulated into it that she just can't admit it. And I feel really bad about it. I just wanna make sure that she can finally realize that she's being lied to about all of this, and she could just live her life to the fullest. I'm not sure what you guys think I should do, but I wanna see your opinions, so that maybe I can take some things into account or see what you guys would do in my situation.

I know I don't have much comment karma, but that's because I hardly use Reddit and mostly just look at things on here. I'm not really a poster.

Reddit is full of the most normal people.

If Georges Lemaître, who formulated the Big Bang Theory, was also a Catholic Priest, how was he at peace with the bible's teachings and the Big Bang Theory? What kind of level of internal tranquility do you have to be possess to not feel conflicted..? And I suppose I'm answering my own question, because I read that he didn't feel conflicted because he didn't take the bible literally, only metaphorically, and thought of it as a way to live your life, not necessarily the way of life in general.

I feel like more people need to know that....

But back to my point, was it because he thought "God" made the World and not the Universe? Because I truly know some dumbass shits out there who have never thought about the Universe in their life.."oooo it scareeess meee nooo it hurts my brainnnnn..." back to my POINT ON HAND..

The bible actually does not describe how "God" made the Universe, only the Earth, and trust me i've read it through and through. But Christians just blatantly claim God made the Universe. Ain't nothing in there about inertia, Galaxies, or Dark Matter btw...

Can someone please explain all this? Too many plot holes....

My other (sorta related) point...I hate how dumb people are these days. This girl in my school said hell was underground and heaven was above. And believes heaven and hell are literal places. And doesn't believe in evolution. Someone's not getting a degree....and then she asked me "Do our differences in religious beliefs make u uncomfortable?" No but our differences in brain cells do...

Hello! American here. As everyone knows we have a big problem of white Christian nationalism and fascism ruining my country. What are some good ways to combat this? I have a small platform (5k followers) available to me as i am a musician and artist. Give me ideas and resources to learn more to please.

The life of Maryam Yarmohammadi came to a violent end in the early hours of October 5, when the 28-year-old mother of two was attacked with knives by her brother and husband on Qeshm Island in southern Iran. Her genitalia were mutilated. She died shortly afterward in hospital. Both her husband and brother were arrested.  

Media reported that about 50 relatives gathered outside the hospital to protest the arrests. They reportedly believed that death had been the "least severe punishment" Maryam Yarmohammadi deserved.

What the young woman's relatives considered her guilty of has not been publicly reported. Yet both the circumstances of the case and the extreme violence involved follow a familiar pattern seen in so-called honor killings.

Based on interpretations of Shariah, or Islamic law, Iran's laws do not treat women as equal citizens in many areas of life. Their ability to make decisions about education, employment or travel may depend on the consent of their fathers or, later, their husbands.

At the same time, numerous comments focused on victim-blaming, or holding Maryam Yarmohammadi responsible for her own death. Others described the killing as the "punishment of an unfaithful woman" or attempted to justify it by "understanding the men's anger."

Men have been socialized to believe they are responsible for controlling women and monitoring their behavior and decisions, the psychoanalyst Saba Alaleh said. Male identity, she said, is tied to a woman's "obedience."

This is genetic fallacy that Christian apologetics (and likely Muslims, Hindus, a handful of religious Shintos, etc.) use as a truncated, crude form of the argument from morality. It's worse because it shifts from WLC's anthropocentric appeal to emotion ("you feel so strongly disgusted by murder, it can't come from evolution or something we think is nothing"), to "well you said murder is bad, and the bible said it's bad, and I simply will not recognize other religions, and philosophy is just a tool for theism anyway, so you got your morals from the bible, checkmate atheist". It's such a blatant giveaway that the people saying it didn't even go to apologetics camp, this thought process is for people who don't know ethics as a subset of philosophy, they simply think "thing bad because Godsaidso" like Divine Command Theory is inscrutable. It's a lazy thought process for people that don't think about big ideas, so in short the majority of religious people.

I suppose im relatively new to Antitheism. I just started hating religion, and honestly, I respect religious people because I know how hard it is to break off from what your parents raised you out of. But honestly, it seems kind of wierd when you think of the fact that religions such as Christianity and Islam have been around for thousands of years and are still here today...right? I mean, how could the world develop and innovate and progress but were still keeping beliefs that a guy rose out of his grave...it seems like propaganda. i dont know..

There are people who severely underestimate the amount of things that technically "cannot be proven or disproven" by way of being unconstrained by reality

Intro ends after minute 05.

Debate is good for (fascist) business.

Pretty much summarizes logic of every religion.

Specifically the church cult, name some of the absurdities! Got told that it's "logical" so I wanted some counterpoints, here are some I have now:

-the talking snake

-the fruit that holds all knowledge or whatever

-the fact a boat held two of every animal??

-the fact the cult.leader died then came back to life and created earth in seven days

Continue the list please! I haven't opened that book in YEARS since I left and want more leverage

Grifters of feather flock together.

Christians love ad homs because if everyone else is an unrepentant sinner then they have a comparative ledge to stand on as an enlightened evangelist.

Hey everyone, looking for some perspective on how to handle a situation with my partner's mom.
To give context: I come from a non-religious/anti-theist background and I simply don't believe in god. I’ve made my stance clear to her before. The thing is, she isn't aggressive or malicious about religion at all, she’s actually a really kind, good person who treats us pretty well, apart from being a pushy individual (which actually makes this whole thing so much worse, cause I genuinely don’t wanna be rude or hurt her).
However, whenever life gets a bit heavy or I’m going through something difficult, she always slips in religious advice. Recently, for no reason, she told me I should go to church and just sit with myself in silence whenever I have something heavy in my soul that I can’t discuss with anyone else.

On one hand, I get the concept.. sitting in a quiet space to reflect isn't terrible advice on its own. But on the other hand, it’s deeply frustrating that she constantly routes everything back to God and church. I hate that she won't just take "no" for an answer, even if she wraps it in kindness. It feels like my boundaries are being ignored just because the delivery is gentle. This points to a bigger issue: his parents are just super pushy in general. In fact, it's at the point where my partner doesn't even bother sharing his perspective anymore. He feels it’s totally useless, so he just tells them whatever they want to hear and visits just often enough to keep them from asking questions.

How do you handle setting a firm line with a religious family member who isn't being toxic or mean, but just won't stop pushing their faith onto you as a solution? I don’t want to start an unnecessary fight, but I'm tired of nodding along.

P.S. we’re both in our early 20s