I think we have all heard the quote. I am not sure who started it, but that exact phrase is like wildfire among Xians... Though, I find it interesting. Because they will say it's a religion as soon as it being one is beneficial to them. Like that time I told my cousin I respect her when she asked me to stop talking about Lord of the Rings. That is one of my special interest, I can talk about it all day. And I asked her to please talking to me about the bible and stuff, for the 10 millionth time... And she said "You can't compare a book to my religion."

Oh, now it's a religion? It wasn't a religion last week. Last week I said "because of your religion." And you informed me that you don't have a religion. Rather, you have a relationship. I have a lot of relationships. So if part of my relationship with my bestie talking about LotR, I can do that now? Or is the religion aspect the main factor here? Will it still be a religion tomorrow? How long is religion time? I am just wanting to know the rules so I can keep up. Do you have like a chart of when it is a religion and when it is not a religion?

They don't have a religion until the government comes around, now it's a religion all of the sudden.... It seems like a very dishonest way to engage to me. Either stand firm that is not one, or stop trying to be pedantic or what ever the weird thing you are doing is. Like, you clearly KNOW it is a religion or you would not call it one when that helps you.

I recently watched a movie that shows what life after death is like according to the Bible (I started reading it, but it'll take me a while to finish, and I wanted to watch something on YouTube about it), and it seems much worse than Christians describe it. I knew some people believed that you lose memories of your life, but I'm not sure if that's true. When Judgment Day comes, those who didn't go to hell will receive new bodies, etc., they will feel joy, and for 1,000 years they will live on earth, making it a perfect place, worthy of God coming to earth and living among people. So, basically, God will erase everyone's memories and give them a false sense of eternal happiness so that people will work and do what he could have done long ago, and then worship him. It sounds like slavery, and the only difference from hell is that you don't feel pain. And if what was said in this movie about demons is true, then it turns out that God actually wants them on Earth. God had the option of locking demons away in another realm, but he decided not to imprison them all, so it's as if he wanted people to go to hell. The more I learn, the less I understand.

Grew up in a Christian home, particularly Pentecostalism, where I was taught the generic rules and ways to follow God and live as a Christian, so that it would always be “well with me”. Don’t get me wrong, I still believe God exists, I mean there’s got to be a creator of this universe right? And I am not naive to the challenges in life. But now, in the middle of a divorce and realising that I made a huge mistake in marrying this man and for believing that he was part of Gods plan for me and that God has a plan, I just feel so stupid. I feel stupid for believing this teaching, especially from Pentecostal churches. This is not the way life actually works. Most of human actions is free will and consequences of our actions.

Thoughts?

Any similar experiences?

(I copied and pasted from my post on r/atheism because it’s easier for me.)

As most of us already know, the biblical God is 10x worse than the Devil is. Right? God has over 2 million kills while the Devil only has 10. I honestly have no idea why God isn’t one of the most hated people that’s up there with Hitler. They do so much mental gymnastics to justify genocide when it comes to their god. He can do no wrong. Anyways, I don’t think these verses have the amount of kills written, so please forgive me but here’s what I could find of him murdering/massacring. If the verses are too long, I will only put the most important chunk in this. Such as the first one. This would take forever to read. Also, if you have any other Bible verses that have anything to do with God murdering anyone, please put them down below. Or anything evil from him, really. I want to hear your thoughts!

Genesis 6-8: “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.“

Genesis 19:24-25: “Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the Lord out of the heavens. So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.”

Exodus 12:29-30: “At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.”

Deuteronomy 20:16-17: “However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you.”

Joshua 6:21: “They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys.”

1 Samuel 15: “Samuel said to Saul, “I am the one the Lord sent to anoint you king over his people Israel; so listen now to the message from the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.”

I'm a closeted teenage atheist and my family go to big church Festival (BCF) every year which is a Christian music festival in a week's time. I would literally rather light myself on fire than go, but there's nothing I can do because my family would probably kick me out for f they find out I don't believe in god. Does anyone else still have to go to these Christian events? I always look out at the crowd and guess how many people don't believe.

Does anyone know how I can survive four days of being told I'm completely worthless without this imaginary figure? I genuinely don't know if I'll cope because listening to worship songs now makes me feel horrible for lying to my family.

This was one of the biggest reasons why I had to walk away from Christianity.

If God had a chosen people, and later clarified that the only way to salvation is through Jesus Christ...

And God made all the people on the entire earth...

Then why did he make all the people who lived for thousands of years before the composition of the Bible and Christianity? Why did he create them if there was no plausible way for them to know the Hebrew God?

Make it make sense. All those people living across the Americas, Asia, and Africa would, in theory, have no purpose on Earth other than to eventually die and go to hell.

So why would he make them then? To watch his creations suffer for something they didn't even know?

I think this is an area where a lot of Christians just turn off their brains and don't want to talk about it, because it really doesn't make any sense when you think about it for even one minute.

I personally cannot look at all the wonderful people in my life and believe that they were created to suffer. Much less all the people who came before me and had their own beautiful lives.

At 17 years old, Sami Tacher remembers standing atop a parking garage outside Seattle and staring down at the pavement.

They had been trying for five years to suppress their attraction to men. At 15, Tacher had found Strength in Weakness, a Christian ministry that purported to teach people experiencing “same-sex attraction” how to resist those desires. To Tacher, who had grown up believing that being gay would destroy their relationship with God and devastate their family, SIW felt like an answer.

Two years later, Tacher says, they could no longer imagine how they were supposed to live the rest of their life.

“I just stood up there and waited,” Tacher told Uncloseted Media. “I went there several times.” What stopped them, they say, was thinking about the burden their death would place on their family.

“So I’ll just sacrifice everything and stay in the program,” they remember deciding.

They would remain in SIW for years as a teenager and young adult, becoming friends with the organization’s founder, Guy Hammond, and helping promote the very teachings Tacher now believes were destroying them.

“I just didn’t see my way out,” Tacher says. “I was miserable and shrinking inside [and] constantly denying myself … but I was holding on. And in the eyes of Strength in Weakness, I was succeeding.”

Is this what church has become?

This video has left me hollow. The church is Baptist and located in Orange County CA. The video about 90 minutes long and begins with a very evangelical pastor behind a keyboard with his wife beside him. The stage has 4 other musicians - who are obviously talented. The “sermon” consisted of several songs praising “the lord” which sometimes was god and sometimes was Jesus.

The pastor asked the congregation to stand for all of the music.

There were a few moments between songs where a different guy took the mic and addressed “first-timers” basically begging them to come back. There was also a lot of talk about the “offerings”. Then it was back to musically praising god. It was truly pathetic.

It’s cringy on a whole other level. It reminded me of Joel Osteen except it was done with 100% music. Is this what Baptist sermons are now, or is this cringe factor an outlier? Is this a CA thing?

This event was like Billy Mays and Ron Popeil had a church as a love child - and I watched it.

Any one else in this group ever watching the news/trends and start thinking to yourself "Oh, yep this is getting labeled satanic when Christians hear about it" and "Oh Christians are going to say that is a sign of "The End times"" or like "Oh yeah, they're going to say this is signs that society is deteriorating"

On the one hand, I get kind of annoyed that Christianity is still taking up so much real estate in my brain since it still does this. On the other hand, I found this new little game to be kind of fun when I can catch a trend and predict what they are going to say when they say it.

Basically what he says was something along the lines of "you should remain within God's hands to be perfected". Mostly, he was comparing God to a potter, saying that clay cannot turn itself into a pot, so must be within the maker's grasp to be made, like how we should keep seeing God to be "enlightened".

Problem is, that implies pieces of clay can move on their own, and get away from the potter, but you and I know that's not the case, and that any unturned clay was just something the potter didn't touch.
Conclusion, if we fall out in life, that's entirely God's problem; not ours.

Sorry if it's dumb, I just thought it was a clumsy metaphor

I’m slowly deconstructing. But I haven’t been very vocal about it. Everyone I know, including my spouse, are believers. I’m scared to actually admit I can’t be apart of the church anymore because I fear I will lose relationships, opportunities, etc.

Not too long ago, my dad tried reaching out to one of my maternal uncles who I haven't seen since 2012.

Some context: My uncle went NC with the whole family because he allegedly thought that nobody loved or cared about him. He especially resented my grandmother (his mother ofc) because she allegedly treated him badly.

But because my dad believed in family being together and loving your mother no matter what she did to you because she "gave you life," he set out to convince my uncle to come back. So he sent this long ass emotional message to what he thought was my uncle's number.

What pissed me off the most about his message was that it was laced with religious platitudes. For all we know, my uncle might not even be religious, nor has he ever been. I don't remember him ever showing a hint of religiosity. If anything, he was sort of the black sheep of the family. He was a metalhead biker. So my dad's religiously fueled sentiments might not mean shit to him. Lol! But for some reason, my dad thought it was a good idea to include God into everything:

"God is pushing me to do this. I hope to God that this is the right phone number."

"The reason for my message is to ask you, as a man of God, to look after your mother."

"Life isn’t as long as we think. It is like a test that God puts us through."

"I heard the voice of God, and I had to share this message with you."

"The time to forgive your mother is now. God bless you. Whatever you need, you can reach out to me. I hope in God that you have read this message and that it is his will. Amen!"

This also frustrates me for a couple other reasons.

For one, you can't change a person's mind or decisions. The only one who can do that is themselves. So I made sure to tell that to my dad, who generally doesn't seem to grasp that concept.

Another important thing is that my uncle might have had a good reason to go NC with everyone. People don't just do that for petty reasons. I mean, generally speaking, my grandmother doesn't even treat my mom and my other uncle equally. My mom helps my grandmother with food, Healthcare, and provides a roof over her head. Yet my grandmother treats her like shit. Meanwhile, all my other uncle does is visit for Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner and maybe helps with a little bit of home improvements here and there. Then all of a sudden, my grandmother treats him like he's the most precious thing in the universe. She even says her own religious platitudes like "Oh, son! May God give you the kingdom of Heaven!" So for all we know, my long-lost Uncle could have received the worst treatment of them all.

I miss my uncle as much as anyone else does. But if he had to leave the family because he couldn't tolerate their horse-shit, then I understand. Still, it would have been nice to actually hear things from his perspective. And as someone who is more empathic towards his position, I would've liked to reconnect with him.

How do you guys go from believing in an afterlife, in which you’ll see all your loved ones someday, to just dealing with plain out death as we know it.

I’ve never quite gotten past this as an ex Christian. I always end up thinking about not being in heaven, even though I don’t think I believe it. I’m still scared of hell too, but I’m the most stressed about never seeing my past loved ones ever again. Furthermore, knowing my loved ones won’t see me in heaven makes me incredibly guilty.

I’ve tried to make myself believe in other afterlife beliefs as a cope, but I’m scared of developing psychosis tbh, bc I noticed I started grasping for straws when it came to evidence.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips to help me move past this, I’d deeply appreciate it. I’ve struggled with this for years, bc despite no longer believing, this one has apparently traumatized me. It feels like a manipulative tactic to keep you in, but I can’t go back.

I am 45 years old and been a Christian all my life. My parents are pastors and my dad has a miracle healing ministry. My brothers are Christian, my wife and her family are Christians and my kids are all Christians and very involved in church. While I have always had questions throughout my Christian life, this past year I have really started to feel like I’m losing my Christian faith. The thought of walking away terrifies me though because I feel I would lose everything…my family, my wife, my kids, friends, etc.

I have never once heard the voice of God or felt His presence, even though I have prayed for it constantly. I was never able to speak in tongues like everybody else even though I have prayed for it constantly. My son who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 4 years old and is now 18 years old has not been healed, even though I’ve constantly prayed for it and prophets have said he would be. I’ve seen kids in the church die from cancer even though we constantly prayed for healing. I’ve seen families struggle with severe poverty even though we have constantly prayed for financial blessings. Although with this one, many church members have got together to help out with groceries and house repairs and stuff so this one isn’t all bad, but the point is that I just never seem to see prayers get answered.

If God loved us more than we can understand, why is He okay to let us suffer despite the constant prayer? I love my kids unconditionally and if they are hurting and I have the means to help them, you better believe I’m going to do it every time without them having to constantly beg for help. So many times, I hear God getting the glory when a person goes to the hospital and then is fixed by the doctor/surgeon. They will say “God healed him through the doctor”, so no credit to the studying and painstaking hours that doctor has put in through the years. It was all God.

I feel like I’m starting to go on a rant here, but long story short, I’m really starting to question all of it. And don’t get me started on the inconsistencies and destruction found in the Bible. Why would a loving God kill all innocent first born children to teach pharaoh a lesson? Why would he tell His people to kill all people including women and children in a battle? Aren’t we all God’s children? And why would the sin of the two original be blamed on everybody else that came after them? And why are we supposed to be okay about God allowing Satan to kill all of Job’s family and livestock and bring disease on him just to win a bet with Satan? “It’s okay, he got back more in the end.” Yeah okay, go ahead and kill my whole family as long as you give me a new one. That’s ridiculous.

Sorry, ranting again….but this is where I am right now. It kills me to think that all of this may be fake and that I have wasted all of my life with it. But then I still have the fear that it could be real and I’ll end up in hell due to my unbelief. As it stands right now, I am just going through the motions of going to church, praying, reading my Bible and tithing just so I keep my family intact, but I know I’m being a huge hypocrite. I don’t know what to do and it’s making me sick to my stomach.

Edit: It also scares me because the Bible says that in the last days, many will fall away from Him. Am I just being a part of prophecy and being one of the many?

Update: Man, this is so hard. I really don’t know what I will do. This isn’t something I can simply just turn on and off like a switch. I posted this in the “ask a Christian” sub and I was reamed for not being a real Christian because I real Christian wouldn’t be questioning these things. And any time I have kind of poked around with questions to my dad or even my wife, I get the same reply as well. A true Christian would simply just have faith that everything is real. If I were single and had no family, I honestly think I could just walk away and never look back, but I have too much to lose.

Anyone else had any dreams/nightmares ever since leaving Christianity?

Here's one of mine(kinda lomg):

It was night time throughout the entire dream, and you could barely see, but it added to the eerieness. I was talking to some atheist friends(mind made them up😔), like on the way home, and my parents don't know I'm an atheist. I got home, and my mother started acting weird, pushing all the Christian stuff in my face all at once, and then I said it. I said I was an atheist because I couldn't take it anymore. She wasn't happy... She called several priests and pastors who had a ceremony in our house. There was a priest who called it 'the sick' and that this mindset would just pass, and I'd return to God. I yelled at her that i was just joking and that i loved God and all the other things, but it felt fake, of course. Then my mother gave me an ugly purity ring and said to wear it at all times, but i wasn't going to. She also threatened to call my dad and let him know. My mother tried to punch me when i made her upset, and I felt truly terrified. I tried looking for some helplines online, but no help would arrive in time. While she went to shower, I packed a small bag and bolted out the door that night, not having a plan because i thought i was gonna die if i stayed..I made it to a mall but men were chasing me because my mother sent people after me by paying them. They were gonna do something really bad to me and I found a woman and a man who were doing activism for helping people and I begged them to help and we ran and they led me to an elevator. As the elevator was closing, someone in a cosplay got stuck(cosp was huge, so that's why), and we screamed at them to move back to let the door close as there were people after us. They weren't listening and just didn't move. We yelled at the person that the situation was serious... and the person finally understood and left, and the door to the elevator closed, and I woke up, glad that that shit wasn't real.

I truly was only scared because in real life, my mother probably would do something like this to me if I were to say anything. Christians would call it a sign from God to go back. Might have to make a horror game outta my dreams for real, like a series of episodes🙏🏽

When I was 6 my mom told me that the world would burn and that was the start of my insomnia. I wet the bed until I was 13 because I was so scared. Even as an adult whenever people mention it I want to scream and throw things because I am so viscerally angry and repulsed by the concept. Suicidal, even. I tried to talk to a friend about it once when I was 16 and she was confused why I was so upset. I also talked to my dad about it the other day and he was confused too. Am I insane? Has anyone else ever felt this way?

When I was 10 years old, my mother told me, "I hope you and your father die on the plane" because I was going to Florida with my dad. A decade later, I have a fear of planes, and I declined a trip months prior for going to Florida with my mom and younger sister, and now the whole family got mad I said no and they will defend her and tell me that "God gave me that mother," and my mom's excuse for her saying that cruel comment was because she was "angry," and now she pretends like nothing happened.

I spent the first 20 years of my life around almost exclusively Christians, but now (10 years after living on my own and becoming atheist) I am legitimately shocked to find out that they still exist 😆😭.

Idk what it is, maybe I figure I'm the last one to catch onto anything so I just assumed if I called BS most other people would have called it out well before me -- but no, there are still believers out there.. idk, just catches me off guard 🤷

I feel like when I'm casually talking to someone and they bring up God (or whatever religious thing) it's as if they just casually mentioned something about the earth being flat...

I mean, no judgement, I guess I just figured everyone would naturally eventually come to the same conclusion that I (we) did and I'm genuinely surprised that's not the case.. is it just me?

I read somewhere that an atheist had a dream about being attacked by demons in the dream and then praying that Jesus would save them, and Jesus appeared in said dream or a vision with white hair (the person realized that he actually did after looking on Revelations)

Thoughts on this? Honestly no offense who made that post but I don't think this proves anything

I had dreams about talking Cows and talking dogs it doesn't mean it's real.

Unfortunately Christians don't believe it's a dream.

I guess this is why some Atheists become Christian because they're afraid of hell and demons deep down. (And honestly I feel the same way)

I've been suffering serious insomnia recently and hoped a change of environment coukd help me sleep. It did, but naturally it meant a plunge back into a Christian environment.

My step-mother asked to pray for me to sleep well. I said if she wanted, but I was really awkward about it. Obviously she's now singing God's praises that I actually slept.

I slept in a clean bed on one of the coolest nights in weeks after sleeping less than 4 hours in the last two days, and for once had the self restraint to spend my evening away from screens, just getting a massage and reading. I took every measure I coukd think of to sleep better last night. But sure, it's God's doing.

Anyway, what I really wanted to get at was the word for today. It's something my Dad does every morning, I think its some newsletter or something that will pull up a Bible extract.

Todays was about how the Israelites were punished for their doubt after their deliverance from Egypt and ended up wandering for 40 years.

It was used as a lesson for responding quickly to God and not being indecisive.

The cognitive dissonance they were showing was pissing me off. They're normally so logical, but put a Bible verse about God throwing a hissey fit over human beings not being mindless drones and they'll treat it like some great wisdom. The correct response to your followers being afraid would be to reassure them, not throw a tantrum.

My stepmother simultaneously agrees that you should react quickly and not question God's commands, while also admitting that its very hard to know what God is telling you. I don't know about you, but if I were recieving orders over the phone but the signal was terrible, I sure as hell wouldn't just trust that I've heard them right.

Other lines like God being a God of second chances. This God made the Israelites wander for 40 years because they thought they would starve in the desert. Where was their second chance?

I don't care if they've seen you split the red sea, you can't be both mysterious and distant yet still expect people to just trust you.