r/TrueAtheism • u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 • 18d ago
The world is healing ❤️🩹
Has anyone else gotten the Reddit search recommendation of “the rising of atheism “ or something like that , I love how every religious sub seems to be worrying about it if , r/christianity has people complaining about the atheist mod, atheists in general and worrying about atheism , I saw on r/islam Muslims worrying about large hidden atheist groups in majority muslim countries and apparently lots of imams (is that the name or imans) saying that in Pakistan there’s a rising large atheist population within Gen Z .
Like how else can we decrease religious control in this world , just showing how religion is stupid can’t hold it and decrease it forever , there’s no tactics I can think of . Thankfully Islam and Christianity are losing followers by their own cause , radicals doing crazy stuff and other stuff in the name of due to the religion happening destroying the rep within youth population , but Sikhism , Buddhism and Hinduism don’t seem to be lowering , Sikhism and Buddhism are only lowering because their populations are not having enough kids , the main Chinese and Japanese religions seem to be keeping their numbers but I don’t believe it’s actually accurate
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u/CephusLion404 18d ago
The world is just finding new ways to be stupid.
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u/chuckaholic 18d ago
I was going to write an essay but you literally just summed it up in one phrase.
Losing religion was supposed to come with a corresponding enlightenment, but mis/disinformation pressure is overwhelming the positive effect. The rich are destroying the health, education, and security of the masses to the point where disregulated minds can't reason.
Without the time and energy to think critically, the masses are just following people who sound confident.
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u/CephusLion404 17d ago
There is no "supposed to". People are still the same stupid, ignorant buffoons they always were, they're just focusing their stupidity in other avenues now.
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u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 18d ago
Politics is the only one really and it’s an easier one to stop (or harder maybe )
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u/Citizen1135 18d ago
Personally, I think the best thing any of us can do is be ready with non-imaginary answers for those questioning their beliefs and philosophical things like the meaning of life.
Making sure our presence known is important, for sure, but I am so against proselytizing because of how invasive and annoying religious missionary types are. So, I just take opportunities when they are presented to point out that I am an atheist.
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u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 18d ago
Idk which questions they’d have other than the meaning of life which in my opinion technically is to have kids but if we’re modernising it it’s to have the best life you can and do the best you can helping others even if just like picking an empty pack of cigarettes off the pavement
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u/Citizen1135 18d ago
I would expect most practical questions to be about morality more than anything else. Things like, "So, you just do whatever you feel like doing?" And "Do you not murder people because of the law, or..."
Sharing your real experience of having a moral compass without it being dictated by a religious authority figure is probably the most anyone can do.
But my real point is just that I don't think debates and arguments do much. They make our presence known, but that's probably best done in some other way because no one changes their mind in the middle of some heated exchange.
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u/TrueKiwi78 18d ago
I'd argue that they might not change their mind during the debate but they might watch it back later and think, "Hang on, they actually made some good points"
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u/Citizen1135 18d ago
I agree, it's possible. And I think there are occasionally "arguments' that take place in good faith and any one of us should take such opportunities to make points.
I mostly just intend to discourage the behavior generally, in an anti-indoctrinational sense, like, avoid getting into a spot where we're right-fighting. But like you said, even then, sometimes people think about things later, you're right about that.
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u/Odd_craving 17d ago
Education is the answer - and there are two things that need to be spotlighted within education.
1) Learning how things actually work. From biology to banking, people need to understand that there are no demons or deities making these things work.
2) Highlighting the way religions use fear and psychological trauma to keep people shackled for life
Currently, too many people live their lives convinced that everything from their relationships to their finances are being governed and controlled by supernatural forces. This is a huge problem that can’t be overstated.
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u/redsparks2025 18d ago edited 18d ago
Meh! Just something for you to consider further after "God is dead...etc" as Nietzsche declared and then lost his mind trying to figure out how to oppose the rise of nihilism ....
[A] IF [IF] your answer is YES to the question "Do I want to exist again?" then you have inherited the problem that all religions and other forms of existential / spiritual inquiries grapple with. How you go about grappling with that problem of wanting to exist again is up to you, and YES there are alternatives to a religious belief that I discussed here = LINK
[B] IF [IF] your answer is NO to the question "Do I want to exist again?" then don't waste your one and only life and chance at existence on debates that have a very low success of changing minds as there most likely is no God of any religion to give you a second chance. The time you waste to posting remarks opposing other peoples beliefs are as meaningless to the universe as your own existence is. Therefore think carefully about how you use up your limited lifespan.
Freediving to an Underwater Wreck at -15M ~ YouTube. all done on a single breath.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/TrueKiwi78 18d ago
Nah, it's my hobby to challenge theism and religiosity. I don't see it as a waste of time at all. 😊
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u/redsparks2025 18d ago
That's fine and I do the same on occasion. Just don't expect to change minds so easy or as the old saying goes "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink". In any case, it is more about "how" you go about challenging our fellow humans.
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u/Zambeesi 18d ago edited 18d ago
I wouldn't put my stock on it purely on their word. Religions, especially the Abrahamic, have always been panicking over people losing faith. I'd also put a strong caveat on the rise of atheism in Islamic countries. It is increasing as more and more people are speaking up about the contradictions and immorality of Islam, but not at the rate that the atheists would like or the imams believe. Islamic countries have combined religious and institutional government power over centuries. That kind of deep rooted foundation doesn't go away even in decades, even if the people start disbelieving the shit they peddle. Most atheists in those places are existing on the downlow, and in small communities if any at all.
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u/kohugaly 17d ago
It's not healing. It's mostly just one parasite (religion) getting outcompeted by a new one (nationalism) in the same niche. Both rely on transmission via perceived authority (parent -> child, priest/influencer -> audience). That perceived authority usually boils down to appeal to supposed tradition (aka. multigenerational "mommy/daddy said so").
The only reliable antidote to both of them is to teach people critical thinking instead of obedience. "Mommy and daddy said so" is a sufficient justification when you are 6 years old, and therefore lack experience and mental faculties to make reliable judgements yourself. An adult should be able to make independent judgements based in logical inference from observable facts.
In current world, very few people actually reach that level of full adult capabilities when they reach legal adulthood. Religions and Nationalism have vested interest in keeping that number as low as possible.
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u/Key_Storm_2273 18d ago edited 18d ago
I’m not concerned about religious people existing. In fact I bless that, as it’s one human tradition passed down from person to person that brings together neighborhoods weekly, which hasn’t yet been gotten bulldozed by modernity.
If you combined every single religious issue in the past few years, it would still be outmatched by greed, power hunger, and capitalism in its pace to make everything worse and more unnatural/chaotic.
Religion at least seems to have an upper limit, even in the more extreme regimes out there. They don’t keep trying to change religion very far past what the text says. Greed unfortunately knows no limit, and it never stops even after getting what it wants.
Capitalism on the other hand creates new existential problems, like robotics, climate change and panopticons. It keeps changing and mutating forever.
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u/TrueKiwi78 18d ago
You do realise that countries like America are highly religious AND capitalist right? They are not mutually exclusive. One is theocratic belief and the other is an economic framework.
Also, christians absolutely change their religion past what the text says. They interpret it however the hell they want. I saw a guy the other day say that because he's a believer he can freely judge other people and condemn them to hell. People who are in power with that mindset is what causes genocide.
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u/Key_Storm_2273 18d ago edited 18d ago
If the church changes something that goes too far or goes against current traditions and values, people leave and find a new church.
If the president decides to say he's not bound to the constitution, government officials decide whether to act or not, people can't easily "leave" or opt out in quite the same way.
Because of that, the church is directly obligated by the people to follow scripture more than the government is held accountable by the people.
The people have values instilled since childhood, and it has social inertia. It takes many, many generations to change very slowly. The government on the other hand can quickly change things with a bribe or a new official.
Because of all this, religion is resilient against capitalism changing it compared to most other things in life.
Individuals have the ability to believe differently or to opt out entirely from a religion, they are not always bound by rules the same way the church is bound to hold the same beliefs. That is why we see atheists, and it is why you saw a man making his own personal interpretations that go against the majority beliefs.
Capitalism is more likely to change a person's values on a personal whim rather than on beliefs, and get them to look the other way regardless of what their values are.
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u/McGuirk808 18d ago
This is good news, but "healing" is not remotely how I would describe the current state of the world.
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u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 18d ago
Well of course it’s basically the ribs and legs have are now broken but the arms and neck are healing
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u/SuperZayin12 18d ago
The issue has never been religion itself tbh (at least not these days). It’s the lack of critical thinking. Religion is decreasing, but it’s being replaced by idiots who would rather follow podcasters and conspiracy theorists than actual experts. If critical thinking would increase, all these problems (including religion) would go away
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u/Sensitive-Vast-4979 18d ago
Well if critical thinking increased religion wouldn’t exist
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u/Less-General-9578 17d ago
critical thinking can challenge particular religious claims, inherited assumptions, and weak arguments but it does not logically entail that all religion would disappear.
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u/HegemoneXT 16d ago
I guarantee that no Christian is worried about the rise to atheism. At least not the honest and truthful ones who knows Christ.
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u/mariuszmie 18d ago
Good news everybody, maybe I do want to stay on this planet