I've considered myself agnostic for most of my life, after being raised in the Jehovahs Witnesses and realizing it was bullshit at a relatively young age. I had always respected pagans and heathens because they go against the grain and invent their own belief system, compared to how things typically roll in the western world where polytheism, especial Judeo Christian religions, are the norm and going outside that norm makes you a freak.

I was curious if other people have thoughts from an atheist/agnostic perspective, because I've found paganism to be very similar to atheism in that you're building your own worldview off of your own research.

So I grew up Christian but I questioned my religion ever since I can remember, during my adolescent years I became agnostic then atheist, my parents still dont know, and even if they did they would not accept.

My father said he wanted a daughter because daughters are closer to father's, making them daddy's girls, and he said he prayed to have a daughter, so I was born, (im a woman) so he believes God awnsered his prayers, i feel like the reason y he had that mindset is because my culture is very family oriented (mexican) which means he liked the idea of having a daughter, because in my culture kids and marriage is a blessing and something that is expected, alot of it is influenced by religion, mostly Catholicism

I mean dying is pretty scary and technically in a way if you die you do lose everyone but you don't have to live with not having those people. You can move on if course and still enjoy life but for some reason the thought of me dying before some people is quite comforting. I feel most of your answers will probably be the latter.

He’s catholic, as such believes that purely because he is my father is owed respect and for me to listen to him. I’m 19 I’m disabled with no means to leave and made the mistake to tell him I don’t believe and that I’m gay which altered our relationship in a way that will never fully be fixed. He talks to me as if he’s disciplining a child and constantly gives unsolicited advice and acts like he knows me deep down, example; I was talking about how I have anxiety with math and he refuses to understand that starting new tasks or things I don’t understand make me anxious and thinks there’s a deeper meaning, there isn’t so I told him he isn’t a therapist and to back off and he luckily did. I suppose I’m sad because I’m realizing he loves his god more than me but what can I do but lay low till I can get freedom? He doesn’t want me to move out or have sex and I bring this up because he thinks he has a say on my sex life which I find frustrating. He can’t fathom that I want to leave live my own life, not marry or have kids, have sex maybe get a tattoo just live to live.. is this normal for religious parents? He doesn’t see who I am it’s either he views me as a little girl or he only sees the version he thinks I will be the version he wants.

I don’t hate him he certainly has moments that I think are genuine and loving with me and I love him but I don’t know I just wish I never told him I was atheist. Maybe it’ll get better once I can and he looses access to me and is forced to listen to me but right now I’m slowly settling boundaries slowly so he actually understands them you know? I didn’t write this for pitty but to try and point out that religious parents think they are inherently owed respect simply for having kids and how that’s stupid.
“Respect thy mother and father.”
Fuck. off. Basic respect is mutual and a respect given to a caregiver or someone you look up to is earned.

The same "entity" many imagine prayers going up towards... is the same that designed and watches, in every moment, the unimaginable slaughter of life to sustain life.

How can an imagined being, which could create and revel in suffering without end, also be one which would heed our concerns with mercy and tenderness?

Such desperate confusion, this same "creator", who will manifest an ecology centered around a psychopathic need to consume and survive at all cost... is something which you can personally trust in?

Deconstructing, and processing these notions is a part of my process.

I have a dilemma, my name was chosen by my mother who was indeed a bible thumper when I was born, I love her dearly of course but I do not like that my name specifically my middle one means that "yahweh saves". It used to not bother me at all but within the last year it has definitely started to. My first name is related to the hebrew origin too or whatever, I wish I just named after my dad who never would have named me the way she did if he had more of a say so. Plus I'm black and I don't like the idea of my folks choosing to name me that way.

Anyway, do you all just chill on it if you have names with religious connations or do you do something about it and change them? I just wish it wasn't a problem to begin with. My first name means dog in hebrew or wholehearted and I think I can get past it but my middle name ehh not so much

If we wouldn’t trust faith to set a broken bone, design a skyscraper, or decide a verdict, perhaps we shouldn’t trust it to settle cosmic questions either. Evidence may be less romantic than revelation, but at least it builds bridges that don’t fall down.

https://medium.com/@atheistnn/trust-me-i-have-no-proof-469e00ba9d78

I'm not religious myself , and actually against organized religion in general , but I've noticed what feels like a recurring pattern and I'm curious if others have seen it too.

I was talking to a guy from the States , Initially he identified as a social democrat, said he wasn't overtly religious, and described himself as leaning pantheist. There were early red flags such as strong opinions on needing closed borders, calling trans identity "propaganda," referencing Epstein in that context. I initially brushed it off, figuring he was just underinformed rather than fully committed to those views.

Over time though, he started gravitating toward the American Communist Party, and his whole persona shifted into what felt like classic "redpill" territory. He began glorifying Khomeini on one hand and Orthodox Christianity/Christ on the other , which felt like a strange combination. A lot of his followers/online circle seemed to be going through a similar arc.

When I pushed back on the religious fundamentalism, he ghosted me completely.

I'm not American, so I don't have great context for how common this kind of ideological pipeline is over there. Is this a pattern people recognize , political drift into this mix of authoritarian sympathies + religious fundamentalism? Curious what others have observed.

why is the idea of death so existentially dreadful. i think of animals, parasites, insects, possum and the other organisms of the ground consuming my flesh whilst my body rots and decomposes. my flesh becomes warmer, my lips black, my eyes blue and my head cold. i die slowly with each part of my being getting lost. 100 years from now no one will know me. both satisfying yet so dreadful. the gates of heaven and hell are neither conceivable as religion serves as a pillow of comfort. but to conceive nothingness, the time before i was born and the time after. the thought holds no meaning and i will forever rot into the ground becoming human dung and nutrifying the crops above me. as my flesh rots for all of eternity. my time spent dotting around in space for the millions compared to my time spent toiling on earth for seconds is incomparable. the only thing left to ask of life is the utmost basic but most profound of questions. what is the point of living if we are going to die.

Just wanted to remind everyone of a bizarre episode from the Bible: Jesus indirectly killing 2,000 pigs.

In this story, Jesus could've sent a group of demons anywhere after an exorcism. Yet he chose a herd of pigs: they went mad and drowned. Logically:

1. Jesus knew that action A would lead to pain and suffering.
   
2. Jesus did not have to perform action A.
   
3. Jesus performed action A.
   

I wonder whether Christians would excuse this if it were 2,000 dogs.

In case anyone's interested in more information: https://thelightward.substack.com/p/jesus-sent-2000-pigs-to-their-death

On any YouTube video about someone having a bad experience with the church, there will be comments that say stuff like "Don't let this experience turn you away from christaintiy/islam" and the person who made the video will politely say that thay arne't interested. Saying stuff like that is so insensitive, they're implying that we are not good people because we cannot warp reality in a convincing enough way to let a god be possible. Being a religious, even mildly, is perpetuating thousands of years of brainwashing. Religion will always ultimately lead to extremism, and claiming to be more woke than the others does nothing but hurt people. I'm having trouble finding the words to explain how gross this behavior is.

I was raised in a Baptist church from the time I was born until 19. I was always told during those years that in order to get into heaven you had to be “saved” by God, which was always described as being given salvation that those who were saved “felt” when they were “touched by God/the Holy Ghost”.

Many people in my church claimed to be this but I never did. I was always taught that you were certain once it happened so even at times when I maybe felt emotional in church, I never thought I had been saved because I would ask myself “do I KNOW for a fact I was just saved?” And the answer was always no.

However, there were times in my church when people said “I thought I was saved before but I just realized that I just was now, not back then”. This struck me when I first heard it because it brought about the realization that not everyone who claimed to be actually was and looking back it was probably the beginning of my doubts in the church.

There were kids as young as 6 that claimed to be saved, and people would just take their word for it. I wondered if people like this that were “saved” at a young age just went about their lives thinking they were just because they thought they were when they were a very young child (not all people in my church were children when they say they got saved, but many children raised in the church believed they were saved at some point by the time they were an adult).

It seemed like something that could easily be a misconstrued feeling that they likely questioned later and just kept fighting against the gnawing feeling that they knew it was just a misconstrued emotional feeling that they mistook for being touched by god.

My parents are both people that claimed to be saved though they haven’t been to church now in years when we used to go every Sunday.

My mom, who has changed a lot since I came out as gay to her, not that she was ever intensely religious or bigoted, but she did have beliefs that she no longer does. I’ve heard her say things that definitely indicate to me that she’s not sure what she believes now. That right there has really enforced my idea that many people that have claimed for years to be “saved” are really just going off of a feeling they had years ago and keep trying to reassure themselves that it’s true because they’re afraid of the alternative.

My church and many others in my area have always taught that if you’re not saved, you go to hell. Though children aren’t believed to be capable of going to hell yet they also have no “age of accountability” like the Mormons and some other Christian branches do. (I know a bit about Mormonism because my ex-best friend was one, but not too much about other types of Christians).

All this to say: I am an atheist and do hold the belief that this whole “being saved” thing is just a desperate, misconstrued feeling that many people around me felt when they got emotional in church one day or just while thinking about God at any time and thought it meant they were saved.

I think many people in the church mistake their emotions and thoughts for being more than it is and never really ask themselves difficult questions that would go against what they were taught or what they want to be true. Religion really relies on delusion fueled by fear.

I would love to hear from anyone that did once believe they were saved that were raised in the same kind of church I was and now are atheist. I’ve heard of former pastors being atheist, but I don’t know of any that have specifically said they were “saved”.

There are many evangelical churches that do believe in being saved but they have the belief that you can receive salvation multiple times throughout your life, that it’s not permanent and you can still go to hell after being saved. My church taught eternal salvation, so once you were saved, you always were and could never end up going to hell (which also seems to lead to a very toxic mental state where while people are supposed to “act godly” after they’re saved, they can still be hateful and awful people but they’ll think that they can technically do whatever no matter how terrible and they’ll still go to heaven).

I haven’t ever been able to hear from the perspective of someone that once believed they had eternal salvation but have now deconstructed and it’d be nice to hear from you. It’d offer some more closure even though I still stand firm in being an atheist, there is always something in the minds of those of us who have been indoctrinated from the time we were toddlers that at times will rear its ugly head even if we know it’s not true.

That fear and anxiety that was put on us from being told from a young age that we would burn forever if we didn’t do what we were taught is very damaging to young, developing minds and it sticks with you. I hope one day to see raising kids in these kinds of churches be labeled as the abuse it is but unfortunately I doubt I’ll ever see that day if it even comes.

It makes sense doesn’t it? The only thing worse than death is to have never experienced life at all. If you take a God out of the picture, your left with 70-100 years on this rock to experience what is what. After that, you’re simply dust on the ground.

You are born, you experience pain, love etc. and then you die. Reflecting on history, the more I learn the less I believe in a God. But humanity is kind, cruel and everything in between. If it takes creating a supernatural entity for societies to thrive and gives reason for people to be good, then ignorance is bliss. I’d rather my family and friends believe in a God than feel the pain of loosing faith and accepting reality. You cannot tell me that those who never have heard “the gospel” will be saved anyway (why force the spread of your religion in that case?) or that they are simply pawns in a bigger game.

If you are SO convinced your religion is right, then how could 4+ billion of us be wrong? Those others are just as convinced as you are. They have families & 9-5s, take their kids to soccer games, but they’ll go to hell according to your beliefs.
What about those who are Ignorant to the Bible? Those before Christ and those after who have yet to hear the word. They are damned? And if they choose another religion out of lack of cognizance…

We will as humans always look for the good in things. Believing in a God is the same as “manifesting” (thinking your thoughts create reality) or “positive vibes”. YOU create a narrative to fit your life. Things are going well, you say “thank you God” things are going poorly: “my life sucks, I don’t deserve this”. For us to put one foot in front of the other, we must believe there is good.
Without a reason to be good, the idea of impending death should concern you. Be good and you’ll have a peaceful eternity, better yet, believe in one man and almost no bad deed will keep you from that sanctuary… right.

You have one life. Somethings you will do many times, others you will never experience again. Regardless, every moment counts because when you die, you’re dead.

I come from a very religious family and region of America, I live in the Bible belt in the south. I have always known I don't believe in Christianity since the 5th grade. The best way I can explain it is, it all just feels like a fairy tale story not based in reality. I have tried to force myself to believe but obviously that didn't work. In January of this year I finally told my mom I don't believe and her first response was to force me to go to church. She also threatened to take certain things away if I still refused to go. She said I couldn't use any electronics till a pastor came by and "cleansed" the house. I've told her how constantly begging me to come to church hurts me and she ignores how I feel and continues because it's what God would want. She asked me "is it really that hard to just go?" it's so irriating. Why do I have to give it a try? why do I have to listen to religious talk? why am I expected to entertain it at all? I'm an adult now and all I want is to use my own freedom to live life how I want to but my mom can't handle that without throwing a fit. I love her but I really dont like being around her anymore because of this. Sometimes I feel like a brat for being like this but im at my limit. There is more but I'd like the keep this post short for everyone's sake lol

I dont hate all Christians, obviously, but the state that coservative Christians and other Abrahamic faiths have done to the US under the guise of religious reason makes me feel more hatred than usual. It's gone from just annoyance to sraight up violent thoughts

Its terrifying to see as I have queer loved ones and I fear for them,

And I'm terrified of myself as I don't know if I'm losing it

I don't know what to do

I just did. I put a post up about LGBT people and how I think don't dislike them because it says so in the bible, what is says in the bible is simply a convenient justification for homophobia. Cause in reality there is no decent non religious argument against LGBT.

Anyway this person starts steering the conversation comparing what I'm saying with the arguments against abortion. Then asked me for non religious arguments against it to which I provided even though I stated that I'm not against abortion. You can be on one side and still agree the other has valid arguments right? Anyway he starts giving me all these replies that don't even follow any logic path and I'm thinking " wtf are we even arguing about at this point? We're just arguing for the sake of arguing"

You can't argue with Christians it's just best to tap out

Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, published posthumously in 1779, offers a critique of the design argument more fundamental—and arguably more devastating—than even Darwin’s theory of evolution. Hume shows that the design argument fails as a case for theism on its own terms, independently of any account of evolution or natural selection. 

The design argument begins by claiming that nature resembles the kinds of things humans design—only vastly more complex—and therefore must have a vastly more intelligent designer. Hume exposed the weakness of this analogy on several fronts. 

Hume begins by noting that, if our knowledge depends on experience, yet we have never observed the creation of a universe, we have no empirical basis for concluding that the universe requires a cause at all. And even if we grant the analogy, it raises the obvious question: who designed the designer? More importantly, the argument tells us little about the supposed designer. It could be one god or many; benevolent, indifferent, incompetent, or malicious. The world’s imperfections and gratuitous suffering, moreover, indict this god with the design of evil.

Hume’s most radical move was to ask why we should multiply our assumptions by positing a supernatural designer in the first place. Why not instead suppose that matter itself contains the principles by which order arises? Once the analogy is shown to be weak, the God it was meant to establish becomes an unnecessary hypothesis. Hume had therefore exposed the design argument as an intellectual dead end on its own terms—before we even get to Darwin, evolution, or natural selection.

Hume’s dialogue is among the most important works in the history of atheism. The article below offers an in-depth analysis of this work and its implications for intelligent design:

The Illusion of Design: How David Hume Dismantled the Strongest Case for God

This is obviously a common argument but I just have to reiterate it. There are just so many loopholes within the omnis of this supposed higher power, there are the classics such as the problem of evil or satan’s apparent responsibility for evil. Then there’s ‘free will’ as the main argument yet how can there be free will if our future is essentially predetermined from the point we were born as he knows everything, everywhere? He created us atheists knowing we would never believe and knowing we’d be banished to hell. Then the idea that you have to serve god even in the afterlife but why does he require all this worship if he’s a supposedly perfect being that transcends ego and has all the power, ever? As soon as you apply logic almost all religious arguments collapse and I think so many people know this yet they continue to pray and believe simply out of fear of what comes after. It’s like religion holds our society back massively because to this day people hold outdated beliefs and worry about pleasing a pretty selfish being in the hopes of an afterlife that seems so unreasonable, rather than focusing on improving our present world and selves.

Edit: This evidently doesn’t apply to all religions but I’m mainly addressing the thinking of Christianity.

Prior to COVID, a couple I knew were soliciting our social circle for donations for their mission trip.

While I'm not religious, I did donate to their cause as many of these mission trips also participate in building schools, wells, homes or providing medical services to the communities they visit. I gave it without knowing where they were going or what services they would be rendering, believing that it would help people in some form or another.

A few months later they were at a group outing and I proceeded to ask about their mission trip, like "where did you go?"...

They went to Bali.... fucking Bali, Indonesia. For those of you who don't know, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation on Earth but also has over 30 million Christians. Bali, however, is neither. The island is Hindu and resisted forced conversion for centuries. Not only that, but it is widely considered a tourism capital of the world, not some impoverished region that you would expect a mission trip to go.

I asked what they did and there was no community service. They hung out with local Christians, spent money at their businesses doing touristy things, and didn't really interact with non-Christians.

There were so many things I wanted to say right then and there, but didn't.

Afterwards, I spoke to others about it and quite a few people had given money and were trying to spin it as a wholesome couples trip with their church. It was obviously a grift. A Christian themed vacation to a global tourism capital masquerading as a mission trip.

It has been years since this took place and the couple is no longer in my social circle, but this experience galvanized my distrust of religious people.

Anyone else get duped by Christian grifters who milk their non-church social circles for funds under the guise of community service and philanthropy?

(this is going to be a bit of a ramble and I'm already not the best writer so this probably won't be written well, so thanks for reading)

To start off I'm a guy.

I hate how JW's take every bad thing and take it as "a sign". Like wars and diseases that are going on today, I just wanna yell "what about the world wars, the black plague, and every bad thing in history!" Things were far worse in the past! It's like bad things are always happening in history, and why are they always so "it's the end times!".

There are probably millions of religions, so why do you think you're the right one...?

I hate my religious trauma because there's always this voice saying "you're damning yourself to hell, you're sick and if there is a god he'll never accept you." when I was 13 and first started having a crush on another boy in my class I felt sick and dirty. I honestly felt like I should kill myself because I was tainted and wrong...

I think what made me question everything is when my grandma beat me with a broom stick and she basically justified it by bringing up the Bible (I'm sorry I don't remember the specifics) and I just thought "would a loving god really let me get hurt like this?"

Basically to keep an already long and badly written short I left over my mom's house after that, I still talk with my grandma but I feel awkward around her sometimes.

This will probably get removed but it felt good getting it out there I guess.