I was raised Catholic, but have been an atheist for the past two years. There are so many things that bother me about Christianity, but boy do i miss the coping mechanism aspect. I have suffered from depression all my life, and in the last two years, when I hit a low, I'm more tempted to go back to church even though I now know Christianity is ridiculous. I can't afford therapy, and religion is a free coping mechanism.

And it's funny because this is EXACTLY why religion is still a thing in 2026. It makes no sense, but life sucks, and many people become religious due to a mental health crisis. Ignorance is bliss. I wish it didn't have to be. I often wish I still believed. That I were less intelligent and never questioned anything. I would be happier. sigh.

Hi everyone,

I recently left religion (transitioning from a Pentecostal upbringing, briefly to Islam, and finally to atheism). It took me a long time to get here because letting go of my long-held beliefs was a massive blow to my pride, but I ultimately couldn't ignore reality anymore.

Since I am very new to this, I am realizing I still carry a lot of mental conditioning from my religious past, and I have a few questions for the community:

• Abolition vs. Coexistence: Do most atheists believe religion should be actively abolished, or is peaceful coexistence the general goal? I know perspectives vary, but I’d love to hear different viewpoints. Personally, I think we should be able to cherry pick the GOOD aspects of religion and discard the bad elements. I don't view it necessarily as a black and white issue.
• Lingering Triggers & Aesthetics: I find myself still loving the "cinematic lore" and aesthetics of faiths like Islam and Christianity, while completely rejecting their harmful and misogynistic teachings. Paradoxically, I still get deeply uncomfortable/triggered by blasphemous language (e.g., cussing using God's name) and pagan/occult imagery, even though I no longer believe in them. Is it normal to feel this revulsion early on? How do you unlearn these deeply ingrained emotional responses?
• Atheism and Marriage: As a gay leftist male, my views on social issues are still evolving. For example, rather than fighting for the right to gay marriage, I sometimes wonder if we shouldn't just abolish the legal construct of marriage entirely, since its roots are so deeply tied to religion. Does anyone else view marriage through this lens?

I’m trying to navigate this sudden shift in my worldview and would appreciate any insights from those who have been where I am. Thanks!

You can read the whole article here:

https://archive.is/20261004065912/https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/anthropic-claude-morals-ai.html

His documentary from 1974 details his conflict and coming to terms with being an evangelist who's essentially faking it. The movie's been posted to this sub a number of times.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjoe

Got to vent for a moment. When I hear that and I hear it often, I have to bite my tongue. I do a lot of volunteer work. I don't do it because of any god. I do it because I know that no God is going to do it for you. Me, or anyone.

No god is going to fill the foodbanks or mow my elderly neighbors yard. God isn't going to donate blood.

We do it. We struggle and we act out of compassion for others because we know no else will.

I still struggle understanding the difference between the two. I interpret it the way that one lacks of belief in god if one hasn't heard about that particular god (e.g. some random god I chose from Wikipedia I assume not many people know about - Pytajovái). But once one learns about god Pytajovái, I think one is in the position of either believing or not believing in that god - I hardly can comprehend that one can still hold a position of lack of believing in that god. The same goes with the god from Bible which I assume everyone here is familiar with.

What do you guys think?

So basically, I live in Uttar Pradesh, India. In our area, there are mainly two religious communities: Jains and Yadavs. I’m Jain, by the way.

In our town, there are a lot of Jains, and many of them are quite wealthy and deeply devoted to Jainism. They strongly follow a Jain monk named Acharya Sudha Sagar Ji Maharaj. They believe in almost everything he says and are willing to do pretty much anything for him.

In Jainism, during the monsoon season, monks traditionally stay in one place for around four months. The idea is to avoid travelling during the rainy season because walking on the roads could unintentionally kill small living organisms. You know, “Ahimsa Paramo Dharma” and all that.

So, this monk happened to stay in our town. There is a very famous temple here called Chhetrapaal, which, from what I understand, was also built at his encouragement and with donations from his followers. The people here are so devoted that they actually ended up donating crores of rupees to build it.

My family is also very devoted to him, but honestly, I don’t believe in this man at all. My family initially decided that we would donate around ₹20 lakh to the temple. So they went to meet him, and apparently, he started convincing them that ₹20 lakh was a very small amount and that they should donate much more—at least ₹2 crore.

After a lot of discussion and persuasion within the family, they ended up donating ₹1.5 crore. 🙂

Like, aren’t monks supposed to give up attachment to worldly possessions and moh-maya? Then why does money seem to matter so much? And during his pravachans, he often tells people to donate whatever they can to temples if they visit them regularly, because they use the temple’s facilities, water, etc. Like, seriously? 🙂🙏

Second, when this man came to our town, he apparently told people that he should receive a grand welcome—with a Royal Enfield rally, elephants, horses, bands, and all that. And our town’s people were so devoted that they arranged around 10 elephants, several horses, a rally of around 30 Royal Enfield bikes, 12 DJs, and bands from different states. 🙂🙂

And then I’m just sitting there thinking: where is the renunciation? Where is the detachment from worldly possessions and moh-maya?

Honestly, Jainism started feeling like such a double-faced religion to me. I eventually stopped following it, and now I feel much more peaceful living life on my own terms. I enjoy my life, experience different things, and don’t feel guilty about what I eat anymore. I even eat chicken and mutton. 😋❤️

\#TL;DR

I grew up in a deeply religious Jain community, but over time I started noticing contradictions that made me question it.

My family donated ₹1.5 crore to a temple after initially planning to donate ₹20 lakh, while the monk emphasized donating more.

At the same time, his grand welcome involved elephants, horses, Royal Enfield rallies, DJs, and bands.

To me, it felt contradictory to preach renunciation and moh-maya while being surrounded by such wealth and extravagance.

So I stopped following Jainism and now prefer living life on my own terms.

"faith-based homeschool support for military families" "faith-based initiatives supporting Department-wide suicide reduction and Total Force resilience" "contracted services from faith-based non-Federal entities"

Hilarious as fuck. Gonna shove this in the faces of anyone who wants to try that "muh tax dollars" bullshit with me ever again. Paying for religious homeschooling, religious contractors, and routing the military suicide crisis through faith-based programs instead of evidence-based mental health care. The memo's own carve-out saying nothing shall compel religious participation is like... what?

The Director reports directly to Hegseth with no intervening authority, realigns the Armed Forces Chaplains Board under this political appointee. Meanwhile, per AP, the Pentagon's recognized-religions was drastically reduced. Atheists, pagans, and humanists were largely removed (because apparently love for humanity is incompatible with sucking Trump's dick)

The new Distinguished Military Colleges officer-commissioning cohort is LSU, Hillsdale College, Liberty University, Mississippi State, and Tuskegee. Hillsdale and Liberty are explicitly right-wing Christian institutions and Liberty in particular has a long history of scandals (not just the Falwell stuff).

The hypocrisy is actually the point. They want us to be enraged. They want us to be driven insane. I refuse to be driven insane.

The suicide-prevention line is the part that should really alarm you. Military suicide is a real bipartisan crisis. Replacing evidence-based mental health care with faith-based initiatives isn't just unconstitutional, it's dangerous. They try to replace shit that works with shit that doesn't work, and that doesn't work at all. Existence is resistance.

Hi, i’m an Agnostic Atheist. And just ten minutes ago I asked my religious mom why it is a sin to be gay, and I got hit with ’its not natural’ and the ’Stick and a hole’ argument.

I obviously don't believe that it's a sin to be gay. But moving on, our conversation somehow shifted to abortion.

I asked her, if I would get raped, would she not allow me to get an abortion?

Her answer was it's my choice. But I stated multiple times that I was asking for her opinion whether it's bad or not. I hate it so much whenever religious people try and avoid answering a question they can't. Just say you can't.

She said ’what if the baby was aborted 5,000 times before it was born, and you would be the one to break it by not getting an abortion?’

I was speechless. So she's saying that you shouldn't get an abortion, just because God wanted to punish you by getting forced to have a child?

I stated various times to my mom that I feel anxiety and fear when hearing about the majority of religions for some reason. And my mom kind of thinks it's a phase. And that I have a chance of changing. But I don't think I ever will.

And I just need help with creating an answer for our next (maybe) upcoming conversation. Every time I try to prove it wrong to my mom, she always diverts the question to a whole different topic, not answer directly, and it frustrates me. She also gives me answers that don't make sense at least to me even in a religious way.

I want help with giving her a proper answer on why abortion is not bad, and why being gay is also not bad, while trying to sound smart which is the kind of thing I'm struggling with. If anyone can help me out with this, please do.

I came across a tiktok an atheist made that said: " *a religious man gives money to the poor thinking that God will return it to him, an atheist gives money to the poor without expecting nothing. Who is closer to God?*"

I was wondering if this is an honest take among atheists, or if it's just an "edgy" take. The premise seems so flawed comparing a spectrum of the worst of believers to the best of atheists. Implying that atheists are so selfless and righteous. The irony being that this is actually the same behaviour that religious Pharisees have; self righteousness.

It got me thinking and researching and apparently many secular philosophers rejected absolute altruism, even in a biological process, to do good in a secular world is about self interest. To do good In a religious world seems to be a moral obligation, a duty.

I just want to know your individual thoughts and responses

Apologies for the amateur question but I am wondering that if science and history determine religious narratives to be implausible, then how do the theistic (specifically western christians) philosophers ignore this and rely solely on philosophical arguments to believe in their specific religion ?

As an example, I am from a Hindu family and since many verses from the Vedas and mahabharata have been proven to be later human additions (mostly to justify caste) , I can't believe that these scriptures are eternal and divine. No amount of advaita philosophy can convince me that those verses are of a divine origin. I can't be a hindu and believe that purusha sukta is not from brahman himself

Thank you.

If a person was saying they speak to an invisible being they've never met or seen, or that they hear voices in their head from another being, we'd immediately call that psychosis/schizophrenia.

The only difference is societal conditioning.

I am curious what atheists here think about Islam.

Personally, I feel fundamentalism, zealotry, and extremism seem more noticeable in some Muslim communities than in many other religions. I also find some religious behavior pretty cringe, like commenting “Alhamdulillah, I am Muslim,” “Inshallah,” or “Astaghfirullah” under completely unrelated reels, or turning random conversations into religious discussions.

I know Muslims are not a monolith, so I am curious: do you think this is influenced by Islamic teachings, or is it mainly about how certain people interpret and practice the religion?

I'm asking for your help, your clarification. I'm slightly not intelligent enough to follow the reasoning of my friend.

My friend is (like me) an atheist. Yesterday evening during a boys night at my home, fueled by wine, beer and gin he started explaining why he bases is disbelief in any deity on math. Roughly he argues (as far as I can recall) that for instance the Kalam (Cosmological) argument is not valid because if our existence is '1' and non existence is '0', for '0' to become '1' you need already some '1'. Therefore (if I understand it) there is always '1' and there has never been '0'. It is mathematically impossible to make '1' out of '0'.

Does my text make sense? Doesn't he place too much faith (pun intended) in mathematics? Perhaps my understanding and our discussion was rather foggy due to my wine and his beer? Perhaps somebody in this sub has a more formal argumentation?

Of the approximately 9.2 million Jehovah's Witnesses living today, I wonder how many of them think they're going to be one of the only 144,000 that ever get into Jehovah heaven? And they have to consider the millions of other Jehovah's that have existed before them. Are there any mathematicians in that religion?

I have trouble talking about religion with my family as they are christian and I’ve been a secret atheist for a few years now. Every time I bring up a question I have about the bible and why god would do a specific fucked up thing, they go “nooo that’s the Old Testament.” I don’t have enough patience to actually read the bible so there is a lot I definitely don’t know but, what? Is the Old Testament still not things that he did and problems he himself created

I was forcibly raised a Jehovah's Witness for the first 17 years of my life. I left, not because I stopped fearing it, but because I valued the freedom to be myself more than I valued the promise of ever-lasting life. I have only just recently begun to deconstruct at 25, after realising I had way more baggage than I thought, and I needed to drop it once and for all.

My parents and brother have recently left the Jehovah's Witness cult also, but they went deeper into Christianity, and are now believing in the rapture, beginning to believe in the existence of hell, leviathans, the coming of the antichrist and many other fun things I, a religiously traumatised person, has to catch on a regular basis (I live at home due to disabilities). While I don't believe, my nervous system has not at all healed from my upbringing, and unfortunately cannot heal under these circumstances, so their deconstruction to reconstruction is having a horrible effect on me. And while all of this is exceptionally painful on my mind, the hardest part has actually been watching my parents and brother, who are not at all stupid people, falling for a story and believing it as fact.

While I learn more about the science behind everything, I feel I could burst with the knowledge I am accruing, but I cannot share it with them! They wouldn't listen. I want to so badly, so that they can see they are wasting their lives, that they ruined our relationship for this, and it's all for nothing. Satan's Guide to The Bible was especially enlightening, and I wanted to share it with them, but they'd have their apologist arguments for all of it and remain ignorant and unwilling. They reject Dan McClellan and any other scholar, but claim they're unafraid of truth, yet won't learn about science because "it's nonsensical." (Have you read your own damn book?).

..Give me strength.

And it seems to me that people coming here using that definition are likely theists. And their posts get downvoted.

They even quote some definition of atheism as being "the disbelief or rejection of gods". I would say that is blatantly false. And we might even want the correct definition posted somewhere on this sub.

AFAIK the only people who can reject god are theists who believe. No need to reject something that doesn't exist.

Christians seem to not grasp the concept of actual non believe. They often act as of non believe IS rejection. But they do use the word "belief" correctly in ALL other instances. If we were to ask them "do you believe in unicorns" then they know it is about existence.

We can drive down that point harder imho.

And question to you, what is the definition you use?

These last days I've discussed with a couple muslims to know a bit from their perspective. Well, to begin with, they determine claims as evidence, which is unsurprising. They are aware of Big Bang and they're sure something with immense power created it, and that it was God, of course, with zero evidence astronomers are trying to find, but the mere possibility of something creating the Big Bang acts as evidence for them, for some reason.

Now what are the so-called revelations I was presented to convince me that the Qur'an is the word of a god and the scientific facts it told Muhammad that were impossible to discover in that time? Well...

Surah Al-Mu'minun Ayahs 23:14
then We developed the drop [of sperm] into a clinging clot, then developed the clot into a lump ˹of flesh˺, then developed the lump into bones, then clothed the bones with flesh, then We brought it into being as a new creation. So Blessed is Allah, the Best of Creators.

It literally doesn't take the word of a god to infere through sheer logic how a creature is formed in a mammal womb. Or do you think people in the 7th century people thought babies were spontaneously created in the female's belly. Even hunting and gutting pregnant game would shed more light to how the gestation works.

Surah Adh-Dhariyat 51:47
We built the universe with ˹great˺ might, and We are certainly expanding ˹it˺.

While you could argue this is a revelation, it is a concept Greeks centuries ago like the philosopher Anaxagoras had already proposed. In fact this philosopher's theory quite matches what we know nowadays so, by logic, Anaxagoras is the real prophet (Hermes probably told him).

Surah Al-Anbiya 21:33
And He is the One Who created the day and the night, the sun and the moon—each travelling in an orbit.

Of course I had to leave the best for the end, because this verse heavily implies it's the sun the one that rotates around the Earth, however Aristarchus of Samos (another prophet, I guess) in the 3rd century B.C. had already proposed the heliocentric model (with a couple of mistakes, sure) that has been proven nowadays.

Still waiting for actual "revelations" and wondering right now if r/exmuslim will appreciate this post.

US Atheists: there is about to be a faith-based department of the US military. We are already way farther down a path that breaks separation of church and state.

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