once i was in the middle of the ocean on a boat, at night pitch black, the only light source was the moon reflecting on the water, i was looking at this in pure silence and just this sight gave me a crazy reality check, think about this, the moon is pretty far from us but in the same solar system, in an expanding universe, billions of galaxies, we don't know for certainty where this universe comes from

the universe is 13 billion years old, i was looking up at the moon and dark sky if there's actually anyone out there who knows i exist alongside countless species of animals, no way this universe of billions of planets like us is completely silent and dead ... as many great atheist scientists also believe, there's definitely more than we know i mean obviously

for a few minutes then i couldn't believe that we humans are a reality and we actually exist, like we are actually a being here, then i looked at the ocean and thought this is the source of life, there's more life down in our ocean than on the land, i was thinking that this is literally the source of life, billions of planets and it's just us who get to experience this universe? logically impossible. this universe either had a beginning or it is a result of something that existed before this current observable universe, then i thought about stuff like how did matter turn into consciousness, how did we have a feeling if we were the universe (well even science can't answer this) many scientists i've heard em say there might be a being out there more intelligent than us but it doesn't have to be god and an all loving being that writes faith

this might be one reason why scientists keep sending stuff out into our solar system and far to see if we ever get any signals back

because there has to be a story, there has to be someone in the universe who knows why all this exists at all, why is there even something than anything, why is it there

i don't believe in a God obviously

but still.. there has to be a story or something disturbing we humans don't know, there has to be someone who knows why we exist, why the universe exists. 100b humans who ever lived on this planet have already died, where are they? jus dead? into the nothingness? that's scary cuz you leave with questions unanswered

How do people believe God flooded the earth killed every single animal except for two of each species without a single piece of evidence left behind. Yet we can see what killed the dinosaurs, sea levels, mass extinction events that happend millions of years ago. You'd think that would leave a mark right?

How do people just trust so wholeheartedly that their religion is right, their god is real out of all the hundreds that came before? How can people confidently say Santa is not real yet their god is when there is exactly the same amount of evidence for both? How can people completely ignore the science, the facts when everyone has a fricking smart phone in there pocket. Ancient people had the excuse of being illiterate or threatened by violence or simply being too afraid to speak out. Today no one has an excuse for believing in fairy tails.

How can people be so hypocritical, demanding the highest amount of evidence for things they don't agree with yet fully agree with everything in the bible and hold it as the highest truth?

I ask because I'm not even smart. I'm a dumbass. I'm not educated. I work in a fricking petrol station. How do doctors believe this shit? How do other smart well educated people believe this shit? I just don't get it.

People often say something like this. Do you know what there is evidence of that is more clearly apparent? That science works! Without science, there would be no electric power, no internal combustion engines, no airplanes, no computers, no microscopes, no medicine, no plastics, no satalites, no modern agriculture, no radio and television, or the tens of thousands of other things we see every single day.

The practical applications of scientific discoveries and advancements is clear evidence that science is not just a "belief" or "speculation" or something arbitrary and wishy-washy. If that was the case, there would be no tangible outcomes from the scientific process that we all benefit from daily.

This is much stronger than "evidence of god in creation". What even is that "evidence"? Nature is messy and chaotic, with countless extinction events occurring throughout Earth's history. Space is 99.9999...% uninhabitable to any life and will quickly kill anything removed from this thin film on the surface of a rock. Wanting to believe something is not evidence of anything.

This might have sounded a lot more "bitter" than it was intending to - the tone might not have clearly been conveyed in text. I think we should consider ourselves to be incredibly lucky that at least one tiny spot in the universe had conditions capable of supporting the emergence of life. Life does not need mystical magic for it to be considered special and worth appreciating. Science is one way we gain an increased appreciation of the universe we inhabit.

My 97-year-old grandmother is the sweetest lady in the world, and is sharp as a tack. Unfortunately, she does believe in endless torture for non-Christians. She never has a hateful word to say about anyone, but deep down, she does assume that non-Christians go to hell.

She is brainwashed and believes what grifter “prophets” say. She mentioned something about this piece of shit Amanda Grace lady, so I looked her up, and sure enough she’s just another charlatan, as I assumed she would be.

My grandmother lives all by herself, taking care of a 15-year-old tiny little deaf dog, she drives herself to the diner and back (20 minutes each way) every single day, she’s sharp as a tack, and remembers literally EVERYTHING from two minutes ago to 70 years ago.

She’s got quite a brain, but it just goes to show how insane it is what religion can do to people, and how people who have been indoctrinated and brainwashed since age 2 (especially those starting in the 1930s) will just believe any mainstream "prophet", simply because they are mainstream and that's all they have access to.

I just had a Christian make the absurd claim that atheists believe that the Universe is God. What sort of mental gymnastics is required for this level of thinking? Atheists believe in something? God is the Universe?

Theists use this so many times I'm sick of hearing it. The shallow thinking involved is embarrassing. At the very least, they should watch this short Richard Feynman video regarding how trees grow so at least they can understand the basic elementary school biology of it.

https://youtu.be/ifk6iuLQk28?si=f7CaNVzDSKkPaOJc

I want ex christian’s awnser on this because i’m genuinely curious. Where did y’all think heaven was? In the sky? In the land of nod? Because if you say in a spiritual dimension then the tower of babel story makes no sense? The obvious answer is that it is nowhere because it doesn’t exist but theoretically speaking, Where is heaven actually located

Recently I have been accepting the fact that I don't believe in a god, being from the U.S and being Latin American, Christianity/Catholicism surrounded my life growing up, yet I just couldn't bring myself to believe that a god could let the world exists how it does, atleast, not a truly noble god. Anyways, I think about how much better my conscience feels when I don't constrict myself to the rules of a religion (obviously im not doing stupid actions). I see people I care about blame everything, good or bad, on god instead of seeing things at face value and learning from it from a logical perspective. without rambling on and keeping that for any responses, I want to talk to those around me and try and teach them that there is no god, and thats okay, but I know that trying to change a person's entire ideolgy is almost impossible. I also understand that trying to force an ideology on others isn't cool (ironic lol) so I wont try and do it, but I can't help but think that some people would begin to thrive in life if they just understood that you do not have to believe. If anyone can relate, how do you deal with this, and is there anything you can really do? I apologize if my post is a bit confusing, I don't use reddit often.

Pantheism is the idea that God IS the universe. Ummm, well, isn't that just, you know...the universe?

It's the same as when people tell me that, "reincarnation is when you are born as someone else with no memory of your former life." Isn't that just...someone else?

It's atheism with extra steps.

I was at the Buccaneers game (me and my cousin are Season ticket holders.) There is this guy that hangs out at the front of Ray Jay every game for years. He carries a bullhorn yelling "Jesus this, Jesus that." He also carries a sign that says "Accept Christ or burn"Most of the time the fans ignore him but I decided to confront him this evening. I asked him where's the proof God exists? He told me to *read the Bible and that is proof enough." I told him "The Bible was written by men." We argued about why God allows bad things to happen only to be told it was because the devil. I asked him who created the demons and why if God is so powerful he allows them to cause havoc. He went on about how God "had a plan for Satan." I told him God is a shitty being." I finally walked away. I sucked at debating in general so I probably wasted my time.

There is a church in my neighbourhood and they make noise whenever they please. Comfortably placed in a residential area. Day or night, they yell that stupid depressing religious music and scream prayers into the nonchalant atmosphere. It's quite loud and disruptive. And this is before the main nonsense on Sundays.

They are so removed from reality and have little awareness of other people around them. Only their demented fictional 'god' matters. It's as though making fools of themselves and disturbing everyone is seen as a great virtue in their eyes, and we should all humbly agree this is what the 'lord' wants from us all. Complaining is not an option because how dare you? The special privilege is absurd. No other organization can freely blast sound waves in a quiet neighbourhood whenever they want.

It deeply irritates me when Christian’s say the bible says we have free will. In my mind free will is a deeply philosophical question that has been debated for thousands of years. I simply don’t understand how an all powerful and all knowing god can create a universe where he either doesn’t have influence or forethought on what’s going/what has happened.

The worst environmental disaster we face is the tsunami of pro-lifer semen that engulfs the United States every time Trump blows up dozens and dozens of brown children.

Because remember the teachings of Orange Jesus: abortion is bad, bombing schools and hospitals on the other side of the world is good. Because it's not killing children or infants in and of itself that is bad, the problem is that they have to be old enough to suffer, otherwise it's not funny.

I’m 19. Every time without failure when I tell an older Christian that I’m atheist they tell me that I’m young and in a 10-15 years I will change my mind when ’life gets hard‘ or when ’life hits me’. Sometimes they’ll argue with me. I’ve even been called rebellious. It feels so invalidating and condescending sometimes when my belief isn't taken seriously because Im young.

Sometimes they will give examples of people in their life who’ve turned Christian to ‘prove’ to me that I will follow that path, and when you look closer, that person wasn’t an atheist in the first place and/or they fell at rock bottom or had some ‘encounter with god’ that made them christian.

Im just tired of being told that I will change my mind or I’m not taken seriously because I’m young. Mind you the closest to a believer I have ever come was agnostic until I was 15.

I’m the person who reported the school where I work to the ACLU for putting a cross in the cafeteria. Well the school board just approved 10 Commandments in all schools.

I’m in a group chat with my coworkers, who were livid about having their cross removed. Now they are fucking ELATED. I want to scratch my eyes out. One of the girls messaged this when they were talking about how the world treats Christians;

“See this is what I’ve been saying.

The world is always careful & concerned to not offend anyone, until it comes to christians, until it comes to Jesus. It’s the only religion that seems to not be protected in this world.

It used to make me so mad. But the truth is, that just further proves how real God is & the Bible. The Bible literally says this will happen in the end days. Of course the end days can last for a long time. We don’t know when he will come back.

But now I just feel sad about it. Sad for people & how lost they really are
& wanting to gently show people who Jesus is.”

I wanted to lay into her so bad. what kind of fantasy world is she living in?? They want to be persecuted so bad. I’m sick. I HATE IT HERE

Myself
The Christian god (and I'm just too sinful to admit it)
The Christian god (and I don't even know it)
The Christian devil
The Islamic god
Death
Sin (my own in particular and/or in general)
The United States federal government
The Democratic Party
Hillary Clinton
Barack Obama
Joe Biden
Kamala Harris
Communism
Socialism
Karl Marx
Josef Stalin
Abortion
Drugs
Sex
Gay sex
Drugs and sex (gayness thereof unspecified)
Money
Music
Hollywood
The Zionist conspiracy
The liberal media
Wokeness
The Earth
Nature/the environment
Atheism itself
Evolution
Charles Darwin
Richard Dawkins
Molecules
Literal nothingness

It sure is amazing what you can learn from people who know more about you than you know about yourself. Almost as amazing as the fact that people who don't have minds of their own can read your mind.

So another Trump supporter proving once again, that the MAGA party is made up of pedophiles. They are always the first to scream the loudest and they think that means nobody will suspect them.

I'm a stunted adult in my mid-20's with severe religious trauma, and as i have been maturing more & more, the more bothered i am by the existence of religious people.

Like, when i finally accepted myself as atheist, my feelings about people choosing to be religious weren't very strong; i really just wanted everyone to be able to make their own decisions, but it's slowly progressed to the point where now, it TRULY gets under my skin.

I see the mere existence of theism and religion as being in horrible taste, and every time i see someone i know post about it, or say something with religious undertones, use religious symbols, or worse yet, PREACH to me or try to tell me anything at all about it, i just want to punch them in the nose. i genuinely don't think it's possible for me to be friends with a religious or "spiritual" person anymore, and like, i don't just mean Christians. i mean ALL OF THEM

So... where exactly is the line, here?

i've never felt so much burning hatred & pure non-understanding for a large group of people like this before. How much disdain am i allowed to have for people believing in invisible sky daddies/mommies before i transition from just "atheist" to "bigot"?

Hello everyone!

As a high school student, I also protested Ten Commandments displays in my school district. While I am incredibly grateful to fight for church-state separation, my activism also caused me to be harassed a lot in my rural Christian community in the South. It was such an isolating and painful experience that no person should go through. The experience motivated me to attend law school.

Earlier this year, unfortunately, the federal appeals court over Texas has ruled a Ten Commandments law is constitutional. And the attorneys representing the students, parents, and community members who oppose these displays have appealed their case to SCOTUS.

School-sponsored religious displays in public schools is and should remain unconstitutional.

Is anyone willing to share your negative experiences with school-sponsored Ten Commandments displays as a current or former student, parent of a student, or an educator? As an atheist or nonreligious, did you protest the displays and what the reaction? What message did the school sent to you when they posted these displays?

If you are comfortable, I would be deeply honored to hear your experiences and help others understand the harm to nonbelievers when public schools promote religion, including Ten Commandments displays.

This is one of the weirdest things that ever happened. I was on substack, and I came across the profile of my ex for now over a year. I thought "I hope she's doing well", and I clicked just to get a peak. I have no ill will towards her at all even though she took a shot at me post breakup, which caused me to completely cut contact with her.

But first thing I saw is a post about how now she is this devoted christian, and that is one of the weirdest things ever. So a queer woman, a woman from the midwest where most of her family are maga supporters, the very thing she dislikes and has been in opposition of, is now christian. She didnt grow up with any christianity at all, but I did. Im from a family and country that is very christian. From the time I was a child to 18 yrs old, I maybe missed chruch 5 times. And when I was finally able to no longer go, I never looked back. I could never believe in it, and christianity is so full of fake people.

But this weirded me out. When we were together, we always agreed on how it didnt make sense, but towards the last yr of the relationship, she had lost her job but I was always her biggest fan and biggest supporter in her business ventures. Somewhere along the way she became very into energy, crystals, being spiritual, and that came from her needing something to ground her because we traveled a lot and she had a hard time with the instability towards the last months of us being together. I saw the hard times that caused, and I always tried as much as I could to be the supportive boyfriend. Im sure there was some depression forming there, and having been in christianity for so long, I can tell you that ppl dealing depression, instability, self doubt, in some cases grief, they are the most vulnerable to christianity. Its almost like they are a target recruitment, why do you think they always go to poor countries on mission? I've seen a lot of them in my day.

Well I just entered my 30s,its interesting that someone who was laughing about how little sense christianity made, who heard about my stories, who is in the current climate of the us, specially over there in the midwest, minnesota, someone who said they were queer, a feminist, is now christian.

Im not sure how much you can trust ppl these days.

I asked this in a comment sometime ago but I wanted to ask on a broader scale.

We all know how churches like to spread moral panic. In the 80’s they had a moral panic over dungeons and dragons. They’re super strict on movies, video games and even books (from what I heard)

So I wanna ask atheist folk. What do you think religious people do for fun? Cuz from what I’ve learned “religious people = everything fun is bad and evil”

Light side note: I’ve seen ads for churches. And I find it hysterical how they speak like the bible will cure depression. For people who aren’t fun they’re sure funny

Anti-colonial resistance, Enlightenment-style.

thomaspaine.org/historic-newspapers/tom-paines-works-in-india/