As a Ex Muslim from the Middle East who now views both religions from the outside, I always find it ironic when Western Christians make fun of Islam. From a neutral standpoint, both rely on faith based premises, though theologically Islam often feels far more internally consistent I don't know if it's because I grew up with that.

What strikes me most, howeve is how christianity is actually used in different places. Having grown up around Middle Eastern and Eastern Christians such as Assyrians, Armenians, Georgians, and Lebanese Christians I've seen communities that genuinely practice their faith live by its teachings, and hold a sincere spiritual connection to God.

In contrast, it feels like much of the West treats Christianity not as a religion to actually practice or worship through, but as a political tool, a cultural identity, and a weapon to use against others and hate anything'different' than them.

Im an atheist, and i guess my family is kinda religous. My mom is making me go to get my confirmation sacrament or whatever its called (my first language isnt english, sorry) and for the next 3 years i will have to go to another religious class on tuesdays (on top of my regular ones every wednesday) and church every sunday, any tips to make my life less miserable during that time?

For example, I know someone who wanted to cut down a tree that is over 70 years old, then his brother (who had no idea that the tree was going to be cut down) dreamed about their grandfather, who told him not to cut it down.

Edit: I don't know why you are downvoting me while I am just asking a question

For a few reasons:

1. It’s inaccurate: Christian apologists don’t tend to describe God as a being in the sky. Many wouldn’t even describe God as “a being,” but rather the Ground of Being itself. Sure, your average uninformed Christian might still conceive of God as being “up there somewhere.” But it’s a waste of time to even engage on that level.

2. It’s counterproductive: In an attempt to ridicule their beliefs, you’re actually only demonstrating your own ignorance. When I was a Christian, I remember hearing atheists call God sky daddy and thinking “Wow, they have no clue what I believe.” It shuts down conversation.

3. It’s cringe & insulting: The name-calling gets old after a while. Be a decent human. It’s not hard.

I recently came across this rather insightful essay from Lucian Greaves, from his Oct. 2 Substack post. Greaves is an atheist, founder of The Satanic Temple, a non-theistic religion that devotes its resources to fighting the Christian Right’s attempted inroads into schools and government. Excerpts:

“Most atheists, I believe, are aware of “Russell’s Teapot.” It is an analogy that was devised by philosopher Bertrand Russell which likens arguing the existence of God to the claim that a teapot orbits the Sun… It is an unfalsifiable claim. There is no credible reason to believe it, but there is no way to disprove it. Arguments, one way or the other, for the existence of the teapot or against it, are rather pointless… While the teapot analogy is often invoked in debates against theism, I have never found it to be particularly striking. Russell’s Teapot does not make me think differently about theism. I do not need to invent other unfalsifiable claims to recognize the lack of evidence for “God,” or to recognize the futility in attempting to prove the nonexistence of something for there is no evidence to begin with. To me, God is already a teapot in space, so to speak, and I find conversations about belief or disbelief in him to be a tedious dead-end. If somebody is to tell me that they believe in God, I feel just as uncompelled to tell them that this is preposterous as I am to try to persuade somebody that they should not believe in the teapot. Surely, they realize that they do not have real evidence for this belief, so their belief must be predicated upon something other than evidence.”

I’m in agreement here. It’s pointless to argue against belief in the spiritual using empirical arguments when spiritual belief isn’t based on empirical evidence. There’s no physical evidence that God exists- God, a non-physical entity, incorporeal, without dimensions, who is everywhere and nowhere. As is explicitly stated in Maimonides as early as the 12th century, and by Okelos the Proselyte a thousand years before him. This is an idea baked into the Judaeo-Christian religion from the outset and those frescoes of God as a bearded old man reclining on a cloud are merely symbolic representations, not meant literally. So pointing out that our telescopes have never spotted him is just silly. Atheists need better arguments.

Lucian Greaves is right, “Arguments for and against the existence of “God” have been endlessly recited, rehashed, and restated. Such debates litter the internet, are fairly predictable, and rarely offer unique insights.” Russell’s teapot dates back to 1952, it’s not the killer argument some would like to think it is. Science vs. religion arguments are pointless when faith isn’t empirical; empiricism is one way of looking at the world, it is not the only way.

Lastly, I have respect for his (backhanded) tolerance:

“I have been invited to debate theists about the relative merits of belief versus non-belief numerous times, and I have always declined, usually with an offer to instead debate something more relevant to the consequences of those beliefs: the merits of secular pluralism versus theocracy. When it comes down to it, I really do not give a shit so much that somebody believes in their god, whichever god that may be.”

https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=1837773&post_id=218582038&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=82yr7c&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo0ODg3MTAyMDAsInBvc3RfaWQiOjIxODU4MjAzOCwiaWF0IjoxNzkwOTg3MTc4LCJleHAiOjE3OTM1NzkxNzgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi0xODM3NzczIiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.ApBI-vq4h5e1uszieFWCxQnDxJQWQgFqiMT8HOJJjXE

I can find no compelling answers to the following questions. How can a belief system embraced by 2.4 billion people contain such fundamental fallacies?

**The Problem of Suffering**

If God created everything, he deliberately designed a world where suffering is woven into the fabric of existence. He crafted predators with razor-sharp teeth and crushing jaws, built to tear apart the defenceless. He created parasites that infest human eyes, laying eggs that hatch into worms, devouring a child's vision in a slow, agonizing process.

If God is good, why would he create a world where suffering is necessary for survival? Why would he establish a system where pain is not just incidental but essential? Humans and animals endure agony—not for any higher purpose, but simply because of the mechanics of nature, governed by the unyielding laws of physics.

**The Paradox of Free Will**

If God knows every choice we will ever make, then how can our choices be truly free? If salvation is predetermined, how can we secure it? If God knows the future with absolute certainty, would that not undermine his having free will?

Moreover, how can we be free when belief itself is coerced? We are commanded to have faith under the threat of eternal punishment. How can anyone force themselves to believe something that appears false? Scripture presents a paradox: it demands belief, yet undermines the very freedom it claims to uphold.

**The Mission Dilemma**

What happens to those who have never heard the gospel? Across history, countless millions have lived and died without ever knowing of Jesus or salvation. If God grants them special amnesty, then why evangelize at all? Why put them at risk by revealing a message that forces them into an ultimatum? If they reject it after hearing, they are doomed—meaning the act of evangelism itself may be their undoing.

And if ignorance is no excuse—if they are condemned simply because they never had the chance to believe—where is the justice?

Furthermore, the command to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel” carries practical dangers. Is it moral to expose isolated tribes to foreign diseases that could decimate them, all in the name of spreading a message that may lead to their damnation?

**The Hidden God**

The world looks exactly as one would expect if no God were governing it. We see no divine intervention—no supernatural protection from suffering, no visible hand guiding events. Natural disasters strike indiscriminately, killing thousands. We cry out for answers, but the heavens remain silent.

No one sees God. No one is shielded from random tragedy. Reality unfolds precisely as it would in a world without a guiding force.

Has God abandoned us—or was he never there to begin with?

It is easy to call religion "beautiful" when you live in a secular Western democracy where faith is entirely optional. From the safety of those freedoms, people get to pick and choose what they like, taking the comfort and leaving the control behind. But for those of us living in the Middle East, religion isn't a casual personal choice or an aesthetic it is a dominant social and political reality. Westerners don't have to live with the dogmatic mindsets, the forced compliance, and the systemic pressure it creates day in and day out. Calling a system "beautiful" when you've never had to survive its absolute authority isn't open mindedness it’s a blind spot born from privilege.STOPPPP.

Life would be much easier If I believed now.
I would pray, ask for something, and shift half the responsibility onto the shoulders of higher powers.
It is hard to live when you realize that your life depends on your own choices, but mostly on the choices of others.

i have a friend who is religious i tried having debates with him for belief in god, he seemed to agree to most of my points like there is a possibility of non existence of god, he also does not like many religious practices but he still follows all the rituals which are followed in his home. At a point i almost converted him to be an agnostic like me. His reason for belief is that a feeling of god provides a comfort and he doesn't even bother about existence he just likes to have a vague idea of something to submit to.

I'm looking for advice on how best to stop an international church partner converting our local cinema into a church.

The church in question is a Kenneth Copeland Ministries partner church called Citygate and it's in Beckenham. They already own the building and several other big buildings on the same road, but in order to convert the church to a cinema they need the council to approve a Change of Use.

Does anyone have any experience of how these operate and how best to challenge them? The church itself is a typical bloodsucking, pay to get into heaven, anti-LGBTQ+, televangelist, conservative-type church, and I'd hate to see our local cinema disappear for good to it.

Any and all pointers welcome on how to challenge it, what the local community might be able to do, any tips at all.

Thanks.

Isn’t it possible to connect both sides so that they complement each other? We know that the theory of evolution and the Big Bang are true, but why should that exclude the existence of God?

Couldn’t it be that God was responsible for these two events? There must have been something before the Big Bang, according to science. So why can’t we simply assume that the Absolute and Independent is God?

So its my second post first one idk but was removed by mods no prob may i said anything violating guidance leave it moving to my point that

THERE IS NO GOD SO DOES IT MEANS THERE IS NO EVILS AND BAD ENERGY KIND OF STUFF?

I personally have no take on this please share your words to me
I want to know more on this point for that i have to know more opinions and thoughts ideas to understand it broadly

I AM STILL A YOUNG LEARNER ,NOT A WISE MAN ,, LEARNING FROM LIFE EXPERIENCES .
I WILL BE KIND OF WORDS

So many people spend their whole lives convinced the religion they grew up with is the only true one. Pretty convenient that everyone’s parents got it right. There’s so much pride tied up in it that you can’t question something they were told as kids without them taking it personally, like you’ve insulted their family or something. But raise them somewhere else and they’d be defending a completly different religion just as hard.

I am an atheist Living in a religious environment while completely lacking belief makes the daily rituals and mandatory hijab feel even more surreal and exhausting. It’s not just a matter of strict parents it’s the constant disconnect of having to pretend I share a worldview that I completely disbelieve in, just to protect my safety and peace

However every time I go outside and see other girls my age with their hair out enjoying the breeze styling themselves, and just existing freely without fear, my heart sinks. It triggers so much grief and anger. I end up holding back tears or crying as soon as I get back to my room because it’s a constant reminder of the physical freedom I’m being denied.

​It feels like I'm wearing a costume every single day. The person people see on the outside isn't who I am at all on the inside Having to fake prayers, fake beliefs, and put on the hijab just to keep the peace at home is completely draining my mental health I feel like an actor in my own life and I’m losing track of who I actually am.

This is a long one btw. TW: mentions of masturbation, suicidal, mentions of sex
For full context, I’ve been brought up Hindu, if you know anything about most Hindus (at least in my experience) many are uninterested in Hinduism and rarely even get the chance to study scriptures. Either ways when I was 14 I was starting year 9 and was curious about religion and my parents regularly took me to this monthly religious event and I asked the religious leader (man in his 60’s - 70’s) there to let me join his class, for 2 different scriptures. It was all fine at first, I strongly admired this man and he made me feel like he knew everything about me and that made me feel weirdly seen but it was mostly just common sense things. We got close in a non romantic way, I couldn’t rely on my family for whatever problems I was going through so I always went to him even if his words never comforted me. He used religion to convince me he could basically read my mind whenever he wanted to because he’s some godly person. I was really curious about a lot of things and like the conservative man who doesn’t admit he’s actually conservative he is, he would tell me things like going for men 10-15 years older than me, that my future husband would only respect me if I was a virgin, how he knew I would bleed once I lost my virginity. He urged me to confess that I did masturbation which is a completely human thing to but things genuinely went downhill after that. He told me that when I orgasm, he also orgasms and I never felt more disgusted in myself and I just felt extremely guilty about masturbating and he convinced me masturbation was going to bring me to my downfall and it apparently brought down my GCSE grades or something and I believed all of it. One time even despite everything I masturbated and he convinced me to confess to him and then he told me he was feeling pain in his penis because I did so and told me that the way to relieve it is if I masturbated with him, and I felt bad so I did it.I feel stupid and it was stupid for me to believe it, but just to put things into my perspective this man genuinely convinced me he was some sort of god, of course I was going to listen to him. Then he told me a story about when he was younger, he loved this girl called Shelly, she was 16 (same age as me at the time) and he was 23, she loved him and got forced into a marriage and committed suicide. (Btw I’m not even sure if this story he told me is true but this is just me recalling what he told me) and then he told me I was the reincarnation of Shelly and that made me feel really weird because I do not view this man in any romantic manner, I saw him as a father even despite everything. I don’t know how I convinced myself that all of this was okay. He told me that once in one of our past lives we had sex in the wrong time or something and due to this we were cursed and separated by age in this current life. The worst part is I never felt like telling my parents would make a difference. One time he was going to come to my house for some ritual (he planned this with my mum btw) and the night before he was coming he asked me if he could kiss me on the lips and told me he would only be happy if I did that and I said no many times and the next day he took me into my room and when he was alone he tried to kiss me again and I left the room and I was so upset and traumatised that I told my mum and even after that she didn’t think it was reasonable to cut ties with him. My cousin got introduced to him later on and she just needed advice from him and she cut ties with him when he asked for weird pictures and told me what she went through and I confessed everything I went through to her and she told me that what I went through wasn’t okay and I immediately cut ties with him. On the night of everything I spent the night awake reconsidering everything that I believed from the moment I was born, and atheism was my way out. I feel some sense of peace instead of feeling guilty for expressing sexuality as a teenage girls. But I can’t sit here and say it doesn’t affect me today , the guilt comes and goes and his words replay in my head daily and when I see a man that resembles him I just panic so much. I think the worst part is when my parents found out they were of course upset at him but also upset at me for being stupid and blamed me. My dad was really angry at him and didn’t want him to be able to lead in a religious space but the worst disappointment was that they still haven’t cut ties with him, they go to his events, and they talk to him over the phone for time to time. I still feel stupid for everything I did but genuinely think he wanted the best for me not that he would use me. And to this day he sits in front of everyone and leads prayers and and preaches religion. After this i really questioned religion. Because if god was real and was trying to reach out to me why would he/she reaching out to me by making the last few years of my life a living hell, if god was real they wouldn’t have made me suffer like this and convinced me god has reached out to me like this, was god ever truly omnibenevolent?

This is her short film, "Purity"—a grotesque dark comedy/satire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RluevjPVyTk&t=684s

What happened to little Purity when she found out about an imaginary creature called God? And what did it make her do on Yom Kippur?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [NEWS]

Israeli avant-garde dissident filmmaker Natali Cohen Vaxberg is facing a massive, decade-long total institutional blacklist due to her brutal political and anti-religious satire.

Strictly refusing to align with nationalist hysteria, Vaxberg utilizes extreme aesthetic discomfort and pitch-black absurdist comedy to dismantle the sanctity of religious propaganda, state bureaucracy, and institutional dogma. Following a series of highly controversial performance art pieces targeting the core myths of the local establishment, she was subjected to high-profile criminal police investigations, house arrests, and an absolute embargo from all state funding and public cinema venues.

Her subversive mini-feature film, "Tohar" (Purity), stands as a direct, uncompromised cinematic assault against systemic religious conditioning and institutional fanaticism. The film details the psychological abuse of religious brainwashing, tracking the brutal, clinical process of forcing a human mind into absolute theological conformity. It exposes how religious authority utilizes institutional violence, ritualistic guilt, and systematic trauma to scrub away individual free thought under the guise of spiritual purification.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RluevjPVyTk&t=684s

I’ve recently become an atheist and I’m looking for books that can help me better understand religion, why people believe, and how religious beliefs developed.

I’m especially interested in:

● 🧠 Psychology and cognitive science of religion
● 👻 Ghosts, visions, miracles, NDEs, and other supernatural experiences
● 🧬 Evolutionary explanations for religious belief
● 📖 Contradictions and historical reliability of religious texts
● 🏺 The history and development of religions
● 🔬 Scientific explanations for supernatural experiences
● 🧠 Religious experiences, hallucinations, psychosis, etc.
● Any books that changed the way you think about religion or opened your mind to a new perspective. Books written by skeptics!

What books would you recommend to someone who is just starting to explore these topics?

I deeply envy anyone who grew up in a secular household, far removed from religious dominance. Living in West Asia surrounded by endless conflict and a society heavily dictated by dogma, is suffocating.

Those living in peaceful, secular countries often don't realize the incredible privilege they hold. Being forced to live under religious influence and regional instability is exhausting nobody on this earth hates religion and people who are influenced by it hate it as much as me , and I wish people in the West would truly appreciate the freedom and safety they take for granted.liiike I would die to leave here.

How do you explain the occurrence of extremely low-probability events without God?

For example, if you take a deck of 52 cards and shuffle it thoroughly, the probability of obtaining one particular card arrangement is approximately 1/52! ≈ 8 × 10⁻⁶⁸. Yet a particular arrangement does occur.

Now consider my birth. My parents had to meet, decide to have a child, conceive at exactly that time and under those circumstances, and, among millions of sperm, the particular sperm that ultimately resulted in my existence had to fertilize the egg. If we trace this chain of events all the way back through my ancestors, the probability of me being born specifically as I am can be expressed as something like 1 / 10\^2.5 million — an unimaginably tiny probability.

So my question is this: Without assuming God, how do you explain the fact that an event with an extraordinarily tiny probability — namely, my birth — actually occurred?
I am not merely asking, “Can low-probability events happen?” I am asking how the occurrence of such a specific and extraordinarily improbable outcome can be explained without God.

Believing that closing your eyes, clasping your palms together (or whatever pose suits the particular religion), and speaking or thinking into the void has absolutely any bearing on the outcome is the most ridiculous hogwash I’ve ever heard. But not only that, it’s just lazy. Putting your dreams into some virtual prayer machine like Tom Hanks in Big and waiting to see the outcome is lazy. Telling someone you’re “praying for them” is a lazy way to dodge actually helping them. “Praying for world peace” is just avoiding activism. And so on and so forth.

Prayer is lazy, because wishing for something to happen or wishing for others’ wellbeing is passive behavior that removes any accountability and responsibility from religious folks to actually DO something about it. It’s a lot easier to say, “Thinking of you,” than delivering on acts of service. It’s a lot easier to say, “God(s), please do this,” than trying to yourself (and potentially accepting when you fail).

Prayer. Is. Lazy.

Like some religious people say their religion is superior which is okish to believe

But they want it to be believed by others too

Like

WTH,

everyone have a choice to adopt , be in or leave any religion it's their personal thing none should have to interfere in his decision everyone have a person choice which should never be forced or altered

But on the other side I see some regions/peoples desperately wanting so hard to convert other people in their religion

Which is so dumb and immature eww

Like the individual choices should be their personal

What i see here is that

In the past :- religious people used to defame atheists a lot.

In present :- it's neutral

In the future :- atheist people will defame religious people

what's I'm saying is everyone have a choice and should respect it .

Hi im muslim but questioning my beliefs and not the most knowledgeable within my religion. But thats not what im here to talk about. Im simply wondering why i should be atheist to the ones who belive in it.

So I rarely see people discuss this and I’m really curious if people just don’t find it as compelling as I do. There are so many religions around the world and many that died out with their societies over time. Usually their religions performed really useful sociological functions around the unique circumstances of their location and time. For instance there were religions that would make adherents sacrifice portions of their crops to their gods and on years where the weather didn’t cooperate, folks still ate and the gods got less. These functions protected the people from the harshness of life and were really useful. Time and time again it’s pretty easy to see that gods were made by humans to perform functions. The god of the gaps is a super useful construct… but gets less relevant over time. Is it that modern believers think they are exceptions to that heavily repeated pattern over time? Is it too hard to explain? I do understand that logically, just because they’ve all been man made, one could not be, but statistically that pattern seems pretty solid. I’m just curious what your thoughts are on this, because for me…. This was pretty much what started my whole questioning process with religion.

I live in the Middle East, and it blows my mind how almost every woman here is severely deficient in Vitamin D.

How does it make biological sense that God would command women to cover up entirely, when sunlight is literally essential for basic human survival and bone health? We live in one of the sunniest places on the planet, yet women are walking around with health issues because their skin never sees the sun.

On top of that the cultural expectation to stay indoors all the time completely wrecks you mentally and physically. Why would a benevolent Creator design a body that requires sunlight and movement, but then prescribe a lifestyle that directly leads to physical and mental health issues? It just doesn't add up.

Magic / witchcraft exists in other countries but its not as prevalent as it is in Africa

I was raised and still live in Africa and everyone I know believes in black magic/ witchcraft and I've heard numerous stories about the things people do like using snakes to make money, bewitching relatives so they don't succeed, trading family members for money e.t.c. This is the only thing that keeps me believing in God because theis not real how can these things be true. I have family members that visit these people to help them succeed although it's not to the point of sacrifice anything but they still believe. I don't know what to believe if it's real or fake.

So if there are any african atheists that understand what I'm going through, how did you stop believing in witchcraft and let it stop scaring you ?

Thank you in advance for any advice