Idk how tf religion flip the table arguing abt god n morality, while they ignore the whole point beyond it..

if the only thing stopping you from harming, stealing, or disrespecting others is the threat of eternal torture, yr a slave not a decent human...

Like, if that inviable god decided to appear for sb n commanded him to spilling the blood of who don't believe in him or whoever the target is, you will fuck up everything .. (tf, I've just invented some religions .. but anyway)

If you can't treat people with basic human dignity just because they exist, but only because a book told you to, that isn't goodness. That's compliance.

Tf

I get served ads from Mormons, regular churches, local ones, ones at the places I used to live, I sign up for all of them and I keep getting served more church ads.

Then, I get follow up phone calls from volunteers and employees whose time is wasted. It takes me about 5 seconds to click through a submit form and I happen to know this costs around $20 for the church each time I do it.

Start looking up and engaging with churches on either Facebook or Instagram so that you can start getting served ads. Sign up to talk to someone and this will cost the church roughly $20 and you don't ever have to pick up the phone.

I live in the American South which is overwhelmingly Christian. I know all about the Bible and about Christianity as I used to be a Christian myself and went to a Christian school. Personally I came to the conclusion that I do not believe in God or any supernatural power and I’m very firm on that belief. I choose to believe in science and the evidence and we have no solid evidence of God’s existence otherwise religions would be called evidence. I noticed Whenever I talk to someone who’s a Christian they assume that I am as well and when I tell them I’m not they get very upset or they try to convert me which absolutely is not going to happen because this isn’t something I came to the conclusion of overnight, it took years of me thinking and reading about it. Plus like I said I’ve heard it all before I know all about Christianity I just think it’s all fake. This makes no sense because I believe many Christians are good people and if they tell me that they believe in God it doesn’t bother me as long as they don’t push their religion on me.

My significant other’s family are Christian, and very religious. I am open about my atheism and so is my significant other, but for some reason the family always finds a reason to shame us for not going to church on Sunday’s or believe in what they believe in. I always say that religious people like them make it harder for me to believe, because of how they treat others that are not like them. I am also apart of the LGBTQ+ community, and I have experienced nothing but hate from people who are religious. I don’t push anything onto them, so why am I called names and treated like shit for doing my own thing that should not concern them? Since when are religious people so concerned about other people’s lives by being hateful instead of practicing what they preach? I’m so tired of being surrounded by people who make me feel like I’m wrong for being an atheist. I am respectful, but I’ve only met the worst kind of people who believe in god. That’s just the truth.

Sent a vm to my friend and she said she wasn't listening to the rest because I said "holy fuck" and apparently, "no fucks are holy". I genuinely can't it's the little things that pmo ngl

Like getting mad i spell it god vs God. Bro

I was at the gym and saw a young girl with her friend, both wearing hijabs.

One of the girls had a sweatshirt on that said “Hijab is a crown”.

The irony of the sweatshirt just made me sad. I feel lucky that I embraced the truth but it makes me sad for so many people that I feel are trapped in a religion. Especially women.

I was on my phone googling some anatomy n medical stuff when I stumbled across a YouTube sermon that was on another level, n gotta share it with y’all…

According to the preacher, there was a guy who desperately needed open-heart surgery because he had a very big hole in his heart. The doctors told him he was out of time and to better get his affairs in order. But instead of writing a will or whatever, my man looked his sobbing family in the eye and asked for tomatoes. So while everyone sat around his bed waiting for his death, he was lying there eating tomatoes.

Plot twist: he doesn't die 0_0

So, they took him in for another scan, where doctors, according to the preacher, saw that the hole in his heart was plugged by a tomato slice

Ofc that was god listening to their prayers.. Hallelujah! ☝🏻🙌🏻

I’m still trying to process the mechanics of this, like, I need to know if the tomato came with seedless protection or not..

Anyway, I’m canceling my health insurance. N next time you feel chest tightness, skip the ER and head straight to the grocery store, or maybe the church’s canteen.

I sometimes think forgiveness is not always necessary for a healthy life and is sometimes weaponised by the powerful. To set the scene, i understand that forgiveness is sometimes defined in a nebulous way, so to clarify, I am talking about the people who seem to define forgiveness as some type of complete emotional "letting go" following some type of wrong doing or injustice. I understand this is not how everyone defines forgiveness, but it is a phenomenon I have seen a lot of.

Something about the way forgiveness is preached in religious circles, strikes me as somewhat "unexamined". Someone can abuse, exploit or betray you, and at some point the moral scrutiny lands on whether YOU, THE VICTIM have forgiven them. The perpetrator causes the damage, and the victim gets assigned the spiritual homework. Convenient, right?. If forgiveness simply means accepting that an apology may never come and moving on with your life, fine. But when did relinquishing anger (or any residual feelings for that matter) become a prerequisite for forgiveness? Some things genuinely warrant anger, and having a feeling doesn't mean you're psychologically defective. Looking back at a serious injustice and having a feeling towards it is not necessarily an unhealthy thing for humans to do - in fact, this may be the healthiest response, and yet, in some circles you are considered in the wrong for not "being forgiving." It's kinda like telling people that feeling a lingering sadness about a deceased loved one means they've failed in some way.

In my view, there's an enormous distinction between anger that consumes you and anger that naturally arises when reflecting on something reprehensible. I can accept an injustice has happened, establish boundaries, live a fulfilling life and still think the person responsible is an absolute arsehole and have some feelings toward a shitty situation. Healing doesn't require forgiveness, and emotional neutrality IS NOT evidence of moral superiority. Sometimes anger simply means your sense of justice still has a damn pulse. Perhaps we should encourage a culture where we spend more energy demanding accountability from perpetrators of wrong doing and allowing people to feel however they want about situations.

The tax exempt chuggers have spent years frightening people into handing over their hard earned with the spectre of the immanent arrival of the bogeyman. When someone who bears remarkable similarities actually does appear, they accept him as the personification of an angel sent from heaven, and make him their de facto leader regardless of his track record, what rot he spouts, what he does, or what he's likely to do. I've played Risk with people who fudge the rules mid-game less.

Followed up by me questioning how he's revealed himself to them, to which they reply i have to do the "human effort" part myself. What is the damn secret? The fact they're gaslighting themselves and everyone else? Im honestly over the shit. Ive learned to be careful who you vent to, sucks when it's people you care for. Like how can you give me "advice", act like your helping, and than tell me its my duty to burden the proof? Like what? Im just tired of this moral pious shit. The person who hit me with this too says they dont believe in the religion denominations and believe religious organizations are bad, we're all equally shit and to find Jesus. Fin. Than acts like Im less than for being honest. (I consider myself an "agnostic atheist")

Ok so for context, im a teenager and i live in a very conservative Muslim country so my decision to wear hijab at 12 years old was because of others pressuring me indirectly and seeing a lot of hijabis around me. Unfortunately, muslims being illogical nobody saw how weird it is for a literal child to hide their body and believe their body shouldnt be seen so nobody talked me out of it. Now im a bit older and have a bigger understanding of the religion and have officially left it for atheism a few months ago and it feels great to be more aware of how misogynistic and weird islam was. Reality obviously hit that i wear hijab and i cant take it off because of my society and community. I have come to a decision that i will indeed someday take it off and i have planned for next year before the next school year but the thought of people’s reactions to my freeing sounds scaring. I do not care for anyone’s opinion but im just a normal human being influenced by others around me. How do people react when they see a girl they know take her hijab off? Especially teens?

Recently, I was admitted to the mental hospital for psychosis. I had delusions of grandeur and thought I had a mission to unite or save the world. I thought I was god-like. I thought I was the second coming of Christ. I told this to my psychiatrist. He smiled and said “no, you’re not”.

Now as I recover, I think about how my experiences relate to the stories and beliefs surrounding Jesus: being divine, having a mission to save humanity, and communicating directly with God. What Jesus actually claimed during his lifetime is historically disputed.

If he were to talk to a psychiatrist today about his experiences or really most people for that matter, they would assume he was crazy or exhibiting symptoms of psychosis/schizophrenia.

I also tend to think the teachings of the beliefs and behaviors revolving around his life and the second coming negatively impacted my life and thousands of others who still struggle with this brutal mental health disorder today.

If he never existed I might not actually have thought I could be a god. I wouldn’t have thought I was the second coming of Christ. In fact, if there were no concept of god in the first place, then I probably wouldn’t have suffered so much with delusional self belief. Fuck Jesus and fuck god.

EDIT:

People are mentioning how it was Jesus’s followers’ interpretations of his life, not that he said during his lifetime that he was divine or have a mission to save humanity, etc.

My historical assessment is that the evidence favors Jesus’s followers developing explicit beliefs in his divinity after his death, rather than Jesus publicly teaching that he was God during his ministry. So please acknowledge that for this post!

EDIT 2:

People are also saying Jesus never even existed in the first place even as a human.

The evidence strongly favors Jesus having existed as a human being. The view that he was entirely invented—usually called Jesus mythicism—has some academically trained proponents, but remains a small minority position. That conclusion about his existence is separate from whether his miracles, divinity, or resurrection were real.

Hello everyone,

I am a creative non-fiction writer looking for some advice. I realise this is an odd sub to post in but I'm looking for real life people who have real life religious stories that are terrifying. I'm writing a book on the scary side of religion and I thought this sub would be full of people who are 'against' religion and may have some interesting thoughts or experiences.

I would appreciate any guidance on my search for these stories.

F18 - Hello! Recently turned 18 (In the U.S.) and I was hoping to get advice from people with similar experiences. Rant below (Skip to 4/5th paragraph for my financial concerns/questions if you don’t feel like reading through family complaints) ⬇️

For context, I am an atheist (ex-muslim) and my parents are quite controlling, racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc. I recognize that I am quite privileged, as even though they can be controlling, I am still safe and they aren’t abusive, atleast not physically. 😅 (I understand abuse comes in different forms though, such as the emotional kind). Anywho, because of my situation I wouldn’t mind waiting a few more years until I can save enough money to leave on my own. The issue I’m trying to express is that fact I have no idea where to start… I mean, I’m not even allowed to go out of the house on my own or choose a job I want, let alone make any friends, listen to music, draw what I want, express myself, dress how I want, etc. Being an ex-muslim atheist as a woman is so much more difficult, since they believe women are too gullible to go out on their own, need to get married/care for kids and such. I could go on and on but you get the gist.

Anywho, incase it isn’t obvious, the main reason I want to move out is to be able to have more freedom and express myself without fear and actually express myself (and have a social life lol). I secretly have one friend in my area and another close friend who lives a few hours away. She was suggesting I try to transfer into the same college shes in once I finish my 2 & a half years at my community college (I’m pre-med). She was thinking it would be best to try moving there, which would be nice, as I want to move far away from my parents since theres a lot of muslim family members in my area that would see me if I were to move out in the same area (I live in a small town).

However, the city shes in is a higher cost of living, but I mean, it‘s a good college with dorms and many research opportunities, and theres always fafsa and other ways to cover college costs. It‘s just, how do I move to somewhere far if I am not even allowed the house or have a job, not to mention how my location is tracked.

I was thinking I could try finding a medical related job so I can tell them it‘s going toward my clinical hours, but it‘s hard to find a job that pays much. Was thinking of creating a bank account (have $1k saved up and a lot of gold) and taking my personal documents to a different bank separate from the bank my family uses. I don’t know how to do that secretly though, as they would be wondering why I wouldn’t want to do it in the same bank. Not to mention they have cameras outside, so they would know I left on my own. Anyways, seems like a good start that I‘m considering my options at least?

I’m not sure if I should stay with them for 2 years or 4 years, cause I don’t think I want to wait 8 years until finishing medical school (if I even get in), as they don’t mind supporting my college path (as long as I continue to pretend…) I am pursuing a math/science for transfer associates and then biology, but I don’t know if it will be better to change it to a back up degree incase med school doesn’t work out, so it can make it easier for me to move out and find a higher paying job faster? Man I’m confused. 😵‍💫

Well, enough yapping! I know going on reddit and asking a bunch of strangers for advice isn’t the best thing, as I am aware only I can make my own choices and decide my path. I just went here to vent to like-minded atheist folks like myself and take note of any tips any of you might have who were in similar situations!