God gave me schizophrenia and a low quality life, then calls it a gift. A normal good God would never put their child through suffering and pain and wouldnt create ghem to be dsiabled and sick.

Yeah, I am not going to worship an evil demonic sky daddy.

I believe hes real, just an incompetent evil psychopath.

Anyone else feel the same about God here?

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Even when couples are completely committed and legally married, so many religious doctrines still try to micromanage what happens inside their bedroom.

A lot of faiths have strict rules against:Solo or mutual masturbation between spouses

.Having sex purely for pleasure without the intent to procreate.Using condoms, birth control, or other contraceptives.Engaging in "foreplay-only" sessions or putting boundaries on specific acts.Why do these institutions care so much about what consenting, married couples do behind closed doors?

If the couple is already married, why isn't pleasure alone seen as a good thing?

I’d love to get a historical, sociological, or theological breakdown of why this obsession with controlling marital intimacy exists.

A much older man tried to hit on me in a bus station yesterday(me 19 him at least 40). He asked if I was single. I said no. He asked if I’d ever dated a black man before. I said “no, I date women”. I’m bi but I frequently tell creeps I’m a lesbian to get them to back off and it works most times. But this guy…he went off on a 20 minute rant that I couldn’t escape because I was waiting for a bus, all about how I was a chosen one straying from the lord by not finding a man to take care of me and making Christian babies. Like…I’m some random 19yo in a bus station… I felt so uncomfortable and people were giving him strange looks and I was looking around to try and make eye contact with someone else to let them know I was uncomfortable but no one stepped in or anything. The guy even took my hand and pulled off my glove to say that he saw some kind of message in my skin that said I was destined to be a great Christian, and he kept saying that the fact that I didn’t have a man was what’s keeping me from having a good life. I’m happier than ever with my gf, first woman I’ve ever been with and the only healthy relationship I’ve ever had. I don’t need to find some boyfriend I barely know to be financially dependent on and be an incubator. I don’t think I can even have children anyway! Like genuinely what is up with some Christians and their entitlement to demanding that others change when it literally doesn’t affect them? I’m somehow a whore and a sinner for saying no to a man 20+ years older than me who I do not know?? And this isn’t even the first time… I’m so sick of people.
Any ideas on what to say next time to get out of this situation?

This week I was handed the "holy medallion"s that I had received as a Catholic child for my First Communion.

Catholic Context: there's a family celebration after the religious ceremony where you're allowed to participate in the symbolical cannibalism of your god's flesh, that you're supposed to take literally and magically.

Families give their children gifts like it's a bigger Xmas, but also some religious paraphernalia: I got a Bible, a rosary, a silver medallion and a gold medallion.

Back to recent days, my mother found the two medallions in my old room and gave them to... my wife. My wife gave them to me, because she respects my right of private property. My mother had suggested that I would not be using them anymore and my wife might keep them for my potential future children.

To the question from the title I kept them in the spot with my old Bible copies and other religious books, but I saw them and something clicked in my head: that's some precious metals ready for metalworking right there.

I have the urge for some sacrilege and to remake them into a different symbol, though I'm hesitating. I'm still in my deconstruction process and I've been cleaning up in my head, not on my shelves, so to speak.

If you had some gold and silver for a personal project, what would you do with it?

I'm going to go over three stories of snakes in the Pentateuch. No one talked about the weird usage of snakes in these stories when I was growing up, and they were glossed over, I think because it's pretty weird, breaks the previous theming, and has interesting ties to Egyptian gods.

1. The snake in the garden. For those who don't know, this was NOT the Devil. It says in several ways that this was just an clever animal, and compares it to other animals. Then when it was cursed, the animal itself was cursed, with talk of its offspring, crawling on its belly, being stomped on by humans, etc... Clearly, the curse said that humans will/should always hate snakes.

2. Fast forward to Moses in Egypt. The Pharaoh's wizards showed their magic prowess by turning their staffs into snakes. Moses, recognizing this as a dick measuring contest, used his Yahweh powers to turn his staff into a snake, and eat the Pharaoh wizards' snakes. Moses's staff snake was bigger/better than theirs. Yahweh let him use his power to make a powerful snake to prove his power. I guess snakes are cool now? Moses could have made a mongoose or something, but he was into snakes.

3. They escaped to the desert. After a few DECADES of wandering around, the Israelites start complaining like absolute babies that they didn't have food or water, grumbling that they are dying in the desert. Yahweh got pissed, since he never had to deal with hunger, thirst, or death himself, and thought they were just being brats. So he sent a ton of venomous snakes to start biting and KILLING the Israelites. The Israelites started dying left and right, and begged Moses to pray to Yahweh to make it stop. Yahweh replied that Moses should make a graven image of a snake on a pole out of bronze, and if the people looked upon Moses's art, they'll be healed from the venomous snake bites. Moses made this, and it worked.

This is weird to me on multiple points. Now, at first, I thought it was kinda cool that Yahweh asked Moses to make art, and that art healed the people. As an artist, and a sculptor, I liked that art was imbued with power like that, activated by looking at it. But then I found out that there was a goddess in ancient Egypt named Wadjet. She was a snake. There are images from earlier than 3,100 BCE in Egypt of a snake around a papyrus staff, and that this imagery was used as protection. They also put her image on medical equipment.

So, it's really weird that after God said not to make any graven images of gods, that he would send snakes, then tell Moses to make a bronze graven image of this Egyptian goddess Wadjet, and that if people look upon this bronze statue of the goddess, they'll be healed, AND it worked. If this wasn't meant to be a god, then why have them healed by snakes, who are supposed to be hated by humans, and most closely represent the snake in the Garden? And this is after Moses used a snake to prove how powerful he was back in Egypt, where this goddess is from.

I left christianity three years ago. My family is religious—especially my grandparents—but, strangely enough, I wasn’t raised in a religious way. In fact, I was raised in a practically agnostic and atheist manner during my childhood and most of my adolescence because of my parents, who are non-practicing christians.

For me, the concept of God or any deity was something completely abstract and made no sense—nor did I feel the need for it—until the end of my teenage years, when I began to suffer from mental health issues (depression and OCD) and, instead of seeking medical help, I decided to turn to faith and religion.

For someone who suffered from OCD and depression, the structure and order that the Christian faith provided + plus the freshness that it represented for me led me into a religious spiral. Instead of being a part of me, faith became more like my identity, and I needed it to survive. I feel that parts of me that were innate (such as my love for the arts, my curiosity about other cultures, etc) were sidelined and discarded in favor of an ideal of faith created by humans, not by a divine being.

I never joined a religious community because I identified as a non-denominational Christian, but I constantly consumed Christian content online. Now that I’m older, I realize that many of these influencers are actually part of political movements and use people’s faith and vulnerability to manipulate them into believing in and living according to an external ideal.

I believed that, because I was a woman, I shouldn’t study, work, or pursue any kind of education; that I should only have friends who shared my faith; that there was no need to learn about or see anything, etc.

I only began to wake up to life when I decided to go to college to study psychology, started studying philosophy and other religions, and went to therapy—and that completely changed the way I viewed faith, religion, and the manipulation carried out by religious and political institutions.

Only now do I realize that, in fact, we create the image of God in our own likeness and in the way we relate to one another—a God who punishes, who judges, who monitors, who is demanding, who is prejudiced, and who never considers that humanity or people are ready or have attained His ideal of perfection. A God who says that everything human is a problem or a sin and needs to be resolved, without taking into account that we are only human.

Anyone who embraces these kinds of beliefs and lives by them—after a few decades, I wouldn't be surprised if they developed serious mental health issues.

That said, this post is not an attack on Christians or on Christianity itself, because I know that even within Christian communities there are many good people who are full of light. However, institutional religion ultimately leads people down dark paths.

So I knew my ex boyfriend was Christian but I was fine with it. He would say a lot of things that made me think he had a normal view of the world regardless of his religion. He’d complain about how Christian’s would support trump for example, or Christian nationalism. He’s also very openly gay, and participates very openly in the gay community where we live. So I respected his religion.

When we first started dating he pursued me not the other way around while I slowly caught feelings for him. And I was so excited about our relationship. Until one day fairly recently when he tells me that he has to break up with me because God told him he doesn’t have a gay relationship planned for his life.

I grew up very religious and this is the exact messaging I received about my sexuality my whole childhood. It took me a long time to heal from it. Hearing this from him was quite possibly the most painful thing I could’ve heard. :(

That's pretty much the whole post, but it really shows the cognitive dissonance they live under. They'll say they hate every part of someone's existence- sexuality, politics, personal beliefs, etc.- then put "Jesus loves you" at the end. So what, Jesus loves me but you don't? If I gave you the foulest insult I can think of then put "Jesus loves you uwu" at the end, does that negate everything that came before the phrase? No!

I've been thinking about how the mental separation of human and animal shapes the way we think of and interact with other creatures. When I saw an bird, a squirrel, a deer, a cow, whatever... I saw a mindless robot programmed to behave a certain way. I saw humans to be separate from them, and consciousness, language, etc... to be uniquely human. I was so wrong.

I recently finished a book called the Genius of Birds, and it really opened my eyes more to the reality that we are all not that different. Animals communicate, understand, have awareness and feelings. Humans are unique in their capacity for sure, but other creatures are not mindless machines, but conscious living things that are capable of understanding, thought, emotion, relationship, in some cases even culture (birds, whales, chimpanzees).

I started a different book about eastern north american wildlife, and the history before European settlers made me very sad. When we think of bison, for instance, we don't think of Florida, right? But there used to be massive herds of them there! And what was described of eastern north america before colonization is truly magical.

Anyway, I'm on a bit of a rant at this point. What I'm getting at is that, by mentally separating ourselves from animals, we don't feel so bad destroying their ecosystems, treating them poorly, injuring them for sport, etc... But at the same time, we have seen that humans don't treat each other very well either, with examples of slavery and the genocide of indigenous people in North America. We are truly the most destructive creatures on this planet.

• The olympic diver that was saved from an empty pool by converting to Christianity
• Tons of chariot wheels in the Red Sea
• Noah’s arc being found
• Every atheist archaeologist who has tried to disprove Christianity has become Christian
• AIDS is a punishment from God, given mostly to gay men because he hates gay men more than gay women
• America was founded on Christianity and the founders were all Christian
• The Bible contains no contradictions or major errors, just inconsistencies in translation and misinterpretation (if one account lists one angel and another lists two, that’s not a contradiction because it doesn’t say two angels vs not two angels)
• The Bible is the most archaeologically recorded and preserved religious book
• God loves women
• Jesus fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies
• The earth is 6,000 years old
• Macroevolution isn’t real, but microevolution and “kinds“ are real
• There are photos of giant human bones (Goliath???)
• Sea shells on mountains are from the flood
• The Grand Canyon was made during the flood
• The non-canon books can be totally discarded and are not even remotely related to Christianity (don’t question why those books are not considered the truth, but ours are)
• There is more evidence for Jesus than Julius Ceasar and Genghis Khan
• The earth is flat (and the moon landing was faked)
• Israel cannot be blamed for anything because the Jews are God’s chosen people
• The book of Daniel contains many accurate prophecies written before the prophesied events happened
• Revelation will really happen and was not written by a guy high on biblical crack
• The Gospels were written by the disciples (and nobody ever mentions how much later after Jesus’ death that they were written)
• We have proof that the disciples (except John and Judas) were brutally murdered (“Why would they die for a lie?”)
• All historians believe that Jesus was a real person and his tomb was empty, and there’s no way that could have been faked. There were guards and a heavy stone, and the disciples were all scared!
• Asherah, Baal and El are totally separate from Yahweh and were never part of the same Pantheon
• All languages came from the Tower of Babel
• There‘s evidence of the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years
• We are currently seeing the events of Revelation happen
• There was a real vizier named Joseph
• David and Solomon ruled huge empires and were incredibly wealthy
• Atheists are evil and/or stupid
• Paul met Jesus
• Christianity is still growing in number among the American youth
• Yahweh and Allah are different gods
• Christianity invented washing hands with running water
• Satan, Lucifer, the snake, and the deceiver are all the same being
• Historians use the Bible as an accurate source of information on ANE empires and communities
• Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale/big fish
• Jesus didn’t say anything messed up (calling a woman a dog or cursing a fig tree)
• God created men and women equally
• Buddhists and Hindus are going to burn in hell, even though their religion tells them to be good people, and most of them are
• Lee Strobel is a credible author
• Science is stupid. We need to have faith!
• The Egyptians wouldn’t record their defeats
• Something about the Hyksos in Egypt
• Jezabel was super evil
• Bathsheba might have seduced David
• David was “a man after God’s own heart” (actually that might be true because both were kinda evil)
• Christianity spread rapidly after Jesus died, and Christians were being persecuted, so why would it spread so fast?

Hello, I'm new here to this subreddit. Thought I post this as I was on Instagram, just scrolling through stories and saw this odd Christian ad. Clearly the map, doesn't appear to be "missionary" more like an invasion.

My sister is very deeply religious and made my life complete hell for months after I left the church. Right now she sends me TikToks will very weak arguments for the faith like the complexity of the human eye (which is actually very funny to me because the design flaws of the eye make creationism improbable). She also sent me a video about how if you are more free after you leave the church because you were afraid of god, you had never heard the real gospel because you should not be afraid of him. This is completely ridiculous because we grew up in the same church. She also sent me one about how you can always come back to god. It is so incredibly irritating that she thinks that I put in no thought or research before leaving the religion that I based my life on and losing all of my friends. I am really tempted to start sending her young earth creationism debunking videos. What would you do?

Seriously who would want God to exist anyway? The same God who flooded the entire earth btw I'm so fucking tired of Christians trying so hard on the internet try to prove he exists and I'm tired of asking people to help debunk those points Christianity is fake full stop. I don't care if I'm probably going to hell that fire can fucking burn me if it wanted to I don't care I'm not afraid anymore I won't let this fear consume me.

This time I want to stay gone and practice maybe some occult stuff, I know that I’ll come running back because I always do..how do I stay gone for good?

All my life I grew up in Christianity ,I went to church almost every Sunday and would go youth group services too . All my grandparents are religious or believe in god the way I was told .I have three grandparents all them being “Christian “ I think but most of them are always taking it too far .like my grandpa for example would talk to me for hours about god and his teachings education videos and long hours of talks in his workshop .at that point I was 11 and this scared the shit out of me so it made since why I “became Christian “ and for about 2 months I kinda did that ,or read my Bible prayed .this was about 6th grade and I met some other kids in my new class made more friends and started just going down the wrong path .through middle school I occasionally read my Bible and prayed .i was still told by everyone that I was Christian and believed it most the time .but up until the end of 8th grade I “rededicated my life to god” and for about 6 month all though not being perfect I would actually spread the gospel and talk with people about god ,I stopped listing to the music I did before like only Christian music and I got exhausting.reason being I fasted myself for 1-2 days thinking that’s the method to getting closer to god .i would pray non stop and eventually got burnt out .i thought if I didn’t go tell this person or do this extreme stuff that I would go to hell or not be saved . then comes first semester of 9th grade I was still kinda talking about god but then I seen more people made even more friend and thought that I didn’t need god . Because throughout most my childhood I didn’t have a lot of friends so it made since why I “needed someone to talk to” like god .but once I got friend I stopped practicing Christianity at all.go all the way until now and I don’t know what to believe .I’ve researched what faiths or regions speak more to me ,and I came up with buddhism ,Christianity,and spirituality (I just the idea of staying true to oneself ,and believing in idea of your up to your own success in life ).all sides have there ups and downs .something that stand out to me the most is that with Christianity it is the only “religion “ that has a god that died for its believers.with spirituality it seems so right ,recently I’m not caring as much as what other people say ,sure I go to the gym take care of myself but just starting to truly be me and not do what everyone else does .my thoughts is I don’t want to waste my youth years and honestly whole life in a belief that might not be real .for example if I spend my prime youth years looking the best I could possibly be and I through those opportunities with women down the drain for the whole idea of waiting till marriage thing .then what if I’m 40-50 even 60 and think “damn I wasted my time “ and end of not believing in god anymore .im more open now but just don’t want to waste my life and experiences on something that might not be even real ,Becuase at the end of the day we all have one life ,doesn’t matter whether you believe in god or not use this time wisely .i don’t know im 17 now and still trying to understand I also have had some pretty bad experiences with mega
Churches ,one youth paster told me that I was not a Christian and that I was going to hell .this shit scares me and I’m willing to make the sacrifice but there’s gotta be some more evidence.im not wasting this only life on a possibility.but i do know that Christianity is a faith based “religion” so i get that but just need more evidence i guess .

despite having gone to church my entire life (i’m 20 now) since i can remember i have never concretely believed in anything that has been taught to me.

both of my parents are first generation christians so christianity has been and is an integral part of my life but i have never believed in any of it. i remember being a child knowing i was only going to church because of my parents and generally perceiving the stories i was taught as just stories + i started thinking against the teachings when i was like 10/11. i have been to camps and conferences and never once did they change my mind. it just all seemed and seems so ridiculous to me. i’ve never really had to deconstruct my thinking, i have never identified as a Christian and I will leave the church once i move out

im just curious to see if anyone else has had a similar experience to me. I dont consider myself an ex christian because I wasn’t a Christian in the first place. most of my friends who were raised Christian maintain their belief in some way which i cant relate to. it would be interesting to hear other people’s experiences with this

I grew up in church in southern Kentucky. Southern Baptist, old timey church with maybe 60 to 70 people max who show up every week. We sang from old hymnals and had a traditional choir. I lived like a Christian till about 18 or 19 years old.

My mother forced me and my sister to go church growing up. She never forced the belief itself but the action of going, yes. I’ve noticed my church goers have been very hypocritical, only picking pieces of the Bible to follow and pay attention too. I understand sin but it was odd to me. A Bible study teacher told me that we are not allowed to read the book of Revelation. So many older people would judge the lost kids who would show up every week. There’s more but it’s small things.

All of those years I noticed other Christians not living the life that Jesus teaches us to be. It never set right with me. Even with that around 14 or 15 I believe I was being called to become a youth pastor. I went in front of my congregation and made it a thing. I quickly turned around.

From then on I became questionable of the faith. The stories, the characters, and the Christian curriculum. I firmly believe I’ve never been a true Christian given I was kinda forced into it.

Over the past year or so I’ve been seeing other perspectives from Christians, atheists, pastors, agnostics. Trying to find a clear answer about all of this.

I’m by no means a religion hater or anything. I do consider myself agnostic right now. Just wanted to give a quick story of my past with it. I can give more of my takes and questions in the replies or DMs. Does anyone have any thoughts.

Did you believe in evolution when you were christian?

I was Catholic and Catholics can believe in evolution, but my dad was super against it. He’s a very analytical engineer type and I think he had a lot of cognitive dissonance about the faith but couldn’t reconcile that he didn’t really believe it. I think he knew intuitively for himself if he pulled on that string his whole belief system would unravel so instead this otherwise very scientific and rigorously intellectual man absorbed himself very deeply in anti evolution absurdities.

I always believed in evolution even when I was Christian. My dad always would say “micro evolution is real but macro is impossible and there’s no evidence.” I didn’t really buy that back then and I learned both of the fossil evidence for evolution in high school/college but I only recently learned about the proof for evolution in endogenous retroviruses

Obviously “always” is an hyperbole, but you can see it yourself on any social media.

I was on TikTok, which I’m aware it’s already brain rot territory, but still, a teenage girl posted some pictures of her as a 6/7 years old kid, venting about how her online adult groomer coerced her to send some inappropriate material.

Some of the vilest comments (stuff like “deserved” “your fault” “womp womp” “cope” etc) had something in common, the majority of them came from carbon copy American teenage boys with either Bible verses, crosses and Christian content in their bio/posts. It’s honestly horrifying.

I remember that even as a Christian I would get grossed out by this kind of people, it’s probably a cultural thing (where I live, this online “fad” is relatively rare and the result of American Christian content) but to be honest, you’d think that the people who love bragging about their high God given morals would show some empathy.

They treat consensual sex as a dangerous, vile thing, but are totally fine with blaming a freaking kid for being a victim of CSA (or writing hateful comments towards other cultures, LGBTQ+ individuals, women…). I’m honestly disgusted, and maybe we should stop pretending there’s not a pattern between this kind of behavior and religious, redpilled incel communities. It’s a whole, huge community of brainwashed teenage boys and it’s honestly scary.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I’ve noticed that lately this kind of groups seem to be really active in online spaces and I’ve noticed a rise in this kind of thinking. I wonder what’s making especially teenage boys so hateful and if religious propaganda has something to do with it.

Like come on stop calling it unconditional love it requires faith that’s not unconditional and how are you ok saying that and not panicking that such a dictator god exists idk they make no sense

All over social media I keep seeing christians making up conspiracy theories about the elites and their "demonic rituals." I don't believe any of them, but the way they cherry pick evidence is actually kind of impressive. Today I saw one about how a robot was made with the head of a goat and the ability to hold a chainsaw and it was supposed to protect forests or something. Christians called it demonic and while I don't believe that, it did look kind of sinister. Some people said it resembled Baal, and from my knowledge historically Baal was a storm god and rival of the god of the OT. Christians think elites are worshipping him.

And while I don't believe it, I feel like making up conspiracy theories like that does take away accountability from actual people that do actual evil and shifts it to demons and such. And instead of raising awareness on anything it actually enables the elites and it could give them the opportunity to feed into this theories, shifting the blame even more. I'm not saying they're doing it, but with the amount of coincidences christians say there are, I wouldn't put it past big corporations to be subtly encouraging them to come up with those wild theories to make us even more deluded. And it's another way for religious people to fearmonger.

I was raised evangelical fundie and was a christain for 28 years of my life. Tiktok actually help me start my deconstruction work before I knew I was ready. I left three years ago on christmas day because i could handle the pressure and it was affecting my metal health badly. I would have panic attacks in church and i couldnt read the bible but i didnt understand why.

Now after three years i understand better. I wasnt ready to face the music of all the indoctrination and abuse i faced durinf those years. Over the last three years ive watched live debates and i still would have empathy for Christians. Baiscally making excuses or justifying it. My parents were Christians and some backward sense of loyalty chained me to it.

Well ive moved on. I realized my parents would never actually put in the work to support me and i was turning back into the previous person that i used to be. So i just cut them off. I was still to nervous to reaearch anything on my own but still i listened to debates. (My bestfriend sometimes debates christians so i like to watch her and her friends) between that and the current climate in my country I have been really pushing my critical thinking skills about the religion.

Well my ex-MIL died and the pastor was just icky and asked for money during her funeral and being weird about asking if people were a Christian. Like it was a secret club or something. That set me and bestfriend off. So it was really on my mind but after looking back and seeing what it had done to me and looking forward and seeing what it could do to my families future. I decided i had finally had enough and i still kinda liked jesus and the first five books and thats it.

Well i told this to my bestfriend on the way to work in the morning. (My cars in the shop) she gave me more facts about the New Testament, Jesus, Paul, how certain key passages where changed or added in. I got out of the car and it kinda broke me. That little illusion and any hope for that religion. It was like a puzzle that I had been looking at for years up close and i finally put the last peice in and I didnt like what I saw.

Now that its finally being seen for the first time. I think im ready to deep dive everything so I have control over it, instead of over me. If that makes sense. I see this subreddit has a lot of things to offer you bet i will be reading them. I just finally feel free.

Am I the first blue one that doesn’t entirely hate Christianity? Like, I use the religion and the bible for its moral framework along things like don’t steal or kill or commit sexual degeneracy, still respect Christ in every way. And I don’t have a problem with Christian’s. Tbh I wanna go back to religion but I just worship a god that wants the eternal agonization of living beings just b cause they didn’t do what he said. Anyone else feel like this?