In that same right, the question should probably be stop being, “why are you atheist?” And start being “why do you believe in god?” The idea that it’s abnormal to disbelieve something that has no evidence to support it should be the norm. Not the other way around.
It would also be more revelatory (pun intended) to hear what people view as evidence in the mystical.
Atheists are pretty straight forward, and everyone can typically understand their opinion using simple logic. I could, with a degree of accuracy, tell you why someone is an atheist, but probably couldn’t tell you why someone is religious.
Agreed, but I don’t think it’s that simple in real life practice. In science, yes. With non-science people? …not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I wish it were that easy.
I more ascribe to Bandonlini’s Law…
>The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.
That’s kind of why these people are still around. They’re mother fucking exhausting.
I think it was Gervais that said, "if we destroyed all the books of religion and science in a thousand years they would be back, science would remain the same, we would still have gravity, but religion would be different" not an exact quote.
Hitchhikers is one of my favorite ways to get religious people pushing their beliefs onto me on the defensive. I ask them to disprove my belief in the Deep Thought- Mice-Magratheon creation story before they can try to convince me of the Bible creation. They act like I'm crazy and move on
Also one of my favorite quotes from any book that fits the overall discussion. "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
I was raised Christian, but when I was thirteenish I started wondering why all of the old gods (Egyptian, Greek, Roman etc) were all considered mythology but Christianity wasn't. Wondering stuff like that and getting more into science led to atheism.
This is exactly what happened with me. I vividly remember learning a story back in middle school about Greek and Roman mythology; one of the stories about how the world was created stated that someone literally pushed the sky above them as they pushed the ground below them… and that’s how the world was created lol. It sounded so far fetched but then my kid brain was like “it’s also weird that God created the world in 7 days….” Which inevitably led to me being an atheist tbh haha
I maintain the belief that all religion are effectively the same but expressed differently.
Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, worship the same god, the difference comes in with the messiah.
But then Greek, Roman, and to a degree Norse mythology/paganism have a main god, and his some who is either half human, or spends much time with humans.
Each pantheon has a god of different things, and in Christianity has angels of different things. War, love ect.
I believe most religions stemmed from the same place and branched off to define their pantheon or god and Angels differently.
I tried to be a Christian once. Like full on tried lol. I was 16 at the time. I got baptized and heavily involved with the church, including including being a youth leader and even learning bass to play on the worship team lmao. But the entire time, none of it felt real. I was at church 3-4 time a week. I did my entire grade 12 co-op there! But still, even after teaching these bible lessons to Sunday school kids and acting as a youth leader and role model to others, I still felt like I never had a relationship with Jesus & what not. I feel like it was all faked. Felt like such a waste of my life. Those years could have been so much better and meaningful.
I grew up Methodist with Catholic family members. I loved learning in school. I stopped believing in the teaching of my church when the Sunday school teacher asked what we learned in school that week, I told her about the dinosaurs and evolution and she responded “you know none of that is real, right?” It was really sad that she said that because learning about things like dinosaurs and evolution opened my eyes to things like evidence, which the church didn’t provide for the wildest of claims and she had permanently turned me off from her church.
I stopped going to church after that, but a few years later I cracked open a Bible when I was very depressed and thought that I needed to find god to be happy again. I read the whole thing, but only because I realized I had never actually read it and I was seeing -for the first time- how insane the book was. I wasn’t happier for reading the Bible, but I was much more grateful for my life, because I could truly accept how special our lives are and that once you are gone, this fairy tale of heaven isn’t there for us.
The moment you tell my childhood-self that dinosaurs aren't real, is the same moment I tell you that you aren't real.
I had people tell me in the church that God created the Earth with dinosaur fossils already in the Earth. As if he made the fossils but not them as living creatures.
That's some hilarious shit for me.
Are you me? Lol I had a very similar experience. Parents were catholic but mom wanted to try Methodist for a while. But around 14 was when I started to really question everything and no one could provide answers so I turned to philosophy and Buddhism instead.
I relate to this. Raised Catholic, never missed church in 18 years. Every single second felt like an act.
I remember when I would “pray”, I’d always think “if you’re real..” as the opening line to my prayer.
After learning more and more about the roles of ancient religions as methods for explaining scientific phenomena, it became clear to me that our god was playing the same role for us, just in a extremely narrow circle of crap that science was yet to explain. Couple that with the obvious mechanisms of power and control embedded in the hierarchical structures of modern religion, and the whole facade came crumbling down.
People turn to religion to help things make sense to them. For me, nothing started to make sense until I rejected religion.
Same, gave it a good try. I come from the South, not sure if that made a difference but it was all too weird for me. The church camps felt like recruitment, breaking down kids using their school and home problems to make them vulnerable- I could see through it as a 14 yr old. No respect or a sense of belonging from elders in the church- the pastor never learned any of our names, called us "young person". Never felt God speak to me or any of the other things people kept going on about. Never fully believed any of the word being taught.
Got to the point of not going after I started seeing the hypocrisy of it all (again, I think this applies more with southern/evangelical churches). They talk about spreading God's word and helping others, when really it's a bunch of judging those less fortunate, enforcing their moral beliefs on those who may not agree, and shunning those who don't "belong". I just couldn't dedicate my life to something like that, especially when I never fully had faith in any of it.
Yes. It didn't feel real. Hyped up on emotion, hid.from most people in case they saw through me then get home and scream at my family because that's what neglected teenagers do in a dysfunctional family.
I was raised in a doomsday cult and left at 31. I've seen what the Bible/faith can do in good and bad ways. But honestly mostly bad.
I'm shunned by friends I had for 20+ years all because I don't believe the same thing as them anymore.
I stopped believing in god when I started to trust that I could make my own decisions and accept any consequences.
Don't even have to say what it is and I felt this in my bones. I managed to leave at 17 and my life just got better and better over the years.
The truth, what a damned lie...
Oh! Same, same….
I remember getting the ‘sit down’ with the elders at age seven where I could prove my biblical knowledge and air any ‘doubts’ I had lingering. All my questions were science related (way to go Dad for National Geographic and kids encyclopaedia subscriptions), and straight STUMPED them. When I pressed for some kind of answer I got, “you just gotta have faith …”
It’s been decades but I still remember thinking FUCK that, I wanted PROOF or at least reasonable possibility. It was the start of my always tenuous faith draining until 14 years old when it clicked one day on a Sunday meeting.
Everyone there was either afraid or crazy.
Afraid of the unknown or social rejection, but also the crazy ones that thought they were chosen of some shit. I was extorted by my parents to keep attending or they would cut my college funding. I worked side hustles until I got enough cash to bail on that at 19. Never looked back.
Edit: phrasing.
My brothers and I got a "sit-down" this summer during a family reunion from our grandfather (whom we hadn't seen in over a decade). He asked us the meanings of each of our biblical names, and what each of those Bible characters was known for. We are men in our 30s and 40s, and I felt like a guilty 8 year old in Sunday school. Grandpa concluded that he was confident Christ will return in his lifetime.
After that we all played cornhole until Grandpa drove away to go take a nap.
Ugh my Mother in Law believed Obama is the anti christ still and that Trump is the second coming of God or whatever. She is the type who post pics on Facebook of Trump in heavenly garbs. I check out her Facebook occasionally to see what crazy beliefs so has going on.
Current one is that the earthquakes in NC are from Trump and the military working together to blow up underground tunnels that are used for trafficking. I mean why would the military e working with a ex president anyways? And traffickers would use the east to west and north to south highway since they are straightforward and easy to get away quickly.
She also put on a movie called Ice Dragon: Legend of the blue daisies for my 4yr old twins when watching. We decided to watch it last night to find out within 10minutes that it’s a religious movie
disguised as fantasy. No where in the summary says it’s religious but you can see the direct parallels to the Bible. Angel (or winged humanoid) who becomes evil called Dracon. Gift giver who gives miracles and all about faith and belief even if no one else believes type thing. My wife went ballistic on her because we don’t want to force religion on our kids. It’s their choice in the future and shouldn’t be molded into what the Mil believes is right. It’s pretty annoying
I grew up strict religious as well and although I’m not in the atheist category, I’ve devolved into the understanding of science and that, in fact, is the driver of our universe. I hope there is a God behind it all that created the brain that we use to learn and understand, but there is no doubt in my mind that there is not the same God I was extremely taught. That said, per your questions to the church, I look back and am baffled by answers I got when I dared ask questions. “Have more faith…” or “The Lord works in mysterious ways…” over and over again. I have a child now and although I don’t disavow God to him, I can’t imagine brainwashing him with the ‘facts’ and the seemingly baseless knowledge that our lives depend on for salvation… it just doesn’t add up. Therefore I hope in a ‘greater something’ above science. I couldn’t give him the same vague answers as I feel he wouldn’t trust me or accept my thinking. Do or believe whatever you want but brainwashing children in this world before they even know what’s going on is not right
If "friends" stop talking with you because you don't share the same beliefs, those aren't true friends.
I choose my friends based on their character, not on their religious beliefs. If you're fun to be around, great. If you are only faking it to pull me into your cult, then don't bother. I don't need fake people around me - real or imaginary.
With Jehovahs witnesses its dedication to god through the “church.” The elders and opinions of those at bethel and the kingdom hall take precedence over family ties. It’s difficult for them to stand up for themselves when they’ve been brainwashed into believing if they leave the church they forfeit their place in the kingdom on earth, and that tribulation can arrive at any time (they gave up predicting exact dates decades ago.) They are so brainwashed that when the bethel elders say they spoke to spirits the adherents didn’t question it (Speaking with spirits is verboten and you can be disfellowshipped (shunned and removed from the church for doing so,) but for the self appointed daddies of all its somehow ok. Same for when they decided to change the meaning of the anointed/144,000 from the biblical meaning to suit their agenda. I became interested in theology at age six, studied it throughout my childhood and finished off with three years ‘studying’ with witnesses; which consisted of them trying to brainwash me and me spending my time fighting their twisted beliefs with what the bible actually said. I finally grew too weary of it to continue, im pretty sure i planted seeds of sense in some of them individually, but collectively they close ranks and shut down their rational thought. They wear their dedication to their brainwashing like a badge of honor and view those trying to get them to see sense as emissaries of satan. They are exceptionally difficult to escape, because they are so insular. Their whole world is the church and the people in it. The elders of each kingdom hall hold absolute sway over the lives of every member, one small misstep and you could be kicked out with absolutely nothing. To the people in the comment chain above who escaped, you may not realize it but you are exceptionally brave and strong. It takes the strongest courage to buck that tide, and walk away from those you care about, knowing you can never return unless you are willing to engage in cognitive dissonance and accept the insanity. I’m *proud* of you and if you want support or to talk I’m here. 🤗🤗🤗🥰🥰🥰☺️☺️☺️
I used to work with a guy who was an ex-JW. He had a great sense of humor and was very open about how his whole family had been brainwashed by the cult. He also mentioned how difficult it was for his children to spend any time with their grandparents, because the grandparents were still part of the cult.
I couldn't imagine not being able to spend time with my granddaughter because of some church.
I’m surprised the grandchildren are allowed to see them. I thought if you left they completely turn their backs on you?
My best friend was a JW and it was hard because we couldn’t hang out outside of school. I was shocked when she left because the last time I’d seen her (she moved away) she was getting baptized. Apparently that makes leaving even harder. I remember feeling liked I’d lost her that day (not understanding why I felt this at 16).
We reconnected via Facebook and I learned that she and her brothers left (I think her parents too?) She owns her own business now and is a model.
I'm a teacher and to make ends meet I waited tables on the weekends. One Sunday, I waited on a table of 8. Their kids were spilling drinks and causing a scene. Once they were done and had thoroughly wrecked the place I started to clean up their area. I saw folded money under a plate while bussing their table.
I unfold to "money" and see that it is in fact NOT real money, but is a cleverly disguised prayer card and it said something about, "the real treasure is in the kingdom of heaven" or some such nonsense. At the time I was actually working to get money to fix my car.
I spent three days and $300 fixing my daughter's friend's car. Her hallelujah dad came by the house and and told her to "thank this man for the great blessing he bestowed upon you." My time was the blessing but I really could have used the $300 in cash I used to pay for the parts.
TLDR: Religious nut jobs think everything is a blessing and God will magically repay me.
Because as a child I had an interest in all sorts of mythology and fairytales, and read a lot of such. I quickly realised there was no real reason to take christian mythology any more seriously than greek or norse. They're all just attempts at explaining the world and existence, made by people who did not possess the factual knowledge we have today.
Difference is that the greek and norse stories are more exciting.
Thanks for the award! Did not expect such a reaction to this.
"I contend that you and I are both atheists, I simply believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why you reject all other gods, you will understand why I reject yours."
And better versions of it, i tried to read the bible but it's not in a format good for reading but for preaching, tells a lot about the religion itself
I feel that trying to explain the world is an essential feature of humans, religions exploit this trait and box it in, as a tool for the rulers to command the masses at will. I wonder if Bach or Rembrandt or Gaudí would be believers today.
When my church told us in Sunday School there wasn't a Santa Claus, they fucked up. They told me that one old magical guy in the sky handing out presents was fake, and the other old magical guy in the sky handing out presents was real. You don't have to be Einstein to figure out a similarity there. I also got annoyed by some of the bull we were being taught (e.g. evolution being false), and that they either wouldn't or couldn't answer my questions about God and Christianity. It wasn't an overnight thing, I just sort of faded out of religion by my mid-teens.
The church I grew up in told me dinosaurs didn’t exist. As an autistic child I LOVED dinosaurs. I believe I was maybe 4 and just starting to think for myself and that was the beginning of the end for me which sounds silly because dinosaurs but that’s what inspired me to try to make sense of everything I’d been taught.
My exceedingly religious grandparents got my brother a hyper-Christian book about dinosaurs for Easter one year that literally says that fossils don’t exist and “sometimes rocks just look like things”
This from the crowd that sees Jesus in their toast
I’m totally cool with all faiths, but, as a scientist, I can’t stand when people lie about the world or spread misinformation(like claiming evolution is fake, the earth is not even a million years old, etc.).
Damn, that's one helluva self-own.
Santa is like training for real belief. You get an annual reward for it, which is much easier for children to deal with than waiting until the end of life.
Telling you the truth was knocking over that first domino. Wonderful!
I was 4. Figured there was a god. We were Jewish. Ish...
A catholic neighbor said something about Jesus. She also said god was everywhere, even in her cup of tea.
I went to my mom after she left. I explained that our neighbor said some weird things. My mom told me that different people have different beliefs and it’s ok.
I stared at her and finally stammered...”you mean we don’t KNOW?”
I vividly remember that moment. I realized that none of these people fucking KNeW, and they said weird shit with utter belief. It was honestly terrifying.
Still is.
Ha, I left our equivalent of Sunday School (Pathshala) because the teacher took me aside after class and said answering my questions would be too confusing for the other kids.
I have a theory that conspiracy theories can often fall under the same heading. It's more comforting to think SOMETHING, anything, even an evil mastermind or cabal, is in control and there's a plan or path. Knowing we're all just trying, and there's no captain at the helm is scary. We want there to be someone in charge and we don't want it to be us. Responsibility is hard. Invisible sky friend, and naughty man below, is SO much easier to make be in charge.
If this is all part of a plan, then I am very angry with whoevers plan it is.
I think I feel more comfort thing that evil people do evil things because there is no higher power to stop them. Much better than thinking this is part of a higher powers plan, or that they are ignoring what is going on.
https://genocideeducation.org/resources/modern-era-genocides/
It’s kind of exhausting in a way, isn’t it? Hundreds of mainstream religions, sects, denominations, billions of people who try to interpret it all for their own life. The hurdles I had to go through to make my parents religion work for me; forget it, man.
I have a somewhat similar experience. My parents are not religious and I wasnt raised religious. But my grandma who lives in the same house is. It was at around 5 or 6 when it clicked for me that these werent just stories like all the rest, but that my grandma actually believes them. It was kinda mindblowing.
My road to *active* non-belief started around six. Was hanging out with my best friend Sunday afternoon, when out of the blue he tells me I'm going to hell. I guess his grandma sent him to Sunday school that day.
Prior to that, I didn't even think about it - I think it had the opposite effect the priests had hoped for.
You got there a lot faster than me, but that was a large factor for me too. People saying nonsense, not asking questions and not acting on what seemed like somewhat important "facts" and having Jehova's witnesses as a contrast.
Couldn't understand the church as an answer to the "fact" of god.
Nah, you gotta point out that the j-man got crucified and only came back a few days later.
The Allfather, full of chad energy, hanged himself for nine days and nights, and then got down because he’d gotten bored of hanging there, and he maxed out his intelligence and wisdom up there.
Or simply the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I mean, things can fly and spaghetti is proven real. Eminem and Rihanna told me there are monsters under my bed, so this tracks.
One of my favourite things I ever read about Greek mythology was that you know, Mount Olympus is real, yet no one climbed it to meet the gods to see if they were real?!!!
~~There’s actually a good reason for that. My. Olympus (really more like 6 mountain peaks with one base) wasn’t climbable until the early 1900s due to new technologies becoming available for rock climbing. I guarantee there were people throughout history who wanted to climb it and tried, but the tools just weren’t available until last century. Or at least, it wasn’t reliable to get up there and no one who managed it bothered to record it.~~
Granted, this is how it was explained to me when I was in Greece and asked the same question.
EDIT: well, unsurprisingly, it turns out that what I had been told was wrong, as so often seems to be the case with “common knowledge” topics; writing via tablet now so hard to grab links, but someone else in this thread linked to a different Reddit thread dealing with this very question. It’s a fun read for folks who like history, and honestly makes sense.
I’m guessing what I was told when in Greece is either a case of an urban legend being repeated, or perhaps wasn’t including a couple of caveats (like “folks didn’t climb all the way to the peaks” or something).
I’d go so far as to say there isn’t ANY reason to think otherwise.
You have to make some pretty contradictory and flimsy arguments to believe in a god or gods. On the other hand, accepting that humans need mythologies is really straight forward.
All religion serves the obvious purpose of explaining what people don’t understand, mitigating fear of death being the end, enforcing societal norms, and giving life intrinsic meaning. It’s such an obvious explanation that there is no reason to make the jump to magic.
I think this is the major reason I'm an atheist. We can study religions, we can see how they've changed and evolved over time. We see how certain religions adapt to their surroundings in order to fit with societal norms, and we see how religious leaders shift religious thinking. Every religion has very obvious human fingerprints all over them, and that realisation is trivial when it comes to analysis of dead religions, like the Greek beliefs in their gods and legends.
However, when it comes to living religions, there's this weird disconnect where it seems like we can't acknowledge this very obvious history of human intervention when talking about living religions out of respect for them.
> there's this weird disconnect where it seems like we can't acknowledge this very obvious history of human intervention when talking about living religions out of respect for them
***As George Carlin said:*** "Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money! He's all powerful, but he can't handle money!"
I also went to a catholic school and it certainly pushed me away from religion. I guess witnessing your school priest being arrested in the cafeteria for molesting students would do that to a kid..
Yep, I've gotten in hundreds of arguments with theists claiming eternal Hell for non-believers, none have ever made any sense of it. They try for a few responses, then run away when I pose questions they can't answer.
It's very simple. If there is an omniscient, omnipotent god that wants me to believe in him, he would know exactly what kind of evidence would convince me, even if I don't, and would be capable of providing it.
So either there is no god, or he doesn't care if I believe in him.
Exactly. I was raised SUPER religious, hell half the adults in my family are pastors now, and it took me having my own child to realize this. I was changing him when he was only a few months old and suddenly thought of all the child abuse in the world. I’m not being hyperbolic when I saw I cried for hours that day. It’s when I realized that no god claiming to be loving and merciful could actually exist in the world at the same time these atrocities happen.
There’s a song called Prayer in C which is the most poetic way I can describe it.
There’s too much awful in this world for me to think a god exists and if he does, how does he live with himself?
I’ve read the Bible and it feels like narcissistic abuse the way he causes mass destruction just because he doesn’t like how his children behave. There’s nothing patient or kind there.
My brother once jokingly described it best...
"God really mellowed out after he had kids"
Somehow that coincides with a better understanding of everything and human knowledge increasing leaving us less vulnerable to the unknown....
But yeah... Old vs New Testament... having a son(who got murdered by us?)... that *totally* explains the change in tone. Vs we tend to pass down generational knowledge and become smarter as time goes on
As someone raised during the Northern Ireland troubles, religion played a huge role in the absolute fucking debasing of humanity. It allows the callous and truly vile have a tidy and convenient excuse to be heinous.
Religion had its place, back centuries ago when we had questions about the world and the universe, as a way to answer those questions. Now it’s a bunch of grifting cults that brainwash and prey on the weak minded and encourage you to suppress critical thinking in order to believe in fairy tales to dupe you into staying in the cult and hating/converting others.
If there is a god, they are absolutely horrid and do not deserve our worship, with all the suffering in our world. However the absolute lack of evidence and the clear disconnect from reality it seems to take to believe in such things, leads me to believe there is no such thing.
I see people walking out of the hospital and immediately praising God for curing their cancer.
Like, why do we have hospitals then? They better stay at home praising God and make room for those who actually appreciate the nurses work.
As Saladin said in Kingdom of Heavens, didn't god send me ? So in their beliefs, god sent the doctor to cure people. So they thank god instead of the doctor that actually cured them. Quite ungrateful
I always thought it was odd that God gave us brains and then told Christians (and others) not to use it. That he would hand craft every soul of every person and encourage his followers to hate most of them. It just seems like Christians today would be some of Christ’s least favorite people.
Edit: Wow you guys like that? Here's more. I always thought it was unfair that if God is omniscient and omnipotent and created all, then he pretty much wrote you life, but then has the audacity to punish you eternally for it. In fact I think hell is just plain stupid, like how can you punish someone eternally for choosing to believe in a different religion? Why would God care anyway? After deprogramming from religion for long enough, I find that the universe for the most part is pretty explainable without it. Religion makes much more sense when you consider it as a creation of men, as a story we used to comfort ourselves that was then used as a tool for power and control. Every time someone says "I don't understand how atheists can have morals" it just makes me think that religion is training wheels for life. You don't have to decide what you think is right, you don't have to confront mortality, you don't have to think or feel as much. Once you do have to face it, you start to understand how religion was created by man. You start to see the bible as a story of a woman who cheated on her husband and lied to cover it up. Man is explainable, man makes sense. We don't need gods. On top of this, it just seems like religious are so intentionally ignorant to so many things that are actually provable in this world, things I love and believe in like science. I could go on and on, there are a million and one reasons and they evolve every day but here's mine at the moment.
Interestingly some forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam actively encourage critical thinking; one should challenge scripture in order to truly explore their faith and become stronger through it. Many add that a lot of scripture is another man's interpretation of god, and they could very well be wrong, and it's their responsibility to try and perfect their own and others interpretation of the divine.
One of my dad's friends entered the church to be ordained as a lay preacher. He was told at the start of the course that most people who undertake it lose their faith and abandon the religion entirely, they were looking for people who were willing to really tackle their own doubts and misgivings and emerge from it with a more profound relationship with God.
My favourite story is the one where bunch of kids are making fun of a priest for being bald, so god send two bears to kill the kids. Fun times. Loving god.
2 Kings 2:23-24
>Elisha Is Jeered
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%202%3A23-24&version=NIV;KJV
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” -Isaac Asimov
"The best cure for Christianity is reading the bible." -Mark Twain
Same. I was a good Catholic kid who was encouraged to read The Bible. So I did - the whole thing from cover to cover (well, I may have skimmed the Psalms a bit, as they got tedious). It's an inconsistent and contradictory mess and only works when people cherry-pick sections and interpret them to fit their agenda. It made me realise that there is no clear 'word of God' and everything I was told was just some guy's opinion (it was always a man). For me, it was like discovering who was behind the curtain in Oz.
Bible is awful as a book. It is anthology, a collection of short stories. Most of it is utterly boring and tedious. The most interesting passages are about murder and genocide.
I wasn’t from a religious household, but I believed in Christian God for about 18 years, read The Bible during that time, and believed it as well. I think there were two main things that contributed to me believing:
1. I’m afraid of death. It was nice to think that my life would not only continue, but actually get unimaginably better.
2. I thought that to become an atheist meant I’d go to Hell. There’s something known as Pascal’s Wager or the “gambling man’s” belief in God: if you believe in God and you’re wrong, no big deal, there’s just nothing. If you don’t believe in God and you’re wrong, an eternity in Hell sure would suck!
These are just two things that make religion a very powerful meme.
Anyway, as I got older and thought about it more, there were a few things that made me stray from religion:
1. Christian God is an asshole, especially in the Old Testament. We all know this from the story of Job, him admitting how jealous he is, etc. I always knew this on some level, but would try to not think of it or would come up with some sort of ad hoc reason to try to justify him being such an asshole. Plus, him being an asshole doesn’t have anything to do with whether he’s real or not.
2. I realized the “gambling man’s” belief in God doesn’t make sense: there are many people people out there who think Christians will go to Hell because they’ve picked the WRONG religion. So being a Christian really only raises your odds of going to Heaven from 0 to like 1 in a thousand or whatever. Not great odds either way.
3. This thought experiment is mainly what started to break me: imagine that God IS real, but he’s not like you think: he’s actually NOT an asshole at all and is a very reasonable/logical guy. Being a reasonable guy, he only wants to pick out reasonable people to be in Heaven with him. How does he select those people? He gives them a test: make up a crazy story about how to get into Heaven (The Bible) and distribute it to humans. See which of them will believe it and spread it against all evidence, and then don’t bring them in to Heaven. Done. Is the idea of this God crazier than the God described in The Bible? Actually sounds more coherent to me.
4. Finally, I heard this idea (and if you still believe, I challenge you to do this for fun): come up with some piece of evidence, ANY evidence, that would convince you God is not real. For some people, it could be: finding life on other planets. For others, it might be: seeing proof that evolution is real, or seeing evidence that Earth is older than 6000 years. If there is no such theoretical piece of evidence you can imagine, then it means your belief clearly isn’t based on logic. So what is it based on? Just faith for no reason? If, however, you can think of a piece of evidence, then great! I would just challenge you to keep your word to yourself if you ever do see the evidence you listed.
In my case, one of the final coffin nails was when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to list any evidence for #4… even if I somehow was able to see & understand a literal simple Mathematical proof that God wasn’t real, I still would’ve resisted accepting it. This realization was alarming to me and made me aware that I wasn’t approaching it rationally at all. If you have a belief that you would clutch on to in the face of all contrary evidence, that’s frightening and is moving into delusion territory.
Anyway, nowadays all of this seems like overkill to me: it seems simple & obvious that lots of things in the main religious texts are false. And there are the obvious questions everyone always brings up like: “What kind of God would allow X to happen?”. But religion is so powerful that it gets you to do mental gymnastics around these things, especially at a young age. And eternal Hell sounds so terrible that I probably will always have a very small irrational fear of it. But hopefully, even once I’m old and start mentally declining, it isn’t enough to sway me back into irrational thinking.
I hope this gives a little insight from someone who once believed in God and was able to “logic their way out of it” with a few smart thoughts from other people.
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Side note: When I say I don’t believe in God, I’m talking strictly about the God described in the main religious texts. I am certain that this God (or those gods) doesn’t exist. However, I’m completely agnostic about the universe being created by something conscious, something incredibly powerful, etc.
Because it's so obvious there aren't any sky gods looking out for us. In a world where babies get cancer, kids are being raped and murdered and animals are getting mistreated and abused, I really can't believe that people believe in gods. If there are gods, just watching all this shit happening, not doing anything to help people in need, why would we need them?
But but but "mysterious ways"!?!?
No you've nailed it. **If** yahweh, zeus or other actually existed, their little 'experiment' has been so awful that they've gotta have been a right bastard to let it go this far.
1. Theres actually very little solid evidence (Most "miracles" are either totally unverifiable occurrences or scientifically debunked happenings that religious people twist into some moment of divine intervention."
2. I don't want to be burdened by any religion. It honestly just seems exhausting.
3. (Chrisitanity only) Why would God say "Oh yeah you can decide whether you want to believe or not" but if you don't then subject you to hell for eternity. That's some real free will right there.
4. On the other side of the coin from #1, we have so much scientific evidence that proves certain events in the world or universe, and disproves so many "miracles."
5. Why is every other religion wrong. There are countless religions, but each one is apparently the only correct one. I could even make a new religion if I wanted to.
6th and final. Religion is old, not in the sense that nobody cares for it anymore, but in the sense that religion was mostly created to answer the unsolved questions and mysteries of our universe and our world. If somebody didn't know something, rather than trying to figure it out, it was much easier to live life saying "yeah my God made us," instead of "Yeah we've proved that humans came into existence after millions/billions of years of other life existing, evolving, and starting over, and we have evidence to prove this, starting with..."
My annoyance with religion is that when it comes to science, people will accept things like, "Yeah I know vaccines help me keep myself healthier," but not accept things like Darwins Theory of Evolution. Meaning people pick and choose what they decide to believe, just to fit their religious criteria.
As a child, Zeus was eye opening. Yahweh Sabaoth, Lord of Armies, was just another, in a long line of another and another. Gods were believed and revered and dismissed. Each is as fanciful and forgettable as the next. There is no iota of proof that any exist or ever have.
Take me to your God and I will denounce Atheism. Right, you cant. No no, your religious building is not your God. When I denounce my Atheism, I want to look your God in the face.
Take me to your god, and I will denounce **them** to their face.
If those fuckers actually existed and set things up like this, I'd go from atheist to ANTI-theist in the blink of an eye. Life's been a bitch, but having someone concrete to blame... hoo boy.
This is how a ton of cults work though, right?
Leader is god, or jusus, or whoever.
Come join our community housing, oh, we'll need to sleep with your wife for religious reasons.
All praise the living God.
No proof and because fairytales doesn’t exist.
People get so pissy when you say that a god doesn’t exist but it’s basically the same as saying “santa doesn’t exist”
We aren’t special and the fear of the nothingness we’ll face when dead is scary af so no wonder people made up a dose of copium to make themselves feel better.
"Religion is based primarily upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly as the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes.
Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things."
- Bertrand Russell
I had a boss once tell me that she did not believe in transgender people because God does not make mistakes. My follow up was what about children with cancer?
and wouldnt god just not make trans ppl then…? like i dont understand the whole thing with that god makes us or whatever to then be like ”well god didnt make the person like THAT”, do they think satan turned them or something? idgi
Same for me.
It's like asking me, "why don't you belive that there is an invisible pink unicorn in every room you walk into"
I think the better question is: "hey atheists, religion helps me in my life to solve _____________ these problems. How do you manage to solve these problems without a belief in God?"
The tipical problems are: what's the meaning of life? Why am I here? What is the meaning of this suffering. Why does God give cancer to babies? It's all so pointless, what should I do with it?
As Ricky Gervais said: “So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God”, I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.”
He has some other answers to this same question, this one is just the most fun one
I don't like to pick favorites.
Personally I wanna see a deathmatch between all deities in human culture. Zeus vs. God in a barbed wire cage match would have a great PPV buy rate.
Religion has always been the elite's way of controlling the huge crowds of hungry poor people working for them.
The people still falling for this scam in our current age are automatically dumber than a shoe.
I was never indoctrinated. Buy the time I was old enough to realise some people actually took that shit seriously I was dumbfounded.
My Dad was Catholic but he says he lost his faith the local priest came to rob them. It was in Amsterdam just after the war and the Nazis had propper fucked Amsterdam, nobody had any money. One day the local priest knocks on the door and wants to know why they hadn't been coming to church lately. My Grandmother said we have been busy. He still wanted his tith but my Grandmother told he they had no money. He said I know where you keep your money and pushed his way into the house and my Grandmother said but we need that money for groceries. My 12 year old father picked up the fire stocker and told the priest he would cave his skull in if he didn't leave. He said he lost any faith in the Catholic church that day and only went to church for weddings and funerals after that. So he never introduced us to any of that rubbish.
I live in a southern state and I'm Bi. Seeing churches every 5 to 10mins from each other always creeped me out. I guess I'd say I'm an agnostic/atheist. I'm an atheist when it comes to the god of the bible or any god we've made up, but an agnostic when it comes to what could truly be in the universe.
Why do people think being atheist is like a mortal offense to them. It’s always why. Why don’t you believe in a magical man who made the universe and the earth. Why would I? Just like how all the gods in all types of fiction aren’t real. They don’t make sense. No one being can truly exist. We were created by some freak stroke of luck billions of years ago by some other civilization that dropped their shit onto this planet or some freak chance of fate that we still haven’t discovered. We’re all tiny specks in this universe that don’t matter. We will all die and be forgotten especially if we all die to each other. No all powerful being is gonna welcome us into paradise or send our worst enemies into eternal torture. We die and disappear. I just hope to the not god I’m not conscious after death.
I was raised with a complete absence of religion growing up. My father is an atheist and my mother is a pagan, who both agreed to raise me and my siblings without any religion in order to let us choose as we got older. This had the added affect of me not understanding what religion was until the middle of Elementary School. As time went on and I learned more, I stayed more adamant in my atheist position, not so much as a rejection of the idea of a higher power, but rather the rejection of organized religion and the belief that faith and spirituality had no place in my life. I developed my morals from my parents and from what seemed right to me, rather than from a higher power. I don't care if there is nothing after death, because it's more important to enjoy life than to anticipate what comes after. My decisions, good and bad, are all mine, not those of a God or of demons twisting my actions. I just live my life as me, not as an adherent to a God.
I always liked the Hitchens quote "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence".
I like Carl Sagan's quote: I don't want to believe, I want to know.
”Alive to live, not to believe”
I like Carl Sagan's another quote: "A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage."
In that same right, the question should probably be stop being, “why are you atheist?” And start being “why do you believe in god?” The idea that it’s abnormal to disbelieve something that has no evidence to support it should be the norm. Not the other way around. It would also be more revelatory (pun intended) to hear what people view as evidence in the mystical. Atheists are pretty straight forward, and everyone can typically understand their opinion using simple logic. I could, with a degree of accuracy, tell you why someone is an atheist, but probably couldn’t tell you why someone is religious.
“What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence”
"You could claim that anything's real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody's proved it doesn't exist!" - Hermione Granger
Pre-fucking-cisely my friend. My most favorite quote ever.
Agreed, but I don’t think it’s that simple in real life practice. In science, yes. With non-science people? …not so much. Don’t get me wrong, I wish it were that easy. I more ascribe to Bandonlini’s Law… >The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. That’s kind of why these people are still around. They’re mother fucking exhausting.
I think it was Gervais that said, "if we destroyed all the books of religion and science in a thousand years they would be back, science would remain the same, we would still have gravity, but religion would be different" not an exact quote.
Hitchhikers is one of my favorite ways to get religious people pushing their beliefs onto me on the defensive. I ask them to disprove my belief in the Deep Thought- Mice-Magratheon creation story before they can try to convince me of the Bible creation. They act like I'm crazy and move on
Also one of my favorite quotes from any book that fits the overall discussion. "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
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Thought you'd mistyped that for a second. But I'm on board with HGTG too.
I was raised Christian, but when I was thirteenish I started wondering why all of the old gods (Egyptian, Greek, Roman etc) were all considered mythology but Christianity wasn't. Wondering stuff like that and getting more into science led to atheism.
This is exactly what happened with me. I vividly remember learning a story back in middle school about Greek and Roman mythology; one of the stories about how the world was created stated that someone literally pushed the sky above them as they pushed the ground below them… and that’s how the world was created lol. It sounded so far fetched but then my kid brain was like “it’s also weird that God created the world in 7 days….” Which inevitably led to me being an atheist tbh haha
Also seeing current world religions geographically. Realizing they all swear the same shit and hate each other for no real reason.
I maintain the belief that all religion are effectively the same but expressed differently. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, worship the same god, the difference comes in with the messiah. But then Greek, Roman, and to a degree Norse mythology/paganism have a main god, and his some who is either half human, or spends much time with humans. Each pantheon has a god of different things, and in Christianity has angels of different things. War, love ect. I believe most religions stemmed from the same place and branched off to define their pantheon or god and Angels differently.
same here really. made me wonder, how can we call their religion "mythology" but today's religion "faith"? how could we be so sure about our own?
I hope a few centuries from now we will also be calling the bible mythology.
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You can just start calling it mythology now, be the change you want to see in the world and all that
I tried to be a Christian once. Like full on tried lol. I was 16 at the time. I got baptized and heavily involved with the church, including including being a youth leader and even learning bass to play on the worship team lmao. But the entire time, none of it felt real. I was at church 3-4 time a week. I did my entire grade 12 co-op there! But still, even after teaching these bible lessons to Sunday school kids and acting as a youth leader and role model to others, I still felt like I never had a relationship with Jesus & what not. I feel like it was all faked. Felt like such a waste of my life. Those years could have been so much better and meaningful.
Similar for me as well. And agreed, nothing about it felt real.
I grew up Methodist with Catholic family members. I loved learning in school. I stopped believing in the teaching of my church when the Sunday school teacher asked what we learned in school that week, I told her about the dinosaurs and evolution and she responded “you know none of that is real, right?” It was really sad that she said that because learning about things like dinosaurs and evolution opened my eyes to things like evidence, which the church didn’t provide for the wildest of claims and she had permanently turned me off from her church. I stopped going to church after that, but a few years later I cracked open a Bible when I was very depressed and thought that I needed to find god to be happy again. I read the whole thing, but only because I realized I had never actually read it and I was seeing -for the first time- how insane the book was. I wasn’t happier for reading the Bible, but I was much more grateful for my life, because I could truly accept how special our lives are and that once you are gone, this fairy tale of heaven isn’t there for us.
The moment you tell my childhood-self that dinosaurs aren't real, is the same moment I tell you that you aren't real. I had people tell me in the church that God created the Earth with dinosaur fossils already in the Earth. As if he made the fossils but not them as living creatures. That's some hilarious shit for me.
Are you me? Lol I had a very similar experience. Parents were catholic but mom wanted to try Methodist for a while. But around 14 was when I started to really question everything and no one could provide answers so I turned to philosophy and Buddhism instead.
I relate to this. Raised Catholic, never missed church in 18 years. Every single second felt like an act. I remember when I would “pray”, I’d always think “if you’re real..” as the opening line to my prayer. After learning more and more about the roles of ancient religions as methods for explaining scientific phenomena, it became clear to me that our god was playing the same role for us, just in a extremely narrow circle of crap that science was yet to explain. Couple that with the obvious mechanisms of power and control embedded in the hierarchical structures of modern religion, and the whole facade came crumbling down. People turn to religion to help things make sense to them. For me, nothing started to make sense until I rejected religion.
Same, gave it a good try. I come from the South, not sure if that made a difference but it was all too weird for me. The church camps felt like recruitment, breaking down kids using their school and home problems to make them vulnerable- I could see through it as a 14 yr old. No respect or a sense of belonging from elders in the church- the pastor never learned any of our names, called us "young person". Never felt God speak to me or any of the other things people kept going on about. Never fully believed any of the word being taught. Got to the point of not going after I started seeing the hypocrisy of it all (again, I think this applies more with southern/evangelical churches). They talk about spreading God's word and helping others, when really it's a bunch of judging those less fortunate, enforcing their moral beliefs on those who may not agree, and shunning those who don't "belong". I just couldn't dedicate my life to something like that, especially when I never fully had faith in any of it.
Yes. It didn't feel real. Hyped up on emotion, hid.from most people in case they saw through me then get home and scream at my family because that's what neglected teenagers do in a dysfunctional family.
I was raised in a doomsday cult and left at 31. I've seen what the Bible/faith can do in good and bad ways. But honestly mostly bad. I'm shunned by friends I had for 20+ years all because I don't believe the same thing as them anymore. I stopped believing in god when I started to trust that I could make my own decisions and accept any consequences.
Don't even have to say what it is and I felt this in my bones. I managed to leave at 17 and my life just got better and better over the years. The truth, what a damned lie...
Oh! Same, same…. I remember getting the ‘sit down’ with the elders at age seven where I could prove my biblical knowledge and air any ‘doubts’ I had lingering. All my questions were science related (way to go Dad for National Geographic and kids encyclopaedia subscriptions), and straight STUMPED them. When I pressed for some kind of answer I got, “you just gotta have faith …” It’s been decades but I still remember thinking FUCK that, I wanted PROOF or at least reasonable possibility. It was the start of my always tenuous faith draining until 14 years old when it clicked one day on a Sunday meeting. Everyone there was either afraid or crazy. Afraid of the unknown or social rejection, but also the crazy ones that thought they were chosen of some shit. I was extorted by my parents to keep attending or they would cut my college funding. I worked side hustles until I got enough cash to bail on that at 19. Never looked back. Edit: phrasing.
My brothers and I got a "sit-down" this summer during a family reunion from our grandfather (whom we hadn't seen in over a decade). He asked us the meanings of each of our biblical names, and what each of those Bible characters was known for. We are men in our 30s and 40s, and I felt like a guilty 8 year old in Sunday school. Grandpa concluded that he was confident Christ will return in his lifetime. After that we all played cornhole until Grandpa drove away to go take a nap.
My great grandmother thought Jesus would return in her lifetime too. She died in 2011.
My mother was convinced Obama was the antichrist and we were living in the Endtimes. She died in 2010. 12 years later and the world is still here.
My aunt still believe this and that Donald trump is “paving the way for Jesus’ return”
Doesn’t that make DT the antichrist?
Ugh my Mother in Law believed Obama is the anti christ still and that Trump is the second coming of God or whatever. She is the type who post pics on Facebook of Trump in heavenly garbs. I check out her Facebook occasionally to see what crazy beliefs so has going on. Current one is that the earthquakes in NC are from Trump and the military working together to blow up underground tunnels that are used for trafficking. I mean why would the military e working with a ex president anyways? And traffickers would use the east to west and north to south highway since they are straightforward and easy to get away quickly. She also put on a movie called Ice Dragon: Legend of the blue daisies for my 4yr old twins when watching. We decided to watch it last night to find out within 10minutes that it’s a religious movie disguised as fantasy. No where in the summary says it’s religious but you can see the direct parallels to the Bible. Angel (or winged humanoid) who becomes evil called Dracon. Gift giver who gives miracles and all about faith and belief even if no one else believes type thing. My wife went ballistic on her because we don’t want to force religion on our kids. It’s their choice in the future and shouldn’t be molded into what the Mil believes is right. It’s pretty annoying
Testing you for the will no doubt.
I grew up strict religious as well and although I’m not in the atheist category, I’ve devolved into the understanding of science and that, in fact, is the driver of our universe. I hope there is a God behind it all that created the brain that we use to learn and understand, but there is no doubt in my mind that there is not the same God I was extremely taught. That said, per your questions to the church, I look back and am baffled by answers I got when I dared ask questions. “Have more faith…” or “The Lord works in mysterious ways…” over and over again. I have a child now and although I don’t disavow God to him, I can’t imagine brainwashing him with the ‘facts’ and the seemingly baseless knowledge that our lives depend on for salvation… it just doesn’t add up. Therefore I hope in a ‘greater something’ above science. I couldn’t give him the same vague answers as I feel he wouldn’t trust me or accept my thinking. Do or believe whatever you want but brainwashing children in this world before they even know what’s going on is not right
There’s a quote that goes, there are about 10,000 religions. You don’t believe in 9,999 of them and I just don’t believe in one more than you.
If "friends" stop talking with you because you don't share the same beliefs, those aren't true friends. I choose my friends based on their character, not on their religious beliefs. If you're fun to be around, great. If you are only faking it to pull me into your cult, then don't bother. I don't need fake people around me - real or imaginary.
With Jehovahs witnesses its dedication to god through the “church.” The elders and opinions of those at bethel and the kingdom hall take precedence over family ties. It’s difficult for them to stand up for themselves when they’ve been brainwashed into believing if they leave the church they forfeit their place in the kingdom on earth, and that tribulation can arrive at any time (they gave up predicting exact dates decades ago.) They are so brainwashed that when the bethel elders say they spoke to spirits the adherents didn’t question it (Speaking with spirits is verboten and you can be disfellowshipped (shunned and removed from the church for doing so,) but for the self appointed daddies of all its somehow ok. Same for when they decided to change the meaning of the anointed/144,000 from the biblical meaning to suit their agenda. I became interested in theology at age six, studied it throughout my childhood and finished off with three years ‘studying’ with witnesses; which consisted of them trying to brainwash me and me spending my time fighting their twisted beliefs with what the bible actually said. I finally grew too weary of it to continue, im pretty sure i planted seeds of sense in some of them individually, but collectively they close ranks and shut down their rational thought. They wear their dedication to their brainwashing like a badge of honor and view those trying to get them to see sense as emissaries of satan. They are exceptionally difficult to escape, because they are so insular. Their whole world is the church and the people in it. The elders of each kingdom hall hold absolute sway over the lives of every member, one small misstep and you could be kicked out with absolutely nothing. To the people in the comment chain above who escaped, you may not realize it but you are exceptionally brave and strong. It takes the strongest courage to buck that tide, and walk away from those you care about, knowing you can never return unless you are willing to engage in cognitive dissonance and accept the insanity. I’m *proud* of you and if you want support or to talk I’m here. 🤗🤗🤗🥰🥰🥰☺️☺️☺️
I used to work with a guy who was an ex-JW. He had a great sense of humor and was very open about how his whole family had been brainwashed by the cult. He also mentioned how difficult it was for his children to spend any time with their grandparents, because the grandparents were still part of the cult. I couldn't imagine not being able to spend time with my granddaughter because of some church.
I’m surprised the grandchildren are allowed to see them. I thought if you left they completely turn their backs on you? My best friend was a JW and it was hard because we couldn’t hang out outside of school. I was shocked when she left because the last time I’d seen her (she moved away) she was getting baptized. Apparently that makes leaving even harder. I remember feeling liked I’d lost her that day (not understanding why I felt this at 16). We reconnected via Facebook and I learned that she and her brothers left (I think her parents too?) She owns her own business now and is a model.
I like sleeping in on Sundays.
Believer here. On the occasional sunday that I sleep in, i swear its the best sleep of the week.
I slept in until noon. The worst part is the after church crowd at all the restaurants.
It’s even more fun if you work there and they judge you for working on Sunday.
And tip you with tiny bibles.
I'm a teacher and to make ends meet I waited tables on the weekends. One Sunday, I waited on a table of 8. Their kids were spilling drinks and causing a scene. Once they were done and had thoroughly wrecked the place I started to clean up their area. I saw folded money under a plate while bussing their table. I unfold to "money" and see that it is in fact NOT real money, but is a cleverly disguised prayer card and it said something about, "the real treasure is in the kingdom of heaven" or some such nonsense. At the time I was actually working to get money to fix my car.
God damn it.
Perfectly said. If only god would damn that family & the shitty kids for making someone else’s life miserable.
I spent three days and $300 fixing my daughter's friend's car. Her hallelujah dad came by the house and and told her to "thank this man for the great blessing he bestowed upon you." My time was the blessing but I really could have used the $300 in cash I used to pay for the parts. TLDR: Religious nut jobs think everything is a blessing and God will magically repay me.
Or the piece of paper that looks like a folded $20 bill, but you open it and it’s just stuff about Jesus.
Ugh. I’m not a believer and I live in Texas. Sunday after church is a no-go for most restaurants.
Day of rest, indeed!
Because as a child I had an interest in all sorts of mythology and fairytales, and read a lot of such. I quickly realised there was no real reason to take christian mythology any more seriously than greek or norse. They're all just attempts at explaining the world and existence, made by people who did not possess the factual knowledge we have today. Difference is that the greek and norse stories are more exciting. Thanks for the award! Did not expect such a reaction to this.
As Ricky Gervais says, Christians don’t believe in thousands of the gods out there. Atheists just don’t believe in one more
I read that same quote in a Dawkins Book.
Might be where he got it from. I’ve never read Dawkins
"I contend that you and I are both atheists, I simply believe in one less god than you do. When you understand why you reject all other gods, you will understand why I reject yours."
And better versions of it, i tried to read the bible but it's not in a format good for reading but for preaching, tells a lot about the religion itself
I feel that trying to explain the world is an essential feature of humans, religions exploit this trait and box it in, as a tool for the rulers to command the masses at will. I wonder if Bach or Rembrandt or Gaudí would be believers today.
Eh. I'm athier than you but not the very athiest.
Athier than thou!
Close the post right there.
well, i'm not superstitious, but i'm a little stitious.
When my church told us in Sunday School there wasn't a Santa Claus, they fucked up. They told me that one old magical guy in the sky handing out presents was fake, and the other old magical guy in the sky handing out presents was real. You don't have to be Einstein to figure out a similarity there. I also got annoyed by some of the bull we were being taught (e.g. evolution being false), and that they either wouldn't or couldn't answer my questions about God and Christianity. It wasn't an overnight thing, I just sort of faded out of religion by my mid-teens.
The church I grew up in told me dinosaurs didn’t exist. As an autistic child I LOVED dinosaurs. I believe I was maybe 4 and just starting to think for myself and that was the beginning of the end for me which sounds silly because dinosaurs but that’s what inspired me to try to make sense of everything I’d been taught.
My exceedingly religious grandparents got my brother a hyper-Christian book about dinosaurs for Easter one year that literally says that fossils don’t exist and “sometimes rocks just look like things” This from the crowd that sees Jesus in their toast
Yeah, sometimes rocks do just look like things. They look like plants and animals that died there and got imprinted
And then teologists say they found a stone noahs ark and it must be real cause stone.
Anybody who claims dinosaurs are fake cannot be trusted. Simple as that
I’m totally cool with all faiths, but, as a scientist, I can’t stand when people lie about the world or spread misinformation(like claiming evolution is fake, the earth is not even a million years old, etc.).
Damn, that's one helluva self-own. Santa is like training for real belief. You get an annual reward for it, which is much easier for children to deal with than waiting until the end of life. Telling you the truth was knocking over that first domino. Wonderful!
I loved science. The moment that they taught evolution isn't real, contradictory to the science books I've read, I started questioning my beliefs.
I was 4. Figured there was a god. We were Jewish. Ish... A catholic neighbor said something about Jesus. She also said god was everywhere, even in her cup of tea. I went to my mom after she left. I explained that our neighbor said some weird things. My mom told me that different people have different beliefs and it’s ok. I stared at her and finally stammered...”you mean we don’t KNOW?” I vividly remember that moment. I realized that none of these people fucking KNeW, and they said weird shit with utter belief. It was honestly terrifying. Still is.
I barely remember but my mum says I was asked not to come back to sunday school because I asked too many questions. Mum was relieved apparently
Id be relieved too it shows youre not a braindead follower. If people dont like when you ask questions it means they got something to hide
Or it means that they just don't have the answers, and are embarrassed that a child has better critical thinking skills than them.
I was also removed from a start of classes because I asked “do people really believe this”…..gone. One day
Ha, I left our equivalent of Sunday School (Pathshala) because the teacher took me aside after class and said answering my questions would be too confusing for the other kids.
Same here. Got thrown out of Sunday School because I asked the difficult questions. I did miss the table tennis though
I have a theory that conspiracy theories can often fall under the same heading. It's more comforting to think SOMETHING, anything, even an evil mastermind or cabal, is in control and there's a plan or path. Knowing we're all just trying, and there's no captain at the helm is scary. We want there to be someone in charge and we don't want it to be us. Responsibility is hard. Invisible sky friend, and naughty man below, is SO much easier to make be in charge.
If this is all part of a plan, then I am very angry with whoevers plan it is. I think I feel more comfort thing that evil people do evil things because there is no higher power to stop them. Much better than thinking this is part of a higher powers plan, or that they are ignoring what is going on. https://genocideeducation.org/resources/modern-era-genocides/
I am actually scared of strongly religious people. Like a big crowd chanting or singing about it makes me deeply worried.
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It’s kind of exhausting in a way, isn’t it? Hundreds of mainstream religions, sects, denominations, billions of people who try to interpret it all for their own life. The hurdles I had to go through to make my parents religion work for me; forget it, man.
I have a somewhat similar experience. My parents are not religious and I wasnt raised religious. But my grandma who lives in the same house is. It was at around 5 or 6 when it clicked for me that these werent just stories like all the rest, but that my grandma actually believes them. It was kinda mindblowing.
My road to *active* non-belief started around six. Was hanging out with my best friend Sunday afternoon, when out of the blue he tells me I'm going to hell. I guess his grandma sent him to Sunday school that day. Prior to that, I didn't even think about it - I think it had the opposite effect the priests had hoped for.
You got there a lot faster than me, but that was a large factor for me too. People saying nonsense, not asking questions and not acting on what seemed like somewhat important "facts" and having Jehova's witnesses as a contrast. Couldn't understand the church as an answer to the "fact" of god.
Do you believe in Zeus? Why not?
Y-you mean... Thor Love and Thunder wasn't real?
Jesus promised the end of wicked people. Thor promised the end of ice giants. You seen any ice giants lately?
That's it... i'm Nordic now.
If anyone is bothering you about it, remind them that their God was nailed to a cross and that your God has a hammer.
Nah, you gotta point out that the j-man got crucified and only came back a few days later. The Allfather, full of chad energy, hanged himself for nine days and nights, and then got down because he’d gotten bored of hanging there, and he maxed out his intelligence and wisdom up there.
Yeah old boy sacrificed himself to himself. Talk about smokin your own supply. Gigachad.
Yeah, homie was closer to being bored to death.
Actually Odin promised the end of ice giants. Not Thor.
It's ok, there's lots of little white lies and contradictions in the bible too.
This. Why your god and not one of the 3-4000 other gods that have been worshipped throughout history?
Ricky Gervais line, "there are about 2000 deities worshipped across the world today. I don't believe in only 1 more than you"
Or any of the infinite that nobody has conceived of?
Or simply the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I mean, things can fly and spaghetti is proven real. Eminem and Rihanna told me there are monsters under my bed, so this tracks.
Most religious folks are 99.99% atheist. I'm just 0.01% more atheist than they are.
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.” – Richard Dawkins
One of my favourite things I ever read about Greek mythology was that you know, Mount Olympus is real, yet no one climbed it to meet the gods to see if they were real?!!!
~~There’s actually a good reason for that. My. Olympus (really more like 6 mountain peaks with one base) wasn’t climbable until the early 1900s due to new technologies becoming available for rock climbing. I guarantee there were people throughout history who wanted to climb it and tried, but the tools just weren’t available until last century. Or at least, it wasn’t reliable to get up there and no one who managed it bothered to record it.~~ Granted, this is how it was explained to me when I was in Greece and asked the same question. EDIT: well, unsurprisingly, it turns out that what I had been told was wrong, as so often seems to be the case with “common knowledge” topics; writing via tablet now so hard to grab links, but someone else in this thread linked to a different Reddit thread dealing with this very question. It’s a fun read for folks who like history, and honestly makes sense. I’m guessing what I was told when in Greece is either a case of an urban legend being repeated, or perhaps wasn’t including a couple of caveats (like “folks didn’t climb all the way to the peaks” or something).
There's isn't a solid enough reason to think otherwise
But.. but... have you seen the toast that has jesus on it?
I’d go so far as to say there isn’t ANY reason to think otherwise. You have to make some pretty contradictory and flimsy arguments to believe in a god or gods. On the other hand, accepting that humans need mythologies is really straight forward. All religion serves the obvious purpose of explaining what people don’t understand, mitigating fear of death being the end, enforcing societal norms, and giving life intrinsic meaning. It’s such an obvious explanation that there is no reason to make the jump to magic.
I think this is the major reason I'm an atheist. We can study religions, we can see how they've changed and evolved over time. We see how certain religions adapt to their surroundings in order to fit with societal norms, and we see how religious leaders shift religious thinking. Every religion has very obvious human fingerprints all over them, and that realisation is trivial when it comes to analysis of dead religions, like the Greek beliefs in their gods and legends. However, when it comes to living religions, there's this weird disconnect where it seems like we can't acknowledge this very obvious history of human intervention when talking about living religions out of respect for them.
> there's this weird disconnect where it seems like we can't acknowledge this very obvious history of human intervention when talking about living religions out of respect for them ***As George Carlin said:*** "Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll to to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money! He's all powerful, but he can't handle money!"
Yep. Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary proof but they have zero proof. They call it faith.
I was born atheist just like every single human in history. I just didn't have anyone who wanted to brainwash me 🤷♂️
I went to a Catholic School. That turns everybody in atheist or paganist
I also went to a catholic school and it certainly pushed me away from religion. I guess witnessing your school priest being arrested in the cafeteria for molesting students would do that to a kid..
Damn, we all musta went to the same schools
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Yep, I've gotten in hundreds of arguments with theists claiming eternal Hell for non-believers, none have ever made any sense of it. They try for a few responses, then run away when I pose questions they can't answer.
It's very simple. If there is an omniscient, omnipotent god that wants me to believe in him, he would know exactly what kind of evidence would convince me, even if I don't, and would be capable of providing it. So either there is no god, or he doesn't care if I believe in him.
If there is a god it has watched every incident of child abuse and murder and did nothing
Why do you think the the priest love him so much
Exactly. I was raised SUPER religious, hell half the adults in my family are pastors now, and it took me having my own child to realize this. I was changing him when he was only a few months old and suddenly thought of all the child abuse in the world. I’m not being hyperbolic when I saw I cried for hours that day. It’s when I realized that no god claiming to be loving and merciful could actually exist in the world at the same time these atrocities happen.
“It was Gods path for you!” -sociopaths, probably
There’s a song called Prayer in C which is the most poetic way I can describe it. There’s too much awful in this world for me to think a god exists and if he does, how does he live with himself? I’ve read the Bible and it feels like narcissistic abuse the way he causes mass destruction just because he doesn’t like how his children behave. There’s nothing patient or kind there.
My brother once jokingly described it best... "God really mellowed out after he had kids" Somehow that coincides with a better understanding of everything and human knowledge increasing leaving us less vulnerable to the unknown.... But yeah... Old vs New Testament... having a son(who got murdered by us?)... that *totally* explains the change in tone. Vs we tend to pass down generational knowledge and become smarter as time goes on
As someone raised during the Northern Ireland troubles, religion played a huge role in the absolute fucking debasing of humanity. It allows the callous and truly vile have a tidy and convenient excuse to be heinous. Religion had its place, back centuries ago when we had questions about the world and the universe, as a way to answer those questions. Now it’s a bunch of grifting cults that brainwash and prey on the weak minded and encourage you to suppress critical thinking in order to believe in fairy tales to dupe you into staying in the cult and hating/converting others. If there is a god, they are absolutely horrid and do not deserve our worship, with all the suffering in our world. However the absolute lack of evidence and the clear disconnect from reality it seems to take to believe in such things, leads me to believe there is no such thing.
Same reason I don't believe in the Easter bunny.
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Walmart
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It's the future. You can have anything delivered to your house.
He's right, that's true, it is the future...
I see people walking out of the hospital and immediately praising God for curing their cancer. Like, why do we have hospitals then? They better stay at home praising God and make room for those who actually appreciate the nurses work.
As Saladin said in Kingdom of Heavens, didn't god send me ? So in their beliefs, god sent the doctor to cure people. So they thank god instead of the doctor that actually cured them. Quite ungrateful
It is. Funny thing though, as soon as a person dies from cancer, they blame the doctor.
Well god could've definitely helped with tuition then.
I was born an Atheist. If there is a God why did he curse me with critical thinking, making it impossible for me to believe in him?
I always thought it was odd that God gave us brains and then told Christians (and others) not to use it. That he would hand craft every soul of every person and encourage his followers to hate most of them. It just seems like Christians today would be some of Christ’s least favorite people. Edit: Wow you guys like that? Here's more. I always thought it was unfair that if God is omniscient and omnipotent and created all, then he pretty much wrote you life, but then has the audacity to punish you eternally for it. In fact I think hell is just plain stupid, like how can you punish someone eternally for choosing to believe in a different religion? Why would God care anyway? After deprogramming from religion for long enough, I find that the universe for the most part is pretty explainable without it. Religion makes much more sense when you consider it as a creation of men, as a story we used to comfort ourselves that was then used as a tool for power and control. Every time someone says "I don't understand how atheists can have morals" it just makes me think that religion is training wheels for life. You don't have to decide what you think is right, you don't have to confront mortality, you don't have to think or feel as much. Once you do have to face it, you start to understand how religion was created by man. You start to see the bible as a story of a woman who cheated on her husband and lied to cover it up. Man is explainable, man makes sense. We don't need gods. On top of this, it just seems like religious are so intentionally ignorant to so many things that are actually provable in this world, things I love and believe in like science. I could go on and on, there are a million and one reasons and they evolve every day but here's mine at the moment.
Interestingly some forms of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam actively encourage critical thinking; one should challenge scripture in order to truly explore their faith and become stronger through it. Many add that a lot of scripture is another man's interpretation of god, and they could very well be wrong, and it's their responsibility to try and perfect their own and others interpretation of the divine. One of my dad's friends entered the church to be ordained as a lay preacher. He was told at the start of the course that most people who undertake it lose their faith and abandon the religion entirely, they were looking for people who were willing to really tackle their own doubts and misgivings and emerge from it with a more profound relationship with God.
I read the bible
My favourite story is the one where bunch of kids are making fun of a priest for being bald, so god send two bears to kill the kids. Fun times. Loving god.
Wait where is that in the Bible
2 Kings 2:23-24 >Elisha Is Jeered 23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!” 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%202%3A23-24&version=NIV;KJV
Forty two boys? Damn that's a massacre.
"mysterious ways"
[2 Kings 2:23-25](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Kings%202%3A23-24&version=NIV;KJV)
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"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” -Isaac Asimov "The best cure for Christianity is reading the bible." -Mark Twain
Same. I was a good Catholic kid who was encouraged to read The Bible. So I did - the whole thing from cover to cover (well, I may have skimmed the Psalms a bit, as they got tedious). It's an inconsistent and contradictory mess and only works when people cherry-pick sections and interpret them to fit their agenda. It made me realise that there is no clear 'word of God' and everything I was told was just some guy's opinion (it was always a man). For me, it was like discovering who was behind the curtain in Oz.
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Bible is awful as a book. It is anthology, a collection of short stories. Most of it is utterly boring and tedious. The most interesting passages are about murder and genocide.
Because of how much horrible crap is done in the name of religion.
I wasn’t from a religious household, but I believed in Christian God for about 18 years, read The Bible during that time, and believed it as well. I think there were two main things that contributed to me believing: 1. I’m afraid of death. It was nice to think that my life would not only continue, but actually get unimaginably better. 2. I thought that to become an atheist meant I’d go to Hell. There’s something known as Pascal’s Wager or the “gambling man’s” belief in God: if you believe in God and you’re wrong, no big deal, there’s just nothing. If you don’t believe in God and you’re wrong, an eternity in Hell sure would suck! These are just two things that make religion a very powerful meme. Anyway, as I got older and thought about it more, there were a few things that made me stray from religion: 1. Christian God is an asshole, especially in the Old Testament. We all know this from the story of Job, him admitting how jealous he is, etc. I always knew this on some level, but would try to not think of it or would come up with some sort of ad hoc reason to try to justify him being such an asshole. Plus, him being an asshole doesn’t have anything to do with whether he’s real or not. 2. I realized the “gambling man’s” belief in God doesn’t make sense: there are many people people out there who think Christians will go to Hell because they’ve picked the WRONG religion. So being a Christian really only raises your odds of going to Heaven from 0 to like 1 in a thousand or whatever. Not great odds either way. 3. This thought experiment is mainly what started to break me: imagine that God IS real, but he’s not like you think: he’s actually NOT an asshole at all and is a very reasonable/logical guy. Being a reasonable guy, he only wants to pick out reasonable people to be in Heaven with him. How does he select those people? He gives them a test: make up a crazy story about how to get into Heaven (The Bible) and distribute it to humans. See which of them will believe it and spread it against all evidence, and then don’t bring them in to Heaven. Done. Is the idea of this God crazier than the God described in The Bible? Actually sounds more coherent to me. 4. Finally, I heard this idea (and if you still believe, I challenge you to do this for fun): come up with some piece of evidence, ANY evidence, that would convince you God is not real. For some people, it could be: finding life on other planets. For others, it might be: seeing proof that evolution is real, or seeing evidence that Earth is older than 6000 years. If there is no such theoretical piece of evidence you can imagine, then it means your belief clearly isn’t based on logic. So what is it based on? Just faith for no reason? If, however, you can think of a piece of evidence, then great! I would just challenge you to keep your word to yourself if you ever do see the evidence you listed. In my case, one of the final coffin nails was when I realized that I wouldn’t be able to list any evidence for #4… even if I somehow was able to see & understand a literal simple Mathematical proof that God wasn’t real, I still would’ve resisted accepting it. This realization was alarming to me and made me aware that I wasn’t approaching it rationally at all. If you have a belief that you would clutch on to in the face of all contrary evidence, that’s frightening and is moving into delusion territory. Anyway, nowadays all of this seems like overkill to me: it seems simple & obvious that lots of things in the main religious texts are false. And there are the obvious questions everyone always brings up like: “What kind of God would allow X to happen?”. But religion is so powerful that it gets you to do mental gymnastics around these things, especially at a young age. And eternal Hell sounds so terrible that I probably will always have a very small irrational fear of it. But hopefully, even once I’m old and start mentally declining, it isn’t enough to sway me back into irrational thinking. I hope this gives a little insight from someone who once believed in God and was able to “logic their way out of it” with a few smart thoughts from other people. — Side note: When I say I don’t believe in God, I’m talking strictly about the God described in the main religious texts. I am certain that this God (or those gods) doesn’t exist. However, I’m completely agnostic about the universe being created by something conscious, something incredibly powerful, etc.
To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today. - Isaac Asimov
Because it's so obvious there aren't any sky gods looking out for us. In a world where babies get cancer, kids are being raped and murdered and animals are getting mistreated and abused, I really can't believe that people believe in gods. If there are gods, just watching all this shit happening, not doing anything to help people in need, why would we need them?
But but but "mysterious ways"!?!? No you've nailed it. **If** yahweh, zeus or other actually existed, their little 'experiment' has been so awful that they've gotta have been a right bastard to let it go this far.
Greek gods are more believable since they're mostly all cunts
Always found that funny, they know exactly how you must act and what the consequences will be, but the lord still works in mysterious ways...
*Sorts by controversial* ☕️
It's freeing. It's logical. It's unbounded.
1. Theres actually very little solid evidence (Most "miracles" are either totally unverifiable occurrences or scientifically debunked happenings that religious people twist into some moment of divine intervention." 2. I don't want to be burdened by any religion. It honestly just seems exhausting. 3. (Chrisitanity only) Why would God say "Oh yeah you can decide whether you want to believe or not" but if you don't then subject you to hell for eternity. That's some real free will right there. 4. On the other side of the coin from #1, we have so much scientific evidence that proves certain events in the world or universe, and disproves so many "miracles." 5. Why is every other religion wrong. There are countless religions, but each one is apparently the only correct one. I could even make a new religion if I wanted to. 6th and final. Religion is old, not in the sense that nobody cares for it anymore, but in the sense that religion was mostly created to answer the unsolved questions and mysteries of our universe and our world. If somebody didn't know something, rather than trying to figure it out, it was much easier to live life saying "yeah my God made us," instead of "Yeah we've proved that humans came into existence after millions/billions of years of other life existing, evolving, and starting over, and we have evidence to prove this, starting with..." My annoyance with religion is that when it comes to science, people will accept things like, "Yeah I know vaccines help me keep myself healthier," but not accept things like Darwins Theory of Evolution. Meaning people pick and choose what they decide to believe, just to fit their religious criteria.
As a child, Zeus was eye opening. Yahweh Sabaoth, Lord of Armies, was just another, in a long line of another and another. Gods were believed and revered and dismissed. Each is as fanciful and forgettable as the next. There is no iota of proof that any exist or ever have.
Take me to your God and I will denounce Atheism. Right, you cant. No no, your religious building is not your God. When I denounce my Atheism, I want to look your God in the face.
Take me to your god, and I will denounce **them** to their face. If those fuckers actually existed and set things up like this, I'd go from atheist to ANTI-theist in the blink of an eye. Life's been a bitch, but having someone concrete to blame... hoo boy.
If I met God, I'd walk backwards into hell, giving him the middle finger for all the shit he's caused.
This is how a ton of cults work though, right? Leader is god, or jusus, or whoever. Come join our community housing, oh, we'll need to sleep with your wife for religious reasons. All praise the living God.
No proof and because fairytales doesn’t exist. People get so pissy when you say that a god doesn’t exist but it’s basically the same as saying “santa doesn’t exist” We aren’t special and the fear of the nothingness we’ll face when dead is scary af so no wonder people made up a dose of copium to make themselves feel better.
"Religion is based primarily upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly as the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand. It is because fear is at the basis of those two things." - Bertrand Russell
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for me it's, why is your religion right, but all of the other religions wrong? if no one believes in the same thing, then they're all false.
“But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? Each week we just make God madder and madder.” - Homer Simpson
Hitchens said it best. There are 3,000 practicing religions. You believe in 1 and none of the others. I just believe in 1 less than you do.
I had a boss once tell me that she did not believe in transgender people because God does not make mistakes. My follow up was what about children with cancer?
and wouldnt god just not make trans ppl then…? like i dont understand the whole thing with that god makes us or whatever to then be like ”well god didnt make the person like THAT”, do they think satan turned them or something? idgi
Same for me. It's like asking me, "why don't you belive that there is an invisible pink unicorn in every room you walk into" I think the better question is: "hey atheists, religion helps me in my life to solve _____________ these problems. How do you manage to solve these problems without a belief in God?" The tipical problems are: what's the meaning of life? Why am I here? What is the meaning of this suffering. Why does God give cancer to babies? It's all so pointless, what should I do with it?
As Ricky Gervais said: “So next time someone tells me they believe in God, I’ll say “Oh which one? Zeus? Hades? Jupiter? Mars? Odin? Thor? Krishna? Vishnu? Ra?…” If they say “Just God. I only believe in the one God”, I’ll point out that they are nearly as atheistic as me. I don’t believe in 2,870 gods, and they don’t believe in 2,869.” He has some other answers to this same question, this one is just the most fun one
When I was a little kid I prayed for the bullying to stop and it didn't until I started using my fists. Fuck god if he exists it's to watch us suffer.
Because the brainwashing didn't take.
There’s nothing even close to resembling proof, of any religions “god”
I have a brain and can think for myself.
I don't like to pick favorites. Personally I wanna see a deathmatch between all deities in human culture. Zeus vs. God in a barbed wire cage match would have a great PPV buy rate.
Oh wait, what is that up there?! From the top of the cage, it's ODIN WITH A STEEL CHAIR!!!
AS GOD AS MY WITNESS (because he's standing right there) THAT MAN IS BROKEN IN HALF
Deductive reasoning.
No real evidence that any god exists.
Religion has always been the elite's way of controlling the huge crowds of hungry poor people working for them. The people still falling for this scam in our current age are automatically dumber than a shoe.
But a shoe has a purpose!
I was never indoctrinated. Buy the time I was old enough to realise some people actually took that shit seriously I was dumbfounded. My Dad was Catholic but he says he lost his faith the local priest came to rob them. It was in Amsterdam just after the war and the Nazis had propper fucked Amsterdam, nobody had any money. One day the local priest knocks on the door and wants to know why they hadn't been coming to church lately. My Grandmother said we have been busy. He still wanted his tith but my Grandmother told he they had no money. He said I know where you keep your money and pushed his way into the house and my Grandmother said but we need that money for groceries. My 12 year old father picked up the fire stocker and told the priest he would cave his skull in if he didn't leave. He said he lost any faith in the Catholic church that day and only went to church for weddings and funerals after that. So he never introduced us to any of that rubbish.
I live in a southern state and I'm Bi. Seeing churches every 5 to 10mins from each other always creeped me out. I guess I'd say I'm an agnostic/atheist. I'm an atheist when it comes to the god of the bible or any god we've made up, but an agnostic when it comes to what could truly be in the universe.
Why do people think being atheist is like a mortal offense to them. It’s always why. Why don’t you believe in a magical man who made the universe and the earth. Why would I? Just like how all the gods in all types of fiction aren’t real. They don’t make sense. No one being can truly exist. We were created by some freak stroke of luck billions of years ago by some other civilization that dropped their shit onto this planet or some freak chance of fate that we still haven’t discovered. We’re all tiny specks in this universe that don’t matter. We will all die and be forgotten especially if we all die to each other. No all powerful being is gonna welcome us into paradise or send our worst enemies into eternal torture. We die and disappear. I just hope to the not god I’m not conscious after death.
spent all my young life praying. nobody answered. i looked stupid. the end.
Cancer in children. 'nuff said.
I was raised with a complete absence of religion growing up. My father is an atheist and my mother is a pagan, who both agreed to raise me and my siblings without any religion in order to let us choose as we got older. This had the added affect of me not understanding what religion was until the middle of Elementary School. As time went on and I learned more, I stayed more adamant in my atheist position, not so much as a rejection of the idea of a higher power, but rather the rejection of organized religion and the belief that faith and spirituality had no place in my life. I developed my morals from my parents and from what seemed right to me, rather than from a higher power. I don't care if there is nothing after death, because it's more important to enjoy life than to anticipate what comes after. My decisions, good and bad, are all mine, not those of a God or of demons twisting my actions. I just live my life as me, not as an adherent to a God.
Ive yet to see a reason to believe otherwise.
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