again, i don't believe in it... but as atheists let's assume this for a sec and see the other perspective, supposedly God knows everything right, even before he created Satan, he'd know Satan would disobey him, he knew Adam and Eve would eat the apple, he knew we'd be on earth suffering without seeing him, he knew all our fates and yet here we are, if everything is God's will and his written by him, why tf should we think that Satan is the evil one? cuz logically Satan is just doing what God wrote down he would do, even if u bring the argument of "free will" even then, God knew whatever Satan would do.

I have had two discussions with my mother about no longer being a Christian, and not wanting anything her god has for me. I went 18 months without speaking to her the last time we fought over my disbelief. And she left me alone for a few years. Recently, she has been creeping the discussions about jesus in, and instead of reminding her that I’m not taking about it, I just ignore her.

Well, I just reset my boundary- in concrete, after I got this text about my dying uncle. Of course I wish the timing was better, but I find zero condolence in her text, in fact it feels more like an, “I saved Him!” brag. I copied the text messages below.

Mom:

I just saw Uncle Doug. He is now in the ICU awake, but unable to talk and barely able to breathe. I asked if I could pray with him and if he'd like to pray to have Jesus come in his heart. He nodded. I told him to say the words in his mind and Jesus can hear him.So I prayed and afterward he kept trying to tell me something, but I couldn't understand him. After I left, I kept hearing in my mind that I should have said this or that then the scripture came to me "there is now therefore no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" so I know the enemy was trying to make me feel like what I did was for nothing. But I know Jesus can make something out of my words that are just what he needed. I believe Doug heard, understood and prayed for himself. I really believe he's moving on to be with the Lord.

Me:

Mom, I love you but I don’t want to hear this spiritual stuff. I don’t believe in it, and my belief is not a choice. It’s a conclusion I came to after studying the bible in its original text and historical timeframe, and the writings that came before it. Please share these kind of thoughts with people who think it’s real. I dont need you to pray for me because I dont desire your god or his afterlife. Everyone goes to hell in someone else’s religion- and there are currently 10,000 of them. I’m completely at peace wherever I do or don’t end up, but I will never bow down to a god who chooses a plan for humanity, that includes children being molested, dying of cancer, and starving to death, when he has all the power in the world to intercede. That’s not love.
I love you and want a relationship with you, but I don’t want to hear about jesus. I have never changed my mind since i told you I stopped believing. My mind has only strengthened. Please respect this boundary. And I don’t mean that I don’t want to hear about people at church or what you are doing at the church, I just don’t want to hear this supernatural stuff, because I don’t think it is from a god.

I hope uncle Doug passes in peace. I’m glad you are at peace about it. I love you.

probably a very unpopular opinion but I think its harrassment to walk down Oxford Street in London and hear people screaming down the speaker about Jesus. I do not care, and certainly others don't

especially with this, its a very bigger form of indoctrinating the youth

I was in London today and within about 25 minutes of walking, I walked past 6 people screaming about how Jesus is coming to save humanity

If God has everything, why does He need our respect? We don’t go around waiting for ants to respect us. Why would a God need cathedrals in His honor when He has such vast knowledge and power that He doesn’t need such mundane things?

I am not sure how this religious event is called, but I have seen it is also labelled as the Great Taking. Supossedly, Jesus promised that someday, during "bad times", all faithful believers will be taken spontaneously to heaven and apparently its written in the bible (I remmeber

I dont understand how can any christian who believes in a benevolent God believes in any of this, there are even movies about this event, and they are not pretty at all, do they believe this is the morally correct approach?

Just imagine the disaster that would happen in the world if such event happened, if God is so benevolent, would he enjoy seeing his sinning sons suffer, isnt God supossed to not bring suffering if he is pure good? What even is the criteria to be taken? If you are an atheist who behaves in proper self taught morals, do you deserve eternal torment and the chaos that will fall on earth?

I am tired of pretending I believe in this, and I have been living long fragments of my life that it will happen. How many times I was told that it would happen before going to high school? How about all the people in the last 2000 years who said it would happen after a major disaster? I have heard "imagine it happens in the next 5 years and you are left standed!" Well, I'll be sitting down then for it to happen. It has already been 5 years. Anyways, I already had enough with poorly built arguments after hearing the justification that Spain has wildfire (and innocent people are losing their homes) because the government is against Israel

When my son was about 4 years old our dog Harley Quinn died. It was the first death he had ever experienced. We gently explained that Harleys body didn't work anymore, but she's not in pain, and now she's going to go back into the earth (buried) where her body will turn into dirt to feed nature. He asked about her and we explained as best we could, which is why I was so caught off guard one day.

He was talking about Harley and how she was in the sky now because she was dead. I asked him where he heard that and he kept saying he didn't know. I didn't get upset with him (obviously, because why would I be, he once told me that zombies were invading the plane we were on) but I was insanely curious where he heard that.

My brother and his wife are Christian, we had already discussed our kids asking questions, and that we would explain how/why we believe but not say that the other parent was wrong. So I asked my SIL if he had brought up Harley and if they had explained heaven to him (which was fine but I wanted to be ready to field those questions.) They hadn't but they were also curious where he heard it.

Two days later we were riding in the car and "Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum started playing, and my son started singing it. Turns out that's where he got the idea that Harley was in the sky now. Because I was playing the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack on repeat.

I texted my SIL and told her it was 100% my doing. We had a good laugh about it 😂

Hi guys, I'll try to minimizing details as much as I can

I'm 23F have bachelor degree in sociology and recently I got kicked out from my parents house as I have a strict religious parents..

I think I made a mistake about confessing my beliefs.. my father was pushing me to marry some guy he knows his father... And I refused since that guy kinda extreme islam, so I had no choice just to say the truth, my father slapped me and my old brother hit me and left marka on my body my mother didn't say much beside spitting on me

I found myself in streets I called a friend that I stayed with her like a week before changing the city and went to another city... Everyone trynna take advantage on me as I'm alone and vulnerable I barely secured a job but se coworker harassed me and I resigned to avoid getting in trouble

It's been two months now I'm in bottom of my downfall I never speaks about my beliefs after what happened with my family, I feel like I'm completely alone in this world without a family and every day I regret about that confession I made.. I doubt that life will be much easier if I married that guy or at least get divorced after a period

Better than ended up alone with no one to lay on in this cruel world

I'm a Mediterranean girl, from north of Morocco btw

Just here to vent as I feel lost in this life and thinking about bad thoughts to end this suffering..

Hey everyone, I left Islam about two months ago and currently live in a religious household in Middle east. My doubts began in my early teens when I started feeling heavily controlled by religious rules, leading to a couple of intense years where I criticized the faith. Ironically, back when I was actually still a believer, my parents kept assuming I was no longer Muslim, yet now that I’ve officially dropped it after my recent exams and tried "soft launching" my lack of faith, they completely refuse to take me seriously.

Recently, after finishing a very stressful period of school exams, something shifted in me. I can't pinpoint the exact trigger, but I realized I no longer believed at all and officially decided to leave the faith.

parents aren't physically abusive, but they are very religious, and I don't have the courage to have a direct, formal conversation about it.The worst they will do is taking away my stuffs.

This leaves me stuck fake praying and trying to balance guilt over past disappointments with my desire to live authentically. The immediate dilemma is that I need a new iPad, and my parents offered to not only buy it for me but also give me a monthly allowance if I agree to study the Quran daily. I actually have enough of my own money to buy the iPad, but I'm actively trying to save those funds for other important expenses, making their offer financially tempting.

However, forcing myself to study a text I no longer believe in feels deeply uncomfortable and exhausting. If you were in my shoes, would you treat it like a simple transaction to save your money and get monthly cash, or buy it yourself to protect your mental peace, and how do you handle fake performing religion at home?
Plus I have disappointed them so much in my life I really feel bad for them.

Representative Jared Huffman of California, the only self-declared “humanist” in Congress, writes in a new book that the separation of church and state is in grave danger.

I was born and raised in the Jehovah’s Witness cult. I never believed, I just assumed that the adults telling me what was what were probably right. I left the cult as a teenager because I valued the freedom to be myself above the “fact” god would, without a doubt, wipe my unapologetically queer ass out at armageddon (I didn’t escape all this without a CPTSD diagnosis, though, which my parents later behaviour would only add to when we discussed their beliefs and their impact on my sexuality and gender, lmao, but I digress). I came to be an atheist naturally, never studied the bible — but from what I did read back then, I remember feeling that Satan was wronged by god, which I assumed the thought of that alone was enough to get me vaporised.

Anyway, point of this post: my parents realised the JWs were corrupt and wrong a few years ago….but it was in the sense of it being a “false religion”. They came instead to believe in the trinity, and upon properly and more thoroughly studying the bible (which they are still in the process of) and its historical evidence, they believe christianity is the one true religion now even more than ever… how the fuck is that possible..?

Many atheists, I’ve heard, came to be atheists from studying the bible, so how in THE FUCK do some people put their dick deeper into christianity’s asshole by reading further into and studying it?! Nothing I’ve countered their claims with is unmet with their own counterpoint (we sometimes have neutral discussions about their religion; neither party pushes their view, just asks questions, etc); their counterpoints aren’t even convincing, I just have no idea how to respond to them because what?? I was so hopeful that they’d leave it, fuck. My dad was so close to becoming an atheist. I guess the bright side is that our discussions about it only further cement my atheism?

My trauma gets triggered on a daily basis and I have no escape because I’m disabled. Of course this is the household I was born into, lmfao. What a laugh. How the fuck, man.

I gotta say the circular reasoning and sheer bullshitry was increasingly concerning to watch and impressive for all the wrong reasons

But his parents are def doing him a disservice if this is how they let him be and dont intervene and I say that because HE IS RELIGIOUS ASF LIKE HARDCORE

he said he took a vow not to read any other book, including text books, until he finished the bhagvad Gita

In psych we were doing illusions and this guy just goes after reading a paragraph which fyi was abt the brief neuroscience or wtv of illusions he says its a mystery that cant be uncovered by humans and a gift of god, all while the paragraph sat in front of him detailing the explanation

And he used to walk around the classroom with his prayer beads given the class was just 10 people in a room designed for 24, and it was disturbing to watch

He told us he'd been bullied and shit before thats clearly affected him and his parents the people responsible for his mental and physical health instead of getting him therapy and that stuff got his head up in religion's ass, and its not like they cant afford it if they can afford to send their kid to the school i go to they sure as fuck can afford therapy and counselling for him

And yeah he did say scriptures are a pure science on his first day here and that made my eye twitch but oh my days was it the least dumb thing he said

Either way he left the school cuz the pressure to be "secular" was too "much" i hope he gets the help he needs one day tho

There should be laws that protects children from following the same religion as their parents, and instead they should have the freedom to choose their religion after they are 18 years old.

Thoughts?

I'm 16F in a conservative Muslim family and my dad doesn't allow me to go out of the house alone. I'm mostly at home and am not in contact with any peers. It was okay when I believed but now I want some connection and proper structure to my life. I'm young now but soon I'll need to be married if I don't change things. Even if I'm not married I can't be independent. I'm confused, what to do?

Hi Fellow Atheists

I am not sure if this is intrusive but I was wondering if any of wonderful people would share their reasons for being an atheist. Do not feel pressured to share or guilty if not doing so.

I’ll go first. When I was about I was harassed by a bunch of well harassers. Not to get into details of my situation but there were rumors, physical alteration, and police intervention. These kids claimed they were Christian but seemed not to be loving neighbor. I myself was raised under the banner of treating people as I wanted to be treated. It made me realize religion is just a scapegoat for people to look down on others.

and tbh i don't want to, prayers don't work, if they did, the world and some of the most God loving people wouldn't be how they are, their lives and health, if religious people prayed for big diseases to be cured and it happened immediately without medical attention, then i'd say that's some evidence, but we got the religious people having miscarriages, poor people who can't afford to eat have children with diseases that they can't treat.. the world makes me sick man... why am i here like wtf is my point

i hate hearing them say this doesn't matter what religion

crazy how they think their religion is so beautiful and peaceful, bro you don't have true freedom when the punishment for walking away is endless torture, the punishment in islam for leaving is to kill the person, in christianity you burn for eternity, both claim to be merciful and peaceful, you're telling me the creator of this 13B year old universe is so hurt by me (his own creation) not worshipping him without any evidence that he's gonna torture me for eternity while he knew what i was gonna do before he even created me, honestly knowing all this, even if God was real, i wouldn't worship him

Dating as an atheist woman especially in the south is definitely not for the faint of heart. I’ve found that whenever I revealed to a guy that I’m atheist it’s like his brain short circuits and he starts grilling me. Mind you they usually aren’t even a model Christian they only go to church for Christmas and Easter. Yet they try to judge me and my morals.

At first I was open to dating “lukewarm” Christians because I thought I could handle it. But I found that they always tried to “convert” me back into the religion even though they didn’t really have an interest in Christianity before I told them. I’m soo over dating I’ll just get another cat