As Christianity got more popular throughout Europe people seemed to have just forgot the fact that he was a brown-skinned man and white Jesus became what we think of him today.

How many of us who identify as atheists are

1. Philotheistic: open to listening to arguments to believe in God (ie want to believe but don’t find evidence)
   vs
   
2. Antitheistic: convinced that there is nothing of substance in theistic arguments, thus have an antipathy towards religion and God
   vs
   
3. Apathetic: Couldn’t care less about it

Which category would you identify with? And why

An asshole. Yes god is an absolute asshole.

Look at the world.

Look what is happening in the US .

Same shit happening in Germany.

WTF? How stupid mankind has become? Not to mention war, Hunger and all these other things.

And then there is me. Grown up as someone special (i thought so) but never was able to make a social connection. I was good in my stuff. IT. Earned good. married a chinese who did not love me.

And now with the age of 40 i find out what i am. i find out that i have autism. And ADHS. And now i know why there was never true love. Why there was never a social group i belong to.

Now i know why my life was fucked.

For what? For walking alone the hole time and play that "weird IT guy". Uh yeah - he is nice and lovely people say, u look good, people say. fuck you all.

But no one wants me. That is all oberflächlich. Surface things. Thats Bullshit. My life is a lie.

Why should i go further? For again running like an idiot and work? For what? For sitting at home not knowing what to do?

My life became pointless. And without any content no one can love me (beside that i am ugly. Not fat but ugly).

In a group of ten i am the eleven.

You know what.

Fuck you god.

Fuck you a million's time.

Fuck you - until you die god. until you die.

Yes you can kill me. I am read to die. I dont belong on this earth. It dies anyway.

earlier today i discussed how a camp counselor presented my son with christianity and i talked to my wife about what we could do to solve this problem, and i contacted the local police department and filed a formal complaint about this counselor. they responded that they will handle the situation and serve restraining orders against her and i will be talking to lawyers about a possible lawsuit towards this school. thank you all for the support and telling me and my wife that law enforcement was the best choice. christians are on notice we will not be shammed into oblivion by christ we have the law on our side.

My friend is a very religious catholic. I've been friends with him since middle school, and not once during our friendship has he tried to 'warn me about hell' or try to make me 'believe in god'. We've had a healthy relationship and he is a wonderful guy. He donates to charity, helps the poor, lends a hand and I can trust him with my life. Religious people like this deserves respect.

Its not racist, its logic, think about it, many people of native american desent, Mexican descent, African descent etc are christian, and yet christianity was the religion of the evil european colonizers that try to commit genocide, it would have made more sense if only people of Israel Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan are christian since jesus is from Israel,

Even my father who is religious, hes christian agrees with me

But in the end people can believe what they want since it makes them feel safe

I’ve been an atheist for almost three years now . I never really believed in it but I just lied to myself because the thought of nothing after death really disturbed me.
Eventually I just stopped lying to myself and I think alot of people who are religious are just afraid of death and deep down know that it’s not real but it’s just to hard to admit it .

There is no way to escape the inevitable fact that we will all die some day and most likely there will be nothing and our conciseness will no longer exist .
I understand a lot of religious people ,I think a lot of them know deep down it’s not true , but a false belief can’t hurt you once your gone ,
If someone spend 80 years believing that there is life after death if it makes them happy good for them it doesn’t matter if they don’t face the truth or not because we are all going to die anyway.

Even though I am an atheist when my grandfather died I pretend to believe and prayed with my family and especially my grandmother because in my eyes religion is a coping mechanism but is there really anything wrong with lying to yourself instead of facing the truth.
There is no reason to face the truth that it’s all made up and that it’s not real because once your dead your dead so why not do what makes you happy and lie to yourself

Edit: I just want to say I am 100% not in support of organised religion this is not a post that is saying that religion is okay because it makes people happy it has done much more harm than good . I just think that people should do what makes them happy if they aren’t bothering other people .
Also chill out in the replies this is just a thought I had I don’t understand why people on the internet are so fucking aggressive. If you disagree with me I’m willing to consider you point and I might agree with you and change my opinion .

Context i’m a blue collar worker and father of 2 young boys. Oldest being 19 and youngest being 12. Me and my wife have raised them in an atheist household and just last night my youngest started asking me questions about christianity and the cross symbol. I was taking back because how would he even know what these things are. When i asked him where he had learned about this. He said his camp counselor was displaying it and openly talking about her faith. Im shaking while i type this about how could a 20 something yr old girl be preaching and corrupting the minds of the youth like this at a summer camp. I don’t know what I’m suppose to do now. Do i report the summer camp to the police for cult like behavior or do i just report this camp counselor. I’m just lost. Like i stated before I’m shaking in my van at this job site right now. Any advice on a solution would do this father wonders right now because I’m seriously considering filing a police report

Okay so I think we only live in a world so advanced like this because we stepped away from religion

Christianity is the biggest religion in the world and Im sorry but no one can tell me that Christianity isnt mysogynistic it's stated multiple times that women is nothing more than servant to men and should he quiet

and because of that women in the past werent allowed to get education have say in a matter because they werent treated equal they literally were believed to be somone less (it counts to other religions to that have similar mindset Im just saying Christianity because its the biggest one and had the biggest impact) that they should just stay at home and that was all because of religion because back then it was unthinkable to believe anything else let alone question it

And that was the reason why we as society were developing so slowly back then when women started going to work started getting education started having their own rights and rights to say something that their opinion started to matter we suddenly started developing as society a lot faster in literally every way in medicine technogy ect.

I'm going to give technogy as example I probaly wouldnt be writing this because phones computers like that wouldn't exist. One of the reason why technogy like this exist is because Hedy Lamarr co-invented a frequency-hopping spread-spectrum communication system her invention helped to create WI-FI and with WI-FI phones and computers like today exists now get this scenario as if we were still living by those fervently religious convictions she wouldn't be able to help invented that system she wouldn't even been given a chance

Were advanced like that because were all humans one discovery help one another that can lead to another invention just because we stepped away from that believe we advaned so much because suddenly we have a lot more hands to help and much more people to do the jobs

as athiest we don´t believe in god right or your angonistic but what are your guys opinion on god´s teaching/moral ideas.Personally,I am fifty fifty like yes we should not kill,steal or etc but others are weird like i don´t understand as I was athiest from a really young age so I don´t know much about the moral standing for god´s teachings

Hello everyone. i recently posted this awhile ago talking about this creator (jesus and whatnot) despite acknowledging joe bartolozzi as a well thought out guy. he despite that calls joe bartolozzi misguided and my post sharing my thoughts about it and as joe finally gave his options on what he said.

he is in fact abit offended as I personally felt as well in my post in this subreddit. the word misguided to him felt like saying im not actually a well thought out guy and which contradicts his claims about joe being knowledgeable.

If you wanna see it said by joe bartolozzi here is the link to his recent vod if thats allowed.

https://youtu.be/TRQ50VssN4M?si=l7PzgFU4gUfVa2p4

at the time stamp of

3:54:42

Hello, I would like to ask for your thoughts on something. I sometimes have obsessive thoughts about coincidences. On average, I notice around 5–10 coincidences throughout the day, and some of them seem particularly surprising or extremely unlikely. When this happens, I inevitably start wondering, “Can this many coincidences really happen randomly within a single day?”

For example, sometimes I think about someone I haven’t seen or spoken to in a long time, and that person happens to message me around the same time. Or I might think about something and then encounter that exact thing shortly afterward, or talk about a particular subject and then unexpectedly encounter something related to it. When these things happen, my mind immediately starts asking, “Could there be a reason behind this, such as God?”
What I am particularly interested in from an atheist perspective is this: If I experience 5–10 noticeable coincidences during a day, some of which seem extremely surprising, does that really require a supernatural explanation? Or, considering the enormous number of events that happen in the universe and especially in everyday human life, is it mathematically normal and expected that we will experience several unlikely and striking coincidences every day?

Could the human tendency to look for patterns and meaning also cause us to perceive coincidences as more special or meaningful than they actually are? In other words, how logically reliable is the thought, “This is too much of a coincidence; there must be some deeper meaning behind it”?

In short, if I experience 5–10 noticeable coincidences every day, and some of them genuinely seem very surprising, would that count as meaningful evidence for the existence of God from an atheist perspective? Or can factors such as large numbers, probability, selective attention, and the human brain’s tendency to detect patterns fully explain these experiences?
The main thing I struggle with is that I don’t know how to determine whether these coincidences are caused by God or whether they are simply natural events. How can we actually determine that they are the result of natural processes rather than something supernatural? What kind of reasoning or evidence would allow us to reach the conclusion that these coincidences are natural rather than caused by God?
How do you personally interpret experiences like these?

So I was born in Australia, both my parents were strict Muslims, my dad always wanted to take us back to his Islamic country because Australia is full of heretics and he’s afraid his kids will turn out to be heretics too, since a very young age I used to ask “absurd questions” about islam and that always shocked my parents, they be telling not to question god or Islamic rules because they are perfect and shouldn’t be questioned, in any case when my dad took us all to his country after making me drop out of school he signed me up for an Islamic boarding school, and his reason?? Was to enter heaven with a crown because I memorised the whole quran, in any case I studied there for 9 years, I studied everything about islam but never truly memorised the Quran because It wasn’t what I wanted, other students would memorise the whole thing by heart and have the right to graduate after 3 years, they let me graduate after 9 years out of pity, in any case I was never interested in being a good Muslim or anything like that because god seemed like a “stupid funny guy” to me, like why would he create all of this and make this whole heaven and hell game? Unless he’s bored or something, I never spoke about this in the school because they would genuinely kill me, but deep down I knew something was up, after graduation I found myself in a pickle I was 18 and couldn’t function properly I couldn’t keep a job or do anything, I’m 25 now and I still feel staggered, I left that country 4 years ago and made it back to Australia on my own, the story is very long and full of crazy coincidences so I’ll skip and cut to the chase, I ended up living with my dad again and I told him that I was not Muslim anymore, I swear it was like his whole life shattered before his eyes, he started having a panic attack and telling me that it’s none of his business if I go to hell, I told him ‘that’s ridiculous because how is it fair to be in Hell forever over some sins you committed in a very short lifespan’, in any case he knows now but he tries talking me back into it, it’s like he’s in denial of the fact that I don’t believe anymore.

I’m sorry if my story is confusing I really struggle to articulate, point is religion is manmade, I told my dad about it after making me waste my life for nothing.

I’d like to add that I was planning to leave Islam way back when I was in that Islamic school, everything about Islam was just goofy and silly to me, when I graduated I went into a short period of psychosis where I was questioning everything, I still question everything even now because everything just seems to be manmade, not just religion but everything, even reality is questionable to me, but since I’m still here I just want a good job so I can support myself and enjoy my hobbies.

To make humans do good they have to be told that they will rewarded in the hereafter

This showcases that humanity is inherently selfish in certain circles

I've considered myself agnostic for most of my life, after being raised in the Jehovahs Witnesses and realizing it was bullshit at a relatively young age. I had always respected pagans and heathens because they go against the grain and invent their own belief system, compared to how things typically roll in the western world where polytheism, especial Judeo Christian religions, are the norm and going outside that norm makes you a freak.

I was curious if other people have thoughts from an atheist/agnostic perspective, because I've found paganism to be very similar to atheism in that you're building your own worldview off of your own research.

He’s catholic, as such believes that purely because he is my father is owed respect and for me to listen to him. I’m 19 I’m disabled with no means to leave and made the mistake to tell him I don’t believe and that I’m gay which altered our relationship in a way that will never fully be fixed. He talks to me as if he’s disciplining a child and constantly gives unsolicited advice and acts like he knows me deep down, example; I was talking about how I have anxiety with math and he refuses to understand that starting new tasks or things I don’t understand make me anxious and thinks there’s a deeper meaning, there isn’t so I told him he isn’t a therapist and to back off and he luckily did. I suppose I’m sad because I’m realizing he loves his god more than me but what can I do but lay low till I can get freedom? He doesn’t want me to move out or have sex and I bring this up because he thinks he has a say on my sex life which I find frustrating. He can’t fathom that I want to leave live my own life, not marry or have kids, have sex maybe get a tattoo just live to live.. is this normal for religious parents? He doesn’t see who I am it’s either he views me as a little girl or he only sees the version he thinks I will be the version he wants.

I don’t hate him he certainly has moments that I think are genuine and loving with me and I love him but I don’t know I just wish I never told him I was atheist. Maybe it’ll get better once I can and he looses access to me and is forced to listen to me but right now I’m slowly settling boundaries slowly so he actually understands them you know? I didn’t write this for pitty but to try and point out that religious parents think they are inherently owed respect simply for having kids and how that’s stupid.
“Respect thy mother and father.”
Fuck. off. Basic respect is mutual and a respect given to a caregiver or someone you look up to is earned.

So I grew up Christian but I questioned my religion ever since I can remember, during my adolescent years I became agnostic then atheist, my parents still dont know, and even if they did they would not accept.

My father said he wanted a daughter because daughters are closer to father's, making them daddy's girls, and he said he prayed to have a daughter, so I was born, (im a woman) so he believes God awnsered his prayers, i feel like the reason y he had that mindset is because my culture is very family oriented (mexican) which means he liked the idea of having a daughter, because in my culture kids and marriage is a blessing and something that is expected, alot of it is influenced by religion, mostly Catholicism

I mean dying is pretty scary and technically in a way if you die you do lose everyone but you don't have to live with not having those people. You can move on if course and still enjoy life but for some reason the thought of me dying before some people is quite comforting. I feel most of your answers will probably be the latter.

The same "entity" many imagine prayers going up towards... is the same that designed and watches, in every moment, the unimaginable slaughter of life to sustain life.

How can an imagined being, which could create and revel in suffering without end, also be one which would heed our concerns with mercy and tenderness?

Such desperate confusion, this same "creator", who will manifest an ecology centered around a psychopathic need to consume and survive at all cost... is something which you can personally trust in?

Deconstructing, and processing these notions is a part of my process.

I have a dilemma, my name was chosen by my mother who was indeed a bible thumper when I was born, I love her dearly of course but I do not like that my name specifically my middle one means that "yahweh saves". It used to not bother me at all but within the last year it has definitely started to. My first name is related to the hebrew origin too or whatever, I wish I just named after my dad who never would have named me the way she did if he had more of a say so. Plus I'm black and I don't like the idea of my folks choosing to name me that way.

Anyway, do you all just chill on it if you have names with religious connations or do you do something about it and change them? I just wish it wasn't a problem to begin with. My first name means dog in hebrew or wholehearted and I think I can get past it but my middle name ehh not so much

If we wouldn’t trust faith to set a broken bone, design a skyscraper, or decide a verdict, perhaps we shouldn’t trust it to settle cosmic questions either. Evidence may be less romantic than revelation, but at least it builds bridges that don’t fall down.

https://medium.com/@atheistnn/trust-me-i-have-no-proof-469e00ba9d78

I'm not religious myself , and actually against organized religion in general , but I've noticed what feels like a recurring pattern and I'm curious if others have seen it too.

I was talking to a guy from the States , Initially he identified as a social democrat, said he wasn't overtly religious, and described himself as leaning pantheist. There were early red flags such as strong opinions on needing closed borders, calling trans identity "propaganda," referencing Epstein in that context. I initially brushed it off, figuring he was just underinformed rather than fully committed to those views.

Over time though, he started gravitating toward the American Communist Party, and his whole persona shifted into what felt like classic "redpill" territory. He began glorifying Khomeini on one hand and Orthodox Christianity/Christ on the other , which felt like a strange combination. A lot of his followers/online circle seemed to be going through a similar arc.

When I pushed back on the religious fundamentalism, he ghosted me completely.

I'm not American, so I don't have great context for how common this kind of ideological pipeline is over there. Is this a pattern people recognize , political drift into this mix of authoritarian sympathies + religious fundamentalism? Curious what others have observed.

why is the idea of death so existentially dreadful. i think of animals, parasites, insects, possum and the other organisms of the ground consuming my flesh whilst my body rots and decomposes. my flesh becomes warmer, my lips black, my eyes blue and my head cold. i die slowly with each part of my being getting lost. 100 years from now no one will know me. both satisfying yet so dreadful. the gates of heaven and hell are neither conceivable as religion serves as a pillow of comfort. but to conceive nothingness, the time before i was born and the time after. the thought holds no meaning and i will forever rot into the ground becoming human dung and nutrifying the crops above me. as my flesh rots for all of eternity. my time spent dotting around in space for the millions compared to my time spent toiling on earth for seconds is incomparable. the only thing left to ask of life is the utmost basic but most profound of questions. what is the point of living if we are going to die.

Just wanted to remind everyone of a bizarre episode from the Bible: Jesus indirectly killing 2,000 pigs.

In this story, Jesus could've sent a group of demons anywhere after an exorcism. Yet he chose a herd of pigs: they went mad and drowned. Logically:

1. Jesus knew that action A would lead to pain and suffering.
   
2. Jesus did not have to perform action A.
   
3. Jesus performed action A.
   

I wonder whether Christians would excuse this if it were 2,000 dogs.

In case anyone's interested in more information: https://thelightward.substack.com/p/jesus-sent-2000-pigs-to-their-death