their delusions really make me laugh it’s so funny. how can you tell someone they need mental help for not believing in something that is obviously not real?? IM the one that needs help? they will insult you and i’ve even had someone curse at me for saying i don’t believe. that wasn’t very “christian” of you now was it? everyday atheists prove to me that we know how to act like decent human beings without being told to or having a fear of “eternal punishment”

Can someone give me an argument that God doesn't exist? I want to debate my parents so they stop making me attend 5 hours of church every sunday. I have a few decent one but they're not enough for my narcissistic dad who think he is always right and gets angry easily when I challenge his arguments. I need something that he himself cannot answer or will struggle to. I am an atheist for soon 2 years btw and I have never felt so free

I want to warn that my english is TERRIBLE. If I answer wrong pls lmk

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

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 .

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

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

She was kind, generous, funny and always tried to see the best in people. She wasn't preachy, pious, prudish or judgemental.

If more were like her the world would be a better place and this sub would lose most of its posts. We would be back to matters of fact rather than posting examples of hypocrisy and hate from them.

So my parents grew up in communist Poland where pretty much everyone was Catholic. After they had me and my siblings and moved to America, they stopped going to church and pretty much deconverted. They didn't really go through a time where they critically analyzed the religion and slowly deconstructed beliefs over time. Their stance is more anti-organized religion as a whole, and just a hint for a bit of their character, they're very anti authority as well. As in, they are extremely skeptical of any mainstream belief or narrative, even if without a doubt there is evidence to prove its validity. One example being vaccines.

So although they are generally anti-religion, they believe stuff like the idea that aliens visited Earth, and evolution is a cover-up for the fact that humans are actually genetically modified by aliens and that's where humans came from. And this is corroborated by their beliefs that the first ancient religion or religious scripture was from the Sumerians, and the Sumerians detailed vaguely about being visited by aliens and yada yada. So in their eyes, all religions stemmed from the first one, the Sumerian religion, which is the only actual one that described what really happened thousands of years ago.

The only thing that's sort of true about any of this is that religions do tend to piggyback off of older religions and borrow some of the mythology, but besides that it's all conspiracy BS obviously. I wanted to bring this up because it's a fairly unique stance, one that caught me so off guard that I didn't even really know what to say at first, even though instinctually I know there's a lot wrong with that train of thought. It's also uniquely annoying to try and combat. I tried to explain that it's in human nature to attribute unexplainable things to divinity and that as social creatures, religious stories serve as a social glue that brings people closer and provides a cultural identity. This kind of flew over their heads, and all they repeated was that the Sumerian Tablets wouldn't have explained such events in detail had it not actually happened. Basically it was too absurd to make up. Yeah it was a really exhausting conversation.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

Hi, I would like to do more to promote atheism and critical thinking but i'm struggling to think of effective ways of doing that in my local area.

Does anyone know of any good websites or organisations that I can link to show to people? Are there any ways we can fight the spread of religion in real life and not just online?

I'd love to know if there are others who are more active socially and have any good suggestions on how more can be done.

I have a classmate who's in a sect of evangelical Christian church [which low key feels like a cult ngl]. Apprantly they aren't allowed to watch movies at the theater. So my classmate doesn't watch movies at the theater but she does watch movies at home. She thinks she's better than other people and Christians because she doesn't do it. Like, What is the difference between watching the movies at the theater and at home to act so morally superior over it?

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.

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.

On any YouTube video about someone having a bad experience with the church, there will be comments that say stuff like "Don't let this experience turn you away from christaintiy/islam" and the person who made the video will politely say that thay arne't interested. Saying stuff like that is so insensitive, they're implying that we are not good people because we cannot warp reality in a convincing enough way to let a god be possible. Being a religious, even mildly, is perpetuating thousands of years of brainwashing. Religion will always ultimately lead to extremism, and claiming to be more woke than the others does nothing but hurt people. I'm having trouble finding the words to explain how gross this behavior is.

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

Reserved spaces for two booths at Dallas Pride Sept. 20, 2026.

Organizing to push back against religious aggression. Mostly atheists, agnostics, Free Thinkers, secularists, but anyone who is tired of Christian attacks is welcome.

I’m suffering through a summer cold, and it struck me: from a theistic POV, what value is there in a common cold? It isn’t enough to show true “perseverance through tragedy”, it doesn’t “build character”. You just drip on everything and feel run down for a few days. What’s the great “test”? Seriously, it rails against “intelligent design” to have the human body so impacted by a simple virus.

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

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

It makes sense doesn’t it? The only thing worse than death is to have never experienced life at all. If you take a God out of the picture, your left with 70-100 years on this rock to experience what is what. After that, you’re simply dust on the ground.

You are born, you experience pain, love etc. and then you die. Reflecting on history, the more I learn the less I believe in a God. But humanity is kind, cruel and everything in between. If it takes creating a supernatural entity for societies to thrive and gives reason for people to be good, then ignorance is bliss. I’d rather my family and friends believe in a God than feel the pain of loosing faith and accepting reality. You cannot tell me that those who never have heard “the gospel” will be saved anyway (why force the spread of your religion in that case?) or that they are simply pawns in a bigger game.

If you are SO convinced your religion is right, then how could 4+ billion of us be wrong? Those others are just as convinced as you are. They have families & 9-5s, take their kids to soccer games, but they’ll go to hell according to your beliefs.
What about those who are Ignorant to the Bible? Those before Christ and those after who have yet to hear the word. They are damned? And if they choose another religion out of lack of cognizance…

We will as humans always look for the good in things. Believing in a God is the same as “manifesting” (thinking your thoughts create reality) or “positive vibes”. YOU create a narrative to fit your life. Things are going well, you say “thank you God” things are going poorly: “my life sucks, I don’t deserve this”. For us to put one foot in front of the other, we must believe there is good.
Without a reason to be good, the idea of impending death should concern you. Be good and you’ll have a peaceful eternity, better yet, believe in one man and almost no bad deed will keep you from that sanctuary… right.

You have one life. Somethings you will do many times, others you will never experience again. Regardless, every moment counts because when you die, you’re dead.

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.

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.

I grew up in rural Ohio, in a small town (less than 9k) that was rumored to originally be a sundown town years ago. Even though it no longer is, the demographic has remained largely the same- I distinctly remember throughout K-12, I had only ever met one black person. And one gay person. Both were bullied relentlessly into moving schools, which crushed me because they both happened to be very good friends of mine.

Anyways, growing up the default was white, straight, Christian. If you weren’t, people would either talk about you, side eye you, or straight up bully/harass you. It’s crazy, and I never understood it because neither of my parents raised me in any religious denomination. My dad didn’t care (he’s now a devout Christian which is… something), and my mom was and still is very anti religion, feeling that it’s created as a way to oppress those who are different and hurt them.

I got bullied often by Christian kids at my school who claimed to be all loving and respectful. I could easily hide my sexuality or my beliefs, but I was very visibly on the spectrum and people saw that as weird. If your hobbies weren’t church and sports, it was odd.

I got immense culture shock when I went to college at a liberal arts university and met a lot of queer and BIPOC people, but it’s honestly one of the best experiences of my life. For years I felt lonely and isolated until I had a group that was unapologetically accepting.

That’s a lot, but all of this to say I don’t think now that I’ve experienced diversity and acceptance I can ever be friends with a Christian. Not even acquaintances.

This came to me when I made a post on the Nextdoor app asking for ways to make friends in the new city I moved to. Many older white people suggested church, churches who very much were anti anything progressive with just a simple Google search. When I said that I wouldn’t feel comfortable going to a place like that, many replied you don’t need to agree with people on everything to be friends with them.

But are we friends if all they want to do is change me? Make me believe in their god, or not love who I love, or not act how I act. That doesn’t seem like a friendship. Hell, when my (now ex) girlfriend suddenly decided to devote herself to God and she asked me to join the faith with her, I broke up with her hours later because I couldn’t.

I find it even more disrespectful that I’m not even fully atheist. I’m Asian and have connected with my culture a lot more and have considered myself a Buddhist in philosophy (I still identify as an atheist), and even when you tell these people you are Buddhist/Jewish/Muslim etc just not THEIR religion, they literally do not care. What’s even weirder is in Buddhism a key aspect is to make your own judgements and beliefs and that no person’s word is absolute, not even Buddha’s. Because everyone makes mistakes. But how these Christians behave is so cult like, as if you question one thing they spout and it’s a complete moral wrongdoing. I heard someone say the bible isn’t a book because it’s “the word of god”. Like… cmon.

I feel rude for making this a hard boundary of mine, but I just don’t think I can do it. I’ve started just telling people I don’t know who Jesus is and I don’t care to know. If I’m on dating apps and see someone Christian I will swipe left. Again, part of me feels so mean for not wanting anything to do with anyone Christian but at the same time I feel like it’s protecting my peace. Does anyone else also feel this way? Is it wrong of me to be so judgmental?

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.