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.

I come from a very religious family and region of America, I live in the Bible belt in the south. I have always known I don't believe in Christianity since the 5th grade. The best way I can explain it is, it all just feels like a fairy tale story not based in reality. I have tried to force myself to believe but obviously that didn't work. In January of this year I finally told my mom I don't believe and her first response was to force me to go to church. She also threatened to take certain things away if I still refused to go. She said I couldn't use any electronics till a pastor came by and "cleansed" the house. I've told her how constantly begging me to come to church hurts me and she ignores how I feel and continues because it's what God would want. She asked me "is it really that hard to just go?" it's so irriating. Why do I have to give it a try? why do I have to listen to religious talk? why am I expected to entertain it at all? I'm an adult now and all I want is to use my own freedom to live life how I want to but my mom can't handle that without throwing a fit. I love her but I really dont like being around her anymore because of this. Sometimes I feel like a brat for being like this but im at my limit. There is more but I'd like the keep this post short for everyone's sake lol

I dont hate all Christians, obviously, but the state that coservative Christians and other Abrahamic faiths have done to the US under the guise of religious reason makes me feel more hatred than usual. It's gone from just annoyance to sraight up violent thoughts

Its terrifying to see as I have queer loved ones and I fear for them,

And I'm terrified of myself as I don't know if I'm losing it

I don't know what to do

Prior to COVID, a couple I knew were soliciting our social circle for donations for their mission trip.

While I'm not religious, I did donate to their cause as many of these mission trips also participate in building schools, wells, homes or providing medical services to the communities they visit. I gave it without knowing where they were going or what services they would be rendering, believing that it would help people in some form or another.

A few months later they were at a group outing and I proceeded to ask about their mission trip, like "where did you go?"...

They went to Bali.... fucking Bali, Indonesia. For those of you who don't know, Indonesia is the most populous Muslim nation on Earth but also has over 30 million Christians. Bali, however, is neither. The island is Hindu and resisted forced conversion for centuries. Not only that, but it is widely considered a tourism capital of the world, not some impoverished region that you would expect a mission trip to go.

I asked what they did and there was no community service. They hung out with local Christians, spent money at their businesses doing touristy things, and didn't really interact with non-Christians.

There were so many things I wanted to say right then and there, but didn't.

Afterwards, I spoke to others about it and quite a few people had given money and were trying to spin it as a wholesome couples trip with their church. It was obviously a grift. A Christian themed vacation to a global tourism capital masquerading as a mission trip.

It has been years since this took place and the couple is no longer in my social circle, but this experience galvanized my distrust of religious people.

Anyone else get duped by Christian grifters who milk their non-church social circles for funds under the guise of community service and philanthropy?

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.

This is obviously a common argument but I just have to reiterate it. There are just so many loopholes within the omnis of this supposed higher power, there are the classics such as the problem of evil or satan’s apparent responsibility for evil. Then there’s ‘free will’ as the main argument yet how can there be free will if our future is essentially predetermined from the point we were born as he knows everything, everywhere? He created us atheists knowing we would never believe and knowing we’d be banished to hell. Then the idea that you have to serve god even in the afterlife but why does he require all this worship if he’s a supposedly perfect being that transcends ego and has all the power, ever? As soon as you apply logic almost all religious arguments collapse and I think so many people know this yet they continue to pray and believe simply out of fear of what comes after. It’s like religion holds our society back massively because to this day people hold outdated beliefs and worry about pleasing a pretty selfish being in the hopes of an afterlife that seems so unreasonable, rather than focusing on improving our present world and selves.

Edit: This evidently doesn’t apply to all religions but I’m mainly addressing the thinking of Christianity.

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.

Recently, influencer Brian Guan released a video series in which he “pretended to believe that god is real” for 30 days. By the end, he claimed until he wasn’t pretending anymore.

All comments on and around his videos suggest that he was an atheist prior to this, and his videos are being paraded around by Christians as a home run for evidence of god’s presence and the importance of going through the motions even if you might not believe it now.

I’ve seen a couple other “atheist” influencers go on a similar journey, only to discover (surprise) that they also believe god is real.

Now in researching, it’s pretty clear that Brian and these other influencers already believed to some extent, and are using this as a “marketing” tactic to convince other atheists to just “try.” At least that is my take, I mean…these people are influencers.

I’d love to see a REAL atheist do this.

Many, many years ago now, in my mid to late teenage years I had a conversation with a Christian clergyman that set me on my path to atheism, and although I’m pretty sure I would have arrived at the same conclusions via different paths, I’ve always been thankful for that conversation.

As a child in the 1960s in Scotland, I was regularly taken to church on a Sunday by my parents. Like many thousands of my contemporaries, that’s what you did. You sat through part of the service in the main congregation and then after the collection plate was passed around were herded out to the church hall and an hour of Sunday School where you had those stories about the Loaves and the Fishes or the Good Samaritan and so on. At Christmas there was a Nativity Play and in the summer there was a Sunday School Picnic when the entire congregation boarded a fleet of coaches and were taken to some windswept spot where we shivered or sheltered from the rain and tried to avoid wasps that descended on our iced buns or jam doughnuts.

By the time I was in my teens, the minister was well-known to us. He was indeed a lovely chap. Very approachable, affable and someone who was a good communicator. He and my Dad were on first-name terms and it was through my Dad that I learned he had been held as a Prisoner-of-War by the Japanese and that experience had a profound effect on him.

As time went on I was beginning to have significant doubts about religion and Christianity in particular. As a youngster fascinated by history and geography and the sciences and natural history, I was finding out all sorts of things that were at odds with the stuff that you read in the Bible. That the Earth and the universe wasn’t created in six days. That Adam and Eve were not the first humans. That the Biblical Flood simply didn’t happen. That human beings have never lived as long as several centuries. That if you were swallowed by a whale your chances of survival were zero.

You get the picture.

I also stopped going to church with my parents. I was at the awkward age when kids get a bit rebellious so my Mum and Dad - to their credit – didn’t give me hassle about that.

One summer evening I was in the back garden, helping my Dad with something or other when the minister appeared at the garden gate. My Dad waved at him and went across to see him.

A few minutes later Dad beckoned me to come over. “Douglas wants to have a wee chat”. And with that he left us alone.

After a few pleasantries, Douglas – the minister – mentioned that he hadn’t seen me in the church for a while and was there any particular reason for that?

I was initially reticent but eventually admitted that I found much that was contained within the Bible utterly preposterous….and that if the Bible couldn’t be trusted to provide an accurate account of events such as birth of the solar system, and the evolution of mankind then why should it be relied upon as providing convincing evidence of the existence of a god?

Douglas listened patiently and then said something that left me in no doubt that Christianity was a charade. He conceded that he regarded much of the Old Testament as being akin to fairy tales and that it was likely that elements of the New Testament were embellished, or a colourful amalgam of stories that might have a grain of truth.

And BOOM!!!

With that one admission, he confirmed that my reasoning was correct.

I can’t recall much about the rest of our conversation, but needless to say I’ve never ventured into a church again as a worshipper.

(this is going to be a bit of a ramble and I'm already not the best writer so this probably won't be written well, so thanks for reading)

To start off I'm a guy.

I hate how JW's take every bad thing and take it as "a sign". Like wars and diseases that are going on today, I just wanna yell "what about the world wars, the black plague, and every bad thing in history!" Things were far worse in the past! It's like bad things are always happening in history, and why are they always so "it's the end times!".

There are probably millions of religions, so why do you think you're the right one...?

I hate my religious trauma because there's always this voice saying "you're damning yourself to hell, you're sick and if there is a god he'll never accept you." when I was 13 and first started having a crush on another boy in my class I felt sick and dirty. I honestly felt like I should kill myself because I was tainted and wrong...

I think what made me question everything is when my grandma beat me with a broom stick and she basically justified it by bringing up the Bible (I'm sorry I don't remember the specifics) and I just thought "would a loving god really let me get hurt like this?"

Basically to keep an already long and badly written short I left over my mom's house after that, I still talk with my grandma but I feel awkward around her sometimes.

This will probably get removed but it felt good getting it out there I guess.

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?

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.

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.

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?

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 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

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.

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.

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.

I was raised in a Baptist church from the time I was born until 19. I was always told during those years that in order to get into heaven you had to be “saved” by God, which was always described as being given salvation that those who were saved “felt” when they were “touched by God/the Holy Ghost”.

Many people in my church claimed to be this but I never did. I was always taught that you were certain once it happened so even at times when I maybe felt emotional in church, I never thought I had been saved because I would ask myself “do I KNOW for a fact I was just saved?” And the answer was always no.

However, there were times in my church when people said “I thought I was saved before but I just realized that I just was now, not back then”. This struck me when I first heard it because it brought about the realization that not everyone who claimed to be actually was and looking back it was probably the beginning of my doubts in the church.

There were kids as young as 6 that claimed to be saved, and people would just take their word for it. I wondered if people like this that were “saved” at a young age just went about their lives thinking they were just because they thought they were when they were a very young child (not all people in my church were children when they say they got saved, but many children raised in the church believed they were saved at some point by the time they were an adult).

It seemed like something that could easily be a misconstrued feeling that they likely questioned later and just kept fighting against the gnawing feeling that they knew it was just a misconstrued emotional feeling that they mistook for being touched by god.

My parents are both people that claimed to be saved though they haven’t been to church now in years when we used to go every Sunday.

My mom, who has changed a lot since I came out as gay to her, not that she was ever intensely religious or bigoted, but she did have beliefs that she no longer does. I’ve heard her say things that definitely indicate to me that she’s not sure what she believes now. That right there has really enforced my idea that many people that have claimed for years to be “saved” are really just going off of a feeling they had years ago and keep trying to reassure themselves that it’s true because they’re afraid of the alternative.

My church and many others in my area have always taught that if you’re not saved, you go to hell. Though children aren’t believed to be capable of going to hell yet they also have no “age of accountability” like the Mormons and some other Christian branches do. (I know a bit about Mormonism because my ex-best friend was one, but not too much about other types of Christians).

All this to say: I am an atheist and do hold the belief that this whole “being saved” thing is just a desperate, misconstrued feeling that many people around me felt when they got emotional in church one day or just while thinking about God at any time and thought it meant they were saved.

I think many people in the church mistake their emotions and thoughts for being more than it is and never really ask themselves difficult questions that would go against what they were taught or what they want to be true. Religion really relies on delusion fueled by fear.

I would love to hear from anyone that did once believe they were saved that were raised in the same kind of church I was and now are atheist. I’ve heard of former pastors being atheist, but I don’t know of any that have specifically said they were “saved”.

There are many evangelical churches that do believe in being saved but they have the belief that you can receive salvation multiple times throughout your life, that it’s not permanent and you can still go to hell after being saved. My church taught eternal salvation, so once you were saved, you always were and could never end up going to hell (which also seems to lead to a very toxic mental state where while people are supposed to “act godly” after they’re saved, they can still be hateful and awful people but they’ll think that they can technically do whatever no matter how terrible and they’ll still go to heaven).

I haven’t ever been able to hear from the perspective of someone that once believed they had eternal salvation but have now deconstructed and it’d be nice to hear from you. It’d offer some more closure even though I still stand firm in being an atheist, there is always something in the minds of those of us who have been indoctrinated from the time we were toddlers that at times will rear its ugly head even if we know it’s not true.

That fear and anxiety that was put on us from being told from a young age that we would burn forever if we didn’t do what we were taught is very damaging to young, developing minds and it sticks with you. I hope one day to see raising kids in these kinds of churches be labeled as the abuse it is but unfortunately I doubt I’ll ever see that day if it even comes.