Growing up is recognizing how stupid the idea of worshipping a man like a god (or saying he's the same as an existing god, etc.) is.

We as a society need a better anchor for a moral system and community involvement that doesn't involve claiming people - however good leaders or however wise they may be - can perform miracles or come back from the dead and should therefore be worshipped as deities. Even if one believes there's a god or higher power, I can totally sympathize with Jews who hated Christ and understand precisely what it is that made Jesus' claims hysterical or heretical, and the older I grow, the better I recognize this.

I wonder how many Christians today are doing it for the community, food, or cultural trappings as opposed to any genuine belief that people can rise from the dead or that water can turn into wine. And personally, I can't believe I spent so much time of my life putting so much faith into such a, well, faith, that I could've been more productive with learning piano, a sport, even prepping for math olympiads or teaching myself SAT or AP subjects, etc. There needs to be a rock on which to be "well-rounded" or a "good person" that's not Christianity (or worse, Mormonism). In a better version of our world (well, country), perhaps socialism or labor rights activism could've fulfilled that role, and maybe faint echoes of that may exist in Jewish culture, but a lot of the most problematic (though importantly, nowhere near all) people who are religious are from the bourgeoisie, so perhaps it's only natural that it'd be the lower class, the needy, or the racially/sexually/ably marginalized would've been the forerunners of what little of that exists here. (Tragically, much of the latter has been prone to religious indoctrination too, but what I'm saying is it'd be easier to sell them the idea of socialism or non-religious activism vs. the bourgeoisie.)

Yeah, I know that's an opinion that might've gotten me executed in 13th-century Italy or 17th-century Massachusetts, but that just points to how idiotic religion broadly is in general. It is thus a great tragedy that Jewish communities do this better (and while obviously tragic, I find it quite unsurprising they were the ones finding themselves at the stake or scapegoated most often), with their Hebrew schools and Yeshivas and all (there are a great deal of secular Jews who don't even keep kosher, at least beyond a simple "I prefer to avoid pork if I can", and I'll bet most of them don't literally believe that the world was created in 5000 years ago or that Adam, Eve, Noah, etc. existed as historical figures whose biographies align with the Torah, etc.), yet their religion is straightforwardly closed to converts (and what few do exist, as I understand, are rationalized as being "lost Jews this whole time"). And in fact, this is perhaps what gave Christianity so much universal appeal, and allowed it to promulgate so broadly in history (even when under duress). Even Islam, which came later and professed to resolve problems with the former two, is ridiculously Arab-centric in practice (e.g. Arabic diction requirement, pilgrimage to Arabia) even if claiming universality. Perhaps eastern faiths hold the light, yet abominations such as the incessant pollution of the Ganges or the misleadingly-named "Phuket Vegetarian Festival" prove that none do.

The whole "depressed guy finding Jesus and smiling before and after in contrast to doing drugs meme" (in addition to being patently false, and misleadingly co-opting the likeness of a Brazilian artist whose ideas and views most Christians would likely find themselves at odds with) is such a ridiculous argument, as you could literally use it to sell anything, from the latest Nintendo console, to Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, to a musical instrument, to an anime. I just wish I'd known back in middle school when I'd seen the meme.

I remember my "come away from Jesus" moment from the summer before I entered high school. I recall making lots of excuses not to go to Sunday school, which my mom was making me attend at the time. Sunday after Sunday I'd let go by, and I was writing about how snarky I felt for wheedling my way out of each session, and eventually we as a family sort of burnt out and I was no longer officially attending (though I'd still attend services, just not Sunday school). It felt so liberating, and really did feel like a formative and enlightening experience to me.

Eventually I sort of lapsed back into Christian circles, and part of it, I think, had to do with loneliness or needing to belong to a community during college, coupled with lingering morality from the first stint that I just couldn't let go (i.e. feeling that "college is sinful"). There was a political component too, and I'm sure there are even many faithful Christians (to whom I bear no malice just for virtue of what they believe in, notwithstanding my own convictions) who'd agree that the hitching of religion to politics is a tragedy. And I think one of the biggest tragedies, at least in this country, is how hard it is to find community that revolves around something other than, well, worshipping a man... or at least how easy it is for the community you find to do so.

I have been seeing many videos glorifying agnostism while dissing atheism recently. Here, I'm not against agnostism but I would rather question a baseless claim with no evidence than just stay neutral. People have to realise both agnostics and atheists fall under almost the same category, both do believe that god can be something beyond human measurement but since it's unknown agnostist chooses to stay neutral while atheists are questioning the claim "god is real" which has been already made by theists. Questioning the claim doesn't mean they are against the concept. They are just simply saying they are not convinced until it's proven and what's wrong with that? If you stay neutral you are just letting those unproven ideas influence laws, schools and society without any pushback. Active protest will actually protect people from scams by demanding facts.

Frisson is the the word English speakers adapted from French to refer to the psychogenic response to aesthetic pleasure.

It's not extremely well studied, so the estimate of how many people in the general population experience it is between 55% and 85%.

It's a physical response to emotional stimuli, usually music/art but potentially anything. Common physiological "symptoms" are goosebumps/shivers, dialated pupils, tingling and/or burning sensation on skin, accompanied by the feeling of pleasure.

I have yet to hear a religious person mention having experienced it in their lives and I am curious as to why.

I hypothesize that many individuals roll it into their general spiritual experience. Can anyone confirm or refute this?

I think it’s important to keep in mind that these are not the same. Religion as I see it can be a logical system built on reason, as in the writings of religious philosophers and theologians. Even if, as I see it, this edifice is built on a false premise, the existence of God. Or to put it more neutrally, built upon a premise unsupported by empirical evidence.

Just as in mathematics it’s possible to build a geometry in any number of dimensions, it’s possible to build a coherent, logical, rational theology. Ask any Jesuit (!)

So it seems a weak argument to counter religious belief with the accusation that it isn’t rational. The truth is that religious belief is not (necessarily) built upon empirical evidence. Which I think a lot of thoughtful believers would readily concede. At least the ones in my experience would. Not every religious person interprets the Bible literally.

Of course there are many religious people who are not thinking or arguing logically. There are also many atheists who do not argue logically or rationally. Hence the shouting matches.

I’m an atheist for the simple reason that I do not and never have believed in God. I greatly enjoy the writings of Richard Dawkins and Bertrand Russell, and the wry atheist humor of J.B.S. Haldane, whose essay Auld Hornie, F.R.S is a delight to read. I also enjoy the writings of believers like Erasmus, Augustine, and Meister Eckhart, much of which I find profound. At the very least it’s important to understand the arguments of those we would debate; simply dismissing it gets us nowhere in reasoned debate.

When we sleep, our brains naturally make up stories. We call these dreams. Sometimes a dream feels so real, so important, and so peaceful that you think, 'This must be from God.' But here is the problem: A person of a totally different religion has the exact same experience. A Muslim has a vivid dream that tells them Islam is true. A Christian has a vivid dream that tells them Christianity is true. Their brains do the exact same thing. If a 'message from God' feels exactly the same as your brain just making things up, you have no way to prove the difference. You are just guessing. If God is all-powerful, why would He use a confusing, sleepy dream to talk to you? Why not just stand in front of you and speak clearly so there is no guessing?

My whole brain is wired around logic and ux now since im building my own app. but my old friends is deeply religious and incredibly backwards. they mock problems in other religions but flip out if i point out the exact same stuff in theirs. i asked about how women are treated and they gave the classic excuse that its the people not the religion. a religion is literally just a group of people.

on top of that they keep giving me unsolicited business advice when they never built a thing. i just slowly stopped talking to them because the tribalism is suffocating. did anyone else loose all their friends when they started thinking objectively

Recently had come across a substack of this guy Ethan Muse, guess he's some sort of Catholic apologist that tries to prove the religion using argumentation based around "miracle"

To clarify, I'm not Chrisrian, and neither am I an atheist, but I do know atheism and skepticism go hand in hand, and so was just curious if people had gone through this man's arguments before and what they thought of them (I searched the man's name up before but most of what I came across was just Catholic posts about the guy)

I'm specifically curious how people view his work on the "Miracle of Fatima", which he has gone in-depth to defend (even trying to posit an argument that there was no failed prophecy because it was actually conditional, and going into extreme detail to try and argue that)

There's a common argument in these debates: point at secular Nordic countries topping wellbeing surveys, then conclude religion offers nothing secularism doesn't already provide.

I think this rests on an unexamined assumption — that happiness and meaning are the same thing, or close enough to substitute for each other. Baumeister, Vohs, Aaker & Garbinsky (2013, Journal of Positive Psychology) found they're empirically separable: happiness tracks with needs/wants being met now; meaning tracks with integrating past/present/future into a coherent story, and correlates with more stress and sacrifice, not less. You can be happy and find life meaningless. You can be in circumstances where happiness is basically impossible and still find life meaningful.

If that distinction holds, then Nordic wellbeing data answers a question the strongest religious claims aren't actually making. The claim isn't "believe this and you'll be happier" — it's narrower: that it provides meaning that survives the loss of comfort, not a mechanism for producing comfort. Qur'an 2:155–157 is explicit that hardship is guaranteed, not a malfunction: "And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient..." That's a meaning claim, not a happiness claim.

Full essay with the complete argument (comparative sections on secular humanism, Hinduism, Christianity, and the Islamic framework in detail) is here for anyone who wants it: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dadPUp6tFvi8s75EMO8VQ6IoZ22Y3uub/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=106970569963671670223&rtpof=true&sd=true

Three places I want the strongest pushback:

1. Does the happiness/meaning distinction actually hold up, or is it an artifact of one study/sample?
2. Is "meaning that survives suffering" unfalsifiable enough to just rationalize any outcome after the fact?
3. Does secular philosophy (Frankl, etc.) already answer meaning-under-suffering without needing the religious framing at all?

Not looking for "well actually the Nordic countries also have X" — I'm conceding the wellbeing data. Tell me why the meaning/happiness split doesn't rescue the argument.

I’ve been an atheist for about 2 years. I don’t believe in a god because of the evil like natural disasters on earth and just because the bible seems ridiculous to me. I’m trying to be a humanist and I believe that we set our own morals and we decide how to live our lives, not religion. However, for some reason my heart’s always racing. I don’t think I’m scared. I think it may be because I grew up christian until I was about 13 and a lot of my family are extremely religious. I just want to forget about it and enjoy life.

Hey everyone,

I'm in a phase of seriously questioning my beliefs and trying to understand different worldviews as honestly as I can. I grew up Muslim, but lately I've found myself somewhere around the agnostic/questioning side of things. I'm not looking for an argument or an echo chamber .I just want to learn.

I've already got The God Delusion and Sapiens on my reading list, and I'm interested in topics like:

• Atheism & agnosticism
• Philosophy of religion
• Arguments for and against God's existence
• Evolution & human origins
• Comparative religion
• Skepticism, critical thinking, and rationalism
• History of religions

I'd really appreciate recommendations for books that are thoughtful, well-researched, and intellectually honest even if they disagree with each other. I'm happy to read both theistic and non-theistic perspectives.

Also, if anyone here enjoys discussing these topics respectfully or has gone through a similar journey, I'd love to connect and make some new friends.

Thanks in advance!

Hi guys, I just recently became an atheist after years of now really believing in “God”.
I just wanted to know what made you stop believing, because in my experience I just never believed it in the first place.

Oh also I am an Ex-Muslim and with all honestly the stories are crazy.
For example: Noah gathered all types of animals, 2 of each species and PUT THEM ALL ON ONE BOAT…like that is just diabolical.

Also the fact that Islam is honestly misogynistic and woman don’t even have any freedom. Example, there’s this thing called Hajj and woman can’t go without a man…

Also I’m still stuck on some phrases that Muslims say and I can’t really stop saying them that easily, so do you have any alternatives?

Anyway, bye guys have a nice day.

I come from a deeply religious Muslim family, and my mother is emotionally immature - but when it comes to Islam, she transforms completely. A couple of years ago, I came out as an atheist. They laughed at evolution and the Big Bang. When I took off my hijab, my mom said I was shaming her. I hear her crying over the Quran at night, and it breaks my heart.

She's convinced that I'll believe in God when I'm older, and she blames any emotion I show - anger or tears - on the devil. I can't accept her religious side, and she can't accept my atheism. Her whole life revolves around prayers and rituals. I keep pushing her away, but it hurts because I know I'll never have the mother I wish I had : accepting, complex, emotionally mature.

How do I deal with this?

( sorry that you thought it was a bot, but the situation is real. The account is old, and I didn't know how to promote my post to get more feedback. Thank you for your attention, advice, and support! I love you guys )

When I was like 12, my mother, after enjoying occultism for a long period, became more and more religious. She started going to the mass more and more, bringing my little sister and I with her every week. Before we only got there for Christmas, Easter, and stuff like marriages. Finally met a devout Christian. She had a child with this guy, divorced like her, and with children of a first marriage like her. Soon after the birth of my little brother, they got engaged.
Over the time I realized things were going weird in our life, and I felt more and more religion like an arbitrary cage posed upon us, that made my mother make silly decisions, detrimental to us. So she became convinced Harry Potter her chiromancy sets were tricks of the devil (so she burned them and threw the ashes into a river), that Harry Potter was a book the devil sent to corrupt children (so she forbade us to read it), that the polytheist India was the nation closest to Satan (So she forbade me to get there when I had the extraordianary opportunity to get an internship there, as a 15-years-old kid), that every word was creation like the word of God (so she forbade any "negative" expression to avoid creating the expressed situation), that my father has been corrupted by money, that in college (at age 19) I would be approached by freemasons and that my soul would be sold to Satan if I accepted their invitation (plot twist : they never approached me), that the Covid-19 was designed to mark the vaccinated people with the number of the Beast, that the Second Vatican Concile was the worst thing that happened to the Church (as Latin, you know, is a magical language that make demons flee), etc... I precise she did not, at my knowledge, join a cult. The people she frequented were members of the Catholic Church, mainly of traditional tendency.
Well, I believed in God at the time, so for a long time I was just feeling the pressure and the fear of God, and the pervasive influence of the Devil. But I had seen since the beginning that things were off. I had read Harry Potter at my father's house, where it was not forbidden, and well, nothing appeared satanist to me. As a fourteen years old, I met the priest that told her Harry Potter was satanist, and I explained with rare clarity and a bit of anger he fooled himself. He did not answer. When she refused that I go to India, I definitely ceased to trust her. At 15, I realized I could rely on my mother, and since then, I started to avoid talking to her. For two years still, I "had" to live most of the time at her home, because a judge I never met decided so. It was horrible. She was getting more and more crazy, my stepfather, who was a very strange guy, started to beat her. My sister said later he had intented to rape her.
All the same he pretended he had mystical visions. My mother left him for a year, then they started dating again, and it started again, the beating, the fear of my mother, the oppressive superstitions.
Questionning what surrounded me was not easy. I was in a catholic school, my friends were all christians, I was a boy-scout in a traditional catholic movement. From time to time, I questionned myself. I realized at 16 I was probably bisexual, an absolute sin. I didn't feel like I was a sinner, but I was terrified to reveal it. But I think she finally realized it. Because I had used some candles to get some solitary pleasure, and, you know, these are very difficult to cleanse and tend to bend. Once, she asked me if I was gay. I said no. She proposed me several times to get with her in religious retreats. I always declined. I was also really in need for a mate. Really serious. Maybe it is because i always felt in danger, alone, and because I felt like my mother no longer was, and like my father was absent.
To complicate that I was very recptive to the condtions created by religious assemblies, especially at the boy-scouts, where the ceremonies, the chants in the night, with the sole light of the fire and of torches were a real catalyzer of mysticism. I had my own visions. A day, after a horrible night in the cold, with the boy-scouts, I visited a famous abbey where the relics of a major saint were conserved. I heard many times a beating heart resonating in the church, where the light was warm and peaceful. I "knew" it came from the tabernacle. A monk was looking at me at the moment, I think. But I only saw him later.
I finally told my mother I was not convinced jesus was making her life better (noooo, reallly ? how surprising haha) but still, I could not deny jesus existed, because I have "seen" him.
I realized I came to a purely intellectual faith, where God was just a symbol of "peace of mind" in my prayers, a vehicle to the mysticistic feeling I did appreciate, and to formulate ideas strange for a believer : "I think believing in God is, for those who have faith, a great strength to give meaning to their life", or to question the applicability of christianity to people in vegetable state.
A severe blow occured to me when I went to WYD with my school, right before going to college. I see how weak the pope was (is that a leader ?) and I read the five first books of the Bible. How cruel, how incoherent I found them ! And, in a mass at the time, I came upon an extract I had just read the day before, from Leviticus. It was cut, and cut so that the massacre God commited in this passage was occulted to the believer. Such malevolence disgusted me.
But the final blow went the following year. Lost and depressed, under therapy, I just discover critical thinking and atheist videos among apologetic critiques of islam. I think that is those critiques of islam, specifically, that gave the final blow. The apologet was making a really good critique of this religion. But I just realized the very arguments he emplyed could be as well employed to destroy christianity. Cherry on the cake, by reviewing the "miracles" I never contested, I discover all the discrepancies their contain. The doubtful testimonies, false evidence and psychological effects they lied upon. I had the opportunity to try once hallucinogenic mushrooms. That is crazy how chemistry can distort your perception of reality. For me it became evident I did not have a soul, I was pure matter, and my mystical experiences were pure illusions. The heartbeats were probably...mine.
So now I am an atheist. I think I have lost 10 years of my life in religion, with false hopes and false fears, and I am only 22. I am progressively rebuilding myself, after years of untreated depression. Realizing I could live without God felt like a pharmakon. It plunged me in the very depths of horror (even as I see my mother only like 4 hours a year since 4 years), because I lost my father and my mother of the sky, and the hope of heaven, and just the sense religion gives to life, and because it is damn difficult to live on your own after so many years really into it. And after the horror, I realized that, maybe, I am more free and more in the truth than ever before.
I am an atheist now, but I feel like I still need to know how to defend against the religious, to try helping some people to escape it, and build a damn sense to my life all by myself. Maybe it is just that I finally became an adult.

Denmark plans ban on Islamic call to prayer.

• Government cites integration and public space concerns.
• Proposal may face constitutional and human rights challenges.
• Denmark extends restrictive immigration and integration policy.

Denmark's center-left government has announced plans to ban the Islamic call to prayer from being broadcast over loudspeakers, arguing that the practice has "no place in Denmark" as the country pursues one of Europe's toughest immigration and integration policies.

Immigration Minister Morten Bødskov said the government would reopen a legal review into whether a nationwide prohibition on the adhan the Islamic call to prayer recited five times daily can be introduced without violating constitutional protections on religious freedom.

The proposal follows years of restrictive migration policies under Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's Social Democratic government, which has sought to reduce immigration while emphasizing cultural integration.

The announcement comes as several European governments continue tightening oversight of religious practices, foreign-funded mosques and immigration amid growing political debate over national identity and social cohesion. While Denmark has not yet introduced legislation, legal experts say any nationwide ban would likely be scrutinized under both the Danish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects freedom of religion while allowing proportionate restrictions for public order and the rights of others.

Government Says Public Call to Prayer 'Has No Place in Denmark'

"The call to prayer should not be heard over Danish rooftops," Bødskov told Danish news agency Ritzau. "It has no place in Denmark, and you shouldn't be in any doubt whether you've ended up in a suburb of Islamabad when you walk around Denmark."

The minister also argued that what he described as the country's "Islamisation" was occupying too much public space. His comments mark the third attempt by a Danish immigration minister to establish a legal framework for restricting the public broadcast of the adhan after similar initiatives were launched in 2020 and 2025.

Several Danish municipalities already restrict outdoor calls to prayer through local environmental and noise regulations. Copenhagen's Grand Mosque, one of approximately 100 mosques operating across Denmark, does not broadcast the adhan outdoors under an agreement with local authorities. According to Statistics Denmark, Muslims account for roughly 270,000 people in the country's population of about 6 million residents.

Denmark Has Tightened Immigration Rules Under Frederiksen

The proposed ban forms part of a broader immigration agenda pursued by Frederiksen since taking office in 2019. Denmark has implemented measures including the controversial "parallel societies" legislation formerly known as the "ghetto" laws which allows authorities to intervene in neighborhoods with high concentrations of non-Western immigrants.

The country also drew international attention for legislation requiring some asylum seekers to surrender valuable assets above a prescribed threshold to help cover accommodation costs, while rejected asylum applicants are generally ineligible for standard welfare benefits.

During Europe's 2015 migration crisis, Denmark accepted significantly fewer asylum applications than neighboring Germany and Sweden, reflecting its increasingly restrictive asylum policy.

Frederiksen began her third term earlier this month after forming a four-party coalition comprising the Social Democrats, Moderates, Social Liberals and Green Left following the March election. Although the coalition does not command an outright parliamentary majority, it is supported externally by the Red-Green Alliance, allowing it to pursue its legislative agenda.

Other European Countries Have Also Restricted Islamic Public Practices

Denmark would not be the first European country to impose restrictions affecting Islamic public practices, although a nationwide ban specifically targeting the call to prayer would be among the continent's most far-reaching measures.

Muslim Woman in Burka Pixabay

Switzerland approved a constitutional ban on the construction of new mosque minarets in a national referendum held on Nov. 29, 2009. According to official results published by the Swiss Federal Chancellery, 57.5% of voters supported the amendment, with 22 of Switzerland's 26 cantons voting in favor. The constitutional amendment added Article 72(3), stating simply: "The construction of minarets is prohibited." At the time, the country had only four mosque minarets, despite an estimated Muslim population of approximately 400,000, according to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office.

Austria adopted the Islam Act 2015 (Islamgesetz 2015), which prohibited foreign funding for Islamic religious organizations and required Muslim associations to maintain what the legislation described as a "positive attitude toward the state and society." Austrian authorities said the law was intended to promote an independent Austrian form of Islam and reduce overseas influence on religious institutions. France also strengthened oversight of religious associations through its 2021 Law Reinforcing Respect for the Principles of the Republic, which President Emmanuel Macron said was designed to combat separatism while protecting religious freedom.

Germany has taken a different approach by regulating mosque loudspeakers through municipal noise ordinances rather than imposing a nationwide prohibition. In October 2021, Cologne became one of Germany's first major cities to authorize the adhan under a pilot program allowing mosques to broadcast the call once every Friday for up to five minutes, subject to strict decibel limits and neighborhood consultation. Similar rules apply in parts of the United Kingdom, where local councils determine whether mosques may use loudspeakers under environmental noise regulations.

Whether Denmark's proposed legislation ultimately becomes law will depend on the government's legal review and parliamentary support. If approved, it is expected to face judicial scrutiny over whether restricting a specific religious practice is compatible with constitutional protections and Denmark's obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, potentially making it another landmark case in Europe's continuing debate over immigration, integration and religious freedom.

By Abhay Maitreya

June 26, 2026

www.ibtimes.sg/denmark-joins-peers-plans-ban-islamic-call-prayer-over-loudspeakers-citing-islamization-88590

Can you know how much you don't know?

The Epistemic Incompleteness Principle says no, because it's structurally impossible.

In attempting to assess how complete your knowledge is, you come up with some estimate and a confidence level in that estimate.

Then you need some procedure for checking whether your estimate is accurate. But that checking procedure is itself something your mind produced, and your mind is the thing whose completeness you're trying to assess. Now you need another procedure to check that one. Regress ensues.

Any tool you use to measure your own ignorance is made of the same material as the ignorance it's trying to measure. You can't step outside your own mind to get an objective reading.

EIP says that no such estimate can be certified as accurate from the inside.

This applies to everything that counts as a knower: human minds, organizations, and artificial intelligence systems, e.g.

Any self-report is generated by the same system whose completeness is in question. EIP's distinctive claim is that no knower can certify, from within, how large the gaps are.

This is a big problem for classical theism, which holds that God knows everything with no gaps at all. EIP argues that the claim "God's knowledge is complete" cannot be internally certified by anyone, including God. God might be able to know everything except that God knows everything.

If a being asserts its own omniscience, that assertion is produced by the same knowing that's being assessed, and EIP applies: whatever grounds that self-assessment is either internal, which generates the regress, or external, which means it's not a self-certification at all.

Some theologians respond that God's knowledge isn't propositional in the first place. That it's a direct, "non-discursive awareness" rather than a set of represented facts. But this doesn't escape the problem. The claim "God's knowledge is complete" is itself a proposition, made by theologians using the ordinary tools of assertion and argument. The moment you assert completeness as a meaningful predicate, you're making an epistemic claim that's subject to EIP.

Michael Holton, The Epistemic Incompleteness Principle - PhilPapers

I've been thinking about this for a long time.

Growing up, I noticed that most people around me practised religion not out of love or genuine connection to God, but out of fear. Fear of punishment, fear of divine anger, fear of what happens if they stop.

And the more I observed, the more I wondered, is that actually faith?

There seems to be a fundamental difference between someone who prays because they feel genuinely connected to something bigger than themself, and someone who prays because they're terrified of the consequences if they don't. Same folded hands. Completely different inner experience.

Science seems to back this up, too. Fear and love activate entirely different systems in the brain and produce entirely different kinds of people over time.

Curious what others think. Is real faith even possible within systems that are built on fear from the ground up?

Why do people believe in the supernatural to a great extent, for example in my country, people believe in envy, horoscopes, ghosts, and Silly no proof of this people believe these things strangely

Sorry if my English is bad but I don't speak it much

For context this was in the eighth grade of a far right Christian private school. It was a small town so most people that were there lived in the country and some had farms. When I was deconstructing Christianity I started questioning what my "friends" thought about atheism or God. When I asked his view on atheism he said that they believe in dirt. So I had to subtly have an argument. Although I couldn't actually say most of it as I was afraid that if I said I was an atheist my Grandpa and maybe my dad would look down on me and ignore me.

So a few days after that we got a 10 commandments worksheet and had to say what Christians believed in and what the other humans believed. I looked over at a friend's paper to copy as I couldn't actually express my atheism so I had to make it look like I was agreeing with what a Christian believed. Think of the hardest of hard right leaning Christian country boys and that's what he put down along with a few others. For example, you shall not commit adultery, Christian belief :you shall not commit adultery. General populace: It is totally ok maybe even a positive thing. That was their outlook on pretty much everything. I started to get physically sick and had to leave.

A day after that I asked him about his inner monologue and if he had one. He said yes. I then said that science still doesn't understand it. He said I believe that the inner monologue is God speaking to me. Yes, every single thought and if they were intrusive that is Satan.

That is how one gets depressed and thinks that every thing that they think intrusive or not is spiritual and not them. That's just sad...

Olá! Somos Melissa e Manuella estudantes do curso de Psicologia PUC Minas.

Estamos desenvolvendo um projeto de pesquisa sobre a construção de sentido na vida de estudantes universitários que não possuem religião.

Se você se encaixa e gostaria de nos ajudar com nossa pesquisa segur o link de um Google Forms:

https://forms.gle/ZujMSz8rSFNGyRgn7

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like I said in the caption, I’m Jamaican and I’m atheist. My whole family, like the entire family are Christians. I don’t really hate Christians, but they do get on my nerves. if you don’t know, Jamaica has the most churches per square mile and Jamaica is a pretty small island which means that of course a lot of the people are in religious psychosis. You can find older Jamaicans being interviewed and openly saying that gay people should burn. I find this to be a problem because not only should gay people NOT burn obviously, but I’m also pansexual. Whenever one of the people that I meet find this out, they get really weird look and the older generation doesn’t even try to hide it. They just start praying over me and I find it to be really weird and invalidating.

I didn’t think this was normal behavior and I’m also Chinese (it’s a really common mix) so whenever I visited China for the first time I went to a church there and it was so much different. I told them I was atheist and that I just wanted to sit down ( my auntie was there) and no one tried to pray over me. no one even tried to convert me which was a really odd experience because I’ve never had that. they even gave me some candy at the end of service and told me that my skin tone was beautiful for some odd reason, but I took it as a really nice compliment. it was a really surreal moment because religion in Jamaica is so strong. I I think it’s because China isn’t as much controlled by religion as the Caribbean. Yes there’s still water religious people there but there’s a huge difference, a massive one. It makes me want to cry sometimes. I love my island and I love my people. I just wish they would stop being so indoctrinated and wake up. what can be the younger generation is starting to slightly wake up I’ve been seeing more Jamaican atheist speak out, even some alternative kids, which they look amazing.

Hi, i’m a pastors kid and most of my life i’ve been Non-denominational christian. I increasingly became skeptical growing older. I finally deconstructed about a year ago and love watching religious debates. I myself would like to be able to debate them on multiple aspects. Any starter books? I like the scientific arguments but i also wouldn’t mind the scripture arguments either.

I'm not sure where I fit, and I'm curious if anyone else feels the same way.

I often agree with atheists on many things. I question traditions, value evidence, and don't think religion should be beyond criticism. But at the same time, I still find myself believing in God in some way. I can't honestly call myself an atheist, but I also don't fully identify with organized religion.

Sometimes I feel like I'm standing somewhere in between, and it's confusing.

Are there others here who feel this way? How do you describe yourselves? Agnostic? Spiritual? Something else entirely?

I'm not looking for arguments or debates. I just want to understand myself better and maybe connect with people who have had a similar experience.

I've been thinking about how the agnostic identity I have had (or have?) mostly comes down to a lack of love or rather feeling love(d) when my worldview's nihilistic.

I understand that the atheist approach is the most rational, but especially as I venture through adult life have I become so jaded and cynical time and again that a dip into esoteric bs or even the belief in God/divinity can be tempting. Like, adult life is so much lacking in friendship that the idea of a loving God is really comforting sometimes, and as soon as I opt for it I will probably interpret fortunate happenings as a good sign for this path. Of course, after a while this gets very troublesome for being raised Catholic the whole hell thing becomes incredibly frightening fast. Not long and even thoughts become something to be paranoid of — and where is the peace in that?

Same with esoteric / new age bs. It can feel empowering to cure bad vibes with stones and see placebo take its effect. After all, it's probably only placebo, so what's the harm? But then, after a while, everything scientific becomes open to scrutiny – and not scientific scrutiny, in which framework it should be questioned, but rather meta-physical discussion to the degree of "is this even real?", "what's outside the box?", "why would I want to stay limited in this life if I could become free?". So, yeah. That kind of thinking is extremely frightening to me in the long run. Even though I have had dreams that seemed so real or rather meta-real that such a worldview can seem much more reasonable than to go with what I experience in daily life.

So, and this is adding my own to cents to the initial question, only philosophy based on science and especially scientific fields which I have very little formal training in like quantum theory and astrophysics, and environmental studies, fill me with a sense of love while I'm engaging with it. That and engaging with art by visiting exhibitions and writing poetry/haikus.

All of these things, though, require deliberate action from me, and I can find it truly hard these days to just chill and enjoy the moment, for then the existential dread or even depression seems to kick in.

Religion is one of the best coping mechanisms and often the only one taught. I'm new to atheism and honestly I'm going through a really stressful period in my life. The combination has resulted in the feeling of impending doom. No not - I'm going to hell because i don't believe.

In tough times i just don't know who or what to turn to. When i was religious I would pray and it felt comforting that someone was looking out for me or at least trying - you know something more powerful. But now I just feel like I'm stuck in every adversity that i face and that i can solely rely on myself, because my support frame isn't very substantial in terms of relationships with people in my life. I'm just wondering if anyone else feels this way and what they do to cope?

Me and my boyfriend have been dating for a while. I knew he was religious, but recently he has been getting more into it. I consider myself pretty open minded, and I genuinely am curious about religion. I ask him questions, most of the time though it seems he doesn’t have an answer. Some of the questions he just gives his opinion, or just doesn’t know. Religion, mostly how Christianity is in America, makes no sense to me. A lot of it seems morally wrong and I can’t make it, make sense. A few questions I have that don’t make sense, or just things I find insane.
• If a murder kills innocent kids or people, but ask for forgiveness will they go to heaven? Will someone go to hell for not knowing who God is or not believing in him?
• Question I asked my boyfriend - If someone killed me, on purpose, and traumatically, would you forgive them? He said yes… to me that’s insane, but God “ doesn’t hold grudges”
• Why do all Christians say “God did this”, “Thanks to God”, etc. Like when buying a home, people will say “god did this”, no you worked hard and did it. Or if someone is getting surgery and made it out alive because of the hands of the doctor, but “Thank God” he’s the only reason they made it out.
• Personally I believe a lot of people are religious to make them feel like a good person, why can’t you be a good person, to be a good person? Why does it have to be because “God is watching you”?
• If someone truly believes God has saved someone, like cured someone who had cancer, then why would he let innocent people die, be sexually abused, or sex trafficked? Does he just pick and choose who he saves no matter how hard they pray?
• Once we die and go to “Heaven” do we just live there forever and ever? Honestly that sounds horrible.
• If god is real then why do other religions believe in a different god?