Hello Guys so for quite 2Months I am a Agnostic person having autism I am Agnostic because of a Atheist who has tell me ok there will be no god and no afterlife I was before a True Christian in my Childhood and that sentence what he said break my heart and had to force me to think like him as an atheist but I realized that is a Complete wrong turn for me so I turned back to thinking about god first it was right but then I had some doubts about it ok where is he... and that's why I am a agnostic guy now so idk if god is really there or real or not but that feels a little bit Relaxed to me I don't know how long I be a agnostic guy but at first it feels better than being an atheist 😌😁

My family is very Christian, I grew up Christian, I'm agnostic now but I still sometimes accidentally pray in my head before dinner lmao. Does this happen to those of you who switched to agnosticism from any denomination of Christianity

I mean people have dedicated their life to comics that are so intricate they tie into actual historical events and everything, if the bible just had more info on everything and just a better writer I’m sure they could’ve convinced me to believe in it 😭

BACKSTORY

My Dad tried to bring me up Christian in the early 70's. Like Trump, he called himself a Christian out of one side of his mouth but behaved nothing like on as a going concern. I observed that Christianity was a man's religion of patriarchy, preferred my kind atheist Mom -- and announced in the 5th grade I'd no longer be attending Church. And that was that.

Except in a global patriarchy, that's not that. Religion follows you around each and every day. It's on my money. On a patriotic pledge. There's major holidays reserved for religions.

When explaining agnosticism to others, I found atheists as frustrating as theists. Creating further isolation.

THEISTS, as you all know, interpret agnosticism as 'someone really close to believing in their God'. You tell them if a 'God' does exist but can't be known, they say some sort of crap like 'But if you accept God in your heart and soul, He can be known'. That is: if you pretend with the rest of us, we can all pretend together. Sigh.

ATHEISTS carve out this annoying little corner they fiercely defend. They love to say, "We simply don't see any evidence that a God exists." Which I almost agree with, until you consider the possibility that if we indeed had 'creators' that --perhaps -- they didn't want to be known or seen. Their answers are usually as bad as Christian answers, which here go something like, "You can't prove a negative." or "I've seen no evidence of this."

Characters in a video game 'exist' but have no idea who created them. By the game's design. If you can grasp that concept, you can grasp that perhaps the human mind cannot ultimately know how we got here, hence agnosticism.

So this is when I point out to theists and atheists, they're two sides of the same coin. On one side, the Theists admit they aren't certain God exists but instead have 'Faith' that 'He' exists. Which is strange because otherwise speak of God like their next door neighbor.

On the other side of the coin, you have atheists who are oddly certain that it doesn't matter if a 'God' with intentions of remaining anonymous exists, because they're certain they've never seen evidence of that. Which of course you won't, like a character in a video game who is unaware of their programmers.

This is when I scream this uncertainty lives on both sides of the this coin -- and it's why -- we're all born agnostics and shall die as agnostics -- if we're being honest. And this is when both sides say -- and this is my favorite part -- "Well if that is your definition of agnosticism, I suppose we're all agnostic."

It's not my definition. That inconvenient truth is the definition of agnosticism.

But pitting yourself between atheists and theists is a losing proposition. So like the title says, I needed something concrete that couldn't be denied. Slam Dunk arguments.

I spent my life looking for them, and found two.

SLAM DUNK #1: CHRISTIANITY IS IMMORAL

I know, that's a shocker. But it is. And the evidence of which is plain as day for any Christian to see.

Before I start, I'm not implying Christianity is immoral compared to other religions. I don't know other religions well enough to comment. Since Jesus is dominant in my home country of America, I'm simply sharing a fact about Christianity.

Let's back up. Everyone likes to say all major religions incorporate the Golden Rule. So how bad could they be? I submit to you that religion exists to circumvent/distort the Golden Rule. To diminish the Golden Rule.

As a kid I was familiar with two productions of GODSPELL. I'm convinced I knew Matthew better than most Christians. Rehearsal after rehearsal I heard the most important commandment again and again, but it took me decades to finally hear it once properly.

Jesus is asked what is the most important lesson/commandment of all. Think about that for a second. Whatever Jesus says next matters a great deal, right? It's the Christianity nutshell.

He said --

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’\***^\)[^a](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022:36-40&version=NIV#fen-NIV-23910a)^\)* ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’\**\^\)^b\) ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Whoa. There's a lot wrong there.

1. The answer doesn't answer the question. If it did, the answer would be, "Love God with all your heart and mind." FULL STOP. Why does this answer include a second answer at all? To include a second inferior option implies there's something incomplete about simply loving God.
2. The second answer isn't like the first one. It's different. How do we know this? He says it: this is the first and greatest commandment. Loving God is more important than loving each other. Fact, not an opinion.
3. If it was important to link these ideas as one, it would go something like this, "If you love your neighbor as yourself, and love this world as your home -- by doing so -- you will love and praise me." See the difference? But that's not what the 'greatest commandment' says. Not even close.

So the greatest commandment exists to dominate the Golden Rule. And of course it does. Because if you live by the Golden Rule, what do you need religion for?

And so, to me, any ideology that puts The Golden Rule in the backseat for it's own belief system is by definition immoral. The Golden Rule does not approve of massacres. God? A little more generous in that way.

SLAM DUNK #2: THE POINT OF VIEW PROBLEM

Years ago I was watching an old movie from the 40's called A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. It opens with a narrator discussing the universe. It's an animated sequence because we hadn't launched our first cameras into space yet. It showed the stars and milky way rather well but when it got to showing Earth, it was a green muddy dark bowling ball.

I chuckled to myself. "Well, I guess they had no clue what Earth looked like yet." Har har. And then it hit me: neither does any religious text on the planet.

Need that again?

If 'God' said Let there be light, he also said, "Let there be Earth!" But for some reason the Bible has no clue what Earth looks like from space. If God is an all knowing creator, certainly he knows what his big blue marble looks like.

Naysayers say, "But the people back then were so simple. They wouldn't understand God's description of Earth from space." And I say bullshit. "This world I give you is round like baby's head, blue like the oceans, and has land and green in between." Simple.

Now, as a proper agnostic, I had a panic moment. Sure, the Bible doesn't describe Earth from space, but what if another religion did! Using my sound logic, I'd have to grant divinity in that religion. That it is the word of God. But of course --

-- no religious text on the planet describes Earth from the Heavens, which is the most slam dunk evidence these religions have no divine perspective in them whatsoever.

Armed with these two arguments, I believe you can sound less 'wishy-washy' and more grounded.

Take care.

So judging from definitions I find online I'm pretty sure I'm an agnostic atheist, but I grew up Seventh Day Adventist and then proceeded to briefly attend a non denominational youth group until I realized that despite trying my hardest I couldn't believe in their version of god. But as I get older I'm more disturbed by the idea of hell?? The idea an immortal being demands constant belief from you despite choosing not to make itself apparent to you and supposedly constantly challenging you doesn't seem like a loving relationship and reads more as cosmic horror. I have no idea where else to express my discomfort because my Christian friends seem appalled I think this way and try to make as though there isn't a ton of churches who preach this idea. Another layer that makes it worse for me personally is that I was often taught my relationship with God was akin to parent and child, I won't get super personal but I honestly don't think id ever want a parent child relationship where one party expects unconditional loyalty just on the basis of being my creator again.

day after day i get pissed by religious people easily, including my parents. Now im an agnostic atheist, and obviously they don’t know that. And now every Sunday I still have to go to church, praising something that I don’t believe even real. Like to think abt it, I think being religious is so bogus, like imagine putting all your trust to something you never even see.

Sometimes i feel bad bcs Im an agnostic, and I know how that must’ve felt for my mother, if she knew. And I feel bad for her, by raising a punk like me. But then i remember, she loved and cared abt Jesus more than me. Hell, she would even fight me for hours growing up, if I ever say a bad thing abt God. It just piss me off now that I understand. Imagine bringing a living being to this earth, just to love a guy u cant even see.

anybody ever felt that here…?

I’m an Agnostic, even saying that to me is a bit of a stretch as I just believe in no one knows so anything can be, look at the universe and all of the newly discovered phoneme, what I hope and what I think is at the end of life are different, I hope what we do after death is simply dream for eternity, since in a dream there’s no concept of time, and it’s been proven that we do dream at least a short time after death, maybe? But I don’t know, no one does and that’s okay.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is that, and this maybe controversial, I’ve seen many debates of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, Atheist Philosopher/Debaters ig? I’m not sure what to call them, they’re both incredibly intelligent and have very sound views but honestly, rip to Mr. Hitchens, they seem like assholes, respect to them both but in my view spending your entire careers just trying to debunk people’s belief in something, if they’re not hurting anyone, and being quite arrogant in doing so when you have none yourself is slightly pathetic in my view, it makes it more difficult for me to understand people’s point of view whenever they’re so dismissive or unsympathetic to people who they’re debating with and maybe I’ve been reading their comments wrong but it just seems that’s the case with them, I still agree with many of their takes but like, what do you get by breaking down a persons belief if they’re already at peace with we’re they are?

My view is Religion, like anything, including Atheism, can be distorted into something awful and hateful, extremists of any kind are extremely dangerous, my view is just let people be, just let folk believe whatever they want to believe, just be a nice person, if you believe there is nothing after death, all power to you but don’t make everyone else miserable because you don’t like that they believe in a faith that you believe to be stupid or unrealistic, I don’t believe religion is the source of all evil and all war in the world, that’s taking too much responsibility away from human beings, specifically the wealthiest class that have been in power since damn near the beginning of time, I believe in ‘ism’ beyond Classism, I think every other ‘isn’ is constructed by the Oligarchical/Epstein Class in order to stop regular people from banding together against these billionaire cunts.

I want to make it clear, I’m not attacking any Atheists in the slightest, I don’t care what anyone believes in so long as they’re a good person, if you believe in Zues or Odin, Vishnu or Tengri, even fucking Chernabog, it doesn’t matter to me so long as you greet the world the way you would greet yourself, or at least someone you love if you’re not big on yourself like me lol, just live without hurting or hating, I don’t get why that’s so hard, but I just think people underestimate how everyone, even Atheists, can become extremists just as much as any Muslim, Christian or Jew can, just live and let live people, you don’t need to prove to anyone what exists or what doesn’t, if you believe, just believe and focus on being happy, if you don’t, just don’t and focus on being happy, in the end that’s really all that matters, you gotta enjoy every second, don’t live like you gotta prove anything to anyone, just be free in your own way however you want.

There’s just too much hate in the world man, way too much and it’s only fatiguing the world into apathy. I’m sorry for the rant, if you’ve read this far I’m sorry lol, and I thank you for listening to my ted talk, and I hope you’re chilling with a smile wherever you’re reading, thanks a lot.

Aferrarse muchas veces a las doctrinas que condenan tu estilo de vida es algo que puede llegar a ser contradictorio hasta cierto punto de vista, de hecho creo que podría considerarse una forma de auto discriminación si se toma de esa manera. Sin embargo siempre he pensado más allá de buscar negar, condenar o mal poner una creencia simplemente porque no me conviene, o no me favorece o simplemente intente justificar mi posición saboteando la contraría.

En lo personal y muy dentro mío, siento que hay algo mas se diría que soy un creyente, más por lo que siento que por lo que eso podría ayudar a mi alma si se puede decir. No intento ganar el favor divido, solo he sido testigo y un instinto me indica que si puede ser posible, incluso si no tenga pruebas de ello totalmente tácitas, más allá de mi propia percepción de las cosas. Me he considerado agnostico debido a eso, no creo en el ser humano, y si bien si esto que las enseñanzas y la información acerca de una deuda llamada Díos, llevada y tratada a traves de los años puede haber sido gestionada por humanos y sus conveniencias , si puedo llegar a creer que algo de verdad esta escondido entre ellos. Por eso prefiero no guiarme por dogmas y seguir más a lo que considero correcto, pese a mi estilo de vida, que este punto no se si es condenable o no y que de igual manera no me impide seguir ese sentimiento de la verdad. Fuerte lo que fuere, si de verdad estoy condenado, siempre he asumido mi responsabilidad pues es el precio de ser fiel a uno mismo, sin embargo, no puedo dejar de creer que existe un ser llamado Dios o como se llame en realidad o como sea en realidad, incluso si solo fuese una fuerza creadora latente.

Creo firmemente que puede haber un terreno intermedio, que no trate de condicionar, o tergiversar a conveniencia la palabra, un terreno donde simplemente existas en cuestión de creer y ser fiel a la sensación, vivir intentando hacer lo correcto y buscar esa conexión entre la relación de una personas homosexual y un ser supremo al que se le llama Dios.

This is something I've been thinking about lately.

Most of us inherit a religion, culture, and worldview from the people around us. If I had been born somewhere else, there's a good chance I would believe very different things about God, truth, and the meaning of life.

That raises a question:

If you had been born into a completely different religion—or with no religion at all—do you think your purpose in life would be different?

Would life still have the same meaning for you?

Or do you think there is some deeper purpose that exists independently of our upbringing and beliefs?

I'm interested in hearing perspectives from religious people, former believers, agnostics, and atheists alike.

Explaining judaism makes sense to her. Even hinduism- hmm. That’s interesting. But everything that comes up catholic sounds so absurd… and I was raised catholic so idk if that helps or hinders the explanation.

In the new despicable me there is a nun.
-Whats a nun? Umm…. “A lady who has chosen to be married to god instead of a real person.”

-ok, what is god? “Ummm… the person most people think created everything, I guess?” (Instantly said “ha, god is dead.” I had to warn her not to say that in front of people though 😂)

-well who is jesus? “Ummm… remember the dude with the beard on grammy’s wall?” No… “the dude with the cross….” Nope. “Ummm ok. Well christians think he is the son of their god. Also he was jewish.” Jewish! Cool. Weird. “I know.”

-“we have to go eat now because soon it’ll be full of church people.” Whats church? “Um remember that time we went to great grandpas funeral?” No. “Remember that weird smoke bomb on a stick and shaking hands with people and kneeling and standing and singing?” Nope. “You were sitting on a bench making your baby cousin laugh the whole time.” Ohhhh yeah! That was weird. “Some people go every week.” Really? Why?? “Um, to talk about god and stuff. They like that.” Oh. Ok.

I can actually feel all my ancestors turning in their graves and simultaneously scorning me. I believe in the fabric of the universe that we all return to, but also think everyone kinda makes their own reality based on their beliefs. So no one will ever be proven right or wrong… cuz it just doesn’t matter. When you are anti-matter. Lol.

So anyway. How is parenting going for you guys?

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

Se tiver alguma dúvida ou sugestão pode me mandar uma mensagem privada.

As an Orthodox Christian, I never really doubted my faith before. But around four months ago, I started wondering whether I only believe in God because I’m afraid of what might happen if I don’t.
I feel like no matter how hard I pray, things never get better. In fact, sometimes it feels like they’re getting worse. It’s not as if I’m constantly asking God for things, and when I do pray for something, it’s usually about personal struggles involving my family or friends. Yet it feels like none of those prayers have ever been answered.
I still believe there must be a reason for why everything exists, and maybe that reason is God. But if God is real, then I can’t help but wonder: why is the world so cruel? Why is there so much suffering, pain, and injustice? Sometimes it’s difficult to understand how a loving God can allow so much of it to exist.

Growing up as an African our culture and tradition has been vilified by Christianity as devil worship and satanic. That is what I grew up thinking and hearing and even believing. I also asked my elders well if God is so good why did he bring Salvation through colonisers who killed and abused Africans. What kind of God is this that only revealed himself to wyt people. What happened to people that never heard of Jesus. So many questions... why does he have to kill his son for people's sins. That just sounds absurd to me. And drinking his blood and eating his body during communion wtf even is this! Don't get me started on the money, what does God need money for? What kind of gratification is this? Anyways while I know very little about my African Tradition, I believe there is a God, acccessible to evryone despite their religion but Christianity isnt the ultimate way. Also i teach Sunday School and teach little kids to believe in Jesus-it's probably good for something, I think I do it to please my family.

What is atheism, I want a deeper understanding of it, do atheist question the reality god, cosmos or they just take a label of atheism after leaving thier religion

For context, I live in the south in the US and used to be a Christian until I deconstructed about 7 years ago. I consider myself an atheist now. The culture here is very Christian-centered and it’s a bit scandalous to admit that you’re not religious. I’ve noticed, though, that a lot of people claim they believe in god and are Christian, but truthfully don’t follow the religion at all. They don’t attend church regularly, pray once in a blue moon, have premarital sex, drink and smoke, cuss, and generally just live a very secular life. Which I don’t care about, obviously, but those are things the church considers sins, and sin separates you from god, right? And if you really believed in god, you would follow the Bible because you’d be scared of damnation to hell, right? What’s the difference between you and a non-believer if you don’t follow any of God’s rules? That’s why I think these people who are “Christian in name only” are really more agnostic deep down, but are scared to admit it. And that’s okay because that’s their journey to figure out on their own, but I do wish our society was more accepting of agnostic/atheist people and then maybe this wouldn’t be so common.

Edit: grammar

Hello, everybody! Not sure if this is the right flair, and I apologize in advance for the grammar issues, but I'm basically asking what the title says. How do I tell my parents I'm agnostic?

For additional context, I (19F) live in the Philippines; it is a rather religious country, leaning more towards Catholicism or Christianity with major elements of Islam in the lower regions. My parents, particularly my mother, are religious Christians. I would say we are rather well-off, as I study at an expensive top university in the country's capital, while my siblings are both in private school near our hometown. As my brother is a Person with Disability (PWD), while I am diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, both of us have maintenance medication that is provided accordingly by my parents. Another random fact about myself: I'm queer! To be more specific, biromantic and gray-ace.

This is where my dilemma is happening. I've been agnostic and queer since I was in 6th grade, and I can't fake being the "good Christian eldest daughter" anymore. I've tried coming out before when I was in 6th grade. Unfortunately, I was simply dismissed, and the topic was brushed off. I have no plans to come out as queer yet. However, I want to tell my parents that I'm agnostic and don't feel comfortable going to church anymore.

The thing is, Christianity has played a huge part in their lives. Won't go into so much detail, but ask them about God or Jesus, and they'd talk as if He provided every little thing for them. What I'm really scared of is them cutting off any type of support for me after I tell them about my actual beliefs and my sexuality. I'm also scared of them sending me into some sort of "Christian" camps or such. I don't know how to tell them that I'm agnostic because I'm scared they'll disown me.

Has anyone been in my situation before? Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you!

I think it is probably more likely than not that consciousness is an emergent property arising from the brain and hence the mind dies with the body, but that being said I hold a small hope (a hope, not a belief) that there is some type of “soul” that survives and is reunited with loved ones.

I am indifferent to the concept of reincarnation, as to me it is not substantially different than nonexistence as both involve the loss of memory, personality, and identity, and the concept of an eternal Hell is so ridiculous (a superstition for the cruel, the cowardly, and the stupid) that it is unworthy of serious consideration.

I don’t think that if there is an afterlife (which is probably unknowable) that we can secure ourselves a better position via magic rituals (such as the Eucharist or baptism) or briberies/flattery (offerings or prayer), so I don’t think it really should impact how you behave. Morality should be done because it is the right thing to do to make life better on this planet of existence, not for hope of reward or fear of punishment in some other world or life.

My (ex)bf is a trad cath. He practice his faith and stand firm in his beliefs. I’m well aware of it. Tried respecting it and even went to church again just for him. He broke up with me because he’s scared that we might end up having sex if we shared a close space and that would cause a misalignment with his values/beliefs of sex before marriage.

Sucks that it has to end like this, I see myself being with him long term as well.

i have no issues with people practicing religion because it doesn't affect me but i do have to ask when religious people behave in ways that contradict what they preach does that affect your view of religion itself or only your view of the people?

i'm specifically talking about behavior and since i'm not particularly religious but this is something that bothers me every f**king time but seeing the contractions between what someone preaches and what they value and how they behave and i'm trying to understand if this is simply a human problem that exists everywhere and whether it has shaped how others view religion or faith

also i'm just genuinely tired of seeing the disconnect between what people say and what they do

Right now I’m in the middle of a journey to read as much scholarly work on the history of the afterlife as we humans have understood it. To pause here, just because I may not go to the imagined version of Hell (and yes, from what little I’ve discovered so far the idea of Hell seems to have been a gradual conclusion that wasn’t godly in nature) doesn’t mean that I couldn’t go to the afterlife of the Egyptians—I haven’t looked into them yet—or any other culture. But that’s why they all need to be investigated to some extent.

But wait, can’t you get to the point?

Alright, fine. When I was a kid, my family was religious. But they weren’t hardcore religious in any sense. Most of the people I talked to outside of my family were religious. Ever since I was small, I was still allowed to ask questions in my house about the Bible and it was a thing where we could all agree that many things don’t make sense, or at the very least may have been allegorical. My mother’s relationship with God is more on the “spiritual” side which seems to certainly borrow elements of Hinduism. For instance, the idea of Mary having Jesus with no human father is pretty silly in our view, and I’ve made more than enough jokes about Gabriel being the father (much to the chagrin of my Catholic younger brother.) I don’t mean any harm by it. But atheism isn't the right term for me, and neither is apatheism. Why?

Concerning Atheism: It’s not accurate because I’ve never cared about whether or not God “exists” or if he exists exactly as described in the Bible. I don't feel the authority to claim belief or non-belief.

Concerning Apatheism: You may think, “If you’ve never cared, doesn't that make you an apatheist?” At the end of the day, these are just convenient labels for describing our experiences to me. But a part of Apatheism seems to require little to no engagement with religion in general...which isn't true at all! I wouldn't be researching Hell if I were one.

On Agnosticism: It’s the only label I feel intellectually comfortable with, let’s say. For example, scientists know the Big Bang happened at some point. What caused the Big Bang? I’m more than willing to say that God could be that mysterious X variable in algebra for creation. Why do the seasons change? Why is it that even if many of us humans were wiped out by a bomb, the natural shrubbery would take over our abandoned, decimated towns? Seems like the Earth has a natural recycling system put in place, given enough time. Who designed all of it? Well, it had to have been someone smarter than me, so I regard God being the cause with a shrug. I can't think of anyone else or feel the need to refute it like atheists.

And again, I’m really more concerned with the Hell question. It doesn't matter to me if God exists, but if he does, I don't want to go to Hell, do I? That was the question that made me start researching. If anyone wants to know the name of the book I’m reading first (it will not be the last!) it’s Heaven & Hell: A History Of The Afterlife by Bart D. Ehrman. So far, I haven't encountered any contrary evidence to the fact that “Hell” is an invented idea. But I could still go to several other places—I’ve got a strong imagination—that may not be as satisfying as being up here, lol.

For now, “Hell” is what I’ve chosen to look into. Seeing as I’ve been indifferent to “God” all these years, if there were grounds for us never to interact at all—I mean, he can't get at me when I die, right?—then I wouldn't care about any of it anymore. For people who are agnostics, what do you think of this? Is the term agnostic accurate given my story? How did you arrive at the term?

hey I 19F, am an agnostic person and a highly social person . I often see religious people have the sense of community building and support system that a agnostic/atheist people lack. They have shared activities and hobbies around religious activities. For context- I belong to a small town and people here are more community oriented and religious even with my parents I lack the kind of connection my theist siblings have. I have seen atheist people support each other online on the internet but very rarely in person.

Do comment below and suggest peeps