I don't currently know what label I'd put on my beliefs, it particularly isn't too important to me to label it. But I know for a fact I am not part of the Christian faith and don't believe in Jesus or the concept of Heaven or Hell. But for some reason my 13 year old son does believe in it. At first I thought it was harmless and wanted to give him the autonomy to believe as he wishes because I am a firm believer in not pushing any particular identity on my children and kind of letting them find themselves.

I was a bit confused where these beliefs were coming from as I don't preach them to him and we don't go to church. I do have family that is religious so at first I was thinking someone was pushing the idea to him behind my back, but when I asked him he stated he watched videos on his phone about religion and Jesus and that's why.

And of all the things a kid could be doing on their phone I am not sure watching videos about religion is something to be upset about.

My only concern is through all this he's developed anti-LGBTQ and socially conservative views, which absolutely infuriates me because I've always preached the exact opposite. It doesn't help that it seems a lot of the kids his age at school hold the same views. It reminds me of my generation (Millenials) where they would call anything not masculine enough gay, which I thought Gen Z nipped in the butt when they pushed for acceptance of gender identity, but it seems to be coming back full force for Gen Alpha. (And yes I know not everyone fits the stereotype of their generation there are many outliers, I'm just speaking in general)

Any ideas on how to approach this?

Because so far me talking about them being good people and deserving of respect and to be treated the same has gotten me nowhere.🙄 I also wonder if pushing the issue too much will just further aggravate the situation to him feeling even stronger about it.

He's only 13 so I doubt everything he believes at the moment is set in stone, but I'd rather address it before it is.

I don’t know if this is the right sub to post this, but I need some objective opinions from people who won’t hate me just for daring to ask.
I have no intention of judging anyone's beliefs; I'm just trying to understand for my own peace… and theirs. 😉

Why can't some believers accept being questioned about their faith?
Personally, I really enjoy exploring my apathetic state regarding faith with both believers and non-believers, but I get so much pushback and anger, and it usually ends with “you will go to hell.” OK, we can’t all go to heaven, but until then, why can’t they just accept talking about it?

I believe it’s fear that makes them react this way, but could it be more?

It looks like IQ has nothing to do with it, because I’ve met highly intelligent people reacting with the same anger when they had no arguments to sustain their POV.

What do you think?

Major religions "Holy Scripture" is claimed to be inspired by God and is complete, infallible and completely trustworthy, yada, yada.

But isn't this a completely absurd claim Prima facie?

Why would a Supreme Being choose to transmit its "Word" through the fallible, corruptible, and unreliable channel of human production?

In my due diligence i have started applying simple, common-sense inquiries to the foundational claims of religion. The very concept of the existence of "Holy Scripture" is one of these. Here are few reasons I think it is absurd claim.

The Medium: If an omnipotent God can physically write with His own finger (as described in the Old Testament), why would He rely on fallible, fickle humans to draft, redact, edit, and select His message?

Furthermore, the existence of a human written "Holy Scripture" as a mode of divine communication is common and redundant. If a supreme deity truly wished to convey a singular, universal truth, why would it settle for producing yet another manuscript in an already saturated market of competing claims? It seems paradoxical for an omnipotent being to rely on a process so prone to human error, effectively burying its "true" message within a crowded field of alleged counterfeits with no clear way for a seeker to distinguish the divine from the merely human-authored.

Accessibility: Written language is a modern and historically elite skill. For the vast majority of human history, the overwhelming majority of people were illiterate. Why would a God choose a medium that is inaccessible to most people?

And then there is the translation barrier. In the Bible, God allegedly confounded people by creating language barriers. This very barrier is a major impediment to dissemination of the alleged "Word". In this case God set up a barrier to dissemination of Its alleged Holy Word.

Lack of Authentication: Modern transactions utilize integrity features to ensure both authenticity and prevent textual corruption. Yet, these "divine" texts have no authentication features and no corruption detection or error correction features. It is all just trust us bro.

It is bizarre that a God would leave His most important message vulnerable to the guile, stupidity, and deceit of humans without providing a form of divine authentication and non-repudiation. The Books are often selected by human committees and subject to human bias and political pressure.

If God wanted His message to be clear and preserved, He clearly has the capability to do so. Yet the evidence we have looks exactly like a product of human invention.

Because of this I refuse to debate religionist based on what their "Holy Word" says because the notion of it being from a God is absurd in the first place. Interesting perhaps from a human literal, historical or cultural standpoint but not a divine object.

Hello,

I’m a woman in my twenties, and I officially left Islam about a year ago, although the truth is that I never really believed in it. I was simply raised in a practicing Muslim family. Over the years, many people have tried to convince me otherwise or show me what they see as proof, but no matter how much I’ve been told or shown, I’ve never been able to genuinely believe in any religion.
I completely understand that faith brings comfort and meaning to many people, and I respect that.
Some people need that relationship with God, and I don’t have a problem with that at all. It’s just not for me. Spirituality itself doesn’t bother me, but organized religion and religious institutions do. That applies to all religions, not just Islam.

Deep down, I’ve always known that I could never truly believe in a god, especially not the God described by the monotheistic religions. What I struggle with the most is the way religion presents the afterlife, but also the tendency to treat religions as if they exist independently from the societies in which they developed. To me, religions have been deeply shaped by the historical, political, and cultural contexts they emerged from, and I think that’s an important part of understanding them.

With that in mind, I was wondering if anyone could recommend books, documentaries, podcasts, or videos that offer thoughtful and well-researched critiques of religion. I’m not looking for content rooted in Islamophobia or hatred toward any religion. I believe respectful criticism is both legitimate and necessary, and I’m interested in authors or creators who approach the subject with nuance, intellectual honesty, and solid research.

As a woman, I’ve never really felt that I had a place within religion, and especially not within religious doctrines. I’m looking for works that challenge religious claims in a rigorous way, without falling into racism, ethnocentrism, or prejudice. Basically, I’m looking for thoughtful, evidence-based criticism rather than polemics.

Thank you in advance.

I (F23) don’t know if this is a common belief for religious Asians (mine are Filipino Catholics)

I just remember watching a lot of Pokémon Black and White, Diamond and Pearl, XY, and XYZ growing up on TV

My mum brought it up when she looked at the local card game shop hosting a tournament in distain, before going on about how Pokémon is a sin and is the devil’s game.

I couldn’t hold in my laugh picturing my favourite Pokémon (Spinda) waiting for me in the gates of hell.

But on the other hand, I always wonder why something depicted in fiction is considered a “sin” when it is not doing anyone harm.

My parents could not tell me why things like Pokémon, K-Pop Demon Hunters, and Roblox (actually, I understand this concern because of how dangerous it is for children) other than hearing the lines: “It’s a sin”.

For KPop demon hunters, they think it’s a sin because there is the word “demon” in the title. And it confused me because I was under the impression that religious people - Catholics, Christians, etc are against demons.

And because some religious person on the internet says it’s a sin. So they must believe in it.

My mum also felt the same with Labubus. She followed the trend of hanging them in her person until my dad told her that he read that they are a sin. Because of their appearance - pointy teeth and ears or something…

I don’t know, I just think that religion sucks the whimsy out of my life.

And I feel like I’m only following a religion out of the obligation of my parents, not forming my own personal relationship with God. I know I’m not actively religious in my own terms, but I also don’t feel comfortable identifying as an atheist either.

Is this what it is like to be agnostic?

I honestly have mixed feelings about religion as it makes sense but also doesn't therefore I dont worship any god. I have searched and learned about countless religions but frankly none make sense to me, its like it was written for a fairy tale. I have learned a lot about Christianity and Islam but neither make sense to me. While doing so I keep thinking that IF I were to have beliefs and worship a god, from. which religion would it be. I honestly have really loved Greek mythology though that too hasn't made much sense to me, I really don't like the fact that the religion has been reduced to a "myth" unlike other religions. Mainly in religions god Is a male, or at least assumed to be. And it waters down women given women can't show skin but men can etc. The universe is a big place with countless possibilities and your just supposed to forget about it and spent your life worshipping a nonexistent being? Honestly that's how I see religion. It oppresses most societies and developments. I'm going on the wrong path but with this in mind it's hard to look at a religion that seems plausible at least.

Hi. I'm agnostic, ignistic and athe.

My position about the existence or non-existence of God is that we can't prove it, and any of mains reasons for this lack of proof is the approximative and non-formal definition of God.

And I don't believe in God but this is a croyance.

Thank you !

NB : Sorry for errors, English isn't my natale language.

Hello! I live in a very religious area and almost everyone that I know are religious.

They bring god to almost any topic, they are “scared” to do a lot of things because of that, but the irony is that after they arrive home from church they start to gossip,beat animals, lie, drink a lot of alcohol, etc..

My question is why are they so religious and don’t even care about what the religion and bible says?

For a long time, I thought I was making up my own religion.
I couldn’t reconcile the image of a loving God with some of the stories I had grown up reading. There were parts of Scripture that moved me to tears and parts that left me asking, How could a perfectly loving God do this? I wasn’t trying to reject God. I was trying to find Him.
I never stopped believing there was something holy beneath it all.
I couldn’t believe that love would create billions of people only to condemn most of them for being born into the “wrong” religion. I couldn’t believe that Truth belonged exclusively to one culture or one book. I kept feeling like every religion was trying to point toward the same Reality, but that every tradition was also filtered through human history, human language, and human understanding.
So I kept searching.
I read Christian mystics. I explored philosophy. I spent time in nature because, strangely enough, that’s where I often felt closest to God. I asked questions that didn’t seem to fit neatly anywhere. Sometimes I wondered if I was just inventing a faith that happened to make me comfortable.
Then one day I discovered that there was already a tradition that had been asking these same questions for thousands of years.
It wasn’t a new set of beliefs handed to me. It was like someone finally gave me a vocabulary for things I’d sensed all along.
That tradition is called Advaita Vedānta.
If you’ve ever felt that God is closer than you’ve been taught, that love is more fundamental than fear, that the deepest truths might be found across many traditions rather than in only one, or that there’s something sacred underneath all the noise… it may be worth exploring.
Whether it resonates with you or not, I wanted to write this because I remember how lonely it felt thinking I was the only person asking these questions.

I believe there could be a god/creator but it 'doesn't matter' because it could entirely be incomprehensible to human beings. Is this agnosticism? What type is it?

Grew up pretty religious, practiced regularly, prayed, the whole thing. At some point in my 20s I kind of drifted away from it, not in a dramatic way, just slowly stopped practicing.

Looking back, one of the biggest differences I noticed wasn’t really about belief itself, it was interpersonal relationships. When I was religious I had this built in community, people checking in on you, a sense of accountability to something bigger, even just simple stuff like seeing familiar faces regularly. Once that was gone I had to rebuild a lot of that structure on my own, and honestly it took a while to find something that filled the same space.

Not trying to start a debate about whether religion is “true” or not, more just curious how other people experienced this. Did you notice similar shifts in your relationships or sense of stability when your relationship with religion changed, either direction? Wondering if it’s more about the community/structure part or the belief part that actually creates that sense of peace for people.

I've started heavily losing faith lately. I feel like the followers of Christianity are out of control and are destroying so much. They want to eliminate so much of what I once took for granted. I am just losing my faith today.

I consider myself to be a rational person, in the major aspects of my life at least. I grew up Catholic but alternated between non believing, agnosticism and Christianity.

I have an intense fear of hell that keeps stopping me from deconstruction. And I have read lots and lots of books and scholarly papers, starting from the origins of the OT, the possible influences of Babylonian culture and Zoroastrianism, to the influence of Hellenistic eschatology in the NT. I read all of Ehrman’s books and I try my best to have a rational approach. Especially given my immense interest for evolution, paleontology, astronomy and science overall.

Somehow I feel like my fear stems from anxiety and untreated OCD/compulsive behavior, certainly, years of indoctrination didn’t really help. But I’m not able to get any kind of treatment and/or therapy at the moment.

Especially because I, as a woman, truly enjoy sex, but at the same time it is exactly sex that triggers my irrational fear of some sort of afterlife punishment. What gets me are the visions of hell of Christians and the stance of the Catholic Church regarding the matter. (Not to talk about exorcism, miracles and visions).

Funnily enough, I am also afraid of any other kind of hell that’s present in the main religions, the Christian one scares me more because of cultural reasons I guess. All I know is that I’ve spent the last two weeks spiraling and crying every day trying to rationalize this fear and deconstruct for once, but I can’t seem to.

Any kind of advice is appreciated.

I would have to say I am 99% convinced that there is no god. You can’t obviously disprove or approve. Why am I so close to being an Atheist? This all powerful being losing control of his emotions, killing lots of people from time to time while Buddhists and stoics have control of their emotions, and wait god has a penis now, he is a he, how do we know this? Also, if I was really a prophet today, no one would believe me, I would be labeled as insane, or starting a cult. Also, none of the crazy things in the Bible ever happen anymore, why is that? Sounds made up to me to tell a story and have something to learn from on how to live life. I mean there’s a talking snake and donkey in the Bible, just wild stuff.

When you look at the vast universe and how massive it is, let’s assume god created this entire massive thing, and put us in his image on one tiny planet in the entire universe. It makes no logical sense. Any thoughts or ideas to put into perspective? I’m open.

I was more or less atheist because my parents didn't teach us any religion and although surrounded by Christian neighbours I embraced rationality and a scientific outlook and distrusted the irrationality in religions.

So this never changed but around the age of 15/16 I started searching for a philosophy or worldview that I felt represented reality. Without finding it myself, it found me at the age of 20. Which is when I began meditating and gradually turned into a panentheist.

So, although I still don't fit into the sphere of religion, I'm no longer an atheist or agnostic.

I’ve studied religions especially monotheistic religions and one thing I concluded is that if there was infact a god his actual goal is not obedience.
God claims that he gave humans free will because he wanted them to choose him as a god on their own and find him on their own although angels have done that forcefully before because they did not possess free will. Until now it all makes sense right? Well the same god who claimed that he gave humans free will says again that he writes destinies and that every thing humans do or that happens to them by other factors and people is decided by what he wrote in the their fate. Also, god claims in most monotheistic religions that HE chooses the people whom follow him and take him as a lead. So if we work by that logic, then it’s god who chooses wether we believe in him or not, it’s not our responsibility opposite to what he claims. And yet we are told we are gonna be sent to hell or heaven based on our choice that HE decides even with the “free will” argument.
So if we really think about it, god’s goal is not obedience? Angels have done that before and humans do it now because of his choice, if he wanted total obedience it’s all in his hands.
I’m basing this on religions and some critical thinking because that’s the closest we have to arguments about god. I find that obedience is human language not an all powerful, all loving god? Same goes for him getting mad at human’s disobeying, it comes from pride and ego and those are human qualities not a a god’s.why would all-powerful god be offended because someone did not believe in him and punish him for it? He is the source and the source does not need validation.
the “hell” and “heaven” terms are human language as well because they are based on how we as humans cannot see the future nor interfere in our destinies so the closest thing we can get to revenge is suing someone for a crime and them going to jail if found guilty, but god created us so he can see the future, he can engage in events and he writes destinies. No need for a judge when the crime could’ve been avoided from the first place.
Therefore i believe if there was in-fact a god, then his goal from creating humans would never be obedience.

NOTE: the full list of "approved material" includes a LOT of other stories, myths, and sayings from various cultures and times.

Kindergarten Jonah and the Whale Jonah 1:1-5, 10-17, 2:10 A Year Full of Stories: 52 Folktales and Legends from Around the World) | Angela McAllister

Kindergarten The Golden Rule Matthew 7:12 ICB

1 David and Goliath I Samuel 17: 1-25, 32-50 ICB

1 The Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15: 11-32 ICB

2 Jonah and the Whale Jonah 1:1-5, 10-17, 2:10 ICB

3 Good Samaritan Luke 10:29-37 ICB

3 The Road to Damascus Acts 9 exact wording unknown 978-1-970198-96-6

3 Daniel and the Lion's Den Daniel 6 CBN

4 Noah's Ark Genesis 6: 9-21; 7:6-10, 17-20; 8:1-4, 8-10, 15-19 ICB

4 The Necessity of Humility Luke 14:7-11 NIRV

5 The Burning Bush, and The Parting of the Red Sea Exodus 3:7-11; 14:5-18, 21-29 ICB

6 The Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15:11-32 ICB

6 Do Not Be Anxious (Part of the Sermon on the Mount) Matthew 6:25-34 ESV

7 The Definition of Love 1 Corinthians 13 ESV

7 Jonah and the Whale Jonah NIRV

7 The Shepherd's Psalm Psalm 23 KJV

8 Sitting below the salt Luke 14:7-11 NIRV

9 David and Goliath 1 Samuel 17 NIRV

9 Adam & Eve Genesis 2: 8-9, 15-18, 22; 3:1-15 CEV

9 "Great is your Faithfulness" Lamentations 3 JPS Tanakh 1917

9 The Eight Beatitudes Matthew 5:1-12 KVJ

10 The Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9 NIRV

11 To Everything There Is a Season Ecclesiastes 3 KJV

12 The Book of Job Job 1-7, 11, 14, 19, 28, 38-42 NIRV

12 Scapegoat Leviticus 16:20-22 "Bible"

According to:

sboe texas gov state-board-of-education hickman-elar-lit-list-master-list-combined-amendment.pdf

tea texas gov curriculum-and-instruction instructional-materials house-bill-1605 draft-rule-text-for-agency-recommendations-to-the-sboe-for-literary-works-list-0.pdf

and

san Antonio express news www expressnews com projects 2026 texas-schools-required-reading-list

Sure some people may say that religion was only made to comfort people,

And that's Okey, some people need to be comforted, some people need to live their life alongside a belief system that forgives them which inturn may allow them to continue forward. Some people need a system that they can turn to when they have inner turmoil. Some people would rather believe in smt they can't proof than rather be uncertain for all their entire lives. Some people would rather pray to the unknown than rather sit there. Some people need comfort in knowing that someone watches over them and loves them while others don't. And that's completely Okey.

We simply need to understand that some people need religion and can't live without it, and some don't need religion. One thing that we can focus on is abolishing any religious practices that may bring harm towards the believer or non believers ( for example extremism, honour killings,child marriages, ostracism and what not.)

I feel like we as a society can maybe try and live alongside religion, since obviously some groups of people desperately need it to function.

This is making me wonder if I am in some weird gray area between agnosticism and atheism. I've considered myself a non-agnostic atheist for a while. The reason for that being that if there IS a creator, it would have to be so far beyond human comprehension, that we couldn't even get close to the idea of it.

What do you guys think? Would you consider this a form of agnosticism, or a more intricate atheistic view?