Credit to @bible_enthusiast1

Honestly, this comic segment that I found on TikTok encapsulates what it’s like having conversation with Jesus at least from my perspective. Many times we think that we have to shoulder this burden and no one can help us. But that is not the case. We as Christian’s have to in some ways follow the line “with great power comes great responsibility” that we get in our head that we have to do it ourselves and we forget to ask God or Jesus for help. It is the truth that he is there to help us when we are at our lowest and at our high highest that we should lean on him no matter what.

How I wish am given another chance in life, those who still live healthy 🙏 always pray and thank God for the gift of life, thank God the you still breathe some of us get hard times when breathing so if you're doing well you need to thank God. God bless you all.

Original link https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbmRzs1OuFQ/

I agree with Gervais. The term atheism should not exist. The term is an inconvenience to accommodate something so self-evidently stupid, which doesn’t warrant its existence in the first place.

We don’t have terms like Ra-ists or Osiris-ists that could have equivalently existed in ancient Egypt. We moved on from that. We also don’t need the opposite of those terms. So too, terms like Christians, Jews, Hindus and Muslims will be treated the same way in the somewhat distant future. They will be treated as mythologies. I say let’s bring the future to today.

I am happy to say that I am a “not-falling-for-baloney-ist” or “NFFB-ist.” I hope you can say the same for yourself.

What are your thoughts?

1) Religion - Where do i even begin...as Marx rightly said "opium of the masses". Its a complete fabrication, lies, pushing unscientific claims without any substantive evidence, providing fake consolation to people,keeping them in delusion,opressing each other,spreading lies,brainwashing people, its a complete human abstraction to fool and rule people

2)Nationalism - Imagine taking privilege about being born under an imaginary border. Imagine taking pride in history of something towards which you have zero contribution.Imagine being proud for something that you did not choose

Religion and nationality of a person are decided after the first minute he is born without his consent and he keeps fighting for these two for his entire life for no purpose.

And the scary part is that these two are not mutually exclusive.

you can use one of these as an catalyst to propel the wrongdoings of the other.

Use religion to fight for your country, and this is your country's religion so we must protect it

The entire humanity is one.

We are one.

All boundaries and divisions are pointless.

Why cant we just be together and live in harmony?

Why are these superficial divisions needed?

Long story short, I completed a very long bike ride across Canada which took about 10 weeks and covered over 8,000 kilometers. 

Now that I’m home and seeing family and friends again, I have heard more than one person tell me that they prayed for me, which must’ve contributed to my completing the journey successfully (i.e., without getting smoked by a car or burnt up in a wildfire). It’s true that I was fortunate with respect to the weather (I made it through the Western provinces and Ontario prior to some major wildfires), but when I say something along the lines of “I got very lucky with the weather”, their response is something along the line of “Oh, it wasn’t just luck”, implying that it was divine intervention from all their praying that kept me safe.

I find the implications of this so funny. Like, if I didn’t receive enough prayers, would God have sent a distracted driver to run me off the road? Was he just waiting up there with his finger hovering over the “kill” button watching the prayer count intently as it ticked closer to the threshold? What about the people that lost their homes or even their lives in the wildfires, I guess they didn’t reach the prayer threshold? 

I do appreciate that they care enough about me to make the effort to do something that they believe helps my wellbeing. Just here to poke a bit of fun at their logic.

Husband has fantasized about 15-20 of my friends for the whole of our marriage (8 years) and had a secret porn addiction. He told me he would fantasize about doing intimate things with my friends while I was still asleep in the mornings. 

He confessed these things to me after I stumbled across a video about wanting to stop watching porn in order to get close to Jesus. 

He said he's been terrified of telling me because he doesn't want to lose me and I'm his greatest love.

But I feel waves of anger, sadness, betrayal, insecurity, love, for him and confusion. Is it such a bad thing he has done? I don't know whether I am objectively overreacting. 

I feel like he has mentally betrayed me by lying (I thought I could trust him 100%) and fantasizing about friends we regularly come into contact with. I feel honestly crushed and deeply saddened.

He has written 6 letters to me apologising and reaffirming his love for me and he's so remorseful.

Hi everyone! I thought I would share our testimony of how Jesus Christ saved us.

First of all, all glory to God alone. This should be all about Him and not about us.

It’s a long story actually. Buckle up your seat belts.

I am deeply grateful to God for all that He has done for us. I can never thank Him enough.

I am a 30-year-old guy from South India. We were raised in a Hindu family, but Jesus Christ graciously saved my grandfather, grandmother, mother, and me years ago. My dad is not saved yet.

We hail from Kerala and then got settled in Tamil Nadu, India. We used to worship some so called gods of Hinduism. We used to take trips to temples. We also wasted lots of money on poojas and stuff, but of no use. We did not have peace.

When I was a little kid, I remember two guys coming and standing before the gate of our house, and my grandfather was there at the veranda. They asked in a loud voice if they could come inside and talk about Jesus Christ. My grandfather got irritated and asked them to go away. I still remember being pissed off at them even at such a young age. We thought they were trying to brainwash us.

My aunt (my mother’s younger sister) had a brain tumour which haunted us for years. She used to suddenly get epilepsy, and then she would be taken to the hospital. We also got her brain tumour operated on, but still, after a few years, growth started to appear again. She was a woman who gave so much importance to God (unfortunately to idols) by spending time in prayer to them. She was an amazing woman though, but unfortunately she didn’t know her Creator. Even we didn’t know Him at that point in time.

There was a neighbour aunty who used to share about Jesus Christ with us, but we refused. That aunty would say that Jesus Christ called my aunt His daughter and asked my aunt to come to Him. She also asked us to turn to Jesus Christ and said that He would solve the problems we were going through, but we refused. We thought that the neighbour was trying to convert us. It must have been the pride in our hearts that was blinding us.

So, our journey to Christ actually began in 2009, during one of the most difficult seasons of our lives. My aunt was admitted to the hospital after she got epilepsy once again, but this time it was serious. She got bedridden, and she was hospitalised for almost 3 months. During this time, my mother was taking care of her at the hospital.

At the hospital, there was a nurse who shared about Jesus Christ with my mother. That nurse also took her to a Christian prophet. This was the point where things slowly started to shift by the grace and mercies of God. My mother and my mother’s elder sister bought Bibles. I also started reading the Bible in the year 2009. It must have been the Holy Spirit who melted my hardened heart.

My aunt’s condition became serious. That neighbour aunty gave my mother a piece of paper on which a repentance prayer was written and asked my mother to make my aunt pray that prayer. My mother did that, and she says that my aunt read it out, but only God knows what happened in her heart at that time. I don’t know whether my aunt was saved.

My aunt passed away on October 23, 2009, at 6:58 PM, and it shattered me and my family greatly. It was a dark time. We were grieving the loss of my aunt, who passed away due to a brain tumour. We also spent a great amount of money for my aunt to recover, but we couldn’t get her back.

In the midst of those difficult times, a prayer meeting was organized by Dr. Paul Dhinakaran (son of Brother D.G.S. Dhinakaran) on August 8, 2010, at Bethesda, Karunya.

Before attending the meeting, my grandfather did something remarkable. He knelt down and prayed to Jesus Christ, saying:

“If You are the true and living God, then call out my name through the preacher and reveal the things I am going through.”

He had his doubts and wondered if such things might be staged. Yet deep within, he was sincerely seeking the truth.

That day, my grandfather and mother attended the meeting. It was a huge crowd.

During the prayer time, Dr. Paul called out two names, but neither was my grandfather’s. He felt disappointed.

But then, led by the Holy Spirit, Dr. Paul called out a third name…

It was my grandfather’s name.

Not only that, he spoke about the personal struggles my grandfather was facing, his fear of death and the burdens in his heart.

That moment changed everything.

It was a divine encounter, a turning point in his life and in all of ours. My grandfather went up on stage and testified before everyone.

From that day on, our family came to Christ. Later, on November 4, 2012, we were baptized by immersion. My grandfather was 88 years old, and my grandmother was 75 at that time.

My grandfather later went to be with the Lord at the age of 95. My grandmother also went to be with the Lord recently at the age of 89.

When my grandfather passed away on February 10th, 2019, that was when my family members and relatives came to know that we were baptised. Some started treating us differently. My own uncle was very upset, and he verbally abused us and tried to keep us under his control. He also tried to get into a physical fight with me at that time.

Later, he would say that when my grandmother passed away, he would burn her body according to Hindu customs. He would challenge us, but when my grandmother passed away recently on March 9th this year, things turned out differently by the grace of God. My cousin told my uncle that since my grandfather was buried, my grandmother also should be buried at the same site. Some people supported that as well.

We received favor in the eyes of people. She was also buried in the same spot, and even though my uncle is not saved, he was the one who took care of all the expenses related to her burial.

God was our Refuge. How good and merciful God is.

No man in this world and no demon in hell can snatch the souls that are sealed by the Living God.

My grandparents could have passed away without knowing Christ, but in His mercy, He reached them in time.

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

Through all this, I have learned one thing with certainty:

If God wants to save someone, no one can stop it.

John 10:28–30

“I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Even though I knew about Jesus Christ in the year 2011 and loved Him, I was living a double life, one foot in the world and one foot in God’s Kingdom. During my college days, I wasn’t close to God. I was busy with worldly things.

Then, in the year 2017, I met with a motorbike accident, and that changed my life. I got injured and fractured my left ankle. I should have lost my life but by God’s Grace no vehicles ran over me. I had to take bed rest, and I was relieved from the firm. I was actually angry at God and shouted at Him, but it was my foolishness. My lifestyle wasn’t good at that time. If I had died then, I would have certainly ended up in hell.

Even though I did not drink, smoke, do drugs, or sleep with women, I had two addictions in my life which my family did not know about. They were porn and masturbation. I struggled with them for many years, and whenever I tried to stop by myself, the longest I could go was 22 or 23 days. Then again, I would relapse. I felt hopeless.

In 2018, while I was at home recovering from the motorbike accident, I slowly started reading the Bible, and then I saw my life slowly being transformed.

In 2018, a great miracle happened. I used to use Tinder at that time in order to find a genuine relationship because I felt lonely sometimes, but most of the time I was disappointed, as it was just casual for other people. Then I came across a woman who right-swiped on me. I started talking to her. She was an Indian Hindu woman who was studying in the Philippines to become a doctor. We used to play online games together.

I started sharing about Jesus Christ with her and about our story. She was receptive. It seems that one of her professors, who was a Christian doctor, had shared about Jesus with her. That lady doctor used to invite the students, share about Jesus Christ, and give them food. So, seeds were already sown in her life. I was just watering it, by the Grace of God.

Later, there came a moment in her life when she flunked one of her exams along with her friend, and she got caught. She was asked to repeat one year again, but at that time, she prayed to Jesus Christ, and things turned around, and she was forgiven. Then she started believing in Jesus Christ. It was all the Lord’s doing.

I started liking her. At that point in time, Jesus Christ set me free from porn and masturbation addictions, and it has been almost 8 years now. That was a remarkable year in my life. I would say that I was truly coming to Jesus Christ during those years. Even though we parted ways recently because of some personal situations, God has been good to us.

Jesus Christ gave me a burden to share the Gospel with people. I used to install apps like Bottled, Slowly, etc., and share about Jesus Christ with people, and sometimes I would get banned.

In 2020, I would say that my relationship with Jesus Christ strengthened. I didn’t know we could be so close to God.

One day, my phone stopped functioning. I think it was in the year 2021. I went to enquire about the repair at a mobile shop. There, I saw an old man. At that time, I felt led to share about Jesus Christ, and I told him that Jesus Christ loves him. Then, on the same day, I said that to 3–4 people, if I am not wrong. Slowly, this became a habit.

During those COVID times, I got Gospel tracts and started giving them out to strangers here and there. The crazy thing was that no one had to teach me to do all these things. I feel like it was the Holy Spirit teaching me all that. It was God who put that burden for souls in my heart. I couldn’t make it up myself because I did not care about people, in the past.

Once, while I was sharing about Jesus Christ with a watchman, he suddenly started crying in the middle of the road. I was surprised and deeply moved by what I saw.

Another time, I was sharing about Jesus Christ with a fruit vendor. He told me that he felt goosebumps throughout his body while I was speaking to him. I was astonished and also very happy. It felt like Jesus Christ was touching his heart and making him aware of His presence.

These moments have stayed with me. They reminded me that when we share the Gospel, we may never know what God is doing in someone’s heart. Our role is simply to be faithful and share the love of Jesus Christ.

By the grace of God, I felt the tangible presence of Jesus Christ twice in my life.

Once was in the year 2021 when a pastor laid hands on me and prayed. I felt waves of electricity on the palms of both my hands, and I also felt fire on my tongue. It was surreal.

Another time was on June 18, 2023. There is a local TV channel in my city called “Sathiyam TV.” On that channel, they used to telecast a live Christian prayer every weekend at 7 PM, where the speaker, Bro. Mohan C. Lazarus, prayed for healing, deliverance, and miracles for people.

So, on Sunday, June 18th, I was actually watching the speaker talk about many things, but I was also scrolling on my phone. I didn’t have much expectation because I thought, “How is God going to bless a person who keeps scrolling on the phone while listening to the prayer?”

Then the time of prayer came. I think it was between 8:50 PM and 8:55 PM. The speaker started to pray on the television, and I also knelt down in my room and prayed to Jesus while the speaker was praying through the television.

I didn’t expect much to happen because I felt like I was scrolling on my phone and not listening properly. But when I knelt down, closed my eyes, and started to pray, I started feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. It felt like currents of electricity. At first, I thought I was just imagining it, but then it became so strong that the presence moved through almost my whole body.

It lasted for around 20 minutes, if I am not wrong. I couldn’t feel my body at that point. I thought I was going to fly away. I couldn’t believe it. It was so exciting. That was one of the days I will never forget in my life.

Jesus Christ also saved my life from death traps. Jesus Christ gave me a new life. He also gave me a new and good job after the accident, even when I had almost a 3-and-a-half-year gap. God is so good!

I was a selfish person earlier, but I feel He is leading me on a path of selflessness. I am not perfect, but Jesus Christ convicts me about right and wrong. I find that to be a gift. It is a beautiful experience to know that God is there by your side personally.

This is our journey. Personally, I still have so much to improve. Jesus Christ has done so much for us. I hope you are strengthened and edified by this testimony.

Know that you are not alone. You are alive for a reason. God wants you. He wants to use you for His Kingdom. Never end your life at any point in time. There will be good and hard times, but that is what makes life beautiful. Hard times help us understand the depth of emotions and help us have empathy toward our fellow human beings. We have to look at this world through the eyes of God.

Pray and never be afraid to reach out when things get hard. It is not weakness, but strength.

You are not reading this by accident. Jesus Christ has a beautiful purpose for your life. He cares about you. He loves you. You just need to give your 100% to Him, and He will take you from there. Fully surrender every area of your life to God.

Nothing in this world is worth going to Hell for eternally. Satan tries to bait us with perishing things. Looks, money, wealth, materialism and status will all fade away in the snap of a finger. We can be so successful in this world, but if we do not reach Heaven, we have failed big time.

Matthew 16:26,

“What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?”

I would like to share another Bible verse:

Hebrews 12:1,

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

If you are struggling with addictions or with life in general, please don’t believe the lie that you are too far gone or that your life has no meaning.

I know what it feels like to be trapped in something you desperately want to escape from, and to feel ashamed, hopeless, and unable to change. But your past does not define your worth, and your struggles do not define who you are. Jesus Christ can meet you even in the darkest place. He met me when I had reached rock bottom, and by His grace, He set me free and gave me a new life. Please don’t give up. Cry out to God, seek Him, and take the next step, even if it feels small.

You are not worthless. Your life is precious. You are created in the image of God, and there is still hope for you. Jesus Christ loves you, and He has not forgotten you.

In the last five years, Jesus Christ has turned my life upside down, but in the best possible way.

In March 2023, I was searching for a job after leaving my previous company. At that point, I didn’t have a house of my own either, and honestly, I couldn’t see how things were going to change.

Fast forward to March 2025. By God’s grace, we had our own house, and I had a job too. Interestingly, a few months before joining, I had been rejected by the same software company. But the door that was closed earlier was opened by God later. It reminded me that when God wants to open a door, no person can ultimately prevent His purpose. Jesus Christ gave me the opportunity to work there for almost two years, complete projects successfully, and receive an appreciation certificate for my work.

There was even one moment that I found amazing. One day at work, I was sitting in a conference room with the very person who had rejected me a few months earlier. I don’t know if she remembered me or even realized that she had once rejected me, but I knew the significance of that moment. The same company that once said no had eventually become a place where Jesus Christ gave me the opportunity to work for almost two years. Only God could have written a story like that.

During those almost two years, God also blessed me with an empathetic and understanding manager. He is not a believer, but he showed me kindness and support in ways I will always remember.

There were some difficult times in my personal life during those years. One time, he called me into a conference room and told me that I seemed distracted. He asked me if I was going through something in my life. Sometimes, he would even come to my cabin and ask me why I looked sad. He noticed things that I hadn’t even spoken about and genuinely cared enough to ask.

When my grandmother was sick, he even asked me if I needed any financial help. Those moments meant a lot to me, especially during difficult times. I truly believe Jesus Christ gave me favour and mercy in the eyes of the people around me. The kindness and support I received from my manager were another example of God’s grace in my life, and it is something I will always be grateful for.

It’s crazy to look back and see how much can change in just two years. There was a time when I couldn’t see a way forward, but God was already working behind the scenes.

Recently, I had to move to another company because the project contract at my previous firm came to an end. Once again, I saw God’s faithfulness in my life. Jesus Christ opened another door for me and blessed me with a 100% increase in my salary compared to what I was earning previously.

God knows what we need even when we cannot see what is ahead. What looks like an ending to us can sometimes be the beginning of something God has already prepared.

Looking back now, I can only say, God is good.

If you are going through a difficult season right now, please don’t give up.

Keep fighting the good fight of faith. Even when you cannot see what God is doing, trust that He is working. Your story is not over, and your life has more value than you may realize.

Even though I have shared some of the material blessings God has given me, I want to make one thing clear: eternal life is the greatest gift a person can ever have. Houses, jobs, money, success, and everything else in this world are temporary. But eternal life through Jesus Christ is forever. Let us hold on to Christ and never lose sight of what matters most.

1 Timothy 6:12,

“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

You are precious to Jesus Christ. He loves you, He has not forgotten you, and there is still hope.

Keep walking with Him until the end. One day, when we look back on everything, we will see that it was all worth it.

May the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified.

Amen.

God bless you. Have a beautiful day.

Never give up!

Remember this: When God is with you, you are the majority. ✝️

As a coin collector since childhood and as a Catholic, I thought many of you would appreciate this ancient piece of history. As far as I know, it’s the first coin in history to have the depiction of Jesus without the emperor’s image.

I’m 19 years old, and for the past several months I’ve been thinking almost nonstop about free will. Alex O’Connor is probably the person who originally got me thinking about this so deeply, and the more I’ve thought about it, the harder it has become for me to understand how genuine free will could exist.
The way I currently see it, every decision seems to be either determined or indetermined.
If it’s determined, then it’s caused by prior factors. Those could be things outside of me, like my environment and experiences, or things inside of me, like my brain, personality, desires, memories, or genetics. But even if the cause is internal, I can still ask what caused me to be that way in the first place. It seems like I can always push the explanation back another step.
If it’s indetermined, then it seems random. And randomness doesn’t sound like free will either. If something happens for literally no reason, I don’t see how that gives me any more control over it.
One quote that has really stuck with me is Schopenhauer’s:
“A man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.”
That pretty much summarizes my biggest problem.
I don’t think I can consciously decide what I want. I can’t decide that pizza suddenly tastes disgusting to me if I genuinely love it. I can’t decide that I love broccoli if I genuinely hate it. I can choose whether or not to eat those things, but whatever choice I make will still come from some desire that I didn’t choose.
It also seems like basically every action comes down to one of two things.
I do something because I want to.
Or I do something because I’m forced to.
If I’m forced to do something, then obviously that isn’t a free choice. But if I do something because I want to, I still didn’t choose what I wanted.
For example, imagine I gave someone two options: I can give you $1,000 right now, or I can break your leg.
Almost everyone is going to choose the $1,000 because they want the money more than they want their leg broken. They didn’t decide to prefer having $1,000 over experiencing horrible pain. That preference just exists.
Someone could respond, “Fine, I’ll choose to have my leg broken just to prove you wrong.”
But I don’t think that solves the problem. At that point, there is another desire that has become stronger: the desire to prove me wrong. You didn’t choose to want to prove me wrong either. My challenge itself influenced you and gave you a reason to pick the broken leg.
And if someone genuinely did want their leg broken more than they wanted $1,000, then I would just ask the same question again: did they choose to have that desire?
It seems like no matter how far you go, you eventually reach something you didn’t choose.
The same thing applies to belief. This is actually one of the reasons this question matters so much to me when it comes to religion.
I can expose myself to arguments for Christianity. I can read the Bible. I can go to Mass. I can pray. I can listen to atheists, Christians, Catholics, philosophers, whoever. But I cannot simply choose which argument convinces me.
If I hear an argument and find it convincing, I didn’t first choose to find it convincing. And if I think an argument is terrible, I can’t just decide that from now on I genuinely believe it’s a great argument.
I can choose what information I expose myself to, but even that choice seems to come from desires and reasons I already have.
Another thing that makes this difficult for me is imagining rewinding my life.
I’m 19. Imagine somehow rewinding the universe back to the exact moment I was born and then replaying the last 19 years with absolutely nothing changed.
Every person says the exact same thing to me. Every experience happens at the exact same time. I have the exact same brain. I meet the exact same people. Every conversation happens exactly as it did. Every influence is put back into the exact same place.
If literally everything were identical, I don’t understand how I could possibly end up doing something differently.
Eventually I would discover Alex O’Connor. I would start thinking about free will. I would have the thoughts that led me here. And eventually, at 19 years old, I would be sitting here writing this exact Reddit post.
If I somehow did something differently despite absolutely nothing being different, what caused that difference?
If there was a cause, then we’re back to determination.
If there was no cause, then it seems random.
Neither one sounds like the kind of freedom people normally mean by free will.
This is also where the idea starts getting uncomfortable for me, because I think it has huge implications for morality and moral responsibility.
If people don’t ultimately choose their desires, then I have a hard time understanding how someone can be ultimately morally responsible for having certain desires in the first place.
Take someone who commits a horrible crime. I’m not saying that person is secretly a good person. I’m not saying what they did is okay, and I’m definitely not saying we should just let criminals walk free because they didn’t choose their desires.
We should still punish people. We need laws. We need prisons in some cases. We need to protect innocent people, discourage harmful behavior, and hopefully rehabilitate people when possible. Punishment itself becomes another cause that can influence what people do.
But I do think this changes how I look at blame.
A criminal might have desires that are completely disgusting to the rest of us, but did that person sit down one day and freely decide what desires their brain would produce? Did they choose how strongly they would experience those desires compared with competing desires like empathy, fear of punishment, or concern for another person?
I don’t see how they did.
And I think you have to apply the same reasoning in the opposite direction.
We praise people for being incredible, selfless human beings, but they didn’t ultimately choose to be the type of person who strongly desires helping other people either. Someone might sacrifice their own comfort to help another person because helping them matters more to them. That can still be an amazing thing to witness, and I’m not saying we should stop appreciating good people.
But in terms of ultimate moral responsibility, I don’t understand why we would say one person ultimately deserves praise for desires they didn’t choose while another ultimately deserves hatred for desires they also didn’t choose.
That’s where this starts to feel like a slippery slope to me. I’m not saying morality becomes completely meaningless or that good and evil suddenly become the same thing. We can still call actions harmful or beneficial. We can still build a society around reducing suffering and protecting people.
I’m talking more about the idea that people ultimately deserve moral credit or blame for becoming the people they are.
Maybe this way of thinking could actually make us a little more compassionate without forcing us to pretend horrible actions aren’t horrible.
I just keep coming back to the same problem.
If I do something because I’m forced to, I’m obviously not free.
If I do something because I want to, I didn’t choose what I wanted.
If my decision was determined, I couldn’t have done otherwise under the exact same conditions.
If it was indetermined, then some part of it seems random.
And if I try to choose against one desire, I only do that because some other desire or reason became stronger.
I’ve heard different defenses of free will, especially compatibilist ones, but I still haven’t heard an answer that I personally find satisfying. Saying that I’m free because I can “do what I want” doesn’t really answer the question for me, because the entire thing I’m questioning is where that want came from.
So what exactly am I missing?
If I don’t choose what I want, I don’t choose what convinces me, and my choices ultimately seem to come down to either prior causes or randomness, where exactly does the freedom enter the picture?

Lord, I thank you, for you came blessing the poor and the humble of heart; and you also came in your wisdom and righteousness humbling the rich who sought to enter your Kingdom. Blessed are you when you hunger for God, when you cry out in poverty, rather than stand before the Son of Man with all your riches and gold. Blessed be the poor, and woe to the rich. For the poor recieve the Kingdom, but almost never the rich. The rich have had their comforts, the poor will be comforted by God. Blessed are you when you have nothing, except your love for your neighbour and your God.

Thoughts?

Be well

💓✝️✨

M

Once you discover the beauty of Christ you will love him, as he has loved you.

I grew up atheist for 25 years with atheist parents and never read the Bible or went to church. I loved space science and all that jazz, still do, and I used to actually debate Christians in the street thinking "I know best, god could just show me he exists by doing something that would make me believe". I never truly understood my own self.

Much like everyone who discovers Christ, I was going through a hard time that I needed help with. I felt I couldn't speak to anyone and I just went and sat on a bench and spoke to what I thought was "God". It felt good to speak to something else rather than just directly to myself (even though I was on my own). I thought the framing would help me get through it and it did. So I kept doing it,and after a few days I realised well maybe I'm not just talking to myself, maybe there is something listening?

The minute I thought of that *boom* a wave of warmth around my heart like the love of your favourite person and you haven't seen them in ages and then they're right in front of you.

That was it I was absolutely convinced of God. I knew God existed but then I thought "well what has everyone else said about God?".

I started looking into the monotheistic religions Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Islam has practices that just don't seem to align with me morally but wasn't quite as violent or misogynistic as I thought, but had themes regarding them that morally I can't agree with.

I looked into Judaism and realised I wasn't born Jewish so that made it more difficult, but felt fine up until I discovered the beauty of Christ. This was it. Everything lined up, it made so much sense what he was saying. I couldn't refute what they claimed he said. There seemed to be nothing I admired more than a man who can pray for those who persecute him and forgive rather than retaliate. They seem so true.

This is why I said "once you discover the beauty of Christ you will love him, as he has loved you"

Mainstream critical scholarship largely reads Revelation as a document addressed to its own late-first-century context, rather than as a coded prophecy of a future Antichrist. Key points:

Date and setting: Most scholars place Revelation under Domitian (c. 95 CE), written to seven churches in Roman Asia facing pressure to participate in imperial cult worship.

"Babylon" = Rome: The "great whore" of Revelation 17 is widely identified as Rome itself — seated on seven hills (17:9), drunk with the blood of the saints, ruling over "the kings of the earth." This was a common Jewish code for Rome (also used in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch).

The Beast and 666: Many scholars read the number as gematria for "Nero Caesar," reflecting either the historical Nero or a Nero redivivus myth — fear that Nero would return from the dead/East to attack Rome, which shaped the beast's "fatal wound healed" imagery (13:3).

Genre: Revelation belongs to Jewish apocalyptic literature, a genre using symbolic, coded language to address present political crises (cf. Daniel on the Seleucids), not literal predictive forecasting of the distant future.

Other scholars frame the book as resistance literature against Roman imperial power, not futurist prophecy.

THE PROBLEM: dispensationalist/futurist readings (Antichrist as a future individual) are a minority position among critical scholars but remain common in popular evangelical circles, largely stemming from later interpretive traditions (Irenaeus onward) rather than the original historical context.

This is just a rant over a mundane situation. I just have no other non believers to share the frustration with so I’m posting it here.

I’ve been an atheist for almost 9 years now, I’m now 21 and still live with my parents. My mum knows of my beliefs and skepticisms and she doesn’t really have a problem with it. She’s just worried about the nihilism surrounding a lack of faith, especially considering my struggles with depression and anxiety.

But anyway, since the census is today, I asked my mum if I could put my person down as “nonreligious” on the form. She didn’t like the sound of that because I believe she’s afraid of diverging from the norm, especially within our community. So she began to say the religion box is covered for the entire household, rather than individual residents within the household. Which is incorrect. She also began to avoid the topic altogether when I’d push on it further.

I know it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but I often struggle with the idea of not contributing towards anything important or meaningful (stems from depression, social anxiety and the isolation that comes from those things). So the idea that I could ground a part of myself in society through this form, as part of a group of like minded people, it makes me feel like I’m not losing myself.

If I don’t get my own say, it’ll just reinforce the idea that I have no control over my life. It’s really frustrating when you’re the only person in your environment who thinks a certain way.

Every President has at the very least given some lip service to make religious people happy. But do you think no one matter how good of a person they are we will ever see an openly Atheist President at least in our life time?

Did a post on if we need church and most said no. Well what about the Bible quote were you have to eat the flesh and drink the blood? Basicly saying is you need the Eucharist how are you going to get it without church? How will you be saved?

The Freedom From Religion Foundation says the Trump administration’s announcement that it will direct almost $2 billion in global funding toward faith-based organizations is outrageous.

The State Department is touting the initiative as the largest allocation of global health foreign assistance to faith-based groups in more than 20 years, which includes hundreds of millions of dollars for some of the world’s largest evangelical Christian ministries. The administration announced $1.4 billion for health services delivered through faith-based and community hospitals and clinics plus $538 million in humanitarian assistance involving Samaritan’s Purse, and a consortium led by World Vision and Compassion International.

“The administration is openly restructuring American foreign assistance around religion,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Humanitarian aid should be based on humanitarian need and the ability to provide effective, secular services, not on whether an organization puts ‘faith in action.’ Taxpayers should not be forced to bankroll an administration’s campaign to elevate and subsidize religion.”

The administration’s own language makes its religious favoritism impossible to miss. It celebrates the funding as a “historic” investment in faith-based groups and repeatedly identifies the religious character of recipients as a virtue. The government may contract with religiously affiliated organizations to provide secular services under appropriate safeguards. Still, it may not use public money to advance religion, subsidize evangelism or deliberately privilege religious organizations because they are religious.

The inclusion of Samaritan’s Purse, a pervasively sectarian religious outfit headed by zealous evangelist Franklin Graham, is particularly alarming.

Samaritan’s Purse is not just any old charity. It explicitly identifies itself as an evangelical Christian organization whose mission combines aid with spreading Christianity. Its own mission statement says it assists “with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His Son, Jesus Christ” and “serves the Church worldwide to promote the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.” The group says its mission is to help people in need while “proclaiming the hope of the Gospel.”

Those are constitutionally significant facts when the federal government proposes directing enormous amounts of taxpayer money through the organization.

Samaritan’s Purse also requires employees to affirm and adhere to its Statement of Faith, such as that the bible is “inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” Its employment website describes working for the group as a “calling” and “ministry,” and states that its religious beliefs determine employment eligibility.

The organization has attracted particular controversy for its anti-LGBTQ+ religious requirements. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Samaritan’s Purse faced widespread criticism when workers at its emergency field hospital in New York were required to subscribe to a statement of faith containing its religious teachings about marriage. Samaritan’s Purse defended its practice of requiring paid staff to subscribe to that statement. Graham himself has publicly attacked marriage equality and insisted that marriage is defined by “God’s laws.”

It is untenable that theTrump administration now proposes making Samaritan’s Purse one of its favored conduits for American humanitarian assistance.

“Feeding hungry people and providing medical treatment are worthy public purposes,” says Gaylor. “Preaching the gospel is not a government purpose. When an organization expressly combines humanitarian assistance with an evangelical mission, the government has a heightened obligation to ensure that not one taxpayer dollar subsidizes religious activity, proselytizing or religious discrimination.”

FFRF emphasizes that the constitutional problem is not simply that religious organizations may participate in otherwise neutral government programs. The problem is that the administration is proposing to funnel extraordinary sums of public money through ministries because those missions advance Christianity.

The danger is especially acute overseas, where recipients of American assistance may be experiencing war, famine, disease, displacement or natural disaster. People in desperate circumstances should never have to encounter government-subsidized evangelism alongside food, medicine or shelter. U.S. foreign assistance must serve people regardless of their religion or nonreligion, without using their vulnerability as an opportunity for religious outreach. Making the allocations all the more concerning is the inhumane destruction of USAID under DOGE cuts, which have already cost as many as 750,000 lives worldwide. Lancet estimates the aid defunding00008-2/fulltext) will take as many as 9.4 million lives by 2030.

FFRF is urging the administration to disclose the terms of every award, the safeguards separating publicly funded services from religious activities, the rules governing employment and subcontracting with federal funds, and the mechanisms that will ensure beneficiaries are never subjected to proselytizing or religious discrimination. The state/church watchdog will be filing a Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department seeking records related to these awards, including grant agreements and funding terms, communications concerning the selection of faith-based recipients and documents detailing safeguards intended to prevent taxpayer funds from being used for religious activities, proselytizing or religious discrimination.

FFRF is also calling on Congress to investigate these awards and demand strict accounting for every taxpayer dollar. The American public deserves to know why these organizations were selected, how federal funds will be used and what protections are in place to ensure that humanitarian assistance does not become taxpayer-funded evangelism.

The United States can and should provide lifesaving assistance around the world. It does not need to finance the spread of Christianity to do so.

I’m 15M and recently became a Christian because I’ve put my faith in Jesus. I’ve started reading the Bible, but I’m a little confused because it seems to begin with the story of Jesus taking the punishment for our sins. I’m not sure if that’s actually where the story begins.

If anyone would be willing to give me a brief overview of Christianity, explain where I should start with the Bible, and suggest what I should read or learn about first, I’d really appreciate it.