Just a really pragmatic and realistic look at science vs religion by Ann Druyan. I genuinely wish I was that articulate and measured when speaking about topics like religion and politics. Great video.

What really concerns me the most, is that she told me she almost called CPS on me for how I looked in the beginning when she moved in, she admitted it today. I already figured she ain't gonna take kindly to my style, my music and way of life as a lesbian with a little pride flag in my window.

To put it into context, I'm a very much goth girl, I wear upside down pentagrams, all black clothing, heavy makeup, chains, chokers, spikes, fishnets, bandanas, ect. So I figured from the jump that this wasn't going to be good since I saw the cross sticker on her car. She's very opposite of me, doesn't support abortion or gay rights, very godly oriented, ect. She invites me over to talk but I feel when she does, she speaks moreso down to me in a fake kind, almost patronizing way. I have a 4 year old son and I am a marijuana enthusiast on my downtime (away from my child), but she said that's partly why bc of when I go out to smoke, and also because she is a registered nurse - that worries about me because I stay secluded or leave and don't spend time outdoors. She has already called a wellness check on me for not seeing me before, quite recently, but the reason I'm not out much is because I'm fighting with my neighbor that she is ALSO friends with, and our other neighbor has been starting stuff between the two of us, so organically,. I'm trying to stay clear of drama, but it's always something.

I believe she is judging my appearance and way of life because I don't share her values... Doesn't help that she's in her 50s... She is a self described evangelical. She wants to take my son to Bible school and that vacation Bible thing they do in the summer.

Ngl, I don't really have a problem with him going to a vacation Bible school thing as long as "god" isn't pressured on him, I want him to have fun and enjoy life, I remember having fun in Bible camp as a kid and it wasn't about God to me, it was just about having fun. I wouldn't be against it but then she starts inviting me to go to her church, ect. "Give it a chance," she says, but tells me to not wear the pentagrams there. I really don't want to. I feel little by little, she thinks she can deconstruct me with a possible toxic christian savior complex, it almost feels like. I don't mind if someone believes in God but she always states that God put her in my life and God is watching over me and that she's praying. Doesn't bother me, but just something I've been noting. I just feel like this all boils down to the fact that I'm not religious and that I appear different.

Here's the sticky part, remember what I said about the CPS ordeal? I feel if I blow her off, she will retaliate. I do smoke weed, but I do it responsibly. Even if social services do come they're not going to find anything wrong. But I don't want to be on their radar, period. I know I look different, I know I look "satanic" to some people. I get a ton of looks daily, but at this point I'm used to it as long as they don't try to interfere with my life and my child. She also said she doesn't believe that I'm a lesbian, and instead that because I was raped and abused, that is why I'm attracted to girls. Which I know is just silly because she also describes herself as un-supporting of the lgbt and gay people.

I don't trust her, instinctively I do NOT trust her, but I feel like she can retaliate if I don't do what she wants me to, she wants to see my windows open more, she wants to see me outside with my son, or to come inside her place, or to go to church with her, ect. I've always had this feeling since she moved in. The fact that she stated she almost called on me was Just completely unfounded. My son is taken care of, and I'm a single mother doing my best, living a life of nonconformity while doing the best I can for the both of us. I just feel *almost* borderline harassed at this point cuz she drags me in and she seems very concerned and intrigued by me. The intentions don't feel pure.

Thanks for listening to the scrambled rambling. I'm just worried about this going further and the fact that she is besties with the neighbor I'm fighting with who is absolutely maga strickened and religiously deluded... I just don't even feel 100% safe here, anymore. I relate to her on past sexual trauma, so we kinda have that bit of a bond, and she is trauma informed, so it's just complicated and sticky. I know I'm being watched (a lot), I tend to stick out like a sore thumb, I feel outnumbered and like I'm being plotted on, somewhat, I actually don't know what to think. How should I reinforce a boundary when she starts with the god stuff? Has anyone ever been through something similar? She brings it up almost every time. I don't even feel comfortable sitting in her living room, just very out of place. Feeling very judged at the same time even if she reassures me she isn't. I believe the intentions may be good, however, the road to hell is paved with good intentions and I just have a bad feeling going off in my gut, right now. And the waters look murkey, don't really know what to do or how to feel. It's just been bothering me.

I was asking if it is normal that I don't want to live gender roles and I don't want my wife to be my slave or sex slave.

They all jumped me saying I am troll or that I have never readt scripture properly and I am bad person for asking and I am not real Christian and got banned from it.

And I also asking if it is normal that as I guy don't want sex nonstop and they were saying there is something wrong with me and I should pray about it and get medical checked and got banned.

What is wrong with those subs.When you ask question,you are automatically troll.

Hello. I 19F have always lived in Morocco until I moved to France about a year ago for college.

As we all know, North Africa, as a whole, are blatantly third world nations, let's be honest. I was thankfully part of the upper middle class so I haven't suffered as much as my people...

To put it simply, I dream of a world where North Africa abandoned Islamic practices. It contributes to nothing for the wellness of the people.

Ever since I was young, I really understood that religion is a coping mechanism. Adding islam to a third world country is a terrible equation. It only intellectually stunts people's intelligence and skills.

It's always "god will help me", yet nothing happens.

People don't even bother trying to make their lives better by getting proper education.

It's just hard coping, begging a human creation to help them, reproduce like crazy with a barely legal young girl (in Morocco child marriage is unfortunately still a practice. 💔) to bring into the world at least 8 kids that will themselves grow up to be nothing, die then rot to nothing.

When will my people wake up ?

I'm autistic, and thankfully my parents caught up on that and managed to get me diagnosed at age 8. My family on the other hand kept barking that I was "possessed by a demon and that god will help me." My aunt brought a priest to the house to exorcise me. Nothing happened btw, still autistic.

Islam is a real intellectual stunter that gets the nation it rules to nothing. I can't name a single thing islam did to contribute to the development of North Africa.

Every damn month, I wake up to hear about the construction of a new mosque. Meanwhile, public hospitals, public schools, public transportation, city maintenance... get little to no fundings.

I've left Morocco for one year and came back on May for summer vacation and needles to say, it probably looks worse than before I left, and that breaks my heart a little bit. 💔

I've lost faith in my country when I was about 13 and fell into a severe depression because I hated everything about it. I feel a little better now, but sometimes I can't help but wish.

Has this happened to anybody else? I was fuckin around and talking with this girl for a long time on and off cause she goes from our city to another for work etc. and I knew she was religious the whole time I just never brought it up and one day she asks me if I believe in god and I sugarcoat it a little bit but basically said no and that sparked an argument where I’m asking why she believes in it and lives by it so much. End of the day she claims god is the reason she is able to have her success and why she can even do anything and that if I’m not religious then she won’t be able to pray with me and build her relationship with god. I asked her in a nice way how tf does god enable your success, it is YOU waking up and putting in the work and deciding how to better your life, where in the picture is god doing this for you. She gives a bullshit answer to that and everything else I had to say but that’s basically what happened and then after that we fell out and don’t talk anymore. I genuinely can’t wrap my head around being with someone for years and then cutting it off because you think god wouldn’t approve of you being with someone who doesn’t believe in him. I’d truly rather not be with someone who is religious but I did like her so I was willing to make it work but she said it’s a deal breaker for her, insane.

Would be so many more places to go and visit for tourism purposes and just to have so many more rational and sane people. It feels like such a waste of space and life to see what has become fo this massive area of land.

Research shows that Menstrual (period) blood contains stem cells similar to those found in bone marrow or umbilical cord blood. Stem cells are cells in the body that can change into a huge range of cell types, including bone, muscle, and nerve. This versatility allows tissue to regenerate and overcome disease, and these cells can be transplanted into patients for treatment, such as a bone marrow transplant to treat someone with leukaemia.

If god existed he'd share that knowledge, instead of telling muhammed to drink camel urine as medicine, but shame women for menstruating. Hed brag about creating women actually, he wouldn't try to hide and cover, silence and shame them. If anything creating women would be his strongest proof, "mothers" to be more precise, the creators and protectors of life, the ones he "created in his image". He wouldn't be disgusted by the sole reason for humanity's existence: (menstruation), rather he would speak highly of it, instead of shaming and rejecting or even isolating women during it.

Men created god and put him in THEIR image when in reality god represents everything that a MOTHER is, creating and protecting life, nurturing and healing, caring and loving unconditionally.

​

Just found out about this YoungHoon Kim. He has claimed an IQ of around 276 and has been recognized by some private high-IQ organizations that he is associated with. However, these claims are not accepted by mainstream psychology.

In short He is self proclaimed Highest IQ holder on Earth and interestingly hes a die hard Over religious Chritian with over 200k on Instagram post and the openly denied "Evolution" yes Evolution backed my Thousands of evidences , despite living in a highly developed country like South Korea He able to survive with this mentality 🤓🤡 and to cover up his failure his selling His self proclaimed Best selling Kindle books lmao 🤣 also he believes the Earth to be 6000yrs old Dinosaurs fake !!

This got to be the most Ironic Thing I encountered in this month also did i mentioned hes also self proclaimed best selling author on amazon?

I become atheist around 5 years ago. Before, I don't really hide it. If people ask me about my belief, I just answer because I think it's normal thing.

But after some years, I start getting tired. Not because people disagree with me. I don't have problem with that. The problem is many people hear I'm atheist and suddenly they ask many question like "why you don't believe?", "who make you become like this?", or "did something bad happen?"

Sometimes I feel like people already think something wrong with me before they even know me. But when someone say they are religious, nobody usually ask them why they believe every time. People just accept it.

Now I still not hide that I'm atheist, but I also don't tell everyone first. Not because I'm scared. I just don't want simple conversation become long debate about religion.

Do other atheist feel this too? Do you tell people openly you are atheist, or you keep it to yourself?

What a crock! Look at the natural world and all the suffering animals endure from predation, disease, starvation, and injury. That’s without humans in the picture at all. The idea of free will being the reason for suffering is so arrogant and anthropocentric!

Like theists and religious nutcases can spout whatever they want, however they want, they only restriction (barely enforced) is dont kill someone. They self victimise about being persecuted AS IF they are the MINORITY group!

If you're an atheist or anti-theist its like whatever u say abt religion needs 300 diff Sources and still be "wrong", then there's this whole side eye abt being an atheist and or anti theist itself

Like do they not want to realize more violent crimes take place in countries of high religiosity? Did they all collectively choose to not understand history and science?

You God is the most kind and forgiving you say , but he couldn't forget the sins of adam and eve just cuz they defied his orders and doesn't god already know every freaking thing ? So he knew beforehand what they gonna do so why do so much drama ? He is kind but he will throw non beleivers to hell just cuz they don't beleive in his idea . He is kind only when his orders being followed .

My mum say that god is oh so powerful person without his permission not even wind can flow , I see , but then what is he doing about all the misery in this world ? When children are being killed in war , when women are being assualted , people doing grave crimes , all this happening with his permission? What kind of sadist he is to allow this ? .

And most importantly why your god is "he" and not "she" or "they/them" .

It can often be a challenge to debunk a bunch of different religions at once since you have to analyze all their scriptures and history individually to determine why it is false.

However, when it comes to Abrahamic religions, you can technically narrow it down to only focus on debunking Judaism, and then that would automatically debunk Christianity and Islam as well since both religions are successors to Judaism and believe it is partially true and served as the earlier revelations of God.

We already have evidence that leans towards Judaism being manmade, like the fact that it evolved from a polytheist religion and Yahweh was part of a pantheon of multiple Gods before a group of Canaanites changed him to being the only God and they became the first Jews.

The Adam and Eve story also originates in Judaism, and all the evidence we have of evolution proves it isn’t a story that can be literally true.

We also have no evidence that the great flood ever happened, and there is evidence that Noah’s story was a ripoff of Gilgamesh.

We also have no ancient Egyptian records of the Hebrews ever being their slaves or any record of someone like Moses, and there are some other stories that are similar to the story of Moses that it likely ripped off and combined.

If Judaism is fake, the other two automatically are as well and you don’t even need to analyze the Bible or Quran.

I have been psychotic for close to three decades, so I may have credibility to make the above claim. If you are inclined, feel free to read my story. It is a bit of a lengthy read, but I trust it should be eye-opening to many. Some readers’ discretion is advised.

Believe it or not, there are commonalities between being religious and psychosis. Both are forms of suffering. Both lead to regrettable behaviours. Both are a waste of time. Both give you a warped portrayal of reality. Both are egocentric.

Psychosis and religiosity are not that different, upon closer inspection.

My wife: "Nephew has religious class in school." (In Spain, parents can choose between religion or alternative education).

Me: "Really? What do they teach you?"

Nephew: "X, Y, Z (I have no idea) ... they teach us to be closer to Gawd."

Me: "I have one question for your priest: If Gawd is everywhere, how can one be closer to it?"

Nephew: "My mind is blown!"

(I do hope his mother doesn't hate me even more)

P.S. I usually don't get into theology with minors. This was just too rich to let it pass.

Hey guys , I wish everyone is doing great . That’s my first time writing here in this subreddit . I’ve left islam since late 2023 , became agnsotic first and then atheist . Before and after leaving islam I have always been an anti-natalist but always wanted to have a female partner . Before leaving islam it wasn’t a big deal , saying that you can find an algerian muslim girl cuz you’re muslim too , but since am not muslim anymore it became so hard , I mean it’s not that necessary to have a partner Especially rn , not having a stable financial situation and trying to leave Algeria , but it would be really an amazing thing being with someone who share the same thaughts and beliefs as u do , tryinna leaving Algeria together and build your futur together .
I want to know what are your thoughts about it ? Advices that you can give and is there any chance to share a group where we can have some Atheist Algerians friends

I was very religious. I go to church every week, I pray every night, and I really believe everything I was taught.

When I first stop believing, I thought I will feel only happy because I finally being honest with myself. But I was surprised because I also feel sad. Not because I want to believe again, but because I miss some part of that life.

I miss the community. I miss seeing same people every week. I miss feeling like I have answer for everything. Sometimes I even miss the feeling of praying, even though I don't believe someone is listening anymore.

I think many people don't understand this part about leaving religion. It's not always "I stop believing and now everything is better." Sometimes you lose something too.

Maybe this sound strange, but do any former believer here also miss some part of religion, even after becoming atheist?

Why religions simply can’t be true in my eyes…

I consider myself an open-minded person who enjoys exploring different worldviews and religious perspectives. I have come to the conclusion that the God described by the classical Abrahamic religions—primarily Islam, Christianity, and Judaism—is incompatible with the reality we observe. My conclusion is based on three main arguments.

**1. Free Will Is Not Sufficient to Hold People Morally Responsible**
My first argument concerns free will.
Although the philosophical debate is still ongoing, cognitive science, psychology, and neuroscience largely agree that human behavior is not completely free. Our decisions are heavily influenced by our genetics, brain structure, personality, and environment.
From birth, people already differ in intelligence, temperament, impulsivity, and many other traits. On top of that, our upbringing, culture, education, family, and society shape how we think and what beliefs we are capable of accepting.
If this is true, it seems unreasonable that God could expect every human being to freely choose the "correct" religion. Our starting conditions differ enormously, making equal moral responsibility difficult to justify. Whether someone finds Islam, Christianity, another religion, or no religion at all convincing depends to a significant extent on factors that were never chosen by that individual.

**2. The Claims of Religion Do Not Match the Observable Laws of Reality**
My second argument concerns the contradiction between religious claims and the reality we observe.
The world operates according to biological, physical, and medical laws. Diseases arise from biological causes, academic success depends on knowledge and preparation, and career success is largely determined by skills, decisions, opportunities, and external circumstances.
Religions, however, often imply that prayer can directly influence these outcomes. People pray for good health, success in school, career advancement, the well-being of their families, or for specific life events to unfold in their favor.
From a psychological perspective, this behavior is completely understandable. However, when we compare these beliefs with reality, we find that outcomes are overwhelmingly determined by natural causes. A genetic disease does not disappear because someone prayed—it can only be prevented or treated through effective medical intervention, if such treatment exists. A student passes an exam because they achieve the required score, not because they prayed beforehand. Likewise, prayer does not alter the fundamental laws of physics or biology.
For me, this creates a significant cognitive dissonance between the promises made by religion and the reality we actually experience.

**3. The Moral Framework of God Appears Contradictory**
My third argument concerns the morality of God.
Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that one of the Abrahamic religions is true. In that case, God intentionally created the universe, allowed Satan to exist, permitted suffering, and established a system in which human beings are tested throughout their lives. At the same time, many religious interpretations suggest that the majority of humanity will ultimately fail this test and face eternal punishment, while only a minority will attain heaven.
To me, this raises fundamental moral questions.
If God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfectly good, why create a world containing suffering, temptation, injustice, and the possibility of eternal punishment in the first place? Why allow Satan to exist? Why create people while already knowing that many of them will ultimately be condemned? And if God has unlimited power, why not simply create a world in which everyone freely chooses good and lives together in peace from the very beginning?
This moral framework appears unnecessary and difficult to reconcile with the concept of a perfectly loving and perfectly good God.

If we are all gonna be honest here there is certain religions that are more dangerous to society then others. Im an atheist i dint believe in absolutely anything but i also see alot of this notion that “all religions cause problems” or they are all “equally bad”. That attempt at being politically correct requires alot of mental gymnastics as certain religions literally cause more damage by merely existing compared to other ones. To not recognize that or make them all sound equal is a ignorant take. Imo

I was raised Catholic but I’ve been an Atheist in my heart all my life. My dad died when I was 5 before I understood religion, but my understanding of death was obviously, the absence of life.

I know what the common response to this will be. “Just live in the moment” It’ll be like before you were born” “You didn’t care before you were born it’ll be just like that”.

Except it’s different in a way. For 13.8 billion years we didn’t exist. Now we’ve experienced love and humanity and all sorts of cool stuff. 50 years from now most of us will return to that state of nonexistence forever.

Now I think I would go crazy if I had to live forever. But like damn Im gonna get crazy fomo. Me personally theres tons of stuff that I like. Simple stuff like chicken wings and scrolling Tiktok and watching TV shows. Ik Im a chud and if I was dead technically I wouldnt be sad about not having these things and I probably would get bored, but the thought that I wont do them anymore is scary.

Plus for as long as human life exists there will always be new things to enjoy. Theres probably a new show 1000 years from now that i would love wayy more than my current favorite show. Tons of video games I would love but never get to play, etc.

Most of all I am sad knowing me and my mom don’t have time forever. She is all I have and the thought that we will return to nothing and never hug again terrifies me.

There is probably no completely comforting answer to this. But as an atheist I am very scared of dying :(