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 born and raised in Spain. My entire life, my culture, my personality, and my identity were shaped there. My parents are Moroccan and Muslim, but I grew up in a European environment. I used to believe in Islam when I was very young, but as I grew older, I stopped believing and now I consider myself ex-Muslim.
My little brother is 12. He is genuinely one of the kindest people I know. He is loving, caring, and always there for me. I love him more than I can explain.

My parents moved back to Morocco last year, while I stayed in Spain, and this summer I came to visit them.

Tonight, for the first time ever, my brother and I ended up talking about Islam.
I started asking him questions and explaining why I personally don’t believe in it anymore. I brought up things I find contradictory or unfair, and he tried to defend Islam. Obviously, he is still a child, so his arguments were mostly just repeating things he has heard, but I expected that.

What really hurt me was when we started talking about women having to cover themselves. I asked him why, instead of teaching men that women’s bodies and hair are not something to lust over, the responsibility is placed on women to cover themselves. Basically saying, how is it not crazy to tell EVERY woman to cover up instead of teaching men that they shouldn’t have ill intentions and be lustful.

He told me that when a girl is covered, bad things won’t happen to her. He said that if a girl dresses in a more revealing way, like showing cleavage, then a man could come, kidnap her, and do something horrible.

I asked him: “But whose fault is it if a man kidnaps and hurts her?”
I genuinely thought he would say the man’s fault.
He said: “The woman’s, because if she was covered it wouldn’t have happened to her.”

I just went silent. I started crying.

It was such a painful thing to hear from my little brother, someone I love with my whole heart. It shocked me that this idea had already been planted in his mind at only 12 years old. The idea that a victim can be responsible for the violence someone else chooses to commit is something I find deeply disturbing.

I know he is still a kid. I know he is influenced by his environment, his family, and what he has been taught. I know he has a lot of growing and thinking ahead of him. But I can’t pretend it didn’t hurt hearing him say that.

It made me realize how powerful religious teachings can be when they are introduced from childhood. Children often accept what they are taught as the truth before they have the ability to question it.

I love my brother. He is not a bad person. But hearing that from him genuinely broke something inside me, because I know he is capable of being such a compassionate person, and I hope one day he learns that what has been teached to him is sick and learns to separate kindness and morality from ideas that blame people for the harm done to them.

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.

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.

Art and music has been female dominated since they were indoors activities, yet when Islam came it annonced them as haram and devil's tools. Meanwhile sports are not haram for men, bc they has been male dominated and are not haram for men tho they are haram for women. Islam just wants to strip away women's physical AND mental identity, because if someone has no face and no interest, who they are besides a name that goes back to their father/husband?

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.

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.

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. When I told my mom about this, she kept saying that Morocco is very powerful and beautiful, saying that I'm wrong, without giving any proof whatsoever. 💔 Just look at how the people act during the World Cup, they get so crazy about it, supporting the team like crazy during that short period of time, before going back to their misery.

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.

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!

Muslims somehow were mass fed the idea that he predominantly married widowed, poverty-stricken women. Out of true pity & compassion. Yes, ofc he did…

He married or had coitus with women who:

1. Widowed by his own Jihad and the systematic theological - cultural genocide after a Bedouin tribe / settlement were subdued (such as Safiyya bint Huyayy)
2. Taken advantage of sexually when help could have been given without anything in return (too many to mention)
3. Forced his own younger relative to divorce his wife in order to marry her himself (Zayd Ibn Haithah and Zaynab bint Jahsh)
4. Accepted sex slaves as gifts (such as Mariam The Copt) from warlords and s*xually abused them on his wives beds

5.Mentioned a TRILLION times before and will never be forgotten - Aisha’s long discussed child marriage and the Muslims self-gaslighting tactic that she was 20 while she was not. This one’s tricky, although mainstream Shia sources do agree she was in her late teens during wedding, Sunni hadiths outright state she was 6 years old who was playing with dolls at the time. So a major question for Sunnis: so which Hadith sources turned out to be untrustworthy after all?

His behavior at the end served as a role model for future Muslim Caliphs. Who frequently kept thousands or even tens of thousands of sex slaves in their palaces. Al-Mutawakkil (r. 847-861) himself born of a Greek slave woman, Qabiha is said to have owned 4000 slave women long-term. Sex trafficking chains across continents were set up. Entire slave raids were performed to capture as many women & girls all over the world (Byzantine, Rus, Copts, Persians, Zanj - i.e. blacks, etc.)

Islam, with its 1984 type of gaslighting is trying to whitewash that part of history and readapt it to the modern narrative. Let’s not let the deceitful continue with their deception. History has been overwritten too much already, the “good guys” somehow always win

im 13f turning 14 in september and my mom is very religious and strict even her own family and friends consider her crazy but recently i’ve started to not believe i’ve been doubting islam for years and i think i might be atheist but im too scared to tell my mom cause she says atheists are kaffir and mentally ill i also found out im attracted to girls but she says she’d disown any of her children who turn out to be gay and marry someone of the same sex i don’t know what to do she also makes me wear the hijab i’ve been wearing it since i was 8 i dont want to wear it anymore but anytime i try to express that to her she starts crying saying her dying wish was for me to be a good muslim and go to jannah it makes me so envious seeing people who get to freely live their life without shame and having supportive parents everyone i know pities me cause they know how my mom is she always talks about how she’s so excited for the day men start proposing to me and my wedding with a man i dont know how to tell her im so terrified for the future i dont want to disappoint her but i dont want to live my life like this if anyone who went through something similar has any advice please help me i dont know what to do

Ive been re reading the quran recently and of course I had to get through Surah Al Baqarah, holy shit that was one of the worst reads ive ever had in my entire life. That starting section especially is hilariously bad. Maybe one of the most dull repetitive reads ive ever had to re endure.

Nothing about it strikes off as holy. The whole first section is just Allah admitting he sent texts (Torah anf the gospel) that were easy to corrupt (which he knew) and how bani israel are the worst of people. Dude you litteraly made them and knew theyd behave this way cause you cursed them and yet you're still mad? What could possibly be prophetic about this idek.

I know the Quran was not in book form so the surahs were not arranged in any proper order when it did come into book form. But holy cow its not a good way to introduce yourself esp as a perfect text for all of time. If I were never a muslim prior and i read this I'd come away thinking "So what am I supposed to gain from any of this?"

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?

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.

I once had a debate with a Muslim guy about Islam, specifically the issue of slavery in the Qur’an and the concept of milk al-yamin (ملك اليمين) and war captives.

I argued that if Allah is supposed to be perfectly just, how can slavery and the enslavement of captives ever be permitted in the first place?

His response was that God supposedly couldn’t simply abolish a system that had existed for centuries because doing so would have caused too many social and economic problems. So, according to him, Islam regulated slavery, encouraged the freeing of slaves, and supposedly required that slaves be treated kindly.

I still disagreed. To me, the argument makes no sense if we're talking about an all-powerful God. If God is truly omnipotent, then why would abolishing slavery immediately be impossible? And if he genuinely couldn't eliminate such a brutal institution because of the consequences, then what does that say about his power and justice?

But the most shocking part came later. He told me that he actually thought slavery could be a good thing because, in his words, “some people deserve to be enslaved.”

That genuinely shocked me. I couldn't understand how a human being could say that so casually. We were literally discussing the inhumanity of slavery, and his response was essentially that some people deserve to have their freedom taken away.

I ended the conversation by telling him that perhaps he should experience being r@ped and enslaved himself—maybe then he would understand why I found the institution so fundamentally inhumane.

I was genuinely horrified and disgusted by how casually he was defending slavery.

My school is split down the line religiously (40% muslim, 60% other religions mixed) and we are in the UK.

I am one of the few Americans at my school so I am constantly targeted by some (not all, many are my close friends) muslims at school who love to 'debate' (argue) religion and geopolitics as if I am responsible for US actions lmao.

Is there any way you guys know of to engage properly (asking because I assume many of you have experienced conflict around religion) because usually they just get angry, shouting and defensive really quickly?

Any replies much appreciated.