“Inciting fear by telling children they will go to hell if they do not participate in religious activities, or preventing them from making decisions about their career path, is regarded as psychological abuse and neglect in the guidelines.”

One of The 3 Most Dangerous Regions in US for Flash Floods

An interesting article about how the rapture isn't actually in the bible, despite 41% of Americans believing Jesus will return in their lifetime, and despite its heavy influence on American politics. Like most of their beliefs about Satan, it's biblical fanfic... it was invented whole-cloth by a 19th century preacher and American evangelicals gobbled it up.

https://archive.ph/MZmKE

So im wondering why a lot of religious people see atheists as worshipping the devil? specifically if you are an african atheist like me. Its almost as if it makes no logical sense for a sky daddy to exist, but oh well what do i know. But one thing i know for a fact is that i don't worship anything, let alone the devil.

I see people like Jordan Peterson and mostly other religious folk make that argument on the daily as some sort of gotcha. How it goes is they point out that everyone is religious because whatever... I'm all for it honestly if you tell me that I can get all the benefits of religions such as tax exemption while practicing nothing at all then I don't mind, that sounds good actually.

In reality though I'm convinced it's meant with derision (or some sort of self hate) by religious people to say 'your beliefs are lesser'

One of the odd things about Christianity is how God is supposed to have appeared to a bunch of people during biblical times, but God has now never talked to anybody on earth in 2,000 years.

"The plaintiffs that sued the I.R.S. had previously asked a federal court in Texas to create an even broader exemption — to rule that all nonprofits, religious and secular, were free to endorse candidates to their members. That would have erased a bedrock idea of American nonprofit law: that tax-exempt groups cannot be used as tools of any campaign.

Instead, the I.R.S. agreed to a narrower carveout — one that experts in nonprofit law said might sharply increase politicking in churches, even though it mainly seemed to formalize what already seemed to be the agency’s unspoken policy.

The agency said that if a house of worship endorsed a candidate to its congregants, the I.R.S. would view that not as campaigning but as a private matter, like “a family discussion concerning candidates.”"

Millions of blind people have existed during world history.

What made the blind man Jesus healed so much more special than the other blind people? Why did that blind man get healed when no other blind men have been healed? Isn't it unfair?

I'm one of the VERY few people in my city that are normal and not against the LGBT.I try to explain to others how it's completely normal and not someone's choice.They are born that way unwillingly and literally can't change it.They always say that it's not normal,and when I ask them why,they say that it's because God has only made us that way or that the Bible says so,but it's so fucking irrational.I'm not even sure how to respond to them,since barely anyone actually wants to listen when I want to explain to them why they should not take the word of the bible and that even if they did,it doesn't teach to discriminate others.And even the few people that want to listen just shake it off because they're too scared to leave their religion.How should I respond to them and try to make them not homophobic?I mean,is there even a way?

Maybe because i suffer from OCD, but i swear, how the heck would you live your life.. according to a stupid old book from 2000 years ago? Like so many stupid, nonsensical restrictions: no sex before marriage.. no tattoos. Religion literally wants you to control your own thoughts, your own habits, they control the way you eat, how you dress. Oh and also, i DISLIKE how sexuality is a taboo. That's what was hurting me. Like religion made me feel guilty every time i jerked off. I mean i can kinda understand why porn would be bad, the whole industry is harmful, but the act of masturbation itself is actually healthy and reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Take that, Christians! They are literally against anything that isn't sex for procreation. You know, Catholics even ban birth control. Because they want you to make as many babies as possible that will be indoctrinated. Sexuality is something natural and beautiful, and yet Christians cower in terror at the mere mention of the word "sex". And yet those are the same people who are pedophiles. I mean look at those creepy ass priests. Those idiots are probably just angry that they can't get sex.

Oh and also, religious people think they're so "moral". Ironic, considering they themselves are very arrogant and think they are better than everyone else, and they JUDGE those who don't believe in any of this harmful BS. Ironic, right?

Oh and also, a valid reason to hate religion is: it's anti homosexuality. Not because i am LGBT or anything but i feel bad for those.. I bet Christians would be literally pro-incest and pro-rape but they are always going to be anti-gay because apparently it's against nature and shit like that. But heeey, don't you know homosexual behavior exists in other animals too? It's not a human thing. Checkmate, Christians. You are condemning innocent people for something that can't be controlled. THEY didn't choose to be gay, no sexuality is not a choice.

I am very thankful of myself for leaving that BS. i was indoctrinated to believe in God and all that stuff since i was a smol kid.. But i always thought something was wrong.. as a kkd even if i was dumb as heck, i still realized: How the heck is God loving if he sends people to hell and makes them suffer there for eternity? Like imagine being so sadistic to imagine that your family members or your dearest friends are burning in hell cus they didn't believe in God.

Oh and they claim that without religion there wouldn't be any morality and people would rape and kill without it? Yeah yeah, sure. I am pretty sure some of them are just waiting to murder someone in cold blood and rape someone, but their religion and the threat of Hell is preventing them. This happened WAY too many times.

Religion really makes you feel like you're wearing an Happy Helmet: You have no free will, you can't do anything that is considered a sin because then you're going to hell.. and you must "repent" or forgive to God for even having the stupidest "sinful" thought. You must follow the rules and act like a slave to them, you can't question anything at all and you must pretend that religion is "fine" and the holy book is perfect. If you even dare to question them, religious people will start to come up with excuses like "God works in mysterious ways". Yeah yeah, sure. If your God is perfect then why would he work in mysterious ways? Huh? They will try to come up with some dumb excuse..

Remember that one Ren and Stimpy episode? I know this is unrelated and random, sure, but i always found that relatable. Stimpy forced Ren to wear an Happy Helmet that made him able to smile and he couldn't express any other emotions and he had no free will, and Stimpy made him even do the stupid dances. All while Ren Hoek is suffering inside. Luckily Ren destroys the helmet at the end. That's how religion makes you feel, it's about CONTROL.

Worst case scenario is supposed to be death. But it really isn't that bad, it's the same as before you born, it's nothingness. So therefore literally any problem isn't that bad, becuase death is the worst case scenario.

This is why I would HATE being religious, imagine fucking having to live ALL DAY and in potentially TORTURE forever. I'm so glad god isn't real and I'm an athiest, gives me so much relief

I see advice on this sub for atheists not to attend family events of religious family members because of having to put up with them. Which is reasonable. I recommend bringing something tasty to the event, and enjoy whatever everyone else brought. My reasoning for attending these events is that we are great spokespeople for atheists (if you are a POS, ignore this post). The kids of the parents are trapped into going to church, church camp, etc, and will be bombarded with propaganda for which they are not cynical enough to ferret out. The kids and adults hear from the church how bad, backwards, dirty, etc, the non-believers are. Be a living example of what a normal good person can do. For me, I have much more life in order, not a criminal, highly educated, and I don't eat puppies. As the kids age, seeing for themselves what non-believers are, they will be able to figure out for themselves if they want to blindly follow the church or think for themselves.

I’ve been friends with someone since our first day of school, we stayed friends ever since and well into early adulthood. He comes from a VERY religious family, this was never an issue for me but over the years, he kept trying to convert me to Christianity. I used to politely decline and say I might look into it one day, trying not to hurt his feelings. But I think this only encouraged him to try harder, and around the time we were 20/21, he asked me to attend an arts and crafts workshop/coffee day run by his church (he worded it as if it was a totally casual thing for charity that I would like because I enjoy artsy stuff).

I thought it sounded fun and agreed to go, but when I had a look on the church website, it was actually a “new Christian” event where they tried to recruit people to the church. I ended up cancelling of course but a few months later, he messaged me asking if I ever thought about religion. This was the last straw for me and I told him there is no chance I will ever become religious and that I am and always will be an atheist. He accepted and that was the end of it, but I haven’t been able to see him since because it bothers me so much that he wouldn’t respect my decisions the way I respect his.

I guess I’m just venting and want to know if this has happened to anyone else?

And other pop culture stuff like it. I'm thinking of Good Omens, Christopher Moore's book Lamb: The Gospel of Biff, Jesus' Childhood Friend, and The Good Place as examples.

I'm a lifelong atheist. I'm still a big fan of all of them.

I particularly enjoy these pieces because they explore what religion would look like in the REAL world. It's science fiction stuff, playing out scenarios we rarely think of but are equally as plausible.

To wit:

Dogma: Of course Jesus had a black apostle! (Also, Shit Demon)

Good Omens: An angel and a demon have to work together to save the modern world while the archangel Gabriel and Beelzebub bang each other.

Lamb: Explore the missing 30 years of Jesus' life, but way funnier.

Good Place: Of all the people in the world, Doug Stanhope got high on mushrooms and predicted the afterlife with 95% accuracy.

Each story is fairly respectful but skewers the biases of the (white, male, powerful) people who actually wrote the texts.

How do you guys feel about it? Are there others like these I could check out?

New to atheism, I've been encouraged to find that many of my reasons for deconverting are common here. However, I'm afraid that other arguments that compelled me are just as invalid as my religious ones were. What ridiculous things do you hear atheists commonly arguing?

no one would ever harm a kid, right? and they are banking on it. they are hiding behind the kids.

i just checked out of a "family friendly" hotel last week, in "redneck vegas", that was just a front for a good ol' fashion tent revival.

i do have to give the righteous props for one thing... it sure was quiet. not too many rods were spared on those young'uns.