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Most people on planet Earth are religious, and you could argue that spirituality is an intrinsic part of the human experience. For many folks around the world, religion is their way to connect to community, tradition, morality, and meaning.
However, like all things in life, even organized religion has its dark side. So much so that instead of attracting followers, some pastors push their most loyal believers away. Inspired by internet user u/PizzaBliAnanas, some formerly devout people took to r/AskReddit to share the reasons why they lost their faith and left their religions. From greed to corruption, scroll down for a peek into how bad things can get in some communities.
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#1
A lady explaining to me that my dog that just died wouldn't be in heaven waiting for me, since a dog can't accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior.
I'd rather be in hell and have my dog, lady.
#2
When stillborn babies, who were not baptized, were buried under the hedge near the cemetery, because they could not be buried in the cemetery itself. F**k such a heartless religion.
#3
No going outside without a man, no wearing what I want, no makeup, no music, no life, I'm cursed day and night by everyone, when I open a book, podcasts, or TV channels all they do is telling me how I'm the reason of all evil because I'm female, how I'm nothing, inferior, dumb..etc
Oh news flash, 100% of Islamic countries are ruled by Muslim men and they are corrupted, no one helped Palestine, they're the most misogynistic countries BUT hey let us just ignore these and focus on your tantalising lipgloss b***h!
It's completely weird how religion honoured women but all I see are privileges for men, it seems like religion is a bunch of rules women must adhere to, while men must just make sure women follow those rules
Polygamy for men
Inheritance for men
Control for men
I can't go to heaven unless I obey my husband, not the other way
If I don't fulfil his desire I'm going straight to hell
He can beat me
Lock me in the house
I must obey my husband more than my father
.
.
.
.
Long list
Anyway just be a girl and live in an islamic society, you will be their source of all evil, if the economy goes down It's my fault, if I got SA it's my fault, if Omar got sick it's my fault...etc.
Statista reports that 31.6% of the global population identified as Christian in 2022, followed by 25.8% as Muslims, and 15.1% as Hindu. Buddhism and Judaism (6.6% and 0.2% of the global population) also rank among the top five major religions of the world. Meanwhile, 14.4% of all people on Earth weren’t affiliated with any religion.
Though it’s impossible to predict the future with a high degree of certainty, we can look at certain trends to more or less gauge in what direction things are moving. By the year 2050, the landscape of world religions is likely to undergo some noticeable changes. For one, the number of Muslims in the world will almost catch up to the number of Christians due to demographic developments.
#4
When I was 14 my brother got AIDS. He hid his diagnosis from everyone, he didn't want people to know he was gay. All the while I was forced to go to a church that ranted against gay people. When he died because he'd hid his diagnosis so long from everyone, and would rather die than put that on his name or our family name in our very redneck town, I had to listen to them tell us that gay people go to hell, while also hosting my brother's funeral.
I still have nights just thinking about my brother dying.. knowing he was dying, dying alone because he was scared of the judgment. Knowing he could never tell us how he really felt, admit if he was scared, tell us what he really wanted us to know before he went. He never got to be himself. We never got to really know him.
First they told us it was hepatitis, then they told us it was cancer. Then he had kaposi's sarcoma, I think my mom knew by then but my dad and the rest of our community, and our extended families just wouldn't have accepted it. I still to this day have family members who just say he died of cancer.
My brother was a good guy. He didn't deserve that. When I saw how they treated a normal innocent person who I cared about who was really no different than me, I knew it was all b******t. All just made up stories to control people.
My other brother was gay as well and the minute he turned 17, he ran away from home. That's just how bad it was around us.
After the torment both my brothers went through, my mom became a home hospice nurse for AIDS patients and she's been a staunch advocate for LGBT+ and pretty much my entire family as well.
The messages churches are sending out about trans people is the same exact rulebook, the same b******t bullet points they usedd in the Bush era when gay marriage was being proposed, when gay men were getting hate crimed.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
F**k homophobia and f**k religions that call homosexuality a sin.
#5
Asking me for a paystub to verify I was actually tithing 10%. Pastor was driving a new Cadillac. Gtfo.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
Pastor needs the latest car! And a new house. And a private plane. So they can do the Lord 's work!
#6
I was in the church youth group. A boy I had a big crush on bragged about his summer vacation activities. He and his brother visited their cousins in Texas. They liked to go out and find homosexuals to beat up as a fun family activity, like visiting an amusement park.
We went to different schools. I had gay friends at my school. He and his brother were huge. Everyone else was very impressed and congratulated him for being such a good christian. I was horrified and stopped going to church not long afterwards.
“The changes in population sizes of each religious group is largely dependent on demographic development, for example, the rise in the world's Christian population will largely be driven by population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, while Muslim populations will rise across various regions of Africa and South Asia,” Statista states.
“As India’s population is set to grow while China’s goes into decline, this will be reflected in the fact that Hindus will outnumber the unaffiliated by 2050. In fact, India may be home to both the largest Hindu and Muslim populations in the world by the middle of this century.”
#7
I'm a young woman in her twenties and I just happen to have a close friend who is a young man, he isn't my husband he is just my friend. Sometimes I do spend time alone with him, just talking.
I got judged for that. I got called a wh*re for having a male friend. I no longer hang out with the mormons.
#8
Not to sound like an elitist snob but literally just becoming more educated. Learning the history and evolution of various religions, the history of mankind as a whole, seeing patterns of how religions are used and contorted to control groups of people or to allow great atrocities to occur, seeing the embedded misogyny and racism within various religions etc. and most of all, the hypocrisy of the religious.
Tiger 2 weeks ago (edited)
I think religious people don’t understand how silly it sounds to the rest of us. I will absolutely respect someone else’s religion until it starts infringing on my life and my beliefs, and then I’m done. It’s silly to tell me I’m going to burn in hell and be tortured for all eternity for having a beer and sharing a cigarette with a friend, like grow up.
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Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
I read plenty of myths and legends growing up. Then I read the Bible. Chock full of more myths and legends.
nm (he/him) 2 weeks ago (edited)
Hercules and Theseus and their achievements are Mythology, but Samson who demolished the temple with his bare hands is History, Yeah!
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Dusty's mom 2 weeks ago
Hence the proliferation so many church based schools. They launch graduates into today's world totally ignorant of key facts because *there's nothing about that in the bible*. If parents can't get religious-backed schools, they demand teaching the Bible and prayer for all students.
Gary Gentry 2 weeks ago
As the inconsistencies and hypocrisy accumulated in my consciousness, my belief in Christianity faded. The final "Ah ha!" came when I realized that the existence of childhood cancer proved that God either didn't exist or was a cruel sob.
Roxy222uk 2 weeks ago
It's possible that the change in religion from a unifying set of beliefs that had women at its centre to a hierarchical arrangement that taught that men had to control women's bodies came in the change from the Mesolithic to Neolithic era. Basically with agriculture came owning things of value, such as land and livestock, and with that came the question of where it went when people died. This saw the development of patriarchal societies, and for the first time it really mattered to men who the father of a child actually was. Why did men take control and not women? Firstly it is unlikely that women would have cared as much anyway, but the reason men got to be in control is because they are physically stronger than women. It is that simple. The Neolithic era also sees the first temples where certain people claimed to have secret knowledge and special powers to commune with the divine, rather than everyone being on an equal footing within a belief system.
Steve Sharpe 2 weeks ago
@Roxy22uk That is really, really interesting🙃 What you're saying is different to what I know, or what I've read at least about the matter (I'm not exactly an academic!) but it makes an awful lot of sense /and/ fills in a lot of blanks. I'm gonna have to go and swot up on this now!
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This panda votes 2 weeks ago
I grew up religious but am raising my kids secularly. My 6th grader will be learning about world religions as his class studies history. Even though I live in a VERY conservative state in the US, I'm glad he'll be getting exposure to how religion evolved around the world. Education is inoculation against indoctrination.
Bernd Herbert 2 weeks ago
History showed us that religion never wanted the masses to be educated. People were killed for distributing bibles in the common language. For centuries the catholic church wanted mass to be held only in Latin, the bibles only written in Latin
Shortstuff 2 weeks ago
Good book years ago...The Vatican Connection. What an eye opener. Involved in gambling, prostitution, d***s, dirty money etc. Many Cardinals have secret families.. a lot in Switzerland. Full of paedophiles. Hypocrisy at its worst.
Heras buddy 2 weeks ago
How about the fact the amount of people who were murdered in the name of God. Every religion known to humanity has done it.
Lara Verne 2 weeks ago
Same. Also, always when I heard priest ranting about women being whores because they wore summer clothes in summer. And then sentimentally recalled his teenage years, where he and his friends had plucked twigs from a thorn bush and used them to beat girls over their legs until they bleed, because they wore "indecent" clothes.
#9
I left when I was 15. It had been a long time coming but I did have a final catalyst.
Backstory: my sister is 9 years younger than me, and she is my 'half sister.' Our mom and her dad were not married when she was born.
She came home from Vacation Bible Scool in tears because they told her than since she was born out of wedlock she was going to automatically go to hell. She was six f-ing years old!!! Who the hell tells a first grader they're going to burn for all eternity because their parents weren't married when they boned?!?!
I marched down there and gave them a piece of my mind, told them what I really thought of them and their church, and told my mom we were never going back there.
My mom still went, my siblings and I did not.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
These people represent their idea of an all loving, all merciful God? They deserve the Hell they warn against.
Do you see yourselves as religious, dear readers? Have you ever lost your faith? What do you think could be done to push back against some of the greed and corruption that’s seen in parts of organized religion?
Feel free to share your thoughts and ideas in the comments. Just remember to keep the discussion civil.
#10
Weirdo youth pastor went on a tirade about how your life is worthless if you're not converting people regularly (to a bunch of 13 year olds). My parents finally agreed that I didn't have to go to church anymore.
#11
The first big thing was when I asked why girls couldn’t hold the priesthood. I was told by my Sunday school teacher that women aren’t worthy of power because of Eve’s “transgression”.
Learning that women had to wait in a sort of purgatory until a worthy man called them into Heaven. Then if you were married you would have to deal with afterlife polygamy.
Watching in disgust as the Bishop and congregation welcomed a pedophile back into the fold….
No regrets with leaving.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago (edited)
How can it only be Eve's transgression alone? Adam went along with it also?
#12
Getting out in the community, really. The church I was raised in was one of those super strict ones that think women wearing pants was a huge issue. They would always preach about how gay people were sent here by satan. I started working with a company that had offices worldwide. The people came from a very diverse background that was somewhat bewildering to my sheltered, redneck self. I got to know and become friends with not just one, but tons of gay people. I just couldn't go to that church anymore. These nice gay folks were spending their days off volunteering at the local foodbanks, helping the homeless and this church thinks they are bad people. "demons"
I never saw a single person in that church do anything for the community.
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
Isn't it terrible when those demon possessed evil sinners do more good for the community than the ever charitable worshippers of an all loving God?
#13
At my dad's funeral, the pastor told us that we'll never see our dad again if we don't get right with God & start going to church. That was the final straw.
#14
The priest asked us to pray for “Christian prisoners of war” and my 13 y/o brain was like hold up why only the Christian ones?? It was like in that moment I realized that everything in the Church had this explicit or implicit coating of “our way is the only way and everyone who isn’t us is wrong/bad/a sinner/undeserving” and I didn’t like that at all.
Tiger 2 weeks ago (edited)
Not everyone believes in Christianity, which means Christianity isn’t valid for them and the Christian rules don’t apply. Y’all can follow those rules all you want if it makes you happy but many of us don’t live that reality. Which is why it doesn’t have any place in schools or public places - it’s personal, and your own belief, and that’s that. If you’re convinced everyone else is going to be tortured for all eternity for not believing what you believe, well, that’s your problem. (Same with any other religion, not attacking Christian’s here)
#15
There wasn't one. I asked questions that no religion has a good answer for. At first I was afraid of that. Then I decided that if there was a god and he was good, my faith shouldn't matter. Any god that would punish a person that is trying to be good with eternal torture just for disbelief is a monster and not good. That let me start exploring further and the questions began piling up. The first question I asked before that was "Why is my religion more correct than others'?".
Goth Vixen 2 weeks ago
Religion means humans are so important that a deity must have blessed our tiny planet with it's offspring. It's comical, given the vastness of the universe and immaterial size of the Milky Way, never mind our planet.
#16
I left my church at 16. I’m now 37. It was a Southern Baptist church and the hypocrisy is what drove me away. The judging woman for not being a virgin. Referring to them as a used up piece of chewing gum if they have sex before marriage. The drinking is as bad as murder thing. I worked at a bar in college and some of these good god fearing people were regulars. Also, guess who has sex before marriage? They did. I’ve also been interested in science and was told that wasn’t lady like. My parents still attend that church and the new pastor is my age. They no longer preach the old timer ways but I won’t go back.
#17
My desire for truth outweighed my fear of leaving the faith.
#18
My friend David grew up deeply religious, but doubts crept in over time. The turning point came when his close friend was ostracized by their church for being gay. David questioned how a faith that preached love could be so harsh. After trying and failing to find compassionate answers from church leaders, the final straw was a sermon on sin and punishment that conflicted with his beliefs about kindness. He walked out that day, knowing it was the end of his faith .. i supported him that day and still do.
Libstak 2 weeks ago (edited)
My late brother became a born again Christian preacher, my list of irritating debates with him is endless. My all time worst was when he hit his fall back position when he was losing an argument that "you have to accept Jesus as your lord and saviour, those that don't will burn in hell". Well.....so what about the babies dying of starvation in Ethiopia, they can't even speak or understand, but you're trying to tell me they will go to hell?". His response was everybody will have the opportunity to hear the word of God before they die and its their choice. Make it make sense already ..... I just couldn't believe the blind fall back on scripture rather than apply reason take he had on absolutely everything.
#19
When the new pastor decided that we needed to move away from "Serving the local community" (inner city church) and move to "Knowing God."
The God I want to believe in is pretty straightforward that the main thing is to look after those in the community who are most disadvantaged. Screw theology, stick with service.
#20
The pastor’s son groped me on the school bus. Next sermon was about forgiveness and the one after was about women staying chaste and not “tempting men to the devil”. A few months later, i was baptized there. The pastor grabbed my a*s. I was 12.
#21
I just didn't believe that Satan could give God so much trouble if God was truly omnipotent and omniscient. So I started questioning why God let's Satan exist, if Satan is the antithesis of God. Like, why tolerate an upstart usurper of significantly lower power than you.
Ultimately I told my youth leader that either god wasn't as all knowing and powerful as I was being led to believe or God and the bible was lying about the threat satan posed. This led me to stop believing satan/hell existed at all. I told my pastor at the time that I straight up felt like he was lying about hell and the devil, because otherwise he worships and promotes an all powerful god who can't even keep his own soldiers in line.
I was sent home with a note to my parents about how I'd fully fallen to Satan and needed to be sent to a Christian boarding school to get me back on track. My parent's didn't send me, because neither of them were particularly religious, and I ultimately decided that the whole thing was either made up entirely or a faith based on a god not worth worshiping.
People really handwave a lot of evidence that there is no god with "He works in mysterious ways".
Goth Vixen 2 weeks ago
There i no deity, no devil, nothing. It's all a con to keep people subservient and let others make money.
#22
For me, the big sticking point was the problem of suffering. Why would an all-powerful, benevolent god allow suffering.
The worst part was, although very few people would say it out loud, the answer was: suffering is good.
Norm Gilmore 2 weeks ago (edited)
This from the awesome Stephen Fry when asked what he would say if Heaven was real... "Bone cancer in children. How dare you"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-suvkwNYSQo
#23
When my parents were still alive, my dad had some early stage dementia to where several memories would become a single memory. He was convinced that my mom (both of my parents in their 70’s) was cheating on him. She couldn’t do anything without him believing she was going to see someone else even with someone else with her. It became worse and worse.
My oldest sister and I decided to take my parents to see the priest of their church. In their religion (Orthodox) for some reason the priests wife is considered holy as well. As we are there, my dad is talking to the priest on one side, my mom and sister are talking to the priests wife. I’m just standing nearby listening when the priests wife says “Sisters name! Your dad is possessed by a demon! What you need to do is SPIT ON HIM AND SAY “DEMON I REJECT YOU! Three times!”
I f*****g SNAPPED! I shouted that the first one to spit on my dad was getting knocked the f**k out. Stood right up to the priests face and said she’d be the first. I went on a tirade that the doctors had already said it was early stage dementia and this whole demon stuff was b******t.
My mom and sister pulled me away from her. I never went back to a service other than funerals, memorials or weddings. S**t still makes my blood boil and it’s been 17 years.
#24
Pastoral greed for overserving a congregation. The husband and wife pastoral team carry on as if nothing is happening when clearly, only one of them is needed. The enabling committee/council help them to bilk the congregation of precious $
Make no mistake, in my experience, very few pastors practice what they preach.
Hypocrites.
Greenmantle 2 weeks ago
The greed is revolting. I cannot imagine Jesus being okay with the guest preacher flying in on their personal helicopter when parishoners are struggling to put food on the table and being bullied into tithing. What a joke.
#25
When I was a young teenager, I considered myself a Christian who believed in God and in Jesus. It was comforting to believe that heaven and hell existed, that our souls were eternal, and that if there is no justice in this life, that it will be served in the next. "Good people" will go to heaven and "bad people" will go to hell. Then sometime when I was 16-18, I started disagreeing with Christianity's definition of justice.
I eventually came to the conclusion that there was no real evidence that God existed, and that even if he does exist and he is exactly as the Bible describes him, then he doesn't deserve anyone's worship. Some of my issues with Christianity:
- If one follows the Bible to the letter of its word, then one has to accept that it's somehow a moral failure to lack faith in the Christian God. What about all those people who were raised in non-Christian cultures? What about all those people who died before ever meeting any missionaries or before they ever heard the "good news" about Jesus the savior? People are just supposed to take it on faith that some guy in Judea two thousand years ago died to save us from the corruption of Adam and Eve's original sin, and it's somehow a moral failing to have doubts about this story?
- The Bible has passages implying that homosexuality is "unnatural," in part because that is a union that will never lead to having biological children. But what about all the heterosexual couples out there who are unable to have biological children for medical reasons? Why is God supposedly okay with a man and a woman together who will never have children, but not two men or two women? It feels completely arbitrary, and the only logical explanation to me is that the guys who wrote the Bible were men from thousands of years ago who had what modern society would (rightfully) consider to be regressive social views.
- This is a slightly more philosophical question, but the existence of God and of afterlife in heaven and hell based on how "good" or "bad" you were in life implies that there is a built-in black-and-white morality to the universe, and that just doesn't make sense to me. There are many people who ended up "bad" because the conditions in which they were raised never gave them the opportunity to be "good," and I don't think they deserve eternal hellfire for that. Even the concept of an eternity of being shut out of heaven makes no sense to me. If our souls are eternal and we live forever, then believe it or not, I probably would eventually find it within me to forgive the guy in hell who murdered me back when we were mortals several millennia ago.
I know there are several denominations of Christianity, some of which are accepting of gay people and who reject the idea of all atheists going to hell. But to me, that honestly just feels like arbitrary picking-and-choosing of what to believe in the Bible, and I cannot personally see myself doing that. When I became an atheist, it did force me to accept the idea that there is no one looking out for me, that many bad people will live comfortable lives and that many good people will die horrific deaths after miserable lives, that there is no justice in this world or any order to the universe. But no longer believing in God was also freeing, because our lives are our own. We can choose to be good to the world and to the people around us without some esoteric supernatural force influencing our decisions.
#26
As an Ex-catholic, when i started reading Foucault and some history started to realize how religions are used to control populations and to fix the agenda for the richest people.
Chich 2 weeks ago
It is all a huge scam. "If you want to get a magical theme park and not a burning prison do what I tell you!" "Of course you will have to wait until you are dead to see if I am lying but in the mean time pay for my cars, homes and fancy designer robes just to play it safe, MM'Kay?"
#28
I wanted to be part of a community that accepted everyone, not just a select few.
Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago
My church does welcome everyone. I couldn't belong to one that excluded people.
#29
I had a profound realization that I could find purpose outside religion.
Goth Vixen 2 weeks ago
That's the most important reason. NOBODY needs invented stories of a god for whom there is no evidence in order to believe they matter.
#30
I left when I realized the church potluck was the only thing keeping me going!
#31
Seeing everyone go nuts over "miracles" like people's headaches and depression being cured. The Bible said that Jesus raised a man from the dead and Paul cured a paralytic man. What happened to real miracles? It all felt suddenly so absurd. If we're supposed to believe in the power of God, then why can't something that is actually, objectively impossible happen before my eyes? Why is it always something subjective and self-reporting?
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago
James Randi exposed fake healers in a fantastic book. If someone claims to be a faith healer, they are lying, evil pieces of shite.
#32
"god made you a boy and that cant be changed" yeah f**k that. I was like 10 when I decided thats not for me,after someone said this to me , because why would a good god do such a cruel thing to me?
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 2 weeks ago (edited)
If God made people how they are, then God made transgender people.
#33
I came to realize that most "religious" people I met were that way for selfish reasons. Rather than being and doing "good" for the right reasons, most I know are only there to try and guarantee their ticket to heaven gets punched.
They don't really care about others they just want to make sure they get their afterlife.
keyboardtek 2 weeks ago
Most of the religious people I have met use it simply to judge everyone else as being evil. They like to think they are superior. I think deep down they are simply cruel people who found the bible was a good tool for bashing others.
#34
One of my first jobs was working for a Christian call center that took calls for the Jim Bakker show. Seeing how that man manipulated people for money under the name of God pretty much did it for me. But he wasn’t the only one. I took calls for other ministries and they were pretty much the same.
Tropical Tarot 2 weeks ago
What gets me is I can't believe he did it during the eighties, got caught. Went to prison and then went right back to doing it again.
#35
When my new work colleague who happened to be gay was terrified of me because he knew I went to church.
Huddo's sister 2 weeks ago
It's horrible that people project that image onto others and scare them. I think, rather than giving up on the church, I would use the opportunity to show them that not all Christians are like that. Demonstrate that you can be Christian and treat everyone with care and love. You do more good by actions than just words.
#36
Young pastor continually transferred to small, struggling churches. Living off donations and food stamps and our own paychecks. State church leader came to visit one Sunday and gave us a plaque praising our efforts but no practical help for us. He was driving a Mercedes. We're not churchy anymore and our faith is our own.
#37
Conversations with atheists opened my eyes to a more rational perspective.
Max Fox 2 weeks ago (edited)
Atheists are generally not that much more rational than many theists. The real test is asking yourself, honestly "if there were a logical, irrefutable argument that as deity exists, would you accept that deity?". If you can indeed conceive of an argument or a fact that would convince you of the existence of a deity that means that you are rational. Personally I believe that a deity could exist, however, I reject any proposed deity that requires a "leap of faith". Also, even if I am convinced that a deity is real, it will take a lot more to convince me that the deity is worthy of worship. Therefore, i don't accept any existing or past deity as being real, and none strike me as worthy of worship even f they were real.
#38
The excuse for being treated like s**t is always "this is god's will" & "he has better plans" bad people hide behind god so they excuses for being s****y people.
#39
I became frustrated with the lack of open-mindedness in my church.
#40
I was a small child who accidentally said s**t in Bible school. One of the much older boys almost dislocated my shoulder because, this is the house of the Lord. Blah blah blah. If that's God's love...I don't want it. If I could remember his name, I would looked him up decades ago.
#42
Ehh, just the b******t was enough. I won't mention exactly which one it was, but it's a problem in almost all of them.
Several years ago, I dared challenge the beliefs of community with some Darwinian knowledge and facts like the Earth being round...
Needless to say, I was asked to leave just so they don't have to kick me out.
Geoffrey Scott 2 weeks ago
Agreed..Darwinism is not exclusive to the "plan". It makes more sense that it happens, it's called evolution. I have some weird ideas, like those Native Americans that revere sun, moon, ,sky, rain, are maybe part of the "tower of Babylon" . Same folks, different language, still worthy.
#43
The man that got me involved in the church was sleeping with my mom and he was married.
#44
For me, it was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole for way too long. I kept thinking, “Maybe this time it’ll work!” But then, I found myself in a situation where I was told that love and acceptance only applied to certain people. That was the moment I realized I’d rather find my own path than follow rules that didn’t make sense to me. Plus, when your coffee tastes better than the sermons, it’s definitely time to reconsider your options!
#45
The pressure to fit in became overwhelming and stifling.
keyboardtek 2 weeks ago
My daughter briefly went to a bible study group in her first year of college. They at first love bombed her for joining. It made her feel accepted by the group and maybe she would make some new friends. When she decided it was not her thing, all that love was immediately withdrawn and she got the ice treatment from them.
What do you think ?
Say No to Downvoting 2 weeks ago
We fell in love and got married before we finished uni and entered “the world”. Once there, my husband started researching and expanding his mind and basically came to conclusion the Bible was a load of c**p. The leaders of the church, the ministers, the friends etc. all kept meeting him for coffee and offering to explore and answer his questions but then never came back to him with answers. Meanwhile I was back here torn between a husband I loved and respected, and a religion I still believed in. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON offered their hand out to me. Not one. No one offered to meet with me and discuss MY questions or to offer me comfort that my husband was leaving the church. So that made my decision pretty easy. Up until that point I had NEVER understood this narrative of church rejecting people or not being supportive when people needed it, because the community had always been there for me. Then it wasn’t. So we left the church and have a happy atheist life together.
Kenny Kulbiski 2 weeks ago
If some homeless bum on the street talks to God we commit him. If some guy in church talks to God we give them money and blindly do whatever he wants. I figure if God has a message for me he doesn't need a go between any more than I do.
MarshmallowTheCat 2 weeks ago
Although it was 45 years ago, I still remember it well. I was 16. My parents were moderately religious. They asked us to believe in god and to have it in our lives but they didn't really force us into it. A cousin had died in a car accident. After the service, I asked my mom "the priest said that he called [cousin] back at his side. Does that mean that he created the accident so he would die?" My mom went "Uh... ah... well... it... may not have created the accident... uh..." I added "if that's so, all those people who died in wars were called back by god? So, he created the wars to have them all back by his side?" My mom was speechless "Hum... err... Go.... God work in... hem... mysterious ways... Go play with your friends." That's when I stopped believing.
Lawrence Lonnie Brown 2 weeks ago
When my son died of cancer, I was told it was because I didn't pray hard enough.
Bat cat in a hat 2 weeks ago
I'm so sorry for your loss, and what a horrible thing to be told!
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Christopher Crockett 2 weeks ago
For me, it's the realization that god cannot be all powerful, all knowing and all loving. Terrible things happen. god may know of it and love us, but is powerless to stop it. Or, god is all powerful and loves us, but doesn't know that evil things will happen. Or god is in fact all powerful and all knowing but just doesn't love us. Worse, this same god decided to drown the world and almost every creature on it for not worshiping him properly or enough. Only two of every creature was saved, meaning that, besides humanity, almost every animal, who committed no offense, were summarily executed as well. Such a god would be reviled as a genocidal madman if he was human, not praised and thanked. I want far better for my cat than any god ever did for humanity.
Data1001 2 weeks ago
That's one of my biggest issues with many organized religions. God is apparently so insecure (or has such a huge ego) that he demands everyone love him, and he will smite those who don't. Reminds me a lot of a certain presidential candidate. Both feel very cult-ish to me.
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LB 2 weeks ago
Nah. People are perfectly capable of raping and murdering and whatnot without religion.
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v 2 weeks ago
Religion is the only belief system that I'm aware of which is wholly reliant on fear to remain in existence.
CP 2 weeks ago
Depends on the Religion. Some Eastern religions don't do that at all.
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Mary Masters 2 weeks ago
I knew it was all b.s. at the age of five when my minister had no good answer to the question of where God came from. "God is Eternal" is not a satisfying answer to a 5-year-old just beginning to come to terms with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I saw no logical difference between these mythical characters "Santa" and "God." Out of the mouths of babes....
Data1001 2 weeks ago
I mean, I don't believe in god myself, and also gave up religion when I became an adult, but you could say the same thing about the universe: "Where did it come from?" We don't really know -- we have theories, but trying to explain to ourselves that there may have been nothing and then suddenly something, or alternatively, that it may have always existed (and how does that make sense), are things beyond the scope of our understanding.
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UKGrandad 2 weeks ago (edited)
Bobert Robertson said: "Ok BP you post these anti religious posts all the time. How about one about what caused atheists to convert to religion?" It would be the shortest post in BP's history, Bobert. Agnostics maybe, but not atheists.
mtn.dew.13 2 weeks ago
brainwashing. brainwashing. manipulation. guilt tripping. brainwashing.
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Dumb teenager 2 weeks ago
I feel like the reason that we still have so much devotion to religion in this age is that people have invested too much time and effort into it to admit to themselves that it’s all been for nothing. They don’t want to admit to themselves that they’ve wasted years worshipping fantasies
Roberta Surprenant 2 weeks ago
When our youth pastor brought some "street kids" from Telegraph Ave. (Berkeley) to church. Some were barefoot and I heard adult members complaining about it. My 15 year old brain thought we were just supposed to be glad they joined us in worship. Over 50 years later I have strong sense of religion but only set foot in a church for weddings/funerals.
v 2 weeks ago
All of the religions and all of the differing sects within a given religion claim their particular belief system and doctrines as the truth while also saying that they can't know god's plan. I simply have no use for any person or group who can't see and understand that the latter ABSOLUTELY cancels the former.
QijianSanek 2 weeks ago
The Torah (jewish bible) had so many contradictions, especially about homosexuality, what counts as 'good' to eat and twisted history as well as the 'toxic inclusivity of the community, that I just gave up and now I'm gay.
Lyone Fein 2 weeks ago
The Torah is just the first 5 books of the Bible. The Jewish Bible includes all of the Prophets and all of the books in the Writings section, as well. Also, as I mentioned in another comment, homosexuality is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. There is no word for homosexuality in biblical Hebrew, nor did the concept of a man loving another man or being attracted to only men exist in that cultural context.
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WalterWhiteSavannah 2 weeks ago
This article made me realize I haven't been listening to enough classic black metal. Gonna crank some burzum mayhem and deicide after work. I tried getting into religion at 18/19 largely cause of the comfort it brought my step mom when she had terminal cancer and due to a girl I was seeing then. Took me about 3 months to realize what hypocritical b******t it was. Had a girl bring un her lesbian friend to young adult group and they told her "we love you and accept you, also turn straight or you won't be welcome back." That and the pastor talking about how wonderful heaven must be because you can only be satisfied and fulfilled in heaven even though you'll never see your non-christian loved ones for all eternity and you'll know they're in he'll. Like wtf dude. Do your hear yourself?
kath morgan 2 weeks ago
I guess I am not comfortable with the idea of worship. So someone is more powerful than me, I should get down on my knees and do everything they say? Might=right?
Apatheist Account2 2 weeks ago
Can your god create anything and everything? Yes! Can they destroy anything and everything? Yes! Can they create something that they can't destroy? Yes...I mean No... erm...
UKGrandad 2 weeks ago
The paradox of the almighty. Can It create a rock too heavy for it to lift? If yes, so much for omnipotence; if no, ditto. Can It ask a question to which it does not know the answer? If yes, so much for omniscience; if no, ditto.
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_-DungeonKeeper-_ 2 weeks ago
Does anyone here know a church that accepts the LGBT community? The ones I tried all basically said "no gay. Gay bad. Oh pastor actually is a pdf file? Yeah that's cool he's gonna repent" I need an actually inclusive church in my life
Otto Katz 2 weeks ago
Episcopalian does. Our priest was gay. Our choir director was gay. Our head usher was gay. It is a beautiful chuch. Around since 1820?
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Beak Hookage 2 weeks ago
I was never religious but I did flirt with Christianity in my early teens. Then I read the bible independent of any priest or chaplain telling me which verses to read and I was appalled by how evil and cruel the god depicted in it was. Then I went to the library and spent many long hours reading up on various world religions. I came out firmly convinced that it was all a load of hooey and that even if the Christian god was real I wanted nothing to do with the bastard. On top of that, nobody has ever been able to make this so-called heaven sound the least bit appealing. In fact it sounds like the most boring place ever conceived.
geezeronthehill 2 weeks ago
For me, it was a close reading of the king James translation of the Bible. So many contradictions.
E2U&U2 2 weeks ago
I was an unwanted child abandoned when I was three by my parents to the care of my grandmother and her fourth husband, the only grandfather I knew. My grandmother was a Pentecostal minister, and my grandfather was a non-believer, and they were unsuited for one another. (I overheard my grandmother admit she married him because she slept with him and thought she needed to.) My grandmother loved me because I was her blood, but she didn't like me because I was a contrary child who questioned everything. My grandfather was the only one who liked me for me. If I turned out okay, it's because he showed me my worth. Looking back, I think he stayed in a bad marriage for me. He died when I was eleven. At his funeral, the minister said we shouldn't weep for him because he was already burning in hell. I got up and walked out. I had no interest in going to a heaven that wouldn't take in the best person I've ever known. I still don't.
Doodles1983 2 weeks ago
A few things turned me "off". My mum, and maternal grandparents were Jehovah's Witnesses. My gran encouraged granddad to beat them with a belt but would not watch. (He usually faked it.) Getting home from school the day of 9/11 to a living room of people essentially "celebrating" the atrocities as proof armageddon was imminent. And that her religion deeply affected how I was (not) able to mourn her in a way that brought comfort. Her FAITH (not necessarily her religion gave her purpose and strength and courage at the end of her cancer battle. But religion only enables faith. Faith, is, for me. The point.) and my "faith" is that I try my best. And when I fail and feel guilt, I need to look at myself and adjust.
Robert Palmer 2 weeks ago
Its the hypocrisy that did it for me. How can something so powerful need my worship?
J Adams 2 weeks ago
Growing up I had a friend who was a Jehovah’s Witness, when he was 10 years old his dad had an extramarital affair with a woman from outside the church, they were all kicked out of the religion, so my friends mother lost her marriage, her friends and religion whilst being completely innocent. Flash forward a number of years and my friend had been reaccepted into the church (don’t know how or why) but he had to attend with a ‘supervisor’ the mum was still banished, my friend had what I can only describe as an arranged marriage at the age of 17 and just to prove history does repeat itself the wife cheated and my friend was kicked out again, it’s been nearly 20 years now and he’s completely vanished from the face of the earth, no social media presence, no phone number, no nothing. Just hope he’s doing ok out there somewhere
Learner Panda 2 weeks ago
"You are not able to understand god's will because it is beyond you. " A total cop out. I see the corruption and know I will never be a part of.
Data1001 2 weeks ago
My father was a preacher. There were other members of our extended family who were *much* more hard-core religious than my family was -- but we still said 'grace' before meals, and prayers before bedtime, and church on Sundays. I always hated Sunday services, except that I liked singing the songs -- the words could have been nonsense gibberish instead of religious dogma for all I cared, it was the music that I liked. I also went to church-sponsored youth events quite a bit. I suppose that at a certain point in my childhood I partially believed at least some of the dogma that was being force-fed to me. But as soon as I hit adulthood, I started reading about other religions & philosophies from around the world -- along with a number of books which questioned if Jesus ever actually existed (or outright asserted that he was a complete fabrication). I guess I'd always sort of doubted what I'd been taught. Any philosophy should be able to hold itself up to questioning, which mine did not.
Sapna Sarfare 2 weeks ago
Hindu here.. never realised how it was for people for other religions especially Christians... This is despite the fact that i studied in a Christian school and had friends from other religion. My faith matters to me but not above humanity...
Greenmantle 2 weeks ago
I have one. A church friend of mind had committed siucide that morning while her husband went to church. She was very mentally ill at the time. Husband came home from church, found her dead, raced her body back to the church in the hope that they could riase her from the dead. Of course they couldn't. I went to church that night in deep grief and they had a guest speaker. The d******d, who saw.me weeping, told me to rise up and praise God, after another parishioner had told him what had happened. That was it, I was done.
Chich 2 weeks ago
It was a slow process. Quite taken with religion in my youth but then saw too many questions with no answers (It's a mystery does not cut it), too much judgmentation, the notion that you had to struggle through this 'veil of tears" or whatever they called it when most days were pretty nice. Oddly enough the final straw was a friend's wedding. They had decided on a non religious ceremony which pissed of a friend who was a minister. To mollify him they told him he could say grace before we ate. Preached a sermon for 20 minutes. That was it. He made a convert of me that day :)
Crybaby 2 weeks ago
I stopped believing when I realized that the morales were just wrong. We changed the words so much that I don’t even know what bible originally said now. Now I live in fear by my family and friends for being different than them and committing a ‘sin’ because of how I identify myself or love someone.
Lara Verne 2 weeks ago
A lot of things about religion doesn't make sense. God is all-knowing, yet he repeatedly tested the faith of people (his own creations). If he's all knowing, why did he have to test them? God is almighty, but he lets Satan tempt people - why he simply didn't defeat him, or make humans' faith more steadfast, so they couldn't be tempted? God is kind, loving and all-forgiving, but you have to blindly follow him, or else! When I asked about it, only thing they could tell me is "God works in mysterious ways". That's no answer.
WinterLady 1 week ago
I am agnostic. I don't believe in God because I have never seen concrete proof. If I were presented with something concrete, I might reconsider. I have no problem with others having different beliefs than me, everyone has a right to their own beliefs. My problem is with organized religion. All wars have been caused by people refusing to allow people to have their own beliefs. Religion is the biggest reason for hate.
Catlover129 2 weeks ago
When I was six my father lost his job. We had no food and the electricity was turned off. My mother called the church for help. The priest said they would pray for us during Sunday service. She asked "What happens to all the money we give each Sunday? Isn't that to help the people in the congregation who need it?" We never went back to church again. BUT the following day a station wagon pulled up outside. It was a Jewish couple who had somehow heard of our plight. Brought us so much food - I had never seen so many groceries in my entire life. They also handed my mother $100 in an envelope. This was at a time when a good salary was $100 a week. We had no idea who these people were but they became our best friends. The Catholic church is a cult. Run like hell.
This panda votes 2 weeks ago
I love that more people are comfortable sharing their stories. I grew up Christian and "deconstructed" but never stopped and I eventually deconverted.
zovjraar me 2 weeks ago
i was not raised religious, but theist. my mum said there is a god but no one knows who this god is or what they want, so we can only do our best. we were raised with the golden rule. in my teens i full on believed in God or some kind of higher power, and that god rewarded those who did good and bad things happened to people so they could learn something. i did all the good things but still felt like i was being taught and couldn't find the reason for the bad things happening to me. it put me in despair. in my 20's i got on meds and started thinking, how would my worldview change if God didn't exist? it felt like a weight had been lifted from me. no more questioning, no more trying to figure out what God wanted from me. bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people and there's no reason for any of it. there's no meaning to life. life just is. it's up to us to give it a meaning. i'm so much happier, more compassionate, more relaxed now.
Sven Horlemann 2 weeks ago
I understand that people need "something" to believe in. What we as humans do with this "need" is disgusting. Whatever the religion or cult.
Lea S. 2 weeks ago
My parents were raised in completely different households and parts of the world. My mom was divorced/widowed and the church refused to marry her to my dad - until he got a big enough pay-off. Two of my moms oldest friends were lesbians, they were/are good people. Then I would go to CCD and church and learn that they were bad people simply because of who they loved. I was pro-choice from a young age - the church is pro-life but doesn't want to help the baby after birth. My sister-in-law was told her father couldn't walk her down aisle at her wedding because her and my brother shared an apartment. They'd been dating for almost fifteen years when they moved in together - which they did so she could attend school. Now, I'm in a long term committed relationship with someone who grew up in the Evangelical church. I can tell by looking at him when he's having a traumatizing memory. I may never know everything they did to him but one of...
Lea S. 2 weeks ago
the nightmares he sometimes has is the Rapture happening and him being left behind. Whenever he questions his faith his family thought it was productive to all 'disappear' so that he would be terrified into 'behaving.' Recently a man from my community died alongside his grandson in a freak kayaking accident. His family has been in the community and supported the church for three generations. They wanted a double funeral for him and his grandson. The church he's spent his whole life in said no - because his grandson belonged to a different church. I don't need the whole burn-in-hell narrative to be a good person.
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Corvus 2 weeks ago (edited)
I started asking myself questions, many questions, all of them without answers. Example: Why would an immortal and omnipotent super-being need us, the puny little mortal humans, to worship it and build it temples, and why would it care about what we wear, eat, say, etc.? The questions just klept piling on, and eventually I found I could no longer believe in this religious stuff.
Bernd Herbert 2 weeks ago
my personal story: I finally got rid of religion when I was around 21. Before that I was the typical indoctrinated child who didn't really question much and during my teenage years religion was not part of my life at all. Here in Germany it rarely is. But at around 18 years old I realized, when my "scientific brain" started developing in full speed, that I didn't believe in magic. at all. And after that I simply started reading about the history of Christianity. Not the stories, the real history behind it.
Evagating Beewolf (she/they) 2 weeks ago
Meanwhile, at my synagogue, I gave a d'var Torah (speech) about my Torah portion (Noah). My speech can be summed up as "Either God committed mass murder and thus isn't good, you can commit mass murder and still be good somehow, we blow up Judaism in various different ways [God isn't omnipotent! We can't understand, and thus interpret, God and God's rules! et cetera], or both." And that was...it. I wasn't excommunicated or anything. That was just the conclusion I came to, and I was able to share that without feeling an urge to self-censor. (The same synagogue also recently donated over 80 pounds of vegetables to a local food pantry, has headphones and some sensory toys in a basket outside the chapel, and almost always has a banner up mentioning their 'pride tribe'.)
Mike_the_nike 2 weeks ago
My brother is an avid atheist, and he makes that very clear to everyone at school. The problem is, he is extremely homophobic, transphobic, etc, and has even argues against religion using Hitler as an example… He said “well, his religion told him to kill the Jews, so he did.” (Which is not correct.) But you see, I am a trans, gay man… You see the problem here. So he uses any chance he gets to mock me for MAYBE having a partner that’s a girl (again, trans. I have not come out to him.) But we were never avid Christians, either. Sure, we went to church, but all we did was sit there and dance to songs that I never enjoyed because they were too loud. ALSO, that church would give you candy if you had good posture, a bible, and (and I quote) “Did well.” Needless to say, I never got that stupid f*****g candy. I am a proud Pagan now.
UKGrandad 2 weeks ago
" He said “well, his religion told him to kill the Jews, so he did.” (Which is not correct)." Sorry, Mike, but he is correct on that one. Hitler was a Catholic and never renounced his faith. He also spoke at length, both in his book, Mein Kampf, and in many speeches about how he had been put in his position by God to enable him to avenge the death of Jesus by exterminating the Jews, or 'the killers of Christ' as he more commonly called them.
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Trisec Tebeakesse 2 weeks ago
After I realized that I took communion from Father John Geoghan's hand at a friend's wedding.
FROGLET 2 weeks ago
I first started questioning when I was eight. I remembered that my preschool had a church built in, and they were teaching religion like fact. My eight year old self was immediately like, "OH THAT'S F*****G MESSED UP." My dad is also heavily agnostic, as well as my mom. They're pretty sensible people, and I talked with my friends about religion and they all had different views, just everything I knew about it started unraveling. When I was 9-10 I realized that I liked girls too, not just boys, and that was allegedly wrong. Then I believe in reincarnation, but how does that fit into Heaven and Hell? It just doesn't. So here's my beliefs now; I'm not really sure what I call it, but it aligns a lot with being Agnostic. There's probably multiple gods. They are subconsciously making the world, or else why the f**k would they make mosquitos? They're not sentient, but actually just endless pools of energy that gets thrown out in every direction. We get reincarnated, because the souls come fro
FROGLET 2 weeks ago
m that energy, then go back to it, and then get pushed out into something else again. Besides that, I do not know anything. In reality, I don't really think I know what happens when we die, or how it was all created, but that's just what probably happens in my mind, and I do believe that we are far from the masters of that universe.
Load More Replies... Lyone Fein 2 weeks ago
So, all of these, except the one about Islam, are really about rejecting different forms of Christianity. And then comments follow that say things like, "yeah all religions are the same." But, as someone with a PhD in Comparative Religion, I need to point out that all religions are NOT the same. I think it is interesting that none of these stories come from people rejecting Buddhism, for example, which is a religion in which people do not pray to God. Or Hinduism in which there are radically different branches where you get to choose your own deity to worship, or you can practice personal disciplines without involving god at all. I notice that there are no indigenous people who talk about rejecting their traditional belief systems in which the spirits of their ancestors council them on how to live in harmony with the other living beings of the earth. In the world today there are dozens of religions being practiced.
Greenmantle 2 weeks ago
Well the majority of people commenting here are native english speakers so of course Christianity would be highly represented. I'm not defending it, just making a point. If this platform was based in India or Saudi Arabia, you'd get different results
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Lucy 2 weeks ago
I have a beautiful relationship with Christ. He has never let me down and has been with me through everything! I should go to Church more but I was pushed away when they became political. I never stopped my relationship with Jesus though. If the people at the church can turn you away from God, you never knew Him anyways. The church is in your heart.
Say No to Downvoting 2 weeks ago
But the church and it’s people IS supposedly the body of Christ/appointed by God/representative of Christ (Romans 12:5, Ephesians 3:6, 4:15–16, and 5:23 Colossians 1:18 and 1:24). So how does that work with your theory there? (Ex-Christian, current Atheist, here)
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WindySwede 2 weeks ago (edited)
But what about the bible supporting slavery, and seeing women as property of the father or the husband?
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Say No to Downvoting 2 weeks ago
We fell in love and got married before we finished uni and entered “the world”. Once there, my husband started researching and expanding his mind and basically came to conclusion the Bible was a load of c**p. The leaders of the church, the ministers, the friends etc. all kept meeting him for coffee and offering to explore and answer his questions but then never came back to him with answers. Meanwhile I was back here torn between a husband I loved and respected, and a religion I still believed in. NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON offered their hand out to me. Not one. No one offered to meet with me and discuss MY questions or to offer me comfort that my husband was leaving the church. So that made my decision pretty easy. Up until that point I had NEVER understood this narrative of church rejecting people or not being supportive when people needed it, because the community had always been there for me. Then it wasn’t. So we left the church and have a happy atheist life together.
Kenny Kulbiski 2 weeks ago
If some homeless bum on the street talks to God we commit him. If some guy in church talks to God we give them money and blindly do whatever he wants. I figure if God has a message for me he doesn't need a go between any more than I do.
MarshmallowTheCat 2 weeks ago
Although it was 45 years ago, I still remember it well. I was 16. My parents were moderately religious. They asked us to believe in god and to have it in our lives but they didn't really force us into it. A cousin had died in a car accident. After the service, I asked my mom "the priest said that he called [cousin] back at his side. Does that mean that he created the accident so he would die?" My mom went "Uh... ah... well... it... may not have created the accident... uh..." I added "if that's so, all those people who died in wars were called back by god? So, he created the wars to have them all back by his side?" My mom was speechless "Hum... err... Go.... God work in... hem... mysterious ways... Go play with your friends." That's when I stopped believing.
Lawrence Lonnie Brown 2 weeks ago
When my son died of cancer, I was told it was because I didn't pray hard enough.
Bat cat in a hat 2 weeks ago
I'm so sorry for your loss, and what a horrible thing to be told!
Load More Replies... Christopher Crockett 2 weeks ago
For me, it's the realization that god cannot be all powerful, all knowing and all loving. Terrible things happen. god may know of it and love us, but is powerless to stop it. Or, god is all powerful and loves us, but doesn't know that evil things will happen. Or god is in fact all powerful and all knowing but just doesn't love us. Worse, this same god decided to drown the world and almost every creature on it for not worshiping him properly or enough. Only two of every creature was saved, meaning that, besides humanity, almost every animal, who committed no offense, were summarily executed as well. Such a god would be reviled as a genocidal madman if he was human, not praised and thanked. I want far better for my cat than any god ever did for humanity.
Data1001 2 weeks ago
That's one of my biggest issues with many organized religions. God is apparently so insecure (or has such a huge ego) that he demands everyone love him, and he will smite those who don't. Reminds me a lot of a certain presidential candidate. Both feel very cult-ish to me.
Load More Replies... LB 2 weeks ago
Nah. People are perfectly capable of raping and murdering and whatnot without religion.
Load More Replies... v 2 weeks ago
Religion is the only belief system that I'm aware of which is wholly reliant on fear to remain in existence.
CP 2 weeks ago
Depends on the Religion. Some Eastern religions don't do that at all.
Load More Replies... Mary Masters 2 weeks ago
I knew it was all b.s. at the age of five when my minister had no good answer to the question of where God came from. "God is Eternal" is not a satisfying answer to a 5-year-old just beginning to come to terms with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. I saw no logical difference between these mythical characters "Santa" and "God." Out of the mouths of babes....
Data1001 2 weeks ago
I mean, I don't believe in god myself, and also gave up religion when I became an adult, but you could say the same thing about the universe: "Where did it come from?" We don't really know -- we have theories, but trying to explain to ourselves that there may have been nothing and then suddenly something, or alternatively, that it may have always existed (and how does that make sense), are things beyond the scope of our understanding.
Load More Replies... UKGrandad 2 weeks ago (edited)
Bobert Robertson said: "Ok BP you post these anti religious posts all the time. How about one about what caused atheists to convert to religion?" It would be the shortest post in BP's history, Bobert. Agnostics maybe, but not atheists.
mtn.dew.13 2 weeks ago
brainwashing. brainwashing. manipulation. guilt tripping. brainwashing.
Load More Replies... Dumb teenager 2 weeks ago
I feel like the reason that we still have so much devotion to religion in this age is that people have invested too much time and effort into it to admit to themselves that it’s all been for nothing. They don’t want to admit to themselves that they’ve wasted years worshipping fantasies
Roberta Surprenant 2 weeks ago
When our youth pastor brought some "street kids" from Telegraph Ave. (Berkeley) to church. Some were barefoot and I heard adult members complaining about it. My 15 year old brain thought we were just supposed to be glad they joined us in worship. Over 50 years later I have strong sense of religion but only set foot in a church for weddings/funerals.
v 2 weeks ago
All of the religions and all of the differing sects within a given religion claim their particular belief system and doctrines as the truth while also saying that they can't know god's plan. I simply have no use for any person or group who can't see and understand that the latter ABSOLUTELY cancels the former.
QijianSanek 2 weeks ago
The Torah (jewish bible) had so many contradictions, especially about homosexuality, what counts as 'good' to eat and twisted history as well as the 'toxic inclusivity of the community, that I just gave up and now I'm gay.
Lyone Fein 2 weeks ago
The Torah is just the first 5 books of the Bible. The Jewish Bible includes all of the Prophets and all of the books in the Writings section, as well. Also, as I mentioned in another comment, homosexuality is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. There is no word for homosexuality in biblical Hebrew, nor did the concept of a man loving another man or being attracted to only men exist in that cultural context.
Load More Replies... WalterWhiteSavannah 2 weeks ago
This article made me realize I haven't been listening to enough classic black metal. Gonna crank some burzum mayhem and deicide after work. I tried getting into religion at 18/19 largely cause of the comfort it brought my step mom when she had terminal cancer and due to a girl I was seeing then. Took me about 3 months to realize what hypocritical b******t it was. Had a girl bring un her lesbian friend to young adult group and they told her "we love you and accept you, also turn straight or you won't be welcome back." That and the pastor talking about how wonderful heaven must be because you can only be satisfied and fulfilled in heaven even though you'll never see your non-christian loved ones for all eternity and you'll know they're in he'll. Like wtf dude. Do your hear yourself?
kath morgan 2 weeks ago
I guess I am not comfortable with the idea of worship. So someone is more powerful than me, I should get down on my knees and do everything they say? Might=right?
Apatheist Account2 2 weeks ago
Can your god create anything and everything? Yes! Can they destroy anything and everything? Yes! Can they create something that they can't destroy? Yes...I mean No... erm...
UKGrandad 2 weeks ago
The paradox of the almighty. Can It create a rock too heavy for it to lift? If yes, so much for omnipotence; if no, ditto. Can It ask a question to which it does not know the answer? If yes, so much for omniscience; if no, ditto.
Load More Replies... _-DungeonKeeper-_ 2 weeks ago
Does anyone here know a church that accepts the LGBT community? The ones I tried all basically said "no gay. Gay bad. Oh pastor actually is a pdf file? Yeah that's cool he's gonna repent" I need an actually inclusive church in my life
Otto Katz 2 weeks ago
Episcopalian does. Our priest was gay. Our choir director was gay. Our head usher was gay. It is a beautiful chuch. Around since 1820?
Load More Replies... Beak Hookage 2 weeks ago
I was never religious but I did flirt with Christianity in my early teens. Then I read the bible independent of any priest or chaplain telling me which verses to read and I was appalled by how evil and cruel the god depicted in it was. Then I went to the library and spent many long hours reading up on various world religions. I came out firmly convinced that it was all a load of hooey and that even if the Christian god was real I wanted nothing to do with the bastard. On top of that, nobody has ever been able to make this so-called heaven sound the least bit appealing. In fact it sounds like the most boring place ever conceived.
geezeronthehill 2 weeks ago
For me, it was a close reading of the king James translation of the Bible. So many contradictions.
E2U&U2 2 weeks ago
I was an unwanted child abandoned when I was three by my parents to the care of my grandmother and her fourth husband, the only grandfather I knew. My grandmother was a Pentecostal minister, and my grandfather was a non-believer, and they were unsuited for one another. (I overheard my grandmother admit she married him because she slept with him and thought she needed to.) My grandmother loved me because I was her blood, but she didn't like me because I was a contrary child who questioned everything. My grandfather was the only one who liked me for me. If I turned out okay, it's because he showed me my worth. Looking back, I think he stayed in a bad marriage for me. He died when I was eleven. At his funeral, the minister said we shouldn't weep for him because he was already burning in hell. I got up and walked out. I had no interest in going to a heaven that wouldn't take in the best person I've ever known. I still don't.
Doodles1983 2 weeks ago
A few things turned me "off". My mum, and maternal grandparents were Jehovah's Witnesses. My gran encouraged granddad to beat them with a belt but would not watch. (He usually faked it.) Getting home from school the day of 9/11 to a living room of people essentially "celebrating" the atrocities as proof armageddon was imminent. And that her religion deeply affected how I was (not) able to mourn her in a way that brought comfort. Her FAITH (not necessarily her religion gave her purpose and strength and courage at the end of her cancer battle. But religion only enables faith. Faith, is, for me. The point.) and my "faith" is that I try my best. And when I fail and feel guilt, I need to look at myself and adjust.
Robert Palmer 2 weeks ago
Its the hypocrisy that did it for me. How can something so powerful need my worship?
J Adams 2 weeks ago
Growing up I had a friend who was a Jehovah’s Witness, when he was 10 years old his dad had an extramarital affair with a woman from outside the church, they were all kicked out of the religion, so my friends mother lost her marriage, her friends and religion whilst being completely innocent. Flash forward a number of years and my friend had been reaccepted into the church (don’t know how or why) but he had to attend with a ‘supervisor’ the mum was still banished, my friend had what I can only describe as an arranged marriage at the age of 17 and just to prove history does repeat itself the wife cheated and my friend was kicked out again, it’s been nearly 20 years now and he’s completely vanished from the face of the earth, no social media presence, no phone number, no nothing. Just hope he’s doing ok out there somewhere
Learner Panda 2 weeks ago
"You are not able to understand god's will because it is beyond you. " A total cop out. I see the corruption and know I will never be a part of.
Data1001 2 weeks ago
My father was a preacher. There were other members of our extended family who were *much* more hard-core religious than my family was -- but we still said 'grace' before meals, and prayers before bedtime, and church on Sundays. I always hated Sunday services, except that I liked singing the songs -- the words could have been nonsense gibberish instead of religious dogma for all I cared, it was the music that I liked. I also went to church-sponsored youth events quite a bit. I suppose that at a certain point in my childhood I partially believed at least some of the dogma that was being force-fed to me. But as soon as I hit adulthood, I started reading about other religions & philosophies from around the world -- along with a number of books which questioned if Jesus ever actually existed (or outright asserted that he was a complete fabrication). I guess I'd always sort of doubted what I'd been taught. Any philosophy should be able to hold itself up to questioning, which mine did not.
Sapna Sarfare 2 weeks ago
Hindu here.. never realised how it was for people for other religions especially Christians... This is despite the fact that i studied in a Christian school and had friends from other religion. My faith matters to me but not above humanity...
Greenmantle 2 weeks ago
I have one. A church friend of mind had committed siucide that morning while her husband went to church. She was very mentally ill at the time. Husband came home from church, found her dead, raced her body back to the church in the hope that they could riase her from the dead. Of course they couldn't. I went to church that night in deep grief and they had a guest speaker. The d******d, who saw.me weeping, told me to rise up and praise God, after another parishioner had told him what had happened. That was it, I was done.
Chich 2 weeks ago
It was a slow process. Quite taken with religion in my youth but then saw too many questions with no answers (It's a mystery does not cut it), too much judgmentation, the notion that you had to struggle through this 'veil of tears" or whatever they called it when most days were pretty nice. Oddly enough the final straw was a friend's wedding. They had decided on a non religious ceremony which pissed of a friend who was a minister. To mollify him they told him he could say grace before we ate. Preached a sermon for 20 minutes. That was it. He made a convert of me that day :)
Crybaby 2 weeks ago
I stopped believing when I realized that the morales were just wrong. We changed the words so much that I don’t even know what bible originally said now. Now I live in fear by my family and friends for being different than them and committing a ‘sin’ because of how I identify myself or love someone.
Lara Verne 2 weeks ago
A lot of things about religion doesn't make sense. God is all-knowing, yet he repeatedly tested the faith of people (his own creations). If he's all knowing, why did he have to test them? God is almighty, but he lets Satan tempt people - why he simply didn't defeat him, or make humans' faith more steadfast, so they couldn't be tempted? God is kind, loving and all-forgiving, but you have to blindly follow him, or else! When I asked about it, only thing they could tell me is "God works in mysterious ways". That's no answer.
WinterLady 1 week ago
I am agnostic. I don't believe in God because I have never seen concrete proof. If I were presented with something concrete, I might reconsider. I have no problem with others having different beliefs than me, everyone has a right to their own beliefs. My problem is with organized religion. All wars have been caused by people refusing to allow people to have their own beliefs. Religion is the biggest reason for hate.
Catlover129 2 weeks ago
When I was six my father lost his job. We had no food and the electricity was turned off. My mother called the church for help. The priest said they would pray for us during Sunday service. She asked "What happens to all the money we give each Sunday? Isn't that to help the people in the congregation who need it?" We never went back to church again. BUT the following day a station wagon pulled up outside. It was a Jewish couple who had somehow heard of our plight. Brought us so much food - I had never seen so many groceries in my entire life. They also handed my mother $100 in an envelope. This was at a time when a good salary was $100 a week. We had no idea who these people were but they became our best friends. The Catholic church is a cult. Run like hell.
This panda votes 2 weeks ago
I love that more people are comfortable sharing their stories. I grew up Christian and "deconstructed" but never stopped and I eventually deconverted.
zovjraar me 2 weeks ago
i was not raised religious, but theist. my mum said there is a god but no one knows who this god is or what they want, so we can only do our best. we were raised with the golden rule. in my teens i full on believed in God or some kind of higher power, and that god rewarded those who did good and bad things happened to people so they could learn something. i did all the good things but still felt like i was being taught and couldn't find the reason for the bad things happening to me. it put me in despair. in my 20's i got on meds and started thinking, how would my worldview change if God didn't exist? it felt like a weight had been lifted from me. no more questioning, no more trying to figure out what God wanted from me. bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people and there's no reason for any of it. there's no meaning to life. life just is. it's up to us to give it a meaning. i'm so much happier, more compassionate, more relaxed now.
Sven Horlemann 2 weeks ago
I understand that people need "something" to believe in. What we as humans do with this "need" is disgusting. Whatever the religion or cult.
Lea S. 2 weeks ago
My parents were raised in completely different households and parts of the world. My mom was divorced/widowed and the church refused to marry her to my dad - until he got a big enough pay-off. Two of my moms oldest friends were lesbians, they were/are good people. Then I would go to CCD and church and learn that they were bad people simply because of who they loved. I was pro-choice from a young age - the church is pro-life but doesn't want to help the baby after birth. My sister-in-law was told her father couldn't walk her down aisle at her wedding because her and my brother shared an apartment. They'd been dating for almost fifteen years when they moved in together - which they did so she could attend school. Now, I'm in a long term committed relationship with someone who grew up in the Evangelical church. I can tell by looking at him when he's having a traumatizing memory. I may never know everything they did to him but one of...
Lea S. 2 weeks ago
the nightmares he sometimes has is the Rapture happening and him being left behind. Whenever he questions his faith his family thought it was productive to all 'disappear' so that he would be terrified into 'behaving.' Recently a man from my community died alongside his grandson in a freak kayaking accident. His family has been in the community and supported the church for three generations. They wanted a double funeral for him and his grandson. The church he's spent his whole life in said no - because his grandson belonged to a different church. I don't need the whole burn-in-hell narrative to be a good person.
Load More Replies... Corvus 2 weeks ago (edited)
I started asking myself questions, many questions, all of them without answers. Example: Why would an immortal and omnipotent super-being need us, the puny little mortal humans, to worship it and build it temples, and why would it care about what we wear, eat, say, etc.? The questions just klept piling on, and eventually I found I could no longer believe in this religious stuff.
Bernd Herbert 2 weeks ago
my personal story: I finally got rid of religion when I was around 21. Before that I was the typical indoctrinated child who didn't really question much and during my teenage years religion was not part of my life at all. Here in Germany it rarely is. But at around 18 years old I realized, when my "scientific brain" started developing in full speed, that I didn't believe in magic. at all. And after that I simply started reading about the history of Christianity. Not the stories, the real history behind it.
Evagating Beewolf (she/they) 2 weeks ago
Meanwhile, at my synagogue, I gave a d'var Torah (speech) about my Torah portion (Noah). My speech can be summed up as "Either God committed mass murder and thus isn't good, you can commit mass murder and still be good somehow, we blow up Judaism in various different ways [God isn't omnipotent! We can't understand, and thus interpret, God and God's rules! et cetera], or both." And that was...it. I wasn't excommunicated or anything. That was just the conclusion I came to, and I was able to share that without feeling an urge to self-censor. (The same synagogue also recently donated over 80 pounds of vegetables to a local food pantry, has headphones and some sensory toys in a basket outside the chapel, and almost always has a banner up mentioning their 'pride tribe'.)
Mike_the_nike 2 weeks ago
My brother is an avid atheist, and he makes that very clear to everyone at school. The problem is, he is extremely homophobic, transphobic, etc, and has even argues against religion using Hitler as an example… He said “well, his religion told him to kill the Jews, so he did.” (Which is not correct.) But you see, I am a trans, gay man… You see the problem here. So he uses any chance he gets to mock me for MAYBE having a partner that’s a girl (again, trans. I have not come out to him.) But we were never avid Christians, either. Sure, we went to church, but all we did was sit there and dance to songs that I never enjoyed because they were too loud. ALSO, that church would give you candy if you had good posture, a bible, and (and I quote) “Did well.” Needless to say, I never got that stupid f*****g candy. I am a proud Pagan now.
UKGrandad 2 weeks ago
" He said “well, his religion told him to kill the Jews, so he did.” (Which is not correct)." Sorry, Mike, but he is correct on that one. Hitler was a Catholic and never renounced his faith. He also spoke at length, both in his book, Mein Kampf, and in many speeches about how he had been put in his position by God to enable him to avenge the death of Jesus by exterminating the Jews, or 'the killers of Christ' as he more commonly called them.
Load More Replies... Trisec Tebeakesse 2 weeks ago
After I realized that I took communion from Father John Geoghan's hand at a friend's wedding.
FROGLET 2 weeks ago
I first started questioning when I was eight. I remembered that my preschool had a church built in, and they were teaching religion like fact. My eight year old self was immediately like, "OH THAT'S F*****G MESSED UP." My dad is also heavily agnostic, as well as my mom. They're pretty sensible people, and I talked with my friends about religion and they all had different views, just everything I knew about it started unraveling. When I was 9-10 I realized that I liked girls too, not just boys, and that was allegedly wrong. Then I believe in reincarnation, but how does that fit into Heaven and Hell? It just doesn't. So here's my beliefs now; I'm not really sure what I call it, but it aligns a lot with being Agnostic. There's probably multiple gods. They are subconsciously making the world, or else why the f**k would they make mosquitos? They're not sentient, but actually just endless pools of energy that gets thrown out in every direction. We get reincarnated, because the souls come fro
FROGLET 2 weeks ago
m that energy, then go back to it, and then get pushed out into something else again. Besides that, I do not know anything. In reality, I don't really think I know what happens when we die, or how it was all created, but that's just what probably happens in my mind, and I do believe that we are far from the masters of that universe.
Load More Replies... Lyone Fein 2 weeks ago
So, all of these, except the one about Islam, are really about rejecting different forms of Christianity. And then comments follow that say things like, "yeah all religions are the same." But, as someone with a PhD in Comparative Religion, I need to point out that all religions are NOT the same. I think it is interesting that none of these stories come from people rejecting Buddhism, for example, which is a religion in which people do not pray to God. Or Hinduism in which there are radically different branches where you get to choose your own deity to worship, or you can practice personal disciplines without involving god at all. I notice that there are no indigenous people who talk about rejecting their traditional belief systems in which the spirits of their ancestors council them on how to live in harmony with the other living beings of the earth. In the world today there are dozens of religions being practiced.
Greenmantle 2 weeks ago
Well the majority of people commenting here are native english speakers so of course Christianity would be highly represented. I'm not defending it, just making a point. If this platform was based in India or Saudi Arabia, you'd get different results
Load More Replies... Lucy 2 weeks ago
I have a beautiful relationship with Christ. He has never let me down and has been with me through everything! I should go to Church more but I was pushed away when they became political. I never stopped my relationship with Jesus though. If the people at the church can turn you away from God, you never knew Him anyways. The church is in your heart.
Say No to Downvoting 2 weeks ago
But the church and it’s people IS supposedly the body of Christ/appointed by God/representative of Christ (Romans 12:5, Ephesians 3:6, 4:15–16, and 5:23 Colossians 1:18 and 1:24). So how does that work with your theory there? (Ex-Christian, current Atheist, here)
Load More Replies... WindySwede 2 weeks ago (edited)
But what about the bible supporting slavery, and seeing women as property of the father or the husband?
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