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31 Things That Shook People’s Faith In Religion, As Shared In This Online Group
We wanted to start this post by mentioning the old hit Losing My Religion, but the famous R.E.M. song is not about faith at all, but about unrequited love. Although, on the other hand, when a person turns away from religion, turns away from God in one sense or another, this can also be called unrequited love. Or a love that no longer exists.
Such love always leaves scars on the heart, and for many people who once believed in the one or many above, they obviously needed a very good reason to turn their backs on religion. And this now-viral thread has just those people as well as their reasons.
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#2
Lack of evidence supporting the existence of god.
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
Upvote this every time. Show me your god and I might believe it, if you don't I won't.
#3
When my religion had 120 billion dollars in a slush fund, owned 2% of the land in the United States, and made no effort to help the world with those funds.
WonderWoman 1 year ago
And with that money supported politicians to take away the rights and privileges of marginalized people. They aren't about love, peace and spreading the 'word of the lord' they are about control, division and hatred.
The very concept of "religion" is of Latin origin and can be literally translated as "bound by an oath" or "bound by faith." In other words, not just faith, but a conscious limitation of oneself in following this faith: following a certain set of moral norms and types of behavior, ritual actions, external signs and attitudes towards the world.
According to the World Population Review, in 2020 about 85% of the world's people identified themselves with a religion. This is in fact incredibly much, although, probably, out of the remaining fifteen percent, some have at least several times in their lives visited places of worship or taken part in some religious rituals. In other words, religion surrounds us like air, and it can be very painful to abandon it even for a modern person.
#4
It turned its back on me first. I’m gay.
TailsFangirl03 1 year ago
God loves gay people. It's the people who claim to love God but actually don't who are jerks.
#5
Too many unanswered questions and double standards.
no Adhesivness2020 1 year ago
I lose a lot of "Christians" when I say, the Bible is a book written by men who wrote what they thought. Just like today. Many books provide insight into different subjects, but none are flawless. The insistence that the Bible is flawless is shutting out growth and understanding. What if a medical book written 2000 years ago was the only text we were allowed to use?
#6
Had an abusive father growing up , and no matter how much I prayed god did nothing.
By the way, these are not isolated cases, but a real trend. According to statistics given by the British sociologist Stephen Bullivant in his book Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America, if in 1972 the number of Americans with no religious affiliation was 5% (and if we take into account people under 30 years, then 10%), then in 2018 the same indicators were 23% and 34%, respectively.
Bullivant says the majority of this shift is caused by people actively leaving the religion of their childhood (the “nonverts” of the title), not because they were born into nonreligious families (though that trend is coming). In other words, there are many reasons for people to turn away from religion, but this is rather an objective historical process.
#7
I grew up as a Christian and even spent a little time working in ministry. For years there were some nagging things that just didn’t add up for me. I worked for Child Protection Services for years and decided any God that has the power to prevent heinous abuse against his supposed innocent, but doesn’t, is either a sadist I don’t want to worship, or simply non existent. If this all started between God and Satan they can leave me the f**k out of it. It’s the b******t manufactured responses from Christians that were the nail on the coffin.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
God started out as the bad guy, imo. Eve couldn't possibly have known it was bad to eat from the Tree until AFTER she had already eaten. God set her up to fail, then held all humanity accountable for one transgression from one person who was utterly innocent of her wrongdoing. No court in the world would have convicted her, but God did, and the rest of us until the end of time? Screw anyone who behaves like this. It's narcissistic gaslighting and victim blaming at its finest.
#8
People put religion first over being a good human being
Lauren Lewis 1 year ago
Religion is usually their first excuse to defend their crappy behavior.
#9
I come from a fairly religious family (some are very, others, not so much, some not at all).
I became an atheist at the age of six.
Why?
Simply put, I could see, even then, how badly religion is use to manipulate, control, bully, intimidate, and attack people. And I wanted NO part of that.
not your average weirdo 1 year ago
My dads side of the family is deeply catholic and my moms side is Protestant but my parents raised us to be skeptical of everything unless there’s proof
And if there is a historical process, that means that it is possible to model scenarios for its development. So, according to the Pew Research Center, which researched four such scenarios, in all four religiously unaffiliated Americans are projected to approach or exceed Christians in number by 2070. Yes, our society is really losing our religion, and the process looks unstoppable and impetuous - from a historical point of view, of course.
#10
What they taught didn’t make any sense
#11
when MFers got ten grand for a robe and a gold ring and a gold cup but gives out soup and bread like they doin a grand thing. Oh and [abusing] children that part pisses me off.
Churches should be charged 75% taxes
#12
A very religious friend once told me "It's a shame you don't believe in god, you're a nice person and don't deserve to burn for eternity." I was like...if that actually happens, your god is an a*****e and I wouldn't worship them even if it was proven without a doubt that that god existed.
I'm open to the idea of a higher power. I don't think it's impossible that life was seeded on Earth by higher beings. But I'd want to see the evidence before I believed it and I certainly don't think that millionairs who demand money from the poor are the people spreading the word of any kind of saviour.
Be that as it may, we are now in 2023, not 2070, and each of the people who turn away from religion has their own motivation, their own story. So please feel free to scroll to the very end of this list, read these stories and maybe share your own in the comments. After all, as John Lennon used to sing, “imagine there's no countries - it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too...”
#13
Critical thinking.
VikingAbroad 1 year ago
In my country the education to become a priest is not a clerical education, but a university education. They teach critical thinking, social science and historical criticism. They want priests to think for them selves and be solid people. The priest wage is low and you have to live among your parishioners. Nor fancy robes, no grand buildings, no self interest, no hate (well, some really old time priests are not fans of female priests, but they are dying out). I love what the church in my country do for the poor, those in need and those who just need a free space. We're not Catholic, but we're Christians. Most of the time the problem is not religion, but white supremacist religion, any religion who thinks money and wealth should go to the top. And that is not Christianity, that is some brainwashed kind of sect. Instead of going after all religion, go after those specific sects that gives the rest a bad reputation. Any religion who hates a specific group can't be Christian.
#14
Because it is nonsense.
A structure build by certain people to control and benefit from the not-so-sharp knives in the drawer.
If it makes these people have a reason to be "good" in the fear of an almigthy punishing them... Fine with me.
I prefer to be a good person just because, I'm fully responsible for my actions and have no need for imaginary friends to blame.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
Unfortunately, many modern religionists insist on bypassing the word of their god to decide for themselves what's 'good' and what's 'bad', and their decisions are ALWAYS based on their personal feelings about certain groups of people.
#15
Was being lectured to "not want material things" by someone driving a Hummer
#17
I'm autistic. So when I asked a clarifying question ( as I am want to do) at age 6 in sunday school i was told
"Dont ask questions"
And that was the end of that.
David H 1 year ago
I went to Jewish Religious schools and one of the things I learned in first grade was that one of the essential things in Judaism is a requirement to ask questions, it is even part of the Seder on passover. Asking questions in encouraged, or at least supposed to be, as long as it is done in a respectful way with intent to get an answer as opposed to being antagonistic
#18
The fact there are over 4,000 religions in existence today. Which one of them is right?!
South Park did a great episode on this btw, where everyone died and I think only the Mormans went to heaven, all other religions went to hell, because turns out they were incorrect in choosing their faith. Epitomised how ridiculous religion is.
That and everything else already said in this thread.
#19
I was forced to go to church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, for years. Even as a young person I started seeing the bias and hypocrisy in organized religion when a teacher was trying to tell me if you 'didn't know Jesus you were condemned to hell'. I asked 'what about the Indians'? And the teacher had no answer for me. Didn't make sense to me that a 'loving God' would send a whole group of people to hell because they hadn't been exposed to the bible.
Over time the fact that churches tend to be cliquish and are always begging for money that generally gets spent to big bigger and 'better' churches just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I also have a hard time believing that a book that a bunch of 'old' guys at the time wrote based on stories told by mouth over hundreds or thousands of years is really the 'word of God'.
I still believe in a higher power and intelligent design but I am not going to follow the teachings of organized religion. I do believe in basic ethics and standards of how to treat your fellow human beings but I don't need some fat dude in a cheap suit telling me how to behave every Sunday morning.
SkyBlueandBlack 1 year ago
Well, yeah -- that's why Christian missionaries went all over the place, to "save" the savages. Even built entire plantation-style missions in California. And remember that guy a few years ago who went to that island in the Indian Ocean inhabited by a tribe of historically unfriendly cannibals? Yeah, he knew it was illegal, but he just HAD to try to convert them. As for the origin of the bible, that's a whole college class. OT is a record of Jewish oral history, NT is mostly Paul writing letters to various communities about how to be Christian (Jesus' followers were Jewish; it was Paul who took it from a form of Judaism to a different religion). Mark *might* have been written by the actual apostle Mark, but decades after the events described. The books of the NT were chosen at the Council of Nicea in the 300s, because there were a whole bunch of various gospels in use before then (now called the gnostic or apocryphal gospels). Christian history completely undermines Christianity.
#20
The OPs question is a fallacy, that people "become" atheists for a reason. The false assumption is that faith is the natural state for all people, so there must be a triggering event (e.g. loss of a loved one, an accident, etc) that caused the individual to leave the "correct" state and enter into an aberrant state of non-belief.
In reality, belief in a god or other mystical reality is the aberrant behavior, begun by early privative culture and perpetuated by training each new generation.
I "turned my back on religion" when I went away to college and realized there was no reason at all for me to go to church on Sunday. There was no meaning in it. I shrugged and moved on with my life.
#21
Mental gymnastics. Also the fear tactics got tiring
Hugh Cookson 1 year ago
Easy way round this, stop the gymnastics and stop being fearful of their b******t.
#22
Aside from the sheer absurdity of the biblical timeline and the fantasy that magic man is watching what every person is doing at all times, I have a son with autism. The challenges he faces to do the most simple things are cruel and inhumane. There is no intelligent design behind any of this.
#23
Honestly the terrorism, the greed and religious hypocrisy that comes from people who follow it made me an atheist/agnostic for a long time add to the fact that when your God commands you to kill Jews and non believers it makes it more of a cult than a religion eventually I discovered Hinduism which worked for me personally. So technically I’m still not sure about God but I love the religion, the practices and the easy going nature of the religion, Buddhism is pretty nice too.
Strontium Dog 1 year ago
Hinduism is "easy going"?! I suspect that there are the families of thousands upon thousands of dead Seikhs and Muslims who would not agree.
#24
I went to a church of England school, which involves singing hymns, prayers etc. Pretty standard for primary school age kids. I was talking to another girl about religion and she said 'I'm an atheist'. I asked her what it was and she explained that she didn't believe in god. I was mindblown, I didn't even know that was an option, but it immediately made sense to me in a way Christianity never did.
My parents never spoke about religion much or went to church, but I went home to tell them my new discovery and they both just laughed and admitted they don't believe in god either. I have a few atheist family members too, I learnt my grandmother, now 93, doesn't believe in god, and my Grandad on the other side who passed a few years ago.
SkyBlueandBlack 1 year ago
Yeah, from an anthropology perspective, religion is a cultural/community thing. Like a book club, but it's the same book over and over. Historically, your religious community served as a social safety net, supporting each other when needed -- making sure a guy's wife and kids didn't starve if he died, taking in orphans, etc. -- because the notion that a government might do that is relatively new. At this point, though, religion -- especially as it's practiced in modern societies -- is totally obsolete. So church members now tend to either be the casual "social hour" attendees or the over-the-top "REPENT!/NO, YOU REPENT!" variety. Of course, now we're seeing a lot of "I love God and Guns" types, which I *think* is the middle part of a venn diagram of those. Or it might just be a form of mental illness. I dunno, I didn't take abby psych. XD
#25
MendelOfGrendel said:
Reading.
ctgreeves11 added:
Same here, I started reading the bible during lockdown and found a load of nasty s**t which basically convinced me that I didn't really like what christianity stood for so i decided to stop believing.
#26
How it handled the most basic questions (usually by avoiding them or calling people rude for asking). That and the double standards.
#27
My grandma died when I was 11. She was the most religious person I've known, she made us pray all the time and scolded us when we didn't go to church with her.
She got lung cancer and died after surgery. I prayed to god like she taught me when she was in the hospital, and when the news came out that she was dead, I felt a betrayal as never before.
I felt let down. I had prayed like I was supposed to, did everything she asked me to do for god. And he didn't save her.
Now that I'm older I know that my parents didn't communicate the severity with me as they should have. They knew it was a major surgery with a small percentage that she would survive. But I didn't. I thought she would get help there and be back in time for the next sunday service. This all lead to me loosing the simple faith a child has, and I'm an agnostic now.
#28
I couldn't be bothered to get up on Sunday mornings and slowly learning about the seedy s**t Catholic priests get up to behind closed doors
OmBoyGanesh 1 year ago
Wait until you hear about their past & current financing of legislation in (mostly) African nations to institute “kill the gays” laws. They’ve already succeeded in at least two nations and are financing the initiatives, propaganda and promotion in several others. All proxied through adjacent (yet official) groups like the Knights of Columbus. Meanwhile, they have this apparently supportive and progressive mouthpiece who implies otherwise & he’s beloved because of his apparent kindness & silly behavior. But then, the pope is still the head of the worlds largest tax-free, organized crime group.
#29
maturity, it is clearly all BS
#30
The overly religious people (extremists) and what they do claiming that it is what God would want.
Also, the fact that the main religions do not afford a thought that God can...change. I mean, Christians, Muslims and Jews (pretty sure that goes for Hindus and Shintoists, too) are pretty proud of following the traditions set up thousands of years ago. But people change, cultures change, attitudes to various aspects of life change. Why do people deny that a God can change, too? That it can now feel cringe towards the things it "demanded" earlier?
When I was a teenager I liked brutal videogames, gory fatalities of Mortal Kombat, cynical comic plots like the Watchmen (probably would have loved The Boys tv show if it aired back then), heavy music like Death Metal or the "screaming" aggressive albums of Marilyn Manson. Now I recall this time with cringe because my tastes changed. Now I like softer music, pixel roguelites and kinder movie/tv/comic plots where the good guys win and Naruto Therapy works, can't stand gory games. So what if God feels something similar? "Yeah, I killed the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, killed the Egyptian babies, still feel ashamed, or ordered to sacrifice sheep on Kurban Bayram, but sheesh it was so long ago dudes, why are you still doing it?".
Few people are proud that they are following ancient social traditions like slavery or racism, that are outdated. Few people are proud to still use the vastly outdated tools. But too many people are proud that their worship is almost the same as it was hundreds of years ago.
#31
White people and Christianity, once I realized what we consider Christianity in the United States is an aggregated, filtered/edited version of the religion and it's history in support/promotion of white power structures I was done. Seeing Judaism used to subjugate the Palestinian people and steal their land to create an apartheid state.
I want to believe in this concept of divine design and lines that lead thru all creation however humans have shown they will use this sense of order to control behavior and beliefs.
Personally I'm good on religion, read too much to go backwards...
Still respect the idea of trying to understand how we all got here, mostly thru science but there's still that unknown "magic" to creation.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
There's an unknown 'magic' to pregnancy too. And baking bread. And we know how both those things work. Failure to understand a natural process doesn't make said process 'magic'. Clarke's Law.
What do you think ?
Adam Belaire 1 year ago
Here is what gets me. I'm Christian with the United Church. My wife is agnostic, one of my best friends is wiccan and their husband is a church minister and we all play D&D with different gods. We get along great. I have no doubt there are thousands of common stories of how crappy a religious person is and I feel bad for those wronged by religions. It's unfair to group every religious person together. It's the same as saying all Muslims are terrorists. Yes, there are bad ones but there are great ones out there too. Just like there are good cops mixed in with bad ones, good lawyers mixed in with the ambulance chasers, good Americans mixed in with the horrible ones. I'm not here to change any one's mind but want to just say that there are good people out there. As for the number of religions....To me, it's Hamlet vs. Lion King. Same story, different tellers. Ultimately, each story tells of a higher power and those that believe in the faith and how they are rewarded or punished.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
Well said. "Judge not lest ye be judged" was so important that it was included in 3 of the 4 gospels. Yet many modern Christians seem to do nothing but judge. Those of you who actually adhere to the tenets of your chosen faith need to be louder, because you're being drowned out by the hypocrites, just like I get drowned out by 'ugly' Americans. And my response would be (and has been) similar to yours. I absolutely respect the religions of others...unless they attempt to force me to live by their rules.
Load More Replies...
Tams21 1 year ago (edited)
I don't disagree with any of this but I also don't think much of it is unique to religion. To take an extreme (but shockingly common) example, look at the MAGA movement: It's followers regularly tell lies which a 30 second Google would disprove, some of them are then even proven wrong by the courts and still people blindly follow and even commit violence. Religion does have some problems unique to it but many of those have the same root as those with MAGA - People that are able and willing to abuse power.
Adam Belaire 1 year ago
Here is what gets me. I'm Christian with the United Church. My wife is agnostic, one of my best friends is wiccan and their husband is a church minister and we all play D&D with different gods. We get along great. I have no doubt there are thousands of common stories of how crappy a religious person is and I feel bad for those wronged by religions. It's unfair to group every religious person together. It's the same as saying all Muslims are terrorists. Yes, there are bad ones but there are great ones out there too. Just like there are good cops mixed in with bad ones, good lawyers mixed in with the ambulance chasers, good Americans mixed in with the horrible ones. I'm not here to change any one's mind but want to just say that there are good people out there. As for the number of religions....To me, it's Hamlet vs. Lion King. Same story, different tellers. Ultimately, each story tells of a higher power and those that believe in the faith and how they are rewarded or punished.
Nikki Sevven 1 year ago
Well said. "Judge not lest ye be judged" was so important that it was included in 3 of the 4 gospels. Yet many modern Christians seem to do nothing but judge. Those of you who actually adhere to the tenets of your chosen faith need to be louder, because you're being drowned out by the hypocrites, just like I get drowned out by 'ugly' Americans. And my response would be (and has been) similar to yours. I absolutely respect the religions of others...unless they attempt to force me to live by their rules.
Load More Replies... Tams21 1 year ago (edited)
I don't disagree with any of this but I also don't think much of it is unique to religion. To take an extreme (but shockingly common) example, look at the MAGA movement: It's followers regularly tell lies which a 30 second Google would disprove, some of them are then even proven wrong by the courts and still people blindly follow and even commit violence. Religion does have some problems unique to it but many of those have the same root as those with MAGA - People that are able and willing to abuse power.
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