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I’m a preachers kid. By 25 I was a full atheist. A decade later I still am. I will have nothing to do with religious people. I’ve learned those people can’t be saved.

At 25? Where I settled now.

• Religion can provide a loving, peaceful philosophical framework to live by. Some of the most wholesome, kind, generous people I’ve known are devout.

• People’s brains are all wired differently, and this works well for some.

• It’s cultural. You can just throw away that huge part of someone’s background

But.

• Some of the most unspeakable things in my personal life happened in the name of religion.

• Ive seen it ruin families, and kick rationality out of groups and instill hate in its place. Not in news feeds; with my own two eyes.

• What’s more, it reinforces idolization of demagogues, which is extremely dangerous.

So I’ve settled on this:

• …I respect other people’s faith, especially in people I respect in person. People do what they do, you know?

• And I keep in mind that religion is more philosophical for many. And that kind, devout people won’t push on you.

• But I am under no obligation to share it. I’m sure as hell going to push back against idol worship, anti-science thinking, bigotry and so on, but not cross the line to their belief in God or the afterlife or whatever.

• …And I have no interest in it myself. It doesn’t fit my brain.

This was a journey, though. For a long time I was an “apathetic Christian” because it felt like an obligation, even though it made no sense with my systemic view of the world. I would have never dared admit I was agnostic or atheist when I was 18, not even to myself.

I didn’t (and don’t) believe in the supernatural metaphysical claims made by any religion, and don’t like that it seems to give hateful people a reason to be more biggoted and spaces to find each other and organize behind hateful causes

There are plenty of good religious folks though. By 25 I had moved much more into a “live and let live” mindset about religion. I’d also started to look more into Buddhism and realized there was a lot of value in the Buddha’s teachings even if youbset aside the supernatural claims about the nature of the soul, rebirth, etc.

The indoctrination of mental illness, mainly via child abuse and terrorism.

Gotta get em while they’re young to corrupt their logic!

At 25 I was fervently anti-religion and was obnoxiously vocal about it.

Before then, I grew up in a politically conservative and very catholic house, and didn’t know anything outside of that. To me, that was normal. Turned 18, joined the military, and started seeing more of the world. That was an eye-opening time for me because for a while I was living and working in the deep south while also making friends who were very left leaning. What I saw was that Christianity seemed to mostly be home to the meatheads, racists, nationalists, and gun nuts.

Since then I’ve had an on-again-off-again relationship with religion, but at 55 I’ve more or less decided that it’s not for me and it never really was. I don’t care what other people practice anymore, I avoid discussions about it, and I walk away when anyone starts preaching to me. Whenever the door-to-door preachers come to my house (yeah we get those in my neighborhood) I just politely tell them that I’m very comfortable with my spirituality and thank them for stopping by and saying hello.

I’ve always been an atheist and I still despise every form of religion. I avoid religious people like the plague. I’m 39 years old now.

My mother was into some flavor of witchcraft and my dad was a recovering catholic.

So at 25 I thought the same thing I had most of my life. Religion is bullshit mythology.

I was Catholic as a child. Some people say they were a religion just because their family dragged them to church, but they never believed. No. I was Catholic. Confirmation meant something to me. God meant something to me. I went through a faith crisis in college through the age of 23, because I learned religion is actually not real. It was a proto-state building tool.

Before the internet, before most people could read, there was no central body of human knowledge that you could cross-reference and analyze. People only knew what the people around them told them. People could make up stories about faraway krakens, dragons, giants, and nobody could say that it was or wasn’t true. The only person who saw it says it’s true. Religion gave people a reason for the unfairness of human society, for order, for structure and rules, for that particular person being in power. Religion is people making up stories to establish the social order, to justify the social order, or to challenge the social order. That’s it. It was a necessary tool of control before we were organized enough to establish an independent, cross-referenced body of knowledge.

Now that we have that, we know that sirens aren’t real, giants aren’t real, dragons aren’t real, magic isn’t real, ghosts aren’t real, and no god is real.

I would also recommend looking up more of the formal writings on atheism over the past 200 years, particularly explaining how the Christian god is a logical fallacy.

I really enjoy the lore and artwork of Warhammer 40,000. I can do so without devoting my existence and actions to the will of the omnissiah.

I’m an atheist and a member of the Universalist Unitarian church. If you have one near you, I recommend checking it out. I like to call it the church of social justice. The sermons are akin to TED talks, the money goes to all kinds of charities (often local), the music (at my church) is live and fun.

I was raised Jehovah’s Witness so I’m very familiar with the brainwashing and scams. I understand why so many people in places like this are disdainful of all religion. I also see churches as a potentially valuable third space and action hub when done right.

The supernatural parts are bad to take literally. Some of the philosophy can be interesting. The rote, blind, following of rules is typically not good.

It makes more sense in the context of early humanity.

Nowadays it’s an excuse for poor behavior and nonsense.

Same as now. Nothing wrong with people sharing a common fiction, like Star Wars fans or yugioh fans.

But the head liar (who lives and depends on receiving money and assets under false pretences) claims that things happen because of god’s will, or miracles, or mysterious ways, is taking advantage of gullible people. And these gullible people don’t want to offend each other, and don’t want to be the first to admit that the emperor has no clothes, due to social status, or losing face, or ego, or something, and the whole house of cards is based on a game of let’s pretend, and all of that is just plain unethical, but we’re supposed to respect religion because of … something? Tradition? Tribal custom?

I’ll be the first to acknowledge and thank religious bodies that provide food and shelter and solace. Most organised religions have enough money already and don’t need to scam more. Just provide the good deeds without the inconsistent fairy tales, thanks.

https://youtu.be/laUHG_WIj-o

https://youtube.com/shorts/PwcvbjrJgnQ

https://youtu.be/IZeWPScnolo

https://youtu.be/2tp0UNcjzl8

I believe that religion, at its best, gives us the vocabulary to express experiences that are beyond words. They spill over into music, song, art, poetry, and ritual. At the largest moments of our lives, we can feel disoriented by experiences for which we have no context; extreme loss or love, the birth of a child or the shock of illness. Religion can give us a connection to countless generations who have shared those experiences. It can give us a connection to something larger, outside ourselves.

Religious institutions can offer a social fabric that is often missing in modern life. There is no other place I can think of where you find a single room filled with families, children, elderly, across ways of life, incomes, and all sharing equal parts in one purpose.

Not much has changed since:

It’s nonsense. I appreciate the nice things some people do in the name of it, but it feels like a stupid bundle deal.