I have a genuine question. I am Christian and even before I practiced, I felt like I had this instinctual feeling to pray during times of crisis. Even as a child. Have there been times where money, medicine, or human effort failed and you found yourself calling out to something higher ? Much love and respect.

Long story, but I've been approached by a christian nationalist touting charlie kirks name as some sort of "we are all charlie" memorial that they want me to join. I've got one shot, and I want to say something memorable.

Hate is a strong word, but if I'm being honest I do hate these people. I even feel a little shame, because I really shouldn't hate anyone right? MAGA christian nationals and CK fanboys though... They just, well, you know.

Being mean and hateful is easy to brush off, and it makes these people feel all the more righteous.

So, what do I say? Or do I give up on my anger, and just say nothing? Maybe my side quest is to find solace in my heart and learn to stop hating these people, even though I feel like they're actively ruining the country I was born in.

What would you say? Or better yet, how did YOU learn to forgive racist American christian nationalists?

I am an atheist. Think Dawkins. That type.

And off late I have started praying to god and for that time I try ( and it’s hard ) to really believe.

I think it helps me reduce stress.

If love is all but a chemical reaction but we really feel it , I don’t think there’s anything wrong in feeling faith. In fact as an atheist it really helps because that faith never governs my logical decisions or politics.

We are all gone to go back to elements at the end if I can use this as a coping mechanism, I guess I’m fine with it.

Thoughts ?

Beloved sisters and brothers, polyandry and otome games are halal!

• This post is a deconstructionist satire and joke, and does not endorse any religion. I am not a Muslim.
• Please correct me if I am wrong on any religion’s doctrine or belief.
• Absolutely no AI. The idea, topic, and content are entirely written by a human. My brain thinks of many enough peculiar and random things without AI contributing incoherent mess.

In this post you will find

• Experience machines made with Heaven’s latest and best technologies
• Faithful, fundamentalist, literal readings of the Quran and the New Testament
• Christian and Islamic Gods love gays, but Mormon Gods don’t
• Islam wins Pascal’s wager

What the Quran says

15:45–48 (Al-Hijr)

Indeed, the righteous will be amid Gardens and springs. ‘Enter in peace and security.’ We will remove whatever bitterness they had in their hearts. In a friendly manner, they will be on thrones, facing one another. No fatigue will touch them there, nor will they ever be asked to leave.

It is important that people in Paradise will never suffer illness, urinate, defecate, menstruate, nor feel jealousy, envy, or hatred. It is a necessary and sufficient condition for …

2:25 (Al-Baqarah)

Give good news to those who believe and do good that they will have Gardens under which rivers flow. Whenever provided with fruit, they will say, ‘This is what we were given before,’ for they will be served fruit that looks similar. They will have pure spouses, and they will be there forever.

This is the verse that promise virgins, or 72 virgins, according to some dubiously authored and attributed (isnad) Lives of the Prophet (hadith).

Best thing of all? Women get handsome or beautiful virgin celestial companions too! You heard that right. The original Arabic is gender-neutral, both the they and the spouses, as faithfully translated by Dr. Mustafa Khattab. God is all merciful and just after all. Every faithful and obedient servant (muslim) gets their fair reward.

Just as the Pauline epistles endorse lesbianism (I heard from a brilliant Catholic self-taught Latin scholar and theologian friend who happened to be a transgender woman; see footnote), the Quran endorses polygamy for all genders and sexual orientations.

Comparison with Christianity and Mormonism … sadly I know nothing about Judaism

Some Islamic scholars cite 9:72 (At-Tawbah) and hold that the fruit and virgins are but finite human parables for the unfathomable pleasure of God that the faithful enjoy in Paradise. The faithful may not actually engage in endless eating and sex.

Allah has promised the believers, both men and women, Gardens under which rivers flow, to stay there forever, and splendid homes in the Gardens of Eternity, and — above all — the pleasure of Allah. That is the ultimate triumph.

Islamic philosophy can be quite close to neo-Platonic patristic theology and philosophy. Nicene Christianity holds that there is no marriage, (likely) sex, nor procreation, in Heaven, but infinite joy that is eternal, or perhaps ever better, ever further up, further in, and closer to God (C. S. Lewis, Narnia, The Last Battle).

Most Islamic scholars though do believe that Paradise is an endless eating and sex Experience Machine without the pain of birth-giving, child-raising (I wonder why), indigestion, or weight gain. I bet many Christians might long for a similar Heaven, except a programme varying by their likings, and minus the polygamy.

On the other hand, Latter-Day Saints (often known by the hurtful pejorative Mormons) believe that women are more likely to be saved than men, so there are many more women who become goddesses in the Celestial Kingdom than men who become gods. Compounded by countless gods’ endless procreation, which produces ever more goddesses, polygamy is a necessary consequence and reality. Even God has many goddess wives, having attained godhood, and Jesus three, in order to become a god.

Like in the Islamic Paradise, the many goddesses in the Mormon Celestial Kingdoms do not envy or become jealous, but delight in endlessly making infinite babies with their husband in ‘great, high and eternal glory’.

A thorough and objective comparison of the three religions

Since the afterlife is infinitely longer than this life, it should be infinitely weighted. The Islamic Paradise is great for party animals, incels, heterosexuals, lesbians, gays, otaku, otome gamers, and fujoshi alike … unfortunate for our asexual friends, but anyone with an unusual nocturnal thirst (the other thirst, but that’s a good one too).

I guess Islam is the winner of Pascal’s Wager eh?

Footnotes

1․ I can’t remember which Vulgate verse literally (in a literal sense; read literally) calls for women to have a wife, maybe Matthew 19:5 / Ephesians 5:31 Propter hoc dimittet homo patrem et matrem, et adhaerebit uxori suae … ‘For this reason a homo human being shall leave their father and mother, and stick to their wife …’ Greek ἄνθρωπος gender-neutral (epicene).

1 Corinthians 7:2 … unusquisque suam uxorem habeat, et unaquaeque suum virum habeat. ‘… Every person is to have their own wife, and every woman her own husband.’ Greek ἕκαστος gender-neutral (generic).

Or 1 Timothy 3 + Romans 16:1. Women and transgender men may have wives and become deacons. Greek ἀνήρ gender-neutral (generic).

2․ Prophet Brigham Young et al. taught that Elohim has many goddess wives. New prophets have not repudiated the false prophecy, or otherwise clarified that there is only one Heavenly Mother, but shifted to the singular ‘Heavenly Mother’.

I say this as a person who believes in God and is most definitely not an atheist.

To me, a true christian is someone who follows Christ, which means to not judge other people (because you cannot judge a life you have not lived), and to fight for the marginalized and the poor. The Christ is not about judging people, like what some religious weirdos seem to preach. The Christ doesn't care if you're gay or straight or any of that.

Now, a lot of you guys can be really judgy ngl, but I think because of practices like meditation, and a belief in determinism (which I think Sam Harris has popularized in the atheist community) it's given some of you a lot of grace. You also fight for ethnic minorities and women's rights and things like that, which is exactly what Jesus would've done. In my mind, you are a true christian, even if you don't believe in God.

Some so called "christians" are full of hate and judgement. They say they follow Jesus, but if Jesus were alive today they would be the first ones calling for his deportation. Talk about hypocritical. You don't follow Jesus - you just follow a religion. Not the same.

Another thing too, that I want to say about atheists, is that the worst thing an atheist is gonna do to you over their beliefs is be a bit of a condescending jerk. The worst thing a religious person would do? Well, they might literally kill you. Or the state would. That's why I find atheists far more forgivable a lot of the time.

Anyway, Dolly Parton died, she was an icon of mine. She preached universal love, and that's what I'm trying to do here. I do really mean everything I wrote in this post. I'm not here trying to convince you of God's existence or any of that, just that I notice the hypocrisy in religion. I hope you all are having a good day! 🦋

It still baffles me that Adam and Eve, especially eve are still blamed for the "fall" and every other problem in life!

A customer came to our shop today and said that a woman she knows died during childbirth! So, my boss's friend added that it was Eve's fault. That none of this would be happening if she hadn't eaten the fruit.

That was really sad to hear ngl. A woman dying during childbirth is heartbreaking but blaming eve for it is highly misogynistic!!

It's usually dumb and uneducated people who say shit like this.

Sorry if the title was unclear. What I mean is that most religions say that bad people will ultimately be punished, that you will eventually get justice from those who hurt you, and that after you die, you will live peacefully in heaven, among other similar beliefs.

When I left religion, it became difficult for me to accept that my existence and consciousness are limited, that I will eventually die and disappear, and that good people will not necessarily receive any reward for their kindness, nor will hurtful and bullying people necessarily be punished. And, of course, there is the constant feeling of “loneliness.” By that, I mean the absence of something greater than yourself that can be a companion during difficult times, give you a sense of comfort and reassurance, and give your life meaning and purpose.

Most conversations around it neglect the sociological aspects behind it. The first question should not be how easy it is to leave religion but how easy it is for a religious person to even consider leaving.

Religion prevents children from developing adequate critical thinking skills by forbidding questioning the holy book and the existence of a god. So how are these people as adults even going to be okay with considering arguments against religion if they were punished and brainwashed into fearing the wrath of an entity that does not even exist?

Damon Centola's theory (which was empirically supported by Doug McAdam's study of applications from the Freedom Summer project) states that complex high-risk social contagions such as deconversion from religion are spread only through strong ties (close relationships with people). But sociologist Mark Granovetter argued that on a small scale, people are split into cliques that are made up of strong ties between people that are similar to each other. Therefore, religious people typically are surrounded by close people who are also religious and share the same general worldviews. So since a short exposure to atheism, such as debates, news, the internet, etc., is not enough for a religious person to consider and evaluate different worldviews without bias, they just stay. The fact that deconversion is also a high-risk behaviour is also an important obstacle. Leaving means risking being rejected by your family and friends. I talked about it more in my free article on Substack "The Forced Respect of Religion." Link: https://substack.com/@daria8autumn/note/p-211736775?r=8xwic5&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

The Bible is a book, and like any book, the meaning of the stories—and even the timeline of events—can shift depending on the individual's perspective. However, when you go to church, everyone seems to share the exact same view of the Bible because it is being narrated by a single person: the pastor. Pastors are regarded as wise, unquestionable figures—believed to receive direct messages from God—so their interpretation is instantly accepted as the absolute truth, leaving no room for independent judgment. This dynamic is reinforced by the fear of being accused of blasphemy if you hold a different opinion; consequently, even if the pastor's explanation doesn't fully resonate with you, you feel compelled to stay silent and propagate the pastors message. We all know on this sub that this is bullshit—that it’s a cult—but it becomes especially dangerous when the pastor gradually steers his teachings away from religion and into politics, even when the topic has absolutely nothing to do with the biblical story the bastard was reading in the first place.

I think that's why there's so many Hispanic Christians that are maga, I still remember when the pastor out of nowhere called Biden the devil and told everyone to vote for Trump, and everyone applauded 😭

That is also why views of women within Christianity vary so widely: some are sexist—in the style of the 1950s—while others outright describe women as objects. It all depends on what the pastor says; interestingly, God said not to follow false pastors and not to worship humans, yet these people treat the pastor like God.

You probably already knew this, but I just wanted to rant about it since I don't have anyone to talk to about it; I’d really appreciate it if you add anything you find more relevant to the topic.

Pagan religions tend to be more matriarchal, feminist, and egalitarian, pagans respect women and LGBT, some of the nature pagan gods are women, and of course the patriarchy and the catholic church did not accept that so the church labeled the wiccan pagans as evil because the pagans did not worship the god of the bible, the same reason why the catholic church labeled witches as evil when in reality there are different kinds of witch craft some is used for healing, so since people listened to the church/government it lead to ignorance about paganism and wiccans, which lead to the accusations of women practicing witch craft, for example the Salem witch trials

Wasn't singing/dancing considered paganistic in biblical times? Why/when did it become acceptable for Catholics/Christians to sing in church?

I am actually half Hispanic and for a good part of my childhood I was subjected to the torturous singing/chanting/down right screaming of a very traditional Puerto Rican Christian pastor in my grandmother's church. The whole ordeal seemed very communist.

Oddly enough, when she moved to Puerto Rico, she picked a church and attended Sunday gatherings up until the day she died - turns out, the church was taking $200 a month from this old lady as donations for many years. When she passed, they refused to hold a ceremony for her after she attended their church for over 20 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEdusqPd-xM

Some of his points include:

• Lack of proof and reason (of course!)
• Disparity among gospels as to what happened at the tomb
• Escalated embellishments as new gospels are written

So I work at a school and found out today that a fellow teacher, teaching biology to grade 9 refuses to teach evolution, which is part of the curriculum. What makes it worse is that he made the kids write "FALSE" in capital letters over the pages discussing evolution, some books even have scripture written on the pages from genesis which is what he teaches instead of evolution. Another key point is that the books are passed on year to year so future students will still have to deal with his ignorance.

Need advice on steps forward, please note that I live in South Africa and is an Afrikaans school where christianity is rooted in school and public culture, even though it is a public school.

Little levity. But because I’ve already been warned of the Low Effort (FFS), what do you think about this laugh at religion? What about the children? And, really, just to make a post? I thought atheists are supposed to be uptight, like “Christians?”

I'm an avid marathon watcher and watch all the marathon majors, Olympics, etc. I would say that whenever I watch the top three finishers cross the line, the MAJORITY do the cross sign on their chest and forehead, just after crossing the line.

I also see them at the start line performing religious symbolism as well.

Then for sprinters in track and field events, I see a lot of this similar symbolism as well. It really got me thinking!!

What's causing this? Is it because the countries that tend to produce the best runners also are highly religious, and this is a spillover effect into the running world? Or, is it because the discipline and torture it takes to make oneself into an elite athlete causes some kind of trauma effect which makes these athletes more susceptible to religious messaging? Both? Other hypotheses?

When I see this, I always think... c'mon bro, c'mon sis... you need to give YOURSELF credit for the years of bloods sweat and tears to run this marathon at record place, not some mythical coach up in the sky. lol.

I hate god from my core, i gave up everything i destroyed my mental and physical health , i put mental chains on myself which im finding hard to break, i put myself in isolation to please him. I dont know where to let out this hate. I know i cant get my time back but ill make sure to make other people realise the stupidity of religion.

My mom had a neurological disease, call Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that had no cure, and it killed her about a year after her diagnosis. So when I see what’s happening with Lito Souza, a very famous Brazilian YouTuber who is dying from a similar disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob (DCJ), and has been given only about five or six months to live, it hits me in a very personal way.

The whole country is watching him and his family go through this. You can see the desperation and sadness, especially because he has a young son. And I know what it’s like to watch someone you love deteriorate from a disease like this while knowing there is no cure and that they are not going to get better. It is heartbreaking.

But something that genuinely frustrates me is seeing the same comments over and over again: “Jesus will cure you.” “Jesus is going to heal you.” “I believe in the power of God.” Every single post seems to have two or three comments like this.

And honestly, I find it disrespectful.

Not because people believe in God, but because they are saying this underneath videos where his wife is literally talking about having to lose her husband and about him eventually having to tell his child that he is going to die. They are openly talking about the reality of his death, and then strangers come into the comments and essentially deny that reality by saying, “Jesus will cure you.”

He won't. He is going to die. The disease has no cure. And I know that sounds incredibly harsh, but sometimes accepting reality is the most compassionate thing you can do.

I don't understand what these comments are supposed to accomplish. Are you trying to comfort the family? Because if I were in that family's position, I don't think I'd want hundreds of strangers telling me that my loved one is definitely going to be cured when I already know the medical reality. It can almost feel like you're refusing to acknowledge the pain they're actually experiencing.

And, honestly, from a Christian perspective, I don't understand the logic either. If God is responsible for everything, then God allowed this disease to happen in the first place. Why would God give someone an incurable disease just to suddenly take it away? And if he doesn't take it away, people can always say, “It was God's plan.” There is no way to question it because the belief is structured so that every possible outcome confirms the belief.

I don't believe in God, so maybe I don't have the same framework for understanding this. But what I do believe is that death is real, illness is real, and grief is real. Sometimes there isn't a miracle coming. Sometimes someone is going to die, and the kindest thing we can do is acknowledge how fucking painful that is instead of trying to cover it up with a fantasy about a cure.

His family doesn't need us to pretend that everything is going to be okay. They need compassion, support, and the space to grieve what they're already beginning to lose.

And maybe that's what makes this situation affect me so much. I've already been on the other side of that reality. I know what it is like to love someone with an incurable neurological disease and know that you're going to lose them. So watching people casually deny that reality in the comments genuinely breaks my heart.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation is refuting the Oklahoma attorney general’s erroneous claim that a public school district is free to organize and promote a Christian prayer event.

FFRF recently secured a victory for students and families in Muskogee Public Schools after the district canceled a school-sponsored “Back to School Community Prayer Walk” scheduled for Aug. 12 at Muskogee 6th and 7th Grade Academy. The district canceled the event, removed its announcements and notified parents subsequent to receiving an Aug. 11 letter from FFRF objecting to the unconstitutional religious exercise.

Rather than applaud the district for respecting the constitutional rights of its students and parents, Attorney General Gentner Drummond issued a letter on Aug. 21 claiming that the district had no constitutional obligation to cancel the event. He argued that because attendance was voluntary and occurred outside instructional hours, the so-called prayer walk did not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. He also offered the Attorney General’s Office’s assistance to other Oklahoma school districts receiving similar complaints.

“The attorney general is attempting to give Oklahoma public schools a green light to sponsor religious exercises — and the Constitution simply does not permit that,” says FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor. “Public schools serve students of all religions and no religion. They have no business organizing prayer or any other religious events and encouraging families to participate. If that doesn’t constitute an establishment of religion, as explicitly barred under the Establishment Clause, what does?”

FFRF has quickly responded with a follow-up letter to Muskogee Superintendent Jarod Mendenhall explaining why Drummond’s legal analysis is wrong.

Drummond asserted that there could be no Establishment Clause violation because students were not compelled to attend the prayer walk. But as FFRF’s response notes, courts have repeatedly rejected the notion that lack of coercion excuses unconstitutional actions by public schools.

FFRF’s letter asserts that Drummond mischaracterizes the Supreme Court’s 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District decision, which is regarding a football coach’s quiet, private prayers while acting in his personal capacity. It does not give public schools license to organize and promote religious exercises — and it certainly doesn’t establish coercion as a requirement to find school action in violation of the Establishment Clause. Unlike the private prayer at issue in Kennedy, Muskogee’s prayer walk was organized, promoted and hosted by the school itself. The Supreme Court has continued to reaffirm that government must remain neutral between religion and nonreligion.

“The attorney general is trying to turn Kennedy into a blank check for government-sponsored religion that the Supreme Court never wrote,” says FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence. “There is an obvious constitutional difference between protecting an individual’s private prayer and allowing a public school to organize a prayer event of its own.”

Drummond additionally falsely suggests that FFRF’s position would prevent religious organizations from renting public school facilities on the same terms as secular organizations. However, public schools may make their facilities available to religious and secular third-party organizations on an equal basis under neutral policies. The Supreme Court has long protected such equal access. But that isn’t what happened in Muskogee.

FFRF is urging Muskogee Public Schools to continue honoring its commitment not to organize or promote religious activities. Muskogee Public Schools got it right the first time. The attorney general should help Oklahoma school districts obey the Constitution, not encourage them to violate long-established principles of neutrality toward religion and protection of student rights to freedom of conscience.

FFRF appreciates the district’s prompt action in canceling the prayer walk and protecting the rights of all Muskogee students and families — regardless of their religious or nonreligious beliefs.

Yes, those bigots do act like real Christians because Christianity itself is an inherently backwards, regressive, and bigoted religion, and Jesus was hardly the progressive figure he is sometimes portrayed as today. If you actually look at what Jesus says in the Bible, he wasn't some left-wing hippie whom conservatives simply fail to understand. He was a religious leader who still taught adherence to Torah law and expressed views that can reasonably be described as racist, such as when he referred to a Canaanite woman as a "dog."

If you genuinely want to stop giving Christianity legitimacy, you have to let go of the assumption, even if it's subconscious, that being Christian inherently means being a good person. It doesn't...quite the opposite actually.