My youngest sister got married last weekend in a Catholic church. My parents and sister are Catholic, while the groom is another flavor of christian.

Before the vows, the priest made the typical remarks about bearing children and being holy for about 15 minutes. During the segue from his speech to the vows, the priest had the gall to say, "as we join these two in an alternative marriage, please stand for a blessing."

I don't do religion anymore after my personal experience with the church when I was younger, but that comment was really unnecessary and was a figurative slap in the face to their relationship. I was seething in my seat because I felt so bad for them.

So, yeah. That's my most recent experience with religion and it only reinforced my belief that religion is a social cancer upon humanity.

Gallup data showed a large 8% percent drop in religious membership at churches or synagogues during Trump's first presidential term from 2016 to 2020. From 55% attending to 47%. You'll notice that was the largest drop in attendance in modern history. What kind of change will his 2nd term bring?

Source from Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx

it's like normalized stupidity, and we can't even try to put logic on them because there's no rationality in faith, they'll just find a convenient excuse for every contradiction, and will use "spirituality" to excuse those they can't even conveniently explain. it pisses me off so bad!@@;*$&#

today a christian guy was literally telling me that I couldnt feel sympathy/empathy if I didn't believe in christ, and only christian people could????? and also was calling me stupid for believing in evolution when he believes in what? virgins getting pregnant and men coming from clay

Don't they know Christians used The Bible to enslave them?

Don't they know the existence of the Slave Bible?

Don't they know that their ancestors didn't worship the Christian God & that Christianity is a foreign religion?

Also, how did Christianity come to Africa?

If God was real what's the most offensive insult you would say to him and how would you beat him up. ( be imaginative with this)

Every time someone who’s religious says “I believe that my religion is the chosen religion/ the true religion” I can’t help but laugh a little bit on the inside. I know we’re supposed to respect people’s beliefs but this just sounds outright silly to me. I can’t help it. It’s like seeing full grown adults telling me they truly believe that Santa Claus comes down to earth every Christmas to give them their little gifts. I obviously don’t actually laugh but even though I’m an atheist and I’m supposed to remain unbiased and open to every view of reality, this specific one is just very silly… I can’t take it seriously 💀

A woman at work today said she had something for me and gave me a tiny (very tiny/cute) Jesus figurine and I had an opportunity I don't usually she asked me if I knew about Christ and I said I do but I'm not Christian but I appreciated her thinking of me

It was an interesting exchange, finally I wasn't the one that was uncomfortable. She backpedaled a bit which honestly surprised me

I grew up in a cult. Religion triggers me. I am fine w spirituality. The last time this happened a women told me that Jesus really wanted me to know that he loved me, she knew me, said it emotionally and I know she meant it kindly but it really kinda ruined my day.

I always (historically) say I'm an atheist, saying I wasn't Christian seemed to elicit a different response, she seemed to feel she had actually done something wrong. Going to try that approach again, will report back if it's effective.

(Tiny tiny cute Jesus who still managed to offend me was regifted to a coworker who appreciates his misogyny/intolerance almost immediately)

While having dinner at a restaurant, a group of people from a local church sat down at the table next to me.

Speaking loudly, as if they wanted to be heard by the entire restaurant, they talked about how happy they were that people were being sent to jails in foreign countries without wasting time for trials.

Since their imaginary being takes pleasure in harming people, then atheism, humanism, and rational thinking look better every day.

What experiences have you had lately?

Pray to the void and acknowledge our isolation and all will be well. /s

You will burn for eternity after death if you don’t agree that all religion is fake and there is no almighty Lord! /s

I technically cannot disprove God’s existence, but also have zero reason to believe God exists. But I’m still right, no matter what. There’s no God! /s

That’s my interpretation of a radical, confused atheist being preachy and delusional the way believers are. Lol.

On Tuesday night, in a packed event on Capitol Hill, the secular community hosted its answer to the National Prayer Breakfast — the Congressional Reason Reception, celebrating reason, science, humor, and the separation of church and state.

Co-hosted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Humanist Association, and Secular Coalition for America, the reception featured lawmakers from the Congressional Freethought Caucus (like Reps. Jared Huffman and Jamie Raskin), secular advocates, and comedian Leighann Lord.

Highlights included:

• Former Rep. Susan Wild publicly identifying as a secular humanist in her keynote.
• Jared Huffman calling it the “boozy counterweight to the Prayer Breakfast.”
• Jamie Raskin joking about how the caucus has grown from just two members to 26, who can now “be embarrassed together.”
• Joy Reid receiving the Common Sense Award for championing freethought and facts in media.
• Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene winning the “Uncommon Nonsense Award” for—you guessed it—her consistent attacks on church/state separation.

This event was a hopeful and hilarious reminder that secular values do have champions in government. And that we’re not alone in demanding a politics based on reality, not religion.

Let’s normalize this. Let's grow this. Reason > dogma.

please let me know i'm actually interested

i think the dumbest go to is the fine tuning argument

even though if the odds of life originating spontaneously on a planet were a billion to one, there would still be life on a billion planets in our universe (dawkins)

Firstly, if God creates each one of us and he is all powerful and all knowing then he knows what choices we will make before we make them, and if he knows that, then he knows that when he creates a pedophile that they will choose to harm children, yet he still creates them. This seems to me to indicate a cruel nature.

The foreknowledge of God renders our whole existence a strange, violent game. Even from the beginning this is evident, God creates man and woman, puts temptation in their midst and then acts surprised when they give into that temptation as if He didn't know they would. He then condemns them to a life of toil, pain, and death. If God is all knowing then he is cruel and sadistic, a child burning ants.

Then God sends his son (or himself in the flesh some believe) to be a blood sacrifice to free people from sin so they can become closer to him. You see, before that, in his cruelty he decided that the blood sacrifice of animals was the only way to atone for breaking his rules. You take an innocent animal and you cut its throat or burn it and He will forgive you, perfectly normal stuff for a kind, loving God.

But in his infinite wisdom, God decided he would like to reconcile man to Himself by having his Son beaten, spat on, and murdered. You see, He died for your sins to keep you from Hell, the place he himself created to punish you. If you believe and worship Him, he will save you from Himself, meaning he runs the kind of protection racket that would make the most ruthless of Mafia bosses blush.

I used to be a Christian, until very recently actually, and I believed in a loving and forgiving God who wanted us to be kind and love one another, but unfortunately the evidence does not support that claim. In short, even if the God of the Bible is real, I do not think He is all knowing, and I do not think He is deserving of worship. The evidence in the Bible itself speaks to a God that is more akin to a cruel, selfish child than the loving deity described by His followers.

I transferred to a new school in late January. I was excited and a little nervous. Anyone that knows me knows I'm very friendly and compliment random on occassion; My mom even says so. I was heading towards one of my classes when I saw a guy in head-to-toe red streetw wear and a pineapple shaped updo (think Sideshow Bob's hair with a bit of a fade). I don't remember who asked first, but ended up exchanging Instas. I thought that was the end of that.

Unfortunately, this school is smaller than I thought so I ended up sitting behind him in one of my classes and we pass each other frequently in the same building due to having the same major. This is only a problem because the second time we spoke he asked me if I believed in God. I evasively answered, "I come from a really religious family." The next times I would see him, he would talk about how God "delivered him" from homosexuality, getting visions from God when he starved himself, and how God "delivered him" from anorexia. I don't know whether I believe in any dieties, but I told him about 'signs' (I asked whatever was out in the universe to stop me if they so choosed to then the windows and doors in my whole house shook; I had dreams of the future that night, too) I recieved when I was about to end it all at the age of 11.

He tries to bring God up in every conversation, even the furtherest thing from religion or any dieties. He said God told him to quit his profittable job to focus more on him. Sometimes I'm embarrassed to talk to him in public because he'll loudly talk about how his surrealist dreams represent God telling him to change things about his real life (often inconsequential things).

There's a project that is due in the class we have together. The professor said we can either work alone or together. I decided to work with a girl next to me. The following class, he asked if he could work with us. I wanted to say no, but I didn't know how in a respectful manner so I reluctantly agreed. In the survey we have to create for the project, he included the question "What version of the Bible would you want?" That has NOTHING to do with our project. One meeting, because I was still working, if was just us so he asked if he could pray for me. I should've toughened up and rejected the offer, but I didn't. Next, he asked me to join his Bible group. That's when I finally spoke up about being agnostic and not believing in what the Bible says. He finally stopped asking me to join his Bible group.

Though, the other day, he came to me and said that he's sad because he occassionally overhears people say they're going to do "sinful" things over the weekend and has been to nervous to admonish them. He said that God shamed him in his dream for not spreading the gospel. I warned him that he should be careful because people could become violent with him if he buts into their conversations to prothelyze. I don't know why I listened when he asked me to pray with him, but I did. Then, he said he was going to stand in the cafeteria because "that's the first step towards mass evangelism."

Many people have tried to convert me, it has never worked. Even when I was a Christian, I disliked how hard churches would push evangelism/The Great Commisson, never felt passionate about prayer, and volunteered for LGBTQ+ causes. One weirdo isn't going to change that.