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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.
This post may include affiliate links.
#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.
John Dilligaf 1 year ago
That lady is mistaken: Pope Paul VI stated “One day, we will see our animals in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God’s creatures.” ...... Pope Francis has said : “Eternal life will be a shared experience of awe, in which each creature, resplendently transfigured, will take its rightful place” ....... Beyond that, Heaven is supposed to be the place of ultimate peace and happiness. If having your beloved pets there brings you peace and happiness then I'm pretty sure they'll be there.
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
Playing devil's advocate here. The pope's opinion may have a little (or a lot) more weight than many other people's opinions, but ultimately he has no more idea what happens after the lights go out than everybody else does - and over the centuries popes have held opposing views on just about any subject anyway. I'd also love to know about the supposed mechanics behind the peace and happiness number. If a loving mother seeking her estranged child and the child who went away (let's say they found mum overbearing or whatever) meet up there: who gets their peace? If my new husband has a dog phobia, what do I do when they meet up in the afterlife?
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Yu Pan 1 year ago
I can't reasonably believe my cat will follow me to hell though. That's okay, as long as he's happy where he is.
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Kenny Kulbiski 1 year ago
I've often wondered about all the people that lived before Jesus. They didn't even get a choice?
Tiger 1 year ago
Right? Like is Jesus just up there saying “screw animals because they can’t understand human language, screw any human who was born before me, etc etc?” Doesn’t sound like a religion I want to be a part of. People have weird beliefs.
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keyboardtek 1 year ago
I was told it was because dogs do not have a soul. I told them if there are no dogs in heaven, why would anyone want to go there?
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
Andy Hamilton's radio show, Old Harry's Game, did a couple of episodes on this when a dog appeared - also a baby. It can happen if there's an admin mistake and the angels aren't paying attention. One of my issues with all animals going to heaven is - if they do, that means that all the spiders and flies that you killed will be there, probably not too happy with you; if they don't, how will naturalists feel?
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Roshan Kassan 1 year ago
When my christian partner passed, I was told that as im Indian, we wouldn't 'see each other' again. i chose a LOT of 4-letter words that day...
Lyone Fein 1 year ago
Sounds like that woman did not know her Bible too well. It says right in Ecclesiastes: "Who can truly say that the souls of humans go up and the souls of animals go down?" Some lady is not a religious authority. I'm sorry religious institutions are filled with those who are uneducated, spiritually bankrupt, and generally ignorant about their own religion.
Black Cat 1 year ago
Yes it seems many make it up as they go along or misinterpret the Bible to align with their own prejudices. Its what has made Christianity lose so much credibilty.
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#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.
Skogsrået 1 year ago (edited)
Also catholics don't allow people that died by sûicide to be buried on holy ground (cemeteries). They think they go to hell.
Tiger 1 year ago
That’s a special kind of cruelty. So heartless and unkind, I’m not religious but I’m sure Jesus would not approve.
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Somebodys grandmother 1 year ago (edited)
Even though i'm not a believer we put stillborn and nonbaptisted kids in the churchyard if that what their parents wants... (denmark)
Rosie 1 year ago
At 8 years old, I asked the religion teacher, who was a crotchety nun, what happens to babies if they die before being baptized. She said they languish in purgatory. I stamped my foot and said that's not fair! She yelled at me that I would be going to hell for questioning the lord. I was 8!!
UKGrandad 1 year ago
Your crotchety nun didn't know her religion very well. Since around 1300 it was official Catholic doctrine that all unbaptised souls of the good or innocent, including babies, would not go to Purgatory but instead would be kept in Limbo in a state of happiness - but 'normal' rather than 'supernatural' happiness until the end of time, at which point they would be admitted to Heaven (in Catholicism, forever continues after the end of time has occurred!). Better yet, in 2007 Pope Benedict officially downgraded Limbo from doctrine to a mere hypothesis. The official Catholic stance now is that there are strong grounds for hope that God lets unbaptised infants straight into heaven.
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Certainly not Dan 1 year ago
Long tradition of unbaptised children being buried next to the wall of churches, bones are often found during restorations
Dusty's mom 1 year ago
"Allow the children to come to me and don't stop them, because to them belongs the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 19:14. Also, animals were never shunted out of paradise, only people. I believe, but no longer via a church. Particularly any church that espouses Donald Dump.
Nitka Tsar 1 year ago (edited)
One of my favorite points against religion and Catholic christianity in particular. But then, I AM biased. Grew up with the knowledge of a brother who died when he was 2 weeks old. He would have been older than me and we even share a birthday. And then there is my daughter, who died, shortly before her due date. My other children grow up knowing about religion and that they are free to choose their own path, but they also know that I don’t like it. Also, I talk about heaven as a good place, where every dream comes true and everyone can get in there. Mostly because I like the idea of us all meeting again in heaven, even my lost baby.
Donna Crowe 1 year ago
Catholics What ruined me was that unbaptized babies went to Limbo. Not heaven or he'll just a big fat forever nothing void.
#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.
SD 1 year ago
I was 12 when I read Princess of Arabia and sequels, true story about royal women of Saudi Arabia and it was an eye opening and heart rending read. Not just Islam, I've noticed all religions are anti women in some way or other and men have all the power. F**k that s**t.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
To learn how America would be under Trump, Evangelical, and MAGA rule, just look to Islamic rule.
Gatorraid 1 year ago
Yea as a Muslim man it saddens me how much corruption has spread throughout my religion by the manipulation of bad men.
DC 1 year ago (edited)
... and yet, any criticism a westeners dares to express over islamistic delusions like the ones that cause the society this woman is living in to be such a sh!tshow, results in being accused of a lot of things that simply aren't even near the truth. The obnoxiously, even in the west, claimed right to be excempt from laws that prevent animals from the worst excesses of irrational violence, because their ideology demands it, can't be taken objection to either, unless you accept that at least some people will call you a racist, an islamophob, and whatnot. No, damned, I'm a secularist and don't care if the feelings of people who justify violence against the helpless - women there, non-human animals everywhere - are holy to them. Islam is just as bad as christianity, if it is equally in charge of everything instead at least a tiny base made out of reason. None of that is your fault, and this religion is no exception, it's flawed, brutal, ignorant and often downright evil. Spiritainment is the last and only survivng acceptable role of religon. Where it exceeds this, it's actively opposing reason, compassion and a few hundred years of progress made not inspired by religion, but in opposition, often dangerously so, to religion. I'd love to dare to advise to free yourself, but as that might result in your life being threatened, I'd advise to remain silent, remain childless if possible, and at least aim for leaving that country and society as soon and as permanent as possible.
Shortstuff 1 year ago (edited)
A retired NZ maternity nurse who worked in Saudi Arabia gave us a talk. Cant get out of my head...a young wife (aged 18) was put in a basement room on her own in the hospital . Husband sat outside the closed door with 2 other men chatting, laughing. Young girl had complications, was screaming for help. Husband refused the NZ nurse to go help. Poor girl died, on her own, about 4 hours later. Husband still laughing with his mates. Islam religion is pure evil.
Blue Bunny of Happiness 1 year ago
Well, of course women deserved to be punished, after all it was Eve that got them thrown out of the garden of Eden, not Adam….yes, I am being sarcastic.
Ellisdogs 1 year ago
Oh good lord I hope people are smart enough to realise that this is NOT representative of islam. But, after reading the comments, I guess not... I live in Sweden. A lot of my close friends as muslim. Both men and women. They are all horrified over the genderapartheid in Afghanistan and Iran. There is just so much wrong in this post, I don't even know where to begin...
Evagating Beewolf (she/they) 1 year ago
I have no bearing to disagree with most of this. However, the claim that no Islamic countries are currently ruled by Muslim women is blatantly false. For instance, the (Muslim) current President of Kosovo (95 percent Muslim) is a woman. (So's the president of Tanzania, and Muslim, although Tanzania is just 35 percent Muslim. The head of Bosnia and Herzegovina - just-barely majority Muslim - is also a woman, although seemingly not Muslim.)
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.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
Guess I was lucky. I grew up believing in a God who loves people. All people. And who cares far more about what's in their hearts and the quality of their relationships than the shape of their dangly bits and what they do with them.
Huddo's sister 1 year ago
Me too. Not all churches/Christians should be tarred with the same brush.
Load More Replies... Farnzy 1 year ago
It just ruins me to think of these people who can't be themselves and feel like they have to die alone because of who they are.
Tiger 1 year ago
Because of stupid fake beliefs their family believes in. They think they will burn in hell because of two humans who love each other. It’s sick and cruel and disgusting. I don’t want anything to do with a god like that, that sounds abhorrent and disgusting. If the world is that cruel and I’m going to go to hell for supporting gay folks and women’s rights and animals, so be it.
Load More Replies... WonderWoman 1 year ago
The ONLY reason religions don't accept homosexuality is because they can'r reproduce and build up the membership in the religion. Meanwhile a damned high percentage of priests are homosexual. Religion is a giant hypocrisy.
Janelle Collard 1 year ago
I can't imagine losing any of my siblings for this kind of s**t. "Someone" needs to start taxing mega-churches + ALL religions that espouse this c**p.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
This is so sad. When you all go to vote, remember that Republicans (the party screaming freedom all the time) have merged with Christianity and have a plan to control all aspects of our sex lives.
Julie Blaylock 1 year ago
The God I believe loves us all just as we are. I hate homophobic people using religion to justify their judgement!
UKGrandad 1 year ago
Loves us so much that It allows children to die of cancers or starve to death in famines and droughts, all things that a supposedly omnipotent god could prevent in a heartbeat.
Load More Replies... Dusty's mom 1 year ago
That's the kind of preaching I listen to! It may have been years ago, but your brother deserves to be remembered for the good human being he was. I'm so sorry he suffered alone. ♥
Laura Smith 1 year ago
I cannot stomach anyone who hates another human, or advocates to strip rights from someone who simply has a different lifestyle and claims to be a "Christian". Seriously? If that's what it is to be a Christian - count me out. Not interested.
#5
Asking me for a paystub to verify I was actually tithing 10%. Pastor was driving a new Cadillac. Gtfo.
Sue User 1 year ago
My brother was going for diability. For four years. He couldnt work, get unemployment, not even welfare assistance. That last year was rough. They didnt go to church as much, gas was expensive. Pastor shows up and say " havent seen you around". Doesnt ask if they are okay. SIL explains how rough it has been. Pastor still insists the should come and donate too. Then maybe their fortunes will change because they are being good christians. No offer of help, just give us money.
UKGrandad 1 year ago (edited)
Religion is the most successful long con in history. "Give us your money and you'll be greatly rewarded." "Cool! When do I get my reward?" "Oh, when you're dead."
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Stina Kolling 1 year ago
LDS church does this for every member. Not paying your tithe is a bigger mormon sin than murder.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Joel Osteen..devastation all around Houston. Invite those inside who need shelter? Nah, I'll pass.
Aviation Panda 1 year ago
Churches that function like this were started, or if not, currently operate, solely for the tax write-off
Phil Green 1 year ago
My MIL was on a tiny pension. I took issue with her "having" to pay a tithe. She was living in pretty much close to poverty whilst trying to maintain her social standing. My wife managed to sort out her UK pension, to supplement the local pension she received, but some guy, in the US, somewhere, in their dumb, selfish church, is happily driving around in a nice new car.
Fester Sixonesixonethree 1 year ago
I'd have told pastor to suck a d**k and go to hell right then and there.
#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.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
Pretty sure Jesus didn't say anything about beating people up for fun.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
If Jesus Christ was alive today, the one thing he would not be is a Christian. - Mark Twain
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Aidan Campbell 1 year ago
I heard people are leaving Austin because it is not as liberal as it used to be.
Delta Dawn 1 year ago (edited)
This is seriously Texas. No joke. But there are large communities of gay people there as well.
Lara Verne 1 year ago
I'm pretty sure that Bible never recommended assaulting people as fun activity.
Sven Horlemann 1 year ago
The sad thing is, the bullies do not know that they are the evil walking this earth. Everyone around them cheers them on.
n75mk9nk2n 1 year ago
Hate is unchristian, and Christ does not know these people who claim His name.
“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.
DaisyBee 1 year ago
Honestly, nowadays someone just has to say “I used to be Mormon” and you can already tell their entire life story from that sentence alone - and it’s never good
Celtic Pirate Queen 1 year ago
My best friend was a guy (he passed away last year from diabetes complications). We met way back in 1991. I made it clear to each guy I dated that Todd wasn't going anywhere, so if they had a problem with me having a guy for my BFF, they should just hit the road.
Sven Horlemann 1 year ago
That's more revealing regarding those accusing: projecting THEIR character onto others.
Stina Kolling 1 year ago
I would guess that you don't live in the morridor, where things are a lot more strict.
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High Mamii Melo 1 year ago
That is a crock. The Mormon church as a whole does not teach that women hanging out with men are whores. If that were the case, my parents would have labeled me a whore by the time I was 10. This person has an issue with individuals, not the Mormon church.
StarCrossedFriday 1 year ago (edited)
Ye-es…of course, outward appearances are one thing, but if their inside mentality is as ugly as this post suggests, I’ll take a more visible a**e with updated notions of what constitutes a ‘whore’ any day.
Load More Replies... #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 1 year 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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Dusty's mom 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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.
This panda votes 1 year 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.
Shortstuff 1 year 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.
#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.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
The weird thing is our concept of marriage is modern. Before the middle ages, your parents would have been recognised as married. Then the Church and State decided "you're only married when we say so".
Celtic Pirate Queen 1 year ago
My former SIL was a rabid Jehovah's Witness. Her Mom was JW as well, but repectful of the fact that I had my own religion and was not interested in hers. SIL told my FOUR year old daughter she was going to hell for celebrating Christmas. I told SIL I'd be happy to send her to meet her maker and if she EVER spoke to one of my children like that again, I most certainly would. Mess with me all you want - don't you you dare f*ck with my kids.
Laura Smith 1 year ago
You were wise beyond your years. Good for you for standing up for your sister!
Dee Rutherford 1 year ago
And what did they think about a mother who ‘sinned’ by having a baby out of wedlock? Did they find that okay?
Bec 1 year ago
Seriously, I bet you've never been in a library. Sex education is a must for kids. Adding all the shame and taboo to the subject just means you need to check your own motivations more closely. It's creepy and weird.
Load More Replies...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.
Evolbeky 1 year ago
Ah, yes. Have to keep the crusades alive and well, or else people might realize that that was wrong 🙄
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
Just collecting more sheep for the ministry to shear
Load More Replies... Tiger 1 year ago
I had a JW best friend as a kid. She didn’t want to be a JW anymore (until we graduated and her family threatened to excommunicate her). I remember her telling me she hated having to go knock on doors every weekend, especially since we lived in a small town and she had to talk to our classmates sometimes. Seems like such a waste of a kid’s life.
Sue User 1 year ago (edited)
The goal of sending JW door to door is not to spread the word of God. If it was, they would have training, etc. It is to convince the members that , despite their good intentions, other people will be mean and angry. "Yes, we know you tried your best, they dont understand, they dont get it. They are not as nice as us.We are family" Its a cult tactic.
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Skeeter 1 year ago
Youth pastor and his wife spent the summer at our church. A young couple, they did all sorts of fun things with the kids in our community. My mother told them they could have some of the vegetables from our garden that she had frozen and put in our freezer before they left to go back to their town in another state. None of us were at home when they came and took EVERYTHING. I remember all of us were incredulous at the amount of food they took. Like, how did they manage to take so much frozen vegetables! This was the 1970's. Left our family of 5 SOL. When I grew up and left home, I never went to church again.
#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.
Chich 1 year ago
Read about Lilith. Adam's first wife. She would not put up with his whiny manipulative ways and left.
Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
There is nothing in the Bible about Adam having a wife before Eve.
Load More Replies... Tommy DePaul 1 year ago
Ask a conservative Christian: who did Cain and Abel marry? And watch their heads spin.
n75mk9nk2n 1 year ago
There's a very good theory about this that I personally subscribe to: Eve did not take the first bite of the Fruit of Knowledge. Adam was first, and that's how he learned to put the blame on Eve.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
My RE. teacher described purgatory (which is not Biblical and rejected by a lot of versions of Christianity) as the washroom before you get into heaven. So I always imagined it like the ultimate pamper spa. So don't rush to call me in, I don't mind waiting!
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Kal qazi 1 year ago
Hey, I could clear some things up, as Catholics, we are ALL going to a state of purgatory before entering heaven, independent of gender. Most of the arguments here are just protestants being protestants and cherry picking verses.
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
Agnostic here: cherry picking is not an exclusively protestant habit. I'd also like to know the details to the "All Christians entering heaven enter a state of purgatory beforehand". Am I Christian, because I was baptised? Are all people who are not Christians (so by definition everybody born before ~5AD, and most people after that, no matter how good or bad) exempt from heaven (UNFAIR), or will good people still be allowed to enter? Is purgatory only for Christians, then (er, thanks??)?
Load More Replies... #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.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
Many churches do a lot of good. And not all are homophobic. Mine, for example, will now conduct same sex marriages.
UKGrandad 1 year ago
That may be true but the question is, are they good people who just happen to be religious or are they good people only because they think it's what their God expects of them? To rephrase the question, are they only that way because they think that someone is watching them?
Load More Replies... Shortstuff 1 year ago
I know a woman who spent years volunteering for church activities and always available. She fell and broke her leg. Not one person from the church, including the priest, visited or phoned her. She left the church.
Linda Riebel 1 year ago
I've also read comments from restaurant servers that the nastiest customers just came from their church service.
Sue User 1 year ago (edited)
Religeous answer: gays have been turned by Satan. They have chosen this lifestyle. This is the whole premise of converion camps. You need to chose God and then you will choose the right path ( non gay ). Ugh.
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Greenmantle 1 year ago
You nearly made me spit out my wine. So... righteous people, like yourself (I presume) don't need to to volunteer because you have no guilt?
Load More Replies... #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.
justagirl 1 year ago
oof, bp got another one of yall with their premium propoganda.
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Justin Tyme 1 year ago (edited)
There is no Biblical basis for salvation by way of "going to church". And in fact, the word "church" is never used in reference to a building. The word always refers to believers - either a local group or all believers collectively.
Stef 1 year ago (edited)
My first week of my senior year, and student who just graduated was killed in a car crash. At his funeral, the preacher spent 30 seconds talking about the kid, then 30 minutes how he's likely not in heaven because of the manner in which he died, he didn't have a chance to ask for forgiveness before dying. To a room full of grieving kids.
#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 1 year 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)
VisualHowlaroundTitleSequence 1 year ago
If only Christians weren't trying to take over the US and suspend the Constitution.
Load More Replies... StarCrossedFriday 1 year ago (edited)
Funny how this is the literal opposite of everything Jesus actually stood for, but that’s organised religion for you.
#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 1 year 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.
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
If God is just then he (she/it/they) will see very clearly that finite, limited human beings cannot do anything worthy of infinite, unlimited punishment. That's not justice. But that's not a logic the state snuggling church likes to hear.
Don Adams 1 year ago
No religion is more "important" than another. Religion is faith (a good thing) corrupted by an egotist, bent to his particular views. Pretty much, they start with good material, and twist a certain portion to their unique view. Some are subtle, some are quite flagrant. I started out as a Catholic, did try several of the other types of Christianity, and never felt at "peace". I took to reading up on things, and decided that I did not need to belong to any special church, I just needed to lead a decent life, as described in the Bible. Treat others how I would want to be treated, help others when I can, etc. Now I just say I am Christian instead of a specific church,m religion, etc.
Scott Rackley 1 year ago
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” -Epicurus
Mahiera Etsuhae 1 year ago
This one reminds me of "Holy Koolaid" on youtube. His intro video tells a similar story.
Mia Black 1 year ago
This is my way. Actually, some Jehovah's witnesses left me alone and were okay with this when I explained that I try to be a good person anyway and don't need someone to tell me to fear he'll if I don't do. I think we humans thrived because of social strength and the way to be is to be good (but at least nowadays it's hard because in some way or another you get punished for being honest and good but I'll stick to that)
Barbara Turner 1 year ago
If you'd like monotheism without Middle Eastern Bronze Age Law, go to Wikipedia and read about the Baha'i Faith. I have no idea of any one person is going to heaven as I'm not God, I don't make souls, and am neither omniscient nor omnipresent. Okay, I'm incompetent on that task.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Had a question answered by a Catholic layperson that had been troubling me for many years, NO one in the Protestant sects had a satisfactory answer. Why, in Genesis, is the plural used in regards to Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge (forgive me for screwing it up) "They will become like 'us' " Us, plural. It was explained that the angels seated next to God factored in.
#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.
Delta Dawn 1 year ago
They told me that anyone. who didn’t accept Jesus is going to hell, yes even babies, even people who have never encountered a Christian or christian idea. Anyone who lived before Jesus, presumably. Efffff that.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
In other words, Hitler could get into Heaven, while Mohandas Gandhi would go to Hell. If that's true, I'll take my chances in Hell.
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Christopher Crockett 1 year ago
The glee and zeal with which southern baptists condemn anyone who doesn't share their narrow-minded beliefs is sickening. They so enjoy their hatred for anything else and relish every opportunity to tell others that god will send them to burn for eternity. Their idea of divine love is a perversion of the meaning and an offense to humanity.
Celtic Pirate Queen 1 year ago
"A woman who reads is a woman who thinks, and a woman who thinks is a woman who questions". We can't have that!
Aviation Panda 1 year ago
When I was younger our family attended a southern baptists church. My parents liked it at first, but then it was taught that women should only vote what their husbands vote because they are married and "one". Also on a separate occasion, my mom was called troublesome and anti-white, so soon after, we left. (We're now part of the episcopal church). Point is, SBC sucks
#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 1 year 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.
Cee Cee 1 year ago (edited)
Loathe evangelicals. Sometimes though not recently they used to go door knocking and blathering on. Unfortunately for them I went to a convent boarding school and well capable of using biblical quotes showing the contradictions. They were not happy. BTW I gave up on believing when I was 15.
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Poppy 1 year ago
I was raised without religion much to my Catholic Grandmother's dismay. She'd try to get me to go to services by bribing a 6 year old me with Easter Eggs etc. Even then I knew I didn't want anything to do with it, especially when my Grandma said that her Priest had said that AIDS is the punishment for being gay (this was in the later 1980's). Even at 6 years old, I didn't know what being gay meant but I knew that saying a disease was a punishment for being who they are was something I didn't want to be involved in.
Sillysamy 1 year ago
The church is basically an underground network of surveillance that continually perpetrate the ostracizing and marginalization of individuals who are 'different.'
Aileen Grist 1 year ago
Jesus's covenant was for unconditional love. If it isn't love - it isn't from Jesus
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
We need more churches for all these people who walked not because they lost God but because the church is so monstrous.
TribbleThinking 1 year ago
I found my tribe with the local environmental groups. Mostly people who believe in decency for the sake of it. I like that. 🙂
Load More Replies... #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.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
Actually looking after those in the community who are most disadvantaged is the primary reason governments were created. The individual rich elite class got that way by predatory practices against the lower classes. Governments were formed to provide protective services that the moneyed class do not like to provide because it is not profitable, and hinders their own greed.
#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.
Brian Droste 1 year ago
You should have told your parents and the parents should have called the cops.
Meagan Glaser 1 year ago
Bold to assume the parents or police would do anything other than scold OP for tempting the menfolk
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Montanavanna 1 year ago
There was a church volunteer that was a super creep. He would pick up a group of 6 to 10 girls, aged 6 to 12 to take them swimming at the YMCA every Friday.at first we were thinking, how cool is this. Then he began groping us kids. I went with my sister who he was very infatuated with. As soon as I realized what he was doing we never step foot back in that church. He would call every week trying to convince us to go swimming with the group again, uh I don't think so pervert! Well he got a job as a lunch aid at my sister's school. My sister and I then told them about his history. Their solution..Just avoid him. What?! He finally got caught but I am not sure what happened to him.
Christopher Crockett 1 year ago
If that were my child... oh man, my pyromaniac tendencies would be so sorely tested. A little accelerant and a trusty Zippo would give that holy man a quick preview of what was to come.
#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 1 year ago
There i no deity, no devil, nothing. It's all a con to keep people subservient and let others make money.
panther 1 year ago
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” ― Epicurus
sturmwesen 1 year ago
That's exactly how I argued my mother...then came "he wants to test us and our free will".. f- that. That's just a powerplay
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H.J. King 1 year ago
The story of Job comes to mind when people mention the relationship of God and Satan. Per the Bible, God accepted a bet from Satan that Satan could ruin Jobs life so much that Job would turn away from God. Job lost his family, his livelihood, everything. God sanctioned it and was proud that Job didn't turn away. WTAF
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
That one man's professed faith was SO important, though! MUCH MORE important than the lives of any and all of his family memebrs! I always felt that his family must be SO happy knowing they died for a noble cause. /S
Load More Replies... keyboardtek 1 year ago
They say that logical thinking does not develop fully until the age of about 20. This sounds extremely logical and analytical for a young person. I had similar logical argument thoughts in 4th grade Catholic school. None of the c**p made any sense that they were trying to drive into our brains in religion classes.
Widdershins66 1 year ago
Yes. I attained an "A" in Divinity at O'level many many years ago. I was(and am still) an atheist. I treated the whole exam as a piece of English Comprehension and I'm good at English 🤷 (Roman Catholic faith lost at 14 years old when a priest struck a toddler across his face 🤬)
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Colleen Glim 1 year ago
The concept of “god” started as a means of explaining what we couldn’t understand. The more we learn, the less useful a supreme being is
Jay Freeman 1 year ago
In the same way many religious folks don't practice at all what their holy book and saviour preach, their ideas of Satan are nothing like what the book actually describes. The modern view of the devil came from old religious art, as well as preachers needing an evil torturous monster in a bad place to threaten and control their flocks.
Lyone Fein 1 year ago
The Theosophical problem (If god is good and benevolent and all powerful, Why is there evil?) is a difficult one. It creates emotional and logical problems for people, and so most settle for illogical solutions to the problem. Most Western philosophers have not come up with a good solution.
UKGrandad 1 year ago
The problem vanishes when one removes the idea of God from the equation.
Load More Replies... #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 1 year 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
Judes 1 year ago
Similar to David Attenbourough who said he couldn't believe in a god who would allow worms to burrow into children's eyes (sorry, it's graphic but I think worth saying).
Load More Replies... tameson 1 year ago
My husband lost any belief in a loving God when he was six years old and the cute little girl down the street died of leukemia. He also had the experience of going to synagogue on Friday nights with his dad and Baptist services with his mother on Sundays. He says "On Friday I was told that the savior was coming and on Sunday he had already come!"
Spittnimage 1 year ago
Also what Mother Teresa believed - as long as she wasn't the one suffering.
TribbleThinking 1 year ago
And she shipped herself off to die in a fancy western hospital, apparently her hospitals weren't good enough for her.
Load More Replies... Nikole 1 year ago
Reminds me of the monks who used to wear hair shirts. And don’t you know? We have to suffer just like Jesus suffered on the cross! (Giant eye roll)
TribbleThinking 1 year ago
What no one will answer for me is - why did God *need* the sacrifice? Why couldn't he forgive without his blood reward? We're not offered treats when told to forgive, we're just meant to do it. So why didn't God just say "Nah, I don't need a someone to die just to keep me happy. I'm good, ta muchly".
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Bill 1 year ago (edited)
yin and yang I guess. If we never had hard times how would we tell when it was good times. I was raised Christian/Baptist, strict. But it all makes no sense to me either. He loves us so much that he nearly drowned us all 6 chapters into the first book. Then sodom and gomorrah in same said book. But, he also allows cancer to reside in my blood and bones so I may be a little cynical/salty about it all lately
Steve Robert 1 year ago
If they had the power, any good person would end suffering. But the richest man in the world is also its least charitable one.
Donna Crowe 1 year ago
"Why would an all-powerful, benevolent god allow suffering." Because he isn't benevolent. He was bored and wanted to be amused. Some born with silver spoons, others dirt poor. Weren't we all supposed to be the same ?
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
German author and comedian (yes, it's a niche) Marc-Uwe Kling explained it like this in his Känguru Chroniken (kangaroo chronicles): The bible is a completely unbeliebable concoction. But only if you assume that God is a good guy. [...] I'm just saying that you'd find "The Silence of the Lambs" very strange if you started on your lecture with the defined approach that Hannibal Lecter is the good guy.
Load More Replies... Sue User 1 year ago
Highly disagree. Suffering is not some noble, character building exercise. It is s**t, and can warp people into bitterness.
Load More Replies... #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.
CP 1 year ago
Christianity and all religions are cults. They just get popular enough to shed that label and become a religion.
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Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
I really want to downvote your comment because f**k that, but I am not going to on the off chance you are referencing something or making a joke... I hope...
Load More Replies... #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 1 year 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.
Evolbeky 1 year ago
Yes, the wife is an excellent character witness for when they're caught molesting children
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#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.
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
Every church and denomination cherry-picks from the Bible. Ones that say they don't are lying. It's not possible to live in the modern world and follow everything the Bible says to the letter. So if you disregard parts for being out of date or culturally specific, then you've already cherry-picked. As a Christian all I can say is, Jesus commanded us to love one another. And that's what I try to do - be loving to everyone. I don't think the minute details matter.
Dee Rutherford 1 year ago
The bible was written by men, for men. And to keep women subservient
High Mamii Melo 1 year ago
The Mormon church teaches that if you have the opportunity to get married and have children but decide against it then you will be kept from entering the highest level of Heaven. It’s messed up!
Max Fox 1 year ago
The Hebrew Bible doesn't actually imply that homosexuality is "unnatural," nor does it give any reason at all. It calls something which can be interpreted as sexual relationships between men as "detestable". No reason and no explanation. Everything else is later additions or interpretations. Since there is no prohibition on sex with a woman who cannot have children, nor are their prohibitions on heterosexual practices that do not result in children, the other interpretations are bunk. In fact, the other interpretations were added hundreds of years later and were attempts at justifying beliefs and practices that were common at the time.
Anxious&Bored Bear 1 year ago
I read somewhere, a while back, that scholars are saying the original Hebrew (?) words for homosexuality and pedophilia were similar; in one of the hand copied manuscripts, homosexuality replaced pedophilia. And that mistake was then hand copied onto the next. So, the original manuscript prohibited pedophilia!
Load More Replies... Lyone Fein 1 year ago
News alert: nowhere in the Bible is homosexuality ever mentioned. While men certainly had sex with other men, the concept of homosexuality--that a man could love another man or be exclusively attracted to men--simply did not exist in the cultural context in which the Bible was written. So while the Bible does decry two men having sex together, it is completely silent on homosexuality itself. And it never condemns sex between two women.
Delta Dawn 1 year ago
Here’s a fun one. Unborn babies that die are sent to “limbo”, not heaven. If life begins at conception, then limbo is completely filled with fertilized eggs and multicellular embryos, the vast majority of which were natural miscarriages, i.e. they died by the will of God just to be sent to limbo. To what end???
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
I think the Catholic church has changed their stance on limbo and purgatory recently though.
Load More Replies... Poppy 1 year ago
As Death says in Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld books 'THERE'S NO JUSTICE, JUST ME'
Nicole Weymann 1 year ago
I see Terry Pratchett, I upvote. GNU, Sir Pterry!
Load More Replies... Evagating Beewolf (she/they) 1 year ago
Of course it's picking and choosing. Unless you're the sort of Christian who fasts on Yom Kippur, celebrates Passover, and has never had a tattoo, eaten pork, shrimp, gelatin (so, most marshmallows), or cheeseburgers, worn clothing made of two types of fabric, done work or used electronics on Saturdays (technically, sundown on Friday to a bit after sundown on Saturday), and ARGUABLY followed Jesus (there's some stuff on false prophets, with no exceptions for if they perform miracles and such - the official-as-much-as-something-can-be-official-in-Judaism position is that if someone can do miracles it shows only that they can do miracles, nothing about God) you have no grounds to complain. If you're cherry-picking your Bible, that's fine. I do it too. (Hell, I'm currently wearing pants that mix fabrics!) Just don't pretend like you're not cherry-picking it, or like your cherry-pick is the right one.
Anita Flanagan 1 year ago
I'm an atheist along with a few of my friends. We do whatever we can to help people & animals even more than some of my Christian friends. We do it for the sake of doing good and for no other reason. We don't do it to enter heaven or to please god. Just by our good deeds alone, folks assume that we're "good Christians". The looks on their faces when we tell them that we're not are absolutely priceless!
#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 1 year 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?"
keyboardtek 1 year ago
It would be interesting to find out what secrets the Vatican has hidden in its history book section about how it acquired all its wealth. And why it shares very little of that wealth.
Load More Replies... Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
And the maxim of loving your brother left out an important caveat. "Only if your brother is of the same sect, or calls God, God." Not Allah, Jehovah etc..
StarCrossedFriday 1 year ago
“The meek shall inherit the Earth” is just the most cynical way of keeping people down, and depressingly it still seems to be working.
Roxy222uk 1 year ago
I'm not, and never have been, of any of the Abrahamic faiths. What I can't understand about Catholicism is that women can't become priests because God only wants to talk to men and yet God never seemed to get around to telling any priests not to sexually abuse or rape children. A spokesperson for the Catholic church (a woman actually) in an interview on the radio, when the scandals were first breaking, said that the rate of child abuse in the Catholic church was no different to any other work place. I just stared at the radio. What? She was openly admitting that not just being a Catholic, or even a Christian, didn't make someone any less likely to abuse children, but that even a Catholic priest - with his hotline directly to God - was just as likely to sexually abuse children as anyone else. So she was saying that their God literally didn't care. Or the priests literally didn't care what God thought. It's stuck with me all these years.
#27
Youth group leader asked my mom if my sister had started her period yet.
Greenmantle 1 year ago
Was she Christian amd needed to "close her legs"? Asking in turn because your comments are bigoted and vile
Load More Replies... #28
I wanted to be part of a community that accepted everyone, not just a select few.
Huddo's sister 1 year 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 1 year 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.
Colleen Glim 1 year ago
Exactly the reason I’m an atheist. Just don’t be a d**k. It’s not that hard to understand. And I have better things to do with my Sunday mornings
Load More Replies... Delta Dawn 1 year ago (edited)
I’ve had profound “spiritual” experiences wholly outside religion.
Birma Gustafsson 1 year ago
Yes, you can do anything without religion. Be kind, generous, give support, being honest - you don't really need a religion to MAKE you do it. No threat of punishment needed!
#30
I left when I realized the church potluck was the only thing keeping me going!
Kathy Brooke 1 year ago
That's a perfectly good reason to go, if it's a good enough potluck. Better than all the people who go to impress the neighbours or their boss. At least it's honest.
Reed Eculus 1 year ago
Hey look! Turkey, lobster, sweet potato pie. Pancakes piled up 'till they reach the sky. I wanna eat and eat and eat and eat and eat until I die!
#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?
Delta Dawn 1 year ago
This is why they are all of a sudden against college. They don’t want you thinking for yourself.
#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?
_-DungeonKeeper-_ 1 year ago
My fried from school once said something genius. Just like how God made wheat and yeast instead of just bread, he made trans people for the same reason. He wanted humans to experience creation.
Jay Freeman 1 year ago
God made people with bad eyes and teeth, but we correct those with glasses and orthodontics.
Cammy Mack 1 year ago
No, God made you neither gender. Your parent's program was the deciding factor based on random chance from one egg or one sperm.
#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 1 year 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.
T'Mar of Vulcan 1 year ago
And for those people there's a verse in the Bible that says people look at the outside, but God looks at your heart.
Space Invader 1 year ago
Also, religion is there to make the universe all about ME. Other people suffer as a warning to ME, or to allow ME to show everyone how compassionate I can be. Things happen to other people as a warning or sign to ME. And even though God in his infinite and unknowable wisdom has a plan for all of humanity, if I pray hard enough he will change it for... guess who.
Lara Verne 1 year ago
My hometown is small, but there's a lot of "religious" people. Most of them were either people, who believe that one hour a week in church make them a good christian, or people, who went to church to check out what others were wearing and then gossip about it. There were also exceptions: a very nice religious couple. Genuinely nice. They didn't judge people who didn't believe in God, and didn't push their faith to anyone. And they actively lived according to what they preached. I respect it. If only all christians were like them.
#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 1 year 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.
Rosecrucian Roeth 1 year ago
The Great "Murican Bible Belt "saved" him after prison ................
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Glen Ellyn 1 year ago
For me, the turning point was when I realized that every time I went to church, it was always asking for $$. Lasted until confirmation because my mother insisted I go until then, but after that, I was done. They cared about money - not about me.
Freya the Wanderer 1 year ago
All televangelists are con artists, and they all belong behind bars.
Margaret Shannon 1 year ago
One of the mean girls who bullied me in school grew up to be a televangelist.
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Kiss Army 1 year ago
I remember when I was a kid we went to my grandmother's house and she barely had any food in the cupboards, her clothes were threadbare, it was very hot in the summer and freezing in the winter and the place was barely habitable. We lived across the country and my family couldn't afford to visit often and when my father saw this he was horrified that his siblings didn't help or reach out to him to help her. They told him that she sent almost all her money to Jerry Falwell and so they couldn't help her out with money. They brought food over and bought her clothes but she would even donate that to the church so they had to dole it out in small amounts that were only for her use. They tried to move her somewhere else and they would pay or at least use the air conditioner or turn up the heat but she just insisted they send the money to Jerry instead because she was "worried about their mortal souls".
#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 1 year 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.
Space Invader 1 year ago
But if not all christians are like that, it means there are good christians and horrible christians. So what's the point of being a christian if it doesn't make you a better person? Kind people will always be kind, christian or not, horrible people use religion as an excuse, not as a means for improvement. Which is why religion is useless.
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#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.
Spocks's Mom 1 year ago
Maybe if his friends didn't all ride horses. He had to make amends.
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keyboardtek 1 year ago
I repaired church organs for a living. The number of ministers who drove luxury cars was astounding. The big mega churches seem to be more about money than doing Christ's work.
#37
Conversations with atheists opened my eyes to a more rational perspective.
tameson 1 year ago
And that is why, if I am pushed, I tell people I'm an agnostic. I absolutely do not believe in any sort of a higher, mystical power. But I also acknowledge that there is no way to prove that, since it is impossible to prove that something does not exist. Some people respond, "So you believe that God could exist." No, I don't. I'm an atheist that acknowledges that I can't prove that my beliefs are correct.
Load More Replies... #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.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
I would assume a conservative chooses to go to a Unitarian church to get their mind opened. Conservatives generally do not like it when they encounter facts and reality that disagrees with their belief system. If you did not want to encounter different viewpoints, then why attend a Unitarian meeting?
Load More Replies... #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 1 year 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.
Jay Freeman 1 year ago
My science-minded father was kicked out of his Baptist church for believing in evolution... I think he told them "Not belieiving in evolution is calling God a liar!"
#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 1 year 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.
Geoffrey Scott 1 year ago
Ahh yes, shunning. "You are my Brother" unless you have a viewpoint/question that is not comfortable, then you are a heretic, and need to be shunned.
Load More Replies... What do you think ?
Say No to Downvoting 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
When my son died of cancer, I was told it was because I didn't pray hard enough.
Lucy 1 year ago (edited)
I’m very sorry for your loss ❤️. That was a stupid thing to be told. That person doesn’t represent Christ.
Load More Replies... Christopher Crockett 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
Nah. People are perfectly capable of raping and murdering and whatnot without religion.
Load More Replies...
v 1 year ago
Religion is the only belief system that I'm aware of which is wholly reliant on fear to remain in existence.
CP 1 year ago
Depends on the Religion. Some Eastern religions don't do that at all.
Load More Replies... Mary Masters 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
brainwashing. brainwashing. manipulation. guilt tripping. brainwashing.
Load More Replies...
Dumb teenager 1 year 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
Say No to Downvoting 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
When my son died of cancer, I was told it was because I didn't pray hard enough.
Lucy 1 year ago (edited)
I’m very sorry for your loss ❤️. That was a stupid thing to be told. That person doesn’t represent Christ.
Load More Replies... Christopher Crockett 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
Nah. People are perfectly capable of raping and murdering and whatnot without religion.
Load More Replies... v 1 year ago
Religion is the only belief system that I'm aware of which is wholly reliant on fear to remain in existence.
CP 1 year ago
Depends on the Religion. Some Eastern religions don't do that at all.
Load More Replies... Mary Masters 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year 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 1 year ago
brainwashing. brainwashing. manipulation. guilt tripping. brainwashing.
Load More Replies... Dumb teenager 1 year 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
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