30 Things That Shook People’s Faith In Religion, As Shared In This Online Group
There are certain things that, if we value peace and quiet, we don’t talk about. Namely the holy trinity of topics which are musical taste, politics, and religion. But here we are, talking about religion.
But instead of preaching, the lovely people of Reddit are sharing stories of experiences that made them drastically rethink the whole concept of faith, losing it in the process.
In particular, this thread has been going viral lately after someone asked folks to share what exactly ruined religion for people, and getting over 48,600 upvotes with nearly 39,000 comments along the way.
So, sit back, relax, and read through the frustration that is losing one’s religion in our curated list of the best answers below. And while you’re at it, poke that upvote button, comment your own opinions and stories and whatnot, and consider checking out any other question from Reddit that we’ve discussed here.
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As a kid, it was boring. As a teen, it brought nothing into my life. As an adult, it's hard to ignore all the corruption, greed, sexual improprieties and contradiction.
Ultimately, if there was a god, this is the best it can do? I'm not impressed.
I have to agree with your sentiments. I always wonder the same....especially like, why are babies born with diseases and pain? They did nothing to deserve that....why are children being killed daily? They have done nothing wrong.
So many things but the final straw for me was my church asking a homeless man to leave and not come back. He would sit and listen to the sermons never bothered anyone and always sat in the very back. I confronted my youth group leader and she defended the preacher.
If jesus (who was a dark skinned middle east Jew) came back and sat in a church they would be calling 911 about a terrorist in the building
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Wow...this defeats the whole purpose of religion and it's teachings.
Not religious, but my grandmother was. And she often told the story of a man at her church when she was young who was a bit of a drunk and had shabby clothes. And the congregation protested him being there and the pastor basically told them all off and that he had every right to be there. Always liked that story.
So he should have- he probably should have added an extra sermon about Jesus accepting the poor etc as well :)
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That’s sickening, sad, despicable and so not what Jesus would have done
I’m not religious, but know there are stories on the Bible about Jesus going among the keepers, who were outcasts from society, and being kind to them (plus a little magic about healing them to enhance his image). If kindness to the outcasts was no biggie to Jesus, how can that church’s congregation call themselves Christians? This is the kind of religious hypocrisy that sickens me. The basic ideas of most religions appeal to me as great rules to live by. But it’s when you get people involved, especially when they organize themselves, that turn those ideas into something sinister, evil, violent, and sickening.
i agree with you on everything(me beingchristain) excpet for one. There ws no magaic in his healsings. it was power that God himself had. It healed people,not to make himelf look good(other wise him being there would be pointless) but becasue he hated seeing other's in pain and suffring and wanted people to know that God loves them like a father would his children. We blame God for not helping out with problems in the world.But humans forget that God gave us the gift of free will so that means that He can't very well help if no one really wants him to,and sometimes even if there is hope and prey God will still sometimes say no ,its saddening,but as he knows more ;ws more about things then we humans in our short lives will evr know, we have to just trust that he know's what the hell he is doing, like when you trust someone who's older then you and ho loves you.
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This made me angry. I'm not religious at all, that man was just looking for some hope, inspiration and love. He was in dire straits, and this should have been the ONE place he could feel peace. Disgusting behaviour.
I agree. Jesus would have been the first person to welcome him, but these people chose to go against that and judge and demean him instead. They not only give Christians a bad name, but humans as well.
Load More Replies... I don't know anything about church, but isn't the belief to help people or something like that?
Heart a "christian" man protesting a soup kitchen once: "If god wants them to starve, we don't have the right to save them!" Some will take every excuse to demostrate their total lack of empathy...
If protesting soup kitchens is Christian, then Martin Luther King, Jr. was a devil worshipper.
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isn’t- isn’t the whole point of jesus and the church and whatever to help the poor and needy?? (or at least not make their lives worse)
Maybe it is the point of the religon but the point of the church is to make and keep leaders privledged.
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The homeless guys in our church usually sit right in front. One of them asks the most insightful questions. Sometimes he's only there for the potluck, but he is always welcome. He's welcomed along with the guys and girls from AA and NA, along with the damaged kids and families on the edge of social services, along with all those struggling with mental illness, and along with the rest of us sinners. Not all churches live down to your expectations.
My church is in a neighborhood where a lot of homeless people live. Many times a homeless person will wander in. Nobody complains, they have a right to be there unless they are being disruptive (once a homeless woman plugged every single toilet and trashed the bathroom.) Usually the pastor will talk with them after the service to see if they needed food, clothes or other help. That's how Jesus would treat them. I'm proud of my church.
Actually that is the profacy... They truly are the anti Christ look at the church and what it now preaches.
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I would leave that church , quickly. He that doith to any of his like this homeless man is doing it to Jesus and God. He needs to be taught, but not let him talk to anyone else like that,and go find that man and invite him to continue to come. A lot of old people alone don't know how to get the benefits they need. Did any of you think to ask him what was his situation? Jesus would have. Don't use talk but do the walk. It is not laying down much to help him if you can.
When I was a child, my father, the deacon in our church, abandoned my hearing impaired mom and 3 kids. My mom hadn't worked in 20 years, and because she couldn't answer phones because of her hearing, jobs for her were few. We were about to become homeless, and as we'd been faithful and active church members forever, my mom asked the preacher if we could use a house the church owned... a little decrepit house that had been sitting empty for at least a year. He said no. Not even for 30 days, so we became homeless. I've not been back to church since. Even though I was a little kid, I knew this was a rotten thing. Many Christians are of the "i've got mine" variety.
This happened at a church I used to go to. It was a megachurch and a homeless man came to listen to the preaching and ask if there was any assistance he could receive. He was dressed in a Sunday suit, clean-shaven and sober, but fell on hard times. The church staff asked him to leave and come back AFTER the service to see if they could help. It was a night service and I sat with him waiting until midnight to see who would come out to help. They locked up the church and turned off the lights and just left us there. I was disgusted to say the least and offered whatever help I could manage in the moment.
That's despicable! At my church we would have welcomed them, given them something to eat and drink, left the bathroom open for them and made sure they had food vouchers! I mean, even if he didn't want any of that, he was at the service to get some good from worship and he was denied it!
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Yes - so this strikes a chord. Wasn't Jesus himself a homeless person? I don't recall any Bible stories originating chez Jesus.
Jesus in disguise... who would tell if the rugged homeless man was sent there the same way as Jesus? Actually, wasn't Jesus also homeless at birth in a manger, had to emigrate to Egypt to escape Herod's execution, and Jesus Himself said of *foxes have dens, birds have nests, but the son of man had nowhere to lay His head* to imply our hearts should open to welcome Him?
Someone in the church needs to re-read their Scripture and focus on the red letter parts.
There are far too many people in this world calling themselves Christian because they think it makes them look good. Such people don't do a single damn thing to make life comfortable for anyone other than themselves.
Well we know who wasn't listening to the bible. Jesus would have welcomed him with open arms. We had a homeless guy who hung around our church for a while. He occasionally listened to the services, but mostly didn't. We still gave him access to the bathroom when he was staying there and made sure he had enough food vouchers. We would have done more to help if he wanted to accept it. We wouldn't be very good Christians if we had done anything less.
Me and my friend walked into a church to have a look at it because it was beautiful and the priest came flying down the aisle in a rage because my friend was wearing a hat. He quickly took his hat off and said sorry and the priest continued to yell at him so we quickly left. But yeah, so much for welcoming people into the church. I'm not sure how much Jesus cared about hats?
I'm so sorry that happened! Not all churches are like that. I remember one person being surprised that the minister opened the church for her because she was interested in the architecture. It was such a little thing to help her feel welcome and I'm so glad he did it.
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I am Catholic. I no longer attend Church because of so many hypocritical things they do, but I still pray and believe. I consider many of the Church rules or practices non-Christian. Some of the other “Christians” I know act so “good” on Sundays but will curse people out for their driving, make fun of people with disabilities, hurt people of the LGBTQ community, abuse their wives and kids, and so much more. You would never think these Christians were religious at all. Be kind to everyone. Who knows? It could be contagious!
It doesn't matter if you don't attend church, you still have your faith. You see what Jesus would have wanted, to treat others with respect and love. I hope that the negative experiences don't turn you off from all contact with other believers- not everyone puts the 'church' above the actual teachings and shows such bigotry. As you say be kind and it may help others do the same.
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They need to watch the Star of Jacob episode of Father Brown. You never know who might be visiting.
isn't that the opposite of what Christians are supposed to do ? Who even has the GALL to ask a homeless person to leave ? you could pay me to do it, but for so much money I could buy homeless dude + me a house.
This is why I like my childhood church and my parents current one. They both would just let the man be and the after the service help him out as much as possible.
I married an Anglican vicar. He served in a lot of churches where the congregation looked down on people they didn't consider fit to belong to "their" church. One of the most revealing events was when he was considering a move and went to be part of the congregation at a church to get a feel for it. He came home saying he felt it was like getting frostbite. He turned up in jeans and a tea shirt. Clean, but not a suit and tie. A week later he went to the interview and the representatives were horrified to hear he had been the "strange person sitting alone". They said he should have introduced himself as a candidate and then they would have treated him differently. "That's why I came incognito," he said as he told them he was withdrawing his application. "I don't think Jesus would have been welcome unless he came looking like you".
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So now the word of God is picky as to whom can listen to it. This after killing thousands if they didn't drop their own holy beliefs and convert
No, the word of God and the love of God are freely available to ALL who want them. It's the so-called Christians who make it otherwise, and they will be called to account for it one day. "Not everyone who calls me "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who obey the will of my Father" Matthew ch 7.
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They didn't want him there because he couldn't pay..... it's all about the money
When I was 6 years old, the pastor gave a letter to my aunt to give to my mom saying that we were not donating enough money to the church. So we stopped going, and I have never been to church since.
The expectations for women to be subservient to men and have no further aspirations than “wife and mother”.
I worked at a restaurant near a church on Sundays. Rudest bunch of people ever.
It quickly became evident that many people who call themselves religious, only do so to feel morally superior to others around them, and then use that superiority to try to control everything they can.
Which is morally superior, though? Subsuming morals that have been imposed on you by a church, or developing your own morals based on the idea that you should treat others the way you would like to be treated in similar circumstances? The latter actually requires self-reflection and thought, and can be modified as the times change. The former merely requires blind obedience and, apparently, judgment of others.
As a kid, someone explaining to me that my dog that just passed away wouldn't be in heaven. I'd never see him again. Because dogs can't accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior. So he was going to hell.
Pretty much done with it after that.
Being told it was gods plan after my mother suffered through chemotherapy, and still passed away. I have no interest in a god who’s plan includes cancer
Sayings something like this to someone who lost their mother. This makes me want to punch them in the face.
When I realized the Bible wasn't written by God/Jesus and it was written by man and was written like 200 years after Jesus's death. Like I can't even 100% trust the word of a good friend who heard something from someone else in 2022, let alone some game telephone from 2000 years ago.
Also, rules that would have made perfect sense for the protection of a tribe in the Bronze Age (most of Leviticus) make absolutely no sense in the modern world. We can eat shellfish now, because we have freezers. We can get tattoos and piercings, because we have autoclaves. And so on.
There’s a short period of time where most of the religion started. Everything prior is mythology and everything after is a cult. Hmm, how convenient.
This is one of the biggest problem with traditional religions. They originate in ancient times, brutal, violent and sexist. How is it logical to follow rules that were developed thousands of years ago in a very different society? I dont need bronze and iron age people to tell me how to behave, how to dress, what to eat or whom to love.
Going to a megachurch.
They received over 1 mil in donations every weekend and spent it on elaborate props and videos rather than helping the community in any meaningful way.
I was 6 years old in a Saudi elementary school. There was this one Christian Bosnian kid whose dad was a butcher, he was incredibly kind and often gave me delicious smoked meat sandwiches.
The thought of him going to Hell as a non-Muslim was illogical, and made me question religion for the first time.
When I was 12, I was told you had to believe in Jesus to go to heaven. I asked what about the other people in other countries that never even heard about Jesus. I was told they weren't going to heaven. My God wouldn't keep good people out of heaven just because they didn't know about Jesus. Goodness and kindness get you into heaven, not Jesus or religion in my belief system. I'm a nurse.
The non-answers to all my questions as a kid. "You just have to have faith" is a dumb way to respond to an inquisitive mind.
I started caring about what is actually true.
All the contradictions of every religion melt away when you can simply acknowledge all religions are man-made.
Religious people.
Some of the most vile and bigoted people I have known would call themselves “good Christians” with a straight face. It seems like half the people I went to high school with wound up being ultra right-wing zealots who believe everything they read on Breibart.
My dad had cancer for 10 years and then he passed away when I was 14 years old. I thought I was having a good heart to heart with my small group leader about it.
She asked if my dad was "a man of God" because she wanted to make sure he isn't "burning in Hell"
Who the f**k says that to a grieving child? So completely insensitive. It took me several months to fully realize the weight of that conversation with her before I left religion altogether.
Setting aside the obvious reasons for why this was terrible, what, exactly, was the mf point in asking this? Let's assume for a moment that hell exists. What could be done about anything at that point? What could the kid do? What could the group person do? Nothing.
My mother. She instilled some serious shame into me under the guise of God. Some things she said:
-Not allowed to believe in Santa because that takes credit away from God. Santa was actually a hand of Satan trying to corrupt me
-Not allowed to believe in the Easter Bunny because it was also a hand of Satan trying to corrupt me away from Jesus.
-I wasn't allowed to feel pride in my accomplishments because it's a sin
-I was a d**khead because my dad got me fully vaccinated as a child and that is against God's plan
-Hollywood is operated by Satan so I wasn't allowed to watch movies or shows (especially Disney)
-Harry Potter was an absolute no because witchcraft is an affront to God
-Scientists should not be trusted under any circumstances
-My rare genetic condition was part of God's plan and I'd understand some day
-Not allowed to say "damn" because it's an affront to God
-etc
That combined with her regular, not religious abuse has left me struggling a lot with my religiosity.
Sermons alternated between asking for money, telling us LGBT people were bad, or telling us we were all worthless sinners without God.
Left church every Sunday feeling like s**t. One week, I just decided I'm not going back.
I don't miss it.
I was like 15 and playing an instrument in the “worship band” for the most popular “youth group” in the area (which is a verrry Christian area). At one point the pastor dude was praying and the musicians were behind him waiting to play when he was done. The whole room (200+) had their heads bowed as dude was praying. Then his prayer went into the whole “here’s what you pray if you want to become a Christian right now” yada yada yada.. then at the end he says
“Ok everyone keep your heads bowed, eyes closed. Now if you just prayed that prayer with me I want you to look up - everyone else keep your heads bowed- but if you just now gave your life to Jesus look up at me or raise your hand so I can see you”
I’m behind him, and facing the crowd who have their eyes closed so I decide it’s safe to take a peek. I discreetly look up and notice that exactly ZERO people in the crowd are looking up at him. Every single person still has their head bowed, eyes closed. (Which is fine, I mean maybe they were all already Christians?) However, as I’m looking at nobody responding, Mr Pastor starts saying “ok I see you there”, “oh I see another over there, Amen” “and you back there, praise god”. “Yes I see you over there, amen come find me afterwards”. It was perplexing to see him lie to so many people like that. And this wasn’t some nobody youth pastor, he was like quite legit having written books and being mentioned in national articles and stuff
TLDR; an acclaimed youth pastor tried to make it seem like his prayer had converted several people, when I could clearly see it had not
I always get a chuckle when I see Christian tattoos, since Leviticus strictly forbids them.
The fact that there are multiple but I was taught that only ONE is correct
The fact that if you're not in my religion, you're kinda f**ked in the afterlife. I didn't choose my religion, so what makes me so special?
My parents pulling an exorcist on me. On their own. Screaming at me that I wasn’t their son but that there was a demon inside of me...
And more but that is the main thing tbh that has made me more an ant-theist than just an atheist
Honestly having to go to church as a little kid. Felt like an endurance test every Sunday to just get through it. Like, dude I’m 6 I wanna play with my action figures or be outside or game. I don’t wanna fight the fidgets in the pew listening to adults breathy sing to tired hymns while I just want it to end so I can go be a kid on the weekend. Then as I got older all the obvious reasons you see everywhere, the contradictions, violence, stupidity etc
They did make it really tough on children. Some Churches had fun Sunday School or catechism classes but then you had to sit through Mass afterward. It felt like the worst punishment to sit still and be quiet for so long.
There was never an answer.
I wanted to believe desperately.
I wanted to and I begged God to allow me to be doubtless. I tried and tried and tried to make it work. To make it fit.
I asked questions. I wondered. I pondered. I just got to a point where there were no more answers. No one had an answer that made sense.
Nothing that the next person couldn’t alter or contradict. Nothing that was ‘set’ or ‘fixed.’ It was all up in the air and I just needed more faith.
I tried. I really did. But my mind just won’t allow it anymore.
That's exactly how I feel. I ask a question, get answers but the answers end up giving me more questions. It just goes on and on and a lot of the time the answers don't make sense or just not logical etc.
Being told I was going to rot in hell every time I made a simple mistake
Having to confess my “sins” as a 10 year old.
Didn't you just make up random s**t? That's what I did. The penance was always the same, which made it even more funny.
former catholic, current atheist here. i am fortunate enough to not have had any severely traumatic experiences involving the church. but, i grew up in the church and i used to love to sing the hymns. as i got older i started to realize what the words i was singing meant. i really didn’t like how some of the hymns/songs called us as people “nothing” compared to god. i don’t really agree with devaluing and trivializing ourselves and our problems as part of worship. that is what really did it.
I grew up as a Jehovah Witness. When i was around 16 i had a love interest in a girl from the church that was 15. I was told she could not be my girlfriend because she was spoken for. The male was in his mid to late 20s. Also my sister got pregnant at age 17, before they shunned her, they asked in full graphic details on the details on that night that my now niece was conceived. Sick sick motherfu*kers. I'm getting angry just typing this. The "elders" in that religion are just high ranked pedophiles that do not call authorities for any reason.
Ohhh, the JW's are definitely on my s**t list. Had two knock on my door, and I wanted to be polite, so I allowed them to come in. Offered them tea. We talked about lots of things, as I'd just had my third miscarriage and was looking for answers, comfort... something. And with a smile on their faces, they told me my miscarriages were god's punishment of me for my sins.
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My father ruined it for me. Bastard abused his own family in horrific ways, yet thought he was some sort of saint because he went to church. And the church's members looked up to him as some sort of pillar of community, not realizing how vile he really was. Definitely was one of those "I can do whatever I want and I'll be forgiven for it" sorts who uses religion as an excuse to be a terrible human being.
I realized I was LGBTQIA+, and my parents' religion believes that you need to hide that identity and pretend to be cishet your whole life. that's not something I want, so i started actually thinking about their church and I realized there were many things I didn't agree with. Religion isn't bad necessarily, but it's not for me.
Whatever gets you through the night is how I feel, and I agree with George Carlin: "Religion is like a lift in the shoe, and I say just don't ask me to wear your shoes. And let's not go down and nail lifts onto the natives' feet."
Load More Replies... I was raised by very catholic grandmas and went to a extrenely catholic school. That taught me all i needed to know about religion. Traditional religions are based on terrible times: violent, sexist, where slavery, pedophilia and rape where normal. Their writtings cannot bring good to society because they stop progress. If you read the bibble it is full of those same things; there are plenty of passages promoting sexism, violence against the infidel, against women, rape, slavery... It is horrible. The teachers at my school were all catholic (because they discriminated against anybody else), ad most of them were openly sexist, honophobic, racist, xenophobic... The nuns were there solely for the money. They would charge us a fortune for food and supplies but then we would be served expired food, had roaches in the kitchen and no heating. Its all about hate and profit.
Reading the bible. Actually reading it. Then looking at other religions, realizing that none is better than what I have read. Realizing that one of two things is true. 1) Everything is made up from scratch. 2) There is some truth in it, but it was corrupted so much, that I risk more by following a book than following my best intuition.
Nothing cures Christianity like reading the Bible.
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For me, one of the big reasons I left was all the pressure to be "holy" and "clean" and "modest". It seemed ridiculous that the only way that I would get into the Celestial Kingdom and see my family in the afterlife (Mormon) was by substituting church music for pop and refusing to wear tank tops. It hurt a little, like I was always subliminally being told that I wasn't doing enough. I started to see the contradictions and extreme sexism when I became a teenager and could get on the internet unsupervised and see other points of view. The last straw was after I figured out that I was LGTBQ+ and received a horrible Sunday School lesson on how gay people were unnatural and should go to hell, and that a woman's purpose was to be a mother and wife and that's it. Usually, mormonism isn't that bad, but friendly people aren't enough to keep me wanting to go to boring lessons that I don't really agree with.
my parents are mormons too, and I had a very similar experience to yours. the members of the church aren't all bad people, but I can't be part of something that believes my existence is a sin. thanks for sharing ur story, I love reading about experiences I can relate too, I don't feel so alone :)
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The apartheid state in South Africa. They were not only fascist racists, but also christian fanatics. If you didn't believe, if you didn't want to pray in school, you were SATANIES or KOMMUNISTIES and would at the very least be insulted but quite often beaten up as well. Hence nowadays when someone says they're christian I instantly hear "homophobic racist sexist conservative" as an addendum, and have to monitor them carefully to see how many of those checkboxes they check. Because of PTSD.
Went to confession at 13yo and after I finished with my 'sins' the priest asked me If that was all. I said yes and he asked me if I didn't mind if he ask me some questions to 'refresh my memory'. I said no and he proceeded to ask some question that started innocently and then started getting worst and worst. First about touching myself (witch I answered no), then about doing it in front of others, with other people, etc. I got to the bench and I didn't even pray, I started to think about it why if I answered No to the first question did he continue with that line of questioning. I didn't wanted to go to confession again and sometime after I started questioning everything about religion and so, stop believing.
sounds like you dodged a pedo-bullet there.
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Religion was ruined for me when I was told women were considered second class. I could never grasp that. My mom used to tell me that part was a lie when I was young and to not listen to the priest or nuns if they taught that they just weren't caught up on what god really said bc they were too old to hear it. That kept me ok until I hit my teens. Plus all the fairy tale stuff in the Bible and cults being so dangerous like the FLDS. I finally read up on it and found out most religions were founded by pedophiles and rapists. I mean I can't really think of one that wasn't founded by a pedophilic rapist male which is awfully convenient for them that's why there's such an importance women stay submissive and kids are property they just want to exploit them for their own pleasure not bc they really believe there's a god. They think they're gods.
I went to popular week long camp here. I was told I needed to bring a bible. Thought that was weird. It ended up being a Christian camp. There was a lot of bullying and alienation between the kids, but also sexism amongst the camp counsellors. I made friends with the one girl who was also out-casted in my cabin, as she was not Christian. I wasn't raised more spiritual than religious. My counsellor wanted to speak to me privately and asked if I "accepted God into my life." I felt like I was being pressured to convert to something I wasn't comfortable with.
Went to a basketball sleepaway camp when I was a sophomore. I was pretty disgusted when we had up to 2 hour lectures that talked a LOT about god. Then, a coach went up front talking about how he's decided to let Jesus into his heart. The assistant coach leapt for joy. There I was thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into.🤦🏻♀️
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I come from a family in which most of us believe in God, but we don't attend church. A lot of this has to do with some of the problems that we have had with people in the church. You can be a person of faith without judging others, trying to make money, or acting like you are better than others. I am a Christian, but I am also a supporter of the LGBTQ community and I am very accepting of people from other faiths. No matter what you believe, we are all human and need to love one another.
Sorry I commented a lot! This one just really hit a nerve for me. Religion is something that I tried so hard to believe in just to eventually lose My Faith and have it almost crush me. Religion never let me feel that I was good enough or ever could be good enough no matter what I did. Not every religious person is bad just the Bible thumping zealots I believe. One thing I wish I could get back was the warm fuzzy feeling that somebody was always watching over me and taking care of me from above. That is the only thing that I really miss. I am so sorry that so many of you were hurt and felt unaccepted also.
Join the club. I envy people who can maintain blind faith. I miss that feeling. Just can't do it in the face of overwhelming logic and reason anymore.
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I've never believed, not through all the years of catholic school, just never sat well with me. Some of the worst, meanest people I've ever met were deeply religious. Final nail in the proverbial (or perhaps literal) coffin was that a close friend of mine, who was very religious, went to mass every week etc died before hitting 40 after fighting cancer for the third time. Nah, I don't believe in anything that causes that much pain and suffering to those who deserve it the least. I'll never change my mind, and I'm ok with that. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but I'm a decent person who never hurts anyone and always helps when I can - if that isn't enough then I don't want to be in that gang behind those gates
Growing up in a very religious household definately ruined the idea of religion for me. Just the shere amount of expectations since birth to be a good Christian kid forced me to grow up faster than I should have. I didn't have any friends since I was homeschooled, and I was always alone at home since my dad would spend all day in his office doing "religious work." To this day, the only thing my father can talk about with me or my siblings is religion, not even our own lives and interests. I have met some genuinely amazing Christians who love everybody without all the judgement and hate. They are so full of hope and are so kind, and I can tell that they have something I will never understand, and I wish I could have the courage to put my faith in a god and live life in such a content and healthy way. But ever since I moved to the United States, all I see are the big churches and snobby people without any of the same happiness and love that I've seen elsewhere.
I'll be quick, my family said F**k off to religion in the 1920s because of one particular incident: My great-grandfather was told to give away his three children to adoption since he was a single father (great-grandmother died gaving birth to the third child) and it was "unnatural" for a kid to grow up without a mother. He told them to get you know what and raised his three childrens by himself.
Of all the very very good reasons to leave the church, the one that finally did it for me was that it just didn't make sense. I was driving in my car one day, and for no reason at all it just dawned on me. The whole thing just doesn't make any sense. It was a terrifying thought, and didn't have immediate affect, but once I thought it, the end was inevitable. It just doesn't make any sense.
The sex scandal in the church is what woke me up. These old men would stand there and tell loving consenting couples they would go to hell because they were gay and then turn around and rape little boys?
But that wasn't gay because they were on top, classic Roman loophole, they just forgot to get rid of it when Rome fell.
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I feel kinda sad that people had this horrible experinses with religion. I have had it great with religion and it makes me feel whole I hope anyone who had been abused or something like that will be able to forget that.
Sadly, people don't just "forget" abuse, especially if it's coming from someone they should be able to trust implicitly. Abuse leaves a scar.
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I hope people who read this don’t think all religion is bad. A lot of people at my church are so kind and not rude like people think.
No, I do not think that all all religious people are bad. I have met and know some truly kindhearted, tolerant, brave, and empathetic people who are religious. I actually wanted to become a female priest growing up and inspire and provide solace to the LGBTQIA+ community and other marginalized communities. Sadly, it is the bad eggs that can give religion a bad name; they are the ones whom we always hear about in the news. I always thought that religion at it's very core was to teach us to love others, become more accepting, and greet difficult and challenging situations with grace and dignity.
Load More Replies... I stopped being friends with someone because of religion. We'd known each other since school and still hung out after we'd finished college. There was a chick he was dating and she was Christian. She told him that she can't be with him unless he converted. So he did something called an Alpha course, which is basically "How to be a Christian 101". One evening yeeeeeeeeears ago, he invited me round to his place for a few bevvies and a catch up. I have no idea how we got onto the subject but he started prattling on about religion (despite only being a Christian because he wanted to bone some broad) and told me that my mother, who he'd met, was going to hell because she was Muslim. After a few seconds of my brain flatlining, I left and never spoke to him again. C*nt.
Why TF does anyone need a religion or a church? If you believe in a God you don't need religion and man-made prayers! I'm pretty sure that if God wanted people to follow a religion he would have written it himself and there would only be one religion not many unless God had a multiple personality disorder of mass proportions. Also, of all the races/ethnicities on Earth, how does ONLY one get to manure the world and claim that they and only they are God's chosen people?
For me: Cafeteria Catholics (picking & choosing what tenets you follow for your own religion). Buddha not saving my Buddhist mom from dying of cancer (yes, i know that dying is part of a Buddhist's journey. I'd still rather have my mom back). Religious idiots who got in a circle & prayed instead of calling 911 when a softball teammate (and family member of their's) had a heart attack on the mound. He didnt make it. I ended up calling 911 & would have done so more quickly but I sat there for a minute not believing my eyes that they though prayer would save him.
I went to a catholic girls' school here in Ireland. When She was 15 my friend fell pregnant and was told by our principle who was a nun she had to leave the school because "they could not be seen to tolerate a teen pregnancy". A year later we had a priest come to the school and give religion classes. The principle happily embraced his presence despite the fact he was having a full on relationship with a woman who was separated with 3 kids. Catholic priests are supposed to shun all types of relationships like that but that didn't matter to sister Mary. It was also around this time that all the news started breaking out about the pedophile priests and what was happening in Irish schools up and down the country during 40s 50s and 60s and of course in the Magdalen laundries. All of this made me hate my Catholic faith.
I attended a church-affiliated state school for a time, and the pastor/vicar/whatever would give a lecture, sorry sermon every couple of weeks. One time was all about how believing in ghosts was irrational etcetera, and the next time (I kid you not) we were told all about the "Holy Ghost". I was only 9 or 10 at the time but the logical contradiction was obvious.
It is absolutely sick teaching children that they're stained with sin and they're going to be punished forever if they don't obey. So many people screwed up by being taught that they're "damaged" when they're just human.
I’m 35 and a pivotal religious teaching I am still working to overcome is that thoughts themselves aren’t good or bad; they are just thoughts. I essentially shared a brain with a deity for 15+ years. I’m just now learning that everyone has weird thoughts and that doesn’t make someone a bad person. It’s our actions that make us good or bad people.
My family stopped going when, after my father was laid off from his job, the bishop came over to the house one day and demanded to know why we hadn't tithed in the last two Sundays. My dad explained that he didn't have the money and the bishop called all of thirteen of kids to come stand next to him on the porch and listen. Then he proceeded to berate my father for not giving any money and told us all how we should be ashamed of my parents and how heavenly father was ashamed of them. Then he asked all of us if we had any money that we could give. I distinctly remember him saying "Maybe you kids should your pocket money in. Got any pocket money for me?" Skeeved me out and I was like 6. We never went back to that church again. We tried a few more over the years, but the hypocrisy or hateful comments about the size of our family drove us away.
I think all religions are stupid, but I don't care what people believe in as long as they don't try shoving it down my throat or using it as an excuse to crap on other people.
A god who sends cancer to children and lets them suffer and die? Thanks, but no, thanks.
I went to bible study group and confessed my husband was abusive and I wanted help to leave. I was told that I would one day I would have to answer God as to why my marriage didn't work so was I sure I didn't want to stay and keep trying? Then to be told to calm down by a minister when husband was found to have been having an affair with someone at church and I was upset. Last straw was being told I should stop taking medication gp had prescribed for anxiety as only god could heal me. Walked out, never looked back. That medication saved my life, for sure.
I grew up in the Mormon church and one of the things that makes it different from others is that it's run by the congregation. Like the bishop is literally just some random dude from the area with no study, and same for all the other church positions. There's a big corporate part of that church that gives guidelines for what to teach, but other than that everyone has a different answer for everything
My mom was an atheist and my dad is too. When I started school, I asked "Who made God?" and I got shouted at for it. That was when the last bit of religion died for me and I turned into a fun-loving little sh*t who, aged 5, went around trying to make people laugh
I have a question? How come all of the Roman, Greek and Egyptian gods are all mythological but God and other religion's gods aren't?
well yes. As Dawkins says, "We are all atheists in respect of the ancient gods, but some of us just go one god further."
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When I was 13 to 16 it was the period I used to go to church. For me it was quite, peace, I was relaxed, but I started to feel the pressure from others, how fake many of them were. It was sad because I had so many questions and the only answer was "believe, don't ask". I have friends from other religions and they are wonderful. I met also mean church people. Because they go and pray, they feel entitled to judge others. I traveled around the world and I can't believe God exist. People are good and bad. Every religion is made up to control us. I live in a religious country where we have more churches than schools and hospitals together. Some may say that a church can harm, but the people can. So they go to church and leave it hating others for being different (ex. LGBTQ+), but those are better humans than many religious people.
If a religious leader can't easily answer your questionsor at least try...it's a cult..plain and simple
Well not weird at all you guys are fed up religion, jehovas witness mormons and other free churches.. all crazy.But remember there are normal modest christians to, i grew up catholic , i never experienced any of this weird s**t you are descibing
If you create an image of God to suit your selves and serve your conscious you get a god ( little g on purpose). and an imperfect one at that the God I got to know has never let me down I have let him down he asks ONLY TWO THINGS Love God and your neighbour. The thief on the cross gave no tithes no religious works nothing yet Jesus said to him to day you will be with me in paradise. Why you seek the answer for you self.
I have no personal bad experiences with Christianity, just what is general knowledge. My family (my dad mainly) is Christian. We have never gone to church, we are full supporters of the lgbtq+ community and women’s rights. Which is why we’ve never gone to church, hard to find one that isn’t homophobic. I’ve always assumed that I was Christian by default, but I’m now coming to realize that, I really just don’t believe. I’d like to think that there is something up there, maybe there is, but it isn’t what the Bible says. I’m not sure. I heard my parents talking recently about going back to church, trying to find a good one (I don’t want to, I went once on Easter a couple years back, boring as hell) and it’s ok if we don’t believe but to try and steer us in that direction, which is okay I guess. So yeah.
I married a non practicing Catholic, she was a single mom. Soon after she was with my child and after she was born my wife wonted her to be baptized. Now I'm not a religious man but went to see the local priest. I asked about getting my daughter baptized, he told me that I would have to become a Catholic too before he's consider doing it. I said no way, he then threatened that my daughter would burn in hell fire because of me. I told him that no way God or Jesus would do that to an innocent child or person and he was full of sh*t and wasn't a man of any God I'd worship. Never been in a church since. Bustards. 🤬😡😡😡
Ooh my mother, supposedly a good Christian, but who the hells treats their kids like s**t and then tells them to trust god in their lives? Yeah f**k that. I’d rather follow Loki thanks, at least that guy has balls and isn’t afraid to use them
Not one thing, just an amateurish study of history. Since man started worshipping stuff, rocks, trees, the sun, etc right up to the present day religion always involves supporting a priest class that at best is a useless burden and at worst is a hypocritical hate monger. It's the one thing that every religion has in common. Believe whatever you want , you don't need an intermediary.
Every religion being adamant that their fantasy book is the only true book while other are "mythologies". The fact that 99% of believers pick their religion not based on examining all of them and choosing the one that makes most sense, but from being indoctrinated by their environment.
It's crazy how religion can effect people in so many ways. I was lucky to grow up with a very good religious experience mainly led by my dad who is an AMAZING person. Religion has really helped me live a happy life that I feel I'm getting the most out of and the way I have been taught it's been an amazing support for growth in all areas. Lately I have been thinking about how I haven't really made much effort to look into other religions to see if there are any I believe in more so if any of you want to share your beliefs (whatever they are) with me I'd be grateful. I don't expect I'll switch religions but I do want to make my decision knowing the options. Sorry to bother people :)
It's sad. A lot of these religions are good. But the people in them are messed up or using the teachings as justification for there own behavior.
I lost whatever faith I'd had drilled into me (church, Sunday School, Catholic School, etc) by the still tender age of 9. That's the year I remember praying on my knees on the floor of a Jeep in the parking lot of a cheap motel because I knew where this was going. Yeah, those prayers didn't work. Neither did the silent ones I said in my head for years after, just in case. Once I realized I was completely alone, I stopped believing. Very freeing in its own way.
ive grown up catholic, and things like this is why i want to leave catholicism (i was born into a catholic family. have gone to catholic school my whole life. i still have 3 years to go before college. yeah i dont think that being bisexual and not supporting the religion i was born into help me, especially since my parents aren't the most liberal...yeah they're kinda conservative and we're in california. southern california.) also, the church is very much a cult. once you're baptized into it (which i was at birth, not my choice) you cabt leave unless you tell your bishop. so the bishop might berate you. if youre too scared, youre always considered catholic. you cant really leavw the damn church. f**k that. s**t that was too much but thats my rant. sorry
I'm a christian and in my opion you can't hate the whole company for some co-worker's b******t. Its manly if not all People to blame like everything else not God
i don't knwo if I ever Valued religion. but i stopped believing it was worthy of anything around the age of 6 or 7 when i started learning how to recognize that some of the stuff adults were telling me was b******t.
For many many reasons above stated. But I was done with organized religion realizing the money these churches have and how they use it. Not just mega churches. The Vatican sits on a mound of riches, yet closes its churches in Chicago for lack of donations. From the struggling poor. I just finished reading the bible - how can they just this to their congregations! Plus here in the US, the amount of Christians that are so un-Christian like is abysmal. Among a ton of things, won't wear a mask to protect others? I believe in a higher power and after reading the bible I actually love Jesus and HIS teachings (big change from non-believing). But organized religion is just a money and power grab.
Do you love the verse Matt 10:34? Or how about 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34?
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What does it mean that most (all?) of these posts are about monotheistic religions? Do Buddhists not mess up their kids? Are Jains immune from hypocrisy?
Bad parents mess up their kids. Unfair to blame religion. Most Abrahamic religions are strict about rules. Most Asian/African religions are not dogmatic. Most Indic religions are not focused on god worship, but rather enlightenment to realize you are not a separate entity from God.
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Get an abortion or don't, Be gay, be straight, Be transgender, Believe in God, be an atheist, I am pro-leave people alone, I'm pro-respect people Even if you disagree with them I'm pro-supporting family And friends, I'm pro-mind your own damn business! Is appropriate here
After reading this list I'm so glad I ended up with the Norse gods/Ásatrú. :) pretty much no rules, no hell, no good vs. Bad, the gods ain't that much better than humans in their morality. Oh, and it's ok to call the gods little sh*ts. Lol. But seriously.... as a little kid I believed in the Christian god because I had a tape with the story of Adam and Eve and I could hear the voice of "God" on the tape. But then my granddad died and I became an Atheist. As a teen I got into the spiritual witchy stuff and then, when I studied religion and history at uni, I realized that Ásatrú had always sparked my interest in some very deep way and now that I got to study that faith I realized it was just oh so right for me. :) It's still a bit difficult for me to lay off some Christian practices, though. Like... prayer. I sort of like prayer, but it's not part of Ásatrú. So that is one thing I "struggle" with.
...and I thought being born a woman in a Theravada Buddhist country/culture/society/family has terminally messed ME up hardcore. I mean, it's not a competition or anything, I just thought the missionaries that insidiously twist, bend and demonize our native faiths were just the bad ones, sent away from their churches in punishment. I later learned they CHOSE to go into other people's countries, actively find something to get offended about and act all holier-than-thou. For some reason I never thought about the average Christian though and how they worship. Those poor kids. Wow, just... wow.
When my father spent his first Xmas in Canada he went to go to mass on Christmas Eve and was denied entry because he couldn't donate to the basket. He arrived in Canada about 2 months earlier with less than $20 in his pocket. He has never been to church since.
I grew up going to church, all my life. Then I started exploring gender and sexuality, and came out to my "friends" at church. Who outed me to everyone else in the church. My family stopped going to church after that because I would be shot dirty looks and people would tell me to go to hell, or that God wouldn't accept me if I kept going down this path. That's when I decided that if everything was Gods plan, his plan would include queer individuals. So why would I stay in a church with people who don't seem to understand that? (EDIT: we left the church when I was nearly 14. all of this happened before that)
In total? It's been the ever growing realization that we're all just A Speck. One being among billions. One place among billions. Not even seeable from far enough away, and yet... Still all part of one, contained universe... And the thought that other universes must surely exist, with billions of bodies and beings of their own. To want to know an All Being that could Create all of this wonder is a journey of Self, too. But that's discouraged "in the church". Instead, like formal education, they want to take all the forests and turn them into Pencils.
Mass-Hysteria and delusion, apart from the fact that only a few really read and understood the books...
I read about the lives of saints - just about all of the holy men and women were aristocratic. I then asked how it was easy for them to ostentatiously give away all their wealth etc. And that they could easily dedicate their whole lives to God when they no doubt had oodles of servants to take care of the food etc. Wrong questions apparently.
I tried like hell to find one that wasn't completely illogical and, on its deepest level, hateful.
All I know is I could say Pikachu is God and have the same amount of proof of that as I would any other God. Plus as someone pointed out, what kind of God would allow the things that happen in this world?
This is so sad that religion is generized like this. Most churches are lovely places to be and a lot of people are really happy there. It needs to be clear that this isn’t every church ever.
I grew up in a sort of New Age household. A mixture of sermon on the mount Christianity, a buffet of white suburban American misunderstandings of Buddhism, some weird place called the Church of Astara, and a random smattering of books on karma, past lives and guardian angels. I believed in a constantly changing and evolving version of this, and whatever other New Age garbage books I fell for until I was about 30. I was debating with a born-again Christian coworker (it was polite, we were friends), but then I was thinking intently about it after work. About how contradictory and capricious and just plain weird so much of Christianity is, and then it was like a slap in the face: my beliefs were certainly “nicer,” with no hell or Satan or retribution, but they didn’t make any more sense than his. It was all just magic, and we all just pick the magic we want and discard the rest. I was an atheist by morning.
I miss in the list that religion is one of the main reasons in many conflicts. Over 5.000.000 people died 75 years ago, because they had the wrong religion. Fights in Northern Ireland, because they believe in a different version of the same god. Reasons to defend racism, descriminition of women, lgbt rights, etc... were all found in the bible.
I really just had a hard time believing that Jesus died and then rose again. I just REALLY think that was made up. I’ve read and read all the texts and songs… They are just coping mechanisms to me. I don’t connect well with the idea that millions of people need a savior to justify their belief. I can believe in a god, not believe in a savior and still be a good person. It’s not necessarily something that religion has to justify.
For me it was actually reading the history of Christianity. Not their storybook „the bible“ but how Christianity actually came to be over the centuries. After that that was it for me, plus the fact I started developing my scientific mind and stopped believing in magic. Religion would habe much less follower if they wouldn’t start indoctrinating children at an early age
the scariest scripture in the bible is Rev. 3:16.... "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. " Sorry, but you liberals and humanists don't realize it, but you have been spewed out. You played fast and loose with God in your wild youth, treated Him with shameless indifference when he called to you to return to Him, and guess what? He let you go your way. All of the objections posted in this blog are merely justifications for giving up on God which you wanted to do in the first place. You don't realize it, but He got rid of you at the same time. You will be left behind in the soon-coming Rapture. Then you will show up at church the next following Sunday. You will be angry at God for leaving behind someone as wonderful as you. This only happened because you rejected God in the first place. Now you have to live with the terrible consequences of your bad decisions. Stop blaming God for the works of the devil with his sickness, murder, greed, hate, etc. Jesus never did any of those things, and he is the perfect example of how God is. Stop hating God because some pious hypocrite wounded you. They will someday have to give account for everything they did, including hurting you. Don't let some hypocrite offend you so badly that you give up on God and prefer to go straight to hell. He didn't send those people, they sent themselves against you. They will be punished with whatever judgment or justice is appropriate. So will you, by the way, since you will be judged by your own merciless standards. So beware! Repent while you still can.
I can only speak for myself, but every interaction I've ever had with "Christians" in my 53 years has been filled with judgment, repression, dishonesty and abuse. Every single one. However, I've never had a Muslim or Jewish person shame me for mental illness, tell me to submit to my husband, tell me my miscarriages happened because I was a sinner, or sexually assault me. Those dubious honors all belong to Christians.
Load More Replies... I see very explicit, reasonable reasons here as to why people have turned their backs on religion and/or god. Just because you don't agree with them, doesn't mean they aren't completely valid.
Load More Replies... I grew up as a Jehovah Witness. When i was around 16 i had a love interest in a girl from the church that was 15. I was told she could not be my girlfriend because she was spoken for. The male was in his mid to late 20s. Also my sister got pregnant at age 17, before they shunned her, they asked in full graphic details on the details on that night that my now niece was conceived. Sick sick motherfu*kers. I'm getting angry just typing this. The "elders" in that religion are just high ranked pedophiles that do not call authorities for any reason.
Ohhh, the JW's are definitely on my s**t list. Had two knock on my door, and I wanted to be polite, so I allowed them to come in. Offered them tea. We talked about lots of things, as I'd just had my third miscarriage and was looking for answers, comfort... something. And with a smile on their faces, they told me my miscarriages were god's punishment of me for my sins.
Load More Replies... My father ruined it for me. Bastard abused his own family in horrific ways, yet thought he was some sort of saint because he went to church. And the church's members looked up to him as some sort of pillar of community, not realizing how vile he really was. Definitely was one of those "I can do whatever I want and I'll be forgiven for it" sorts who uses religion as an excuse to be a terrible human being.
I realized I was LGBTQIA+, and my parents' religion believes that you need to hide that identity and pretend to be cishet your whole life. that's not something I want, so i started actually thinking about their church and I realized there were many things I didn't agree with. Religion isn't bad necessarily, but it's not for me.
Whatever gets you through the night is how I feel, and I agree with George Carlin: "Religion is like a lift in the shoe, and I say just don't ask me to wear your shoes. And let's not go down and nail lifts onto the natives' feet."
Load More Replies... I was raised by very catholic grandmas and went to a extrenely catholic school. That taught me all i needed to know about religion. Traditional religions are based on terrible times: violent, sexist, where slavery, pedophilia and rape where normal. Their writtings cannot bring good to society because they stop progress. If you read the bibble it is full of those same things; there are plenty of passages promoting sexism, violence against the infidel, against women, rape, slavery... It is horrible. The teachers at my school were all catholic (because they discriminated against anybody else), ad most of them were openly sexist, honophobic, racist, xenophobic... The nuns were there solely for the money. They would charge us a fortune for food and supplies but then we would be served expired food, had roaches in the kitchen and no heating. Its all about hate and profit.
Reading the bible. Actually reading it. Then looking at other religions, realizing that none is better than what I have read. Realizing that one of two things is true. 1) Everything is made up from scratch. 2) There is some truth in it, but it was corrupted so much, that I risk more by following a book than following my best intuition.
Nothing cures Christianity like reading the Bible.
Load More Replies... For me, one of the big reasons I left was all the pressure to be "holy" and "clean" and "modest". It seemed ridiculous that the only way that I would get into the Celestial Kingdom and see my family in the afterlife (Mormon) was by substituting church music for pop and refusing to wear tank tops. It hurt a little, like I was always subliminally being told that I wasn't doing enough. I started to see the contradictions and extreme sexism when I became a teenager and could get on the internet unsupervised and see other points of view. The last straw was after I figured out that I was LGTBQ+ and received a horrible Sunday School lesson on how gay people were unnatural and should go to hell, and that a woman's purpose was to be a mother and wife and that's it. Usually, mormonism isn't that bad, but friendly people aren't enough to keep me wanting to go to boring lessons that I don't really agree with.
my parents are mormons too, and I had a very similar experience to yours. the members of the church aren't all bad people, but I can't be part of something that believes my existence is a sin. thanks for sharing ur story, I love reading about experiences I can relate too, I don't feel so alone :)
Load More Replies... The apartheid state in South Africa. They were not only fascist racists, but also christian fanatics. If you didn't believe, if you didn't want to pray in school, you were SATANIES or KOMMUNISTIES and would at the very least be insulted but quite often beaten up as well. Hence nowadays when someone says they're christian I instantly hear "homophobic racist sexist conservative" as an addendum, and have to monitor them carefully to see how many of those checkboxes they check. Because of PTSD.
Went to confession at 13yo and after I finished with my 'sins' the priest asked me If that was all. I said yes and he asked me if I didn't mind if he ask me some questions to 'refresh my memory'. I said no and he proceeded to ask some question that started innocently and then started getting worst and worst. First about touching myself (witch I answered no), then about doing it in front of others, with other people, etc. I got to the bench and I didn't even pray, I started to think about it why if I answered No to the first question did he continue with that line of questioning. I didn't wanted to go to confession again and sometime after I started questioning everything about religion and so, stop believing.
sounds like you dodged a pedo-bullet there.
Load More Replies... Religion was ruined for me when I was told women were considered second class. I could never grasp that. My mom used to tell me that part was a lie when I was young and to not listen to the priest or nuns if they taught that they just weren't caught up on what god really said bc they were too old to hear it. That kept me ok until I hit my teens. Plus all the fairy tale stuff in the Bible and cults being so dangerous like the FLDS. I finally read up on it and found out most religions were founded by pedophiles and rapists. I mean I can't really think of one that wasn't founded by a pedophilic rapist male which is awfully convenient for them that's why there's such an importance women stay submissive and kids are property they just want to exploit them for their own pleasure not bc they really believe there's a god. They think they're gods.
I went to popular week long camp here. I was told I needed to bring a bible. Thought that was weird. It ended up being a Christian camp. There was a lot of bullying and alienation between the kids, but also sexism amongst the camp counsellors. I made friends with the one girl who was also out-casted in my cabin, as she was not Christian. I wasn't raised more spiritual than religious. My counsellor wanted to speak to me privately and asked if I "accepted God into my life." I felt like I was being pressured to convert to something I wasn't comfortable with.
Went to a basketball sleepaway camp when I was a sophomore. I was pretty disgusted when we had up to 2 hour lectures that talked a LOT about god. Then, a coach went up front talking about how he's decided to let Jesus into his heart. The assistant coach leapt for joy. There I was thinking what the hell have I gotten myself into.🤦🏻♀️
Load More Replies... I come from a family in which most of us believe in God, but we don't attend church. A lot of this has to do with some of the problems that we have had with people in the church. You can be a person of faith without judging others, trying to make money, or acting like you are better than others. I am a Christian, but I am also a supporter of the LGBTQ community and I am very accepting of people from other faiths. No matter what you believe, we are all human and need to love one another.
Sorry I commented a lot! This one just really hit a nerve for me. Religion is something that I tried so hard to believe in just to eventually lose My Faith and have it almost crush me. Religion never let me feel that I was good enough or ever could be good enough no matter what I did. Not every religious person is bad just the Bible thumping zealots I believe. One thing I wish I could get back was the warm fuzzy feeling that somebody was always watching over me and taking care of me from above. That is the only thing that I really miss. I am so sorry that so many of you were hurt and felt unaccepted also.
Join the club. I envy people who can maintain blind faith. I miss that feeling. Just can't do it in the face of overwhelming logic and reason anymore.
Load More Replies... I've never believed, not through all the years of catholic school, just never sat well with me. Some of the worst, meanest people I've ever met were deeply religious. Final nail in the proverbial (or perhaps literal) coffin was that a close friend of mine, who was very religious, went to mass every week etc died before hitting 40 after fighting cancer for the third time. Nah, I don't believe in anything that causes that much pain and suffering to those who deserve it the least. I'll never change my mind, and I'm ok with that. If I'm wrong I'm wrong, but I'm a decent person who never hurts anyone and always helps when I can - if that isn't enough then I don't want to be in that gang behind those gates
Growing up in a very religious household definately ruined the idea of religion for me. Just the shere amount of expectations since birth to be a good Christian kid forced me to grow up faster than I should have. I didn't have any friends since I was homeschooled, and I was always alone at home since my dad would spend all day in his office doing "religious work." To this day, the only thing my father can talk about with me or my siblings is religion, not even our own lives and interests. I have met some genuinely amazing Christians who love everybody without all the judgement and hate. They are so full of hope and are so kind, and I can tell that they have something I will never understand, and I wish I could have the courage to put my faith in a god and live life in such a content and healthy way. But ever since I moved to the United States, all I see are the big churches and snobby people without any of the same happiness and love that I've seen elsewhere.
I'll be quick, my family said F**k off to religion in the 1920s because of one particular incident: My great-grandfather was told to give away his three children to adoption since he was a single father (great-grandmother died gaving birth to the third child) and it was "unnatural" for a kid to grow up without a mother. He told them to get you know what and raised his three childrens by himself.
Of all the very very good reasons to leave the church, the one that finally did it for me was that it just didn't make sense. I was driving in my car one day, and for no reason at all it just dawned on me. The whole thing just doesn't make any sense. It was a terrifying thought, and didn't have immediate affect, but once I thought it, the end was inevitable. It just doesn't make any sense.
The sex scandal in the church is what woke me up. These old men would stand there and tell loving consenting couples they would go to hell because they were gay and then turn around and rape little boys?
But that wasn't gay because they were on top, classic Roman loophole, they just forgot to get rid of it when Rome fell.
Load More Replies... I feel kinda sad that people had this horrible experinses with religion. I have had it great with religion and it makes me feel whole I hope anyone who had been abused or something like that will be able to forget that.
Sadly, people don't just "forget" abuse, especially if it's coming from someone they should be able to trust implicitly. Abuse leaves a scar.
Load More Replies... I hope people who read this don’t think all religion is bad. A lot of people at my church are so kind and not rude like people think.
No, I do not think that all all religious people are bad. I have met and know some truly kindhearted, tolerant, brave, and empathetic people who are religious. I actually wanted to become a female priest growing up and inspire and provide solace to the LGBTQIA+ community and other marginalized communities. Sadly, it is the bad eggs that can give religion a bad name; they are the ones whom we always hear about in the news. I always thought that religion at it's very core was to teach us to love others, become more accepting, and greet difficult and challenging situations with grace and dignity.
Load More Replies... I stopped being friends with someone because of religion. We'd known each other since school and still hung out after we'd finished college. There was a chick he was dating and she was Christian. She told him that she can't be with him unless he converted. So he did something called an Alpha course, which is basically "How to be a Christian 101". One evening yeeeeeeeeears ago, he invited me round to his place for a few bevvies and a catch up. I have no idea how we got onto the subject but he started prattling on about religion (despite only being a Christian because he wanted to bone some broad) and told me that my mother, who he'd met, was going to hell because she was Muslim. After a few seconds of my brain flatlining, I left and never spoke to him again. C*nt.
Why TF does anyone need a religion or a church? If you believe in a God you don't need religion and man-made prayers! I'm pretty sure that if God wanted people to follow a religion he would have written it himself and there would only be one religion not many unless God had a multiple personality disorder of mass proportions. Also, of all the races/ethnicities on Earth, how does ONLY one get to manure the world and claim that they and only they are God's chosen people?
For me: Cafeteria Catholics (picking & choosing what tenets you follow for your own religion). Buddha not saving my Buddhist mom from dying of cancer (yes, i know that dying is part of a Buddhist's journey. I'd still rather have my mom back). Religious idiots who got in a circle & prayed instead of calling 911 when a softball teammate (and family member of their's) had a heart attack on the mound. He didnt make it. I ended up calling 911 & would have done so more quickly but I sat there for a minute not believing my eyes that they though prayer would save him.
I went to a catholic girls' school here in Ireland. When She was 15 my friend fell pregnant and was told by our principle who was a nun she had to leave the school because "they could not be seen to tolerate a teen pregnancy". A year later we had a priest come to the school and give religion classes. The principle happily embraced his presence despite the fact he was having a full on relationship with a woman who was separated with 3 kids. Catholic priests are supposed to shun all types of relationships like that but that didn't matter to sister Mary. It was also around this time that all the news started breaking out about the pedophile priests and what was happening in Irish schools up and down the country during 40s 50s and 60s and of course in the Magdalen laundries. All of this made me hate my Catholic faith.
I attended a church-affiliated state school for a time, and the pastor/vicar/whatever would give a lecture, sorry sermon every couple of weeks. One time was all about how believing in ghosts was irrational etcetera, and the next time (I kid you not) we were told all about the "Holy Ghost". I was only 9 or 10 at the time but the logical contradiction was obvious.
It is absolutely sick teaching children that they're stained with sin and they're going to be punished forever if they don't obey. So many people screwed up by being taught that they're "damaged" when they're just human.
I’m 35 and a pivotal religious teaching I am still working to overcome is that thoughts themselves aren’t good or bad; they are just thoughts. I essentially shared a brain with a deity for 15+ years. I’m just now learning that everyone has weird thoughts and that doesn’t make someone a bad person. It’s our actions that make us good or bad people.
My family stopped going when, after my father was laid off from his job, the bishop came over to the house one day and demanded to know why we hadn't tithed in the last two Sundays. My dad explained that he didn't have the money and the bishop called all of thirteen of kids to come stand next to him on the porch and listen. Then he proceeded to berate my father for not giving any money and told us all how we should be ashamed of my parents and how heavenly father was ashamed of them. Then he asked all of us if we had any money that we could give. I distinctly remember him saying "Maybe you kids should your pocket money in. Got any pocket money for me?" Skeeved me out and I was like 6. We never went back to that church again. We tried a few more over the years, but the hypocrisy or hateful comments about the size of our family drove us away.
I think all religions are stupid, but I don't care what people believe in as long as they don't try shoving it down my throat or using it as an excuse to crap on other people.
A god who sends cancer to children and lets them suffer and die? Thanks, but no, thanks.
I went to bible study group and confessed my husband was abusive and I wanted help to leave. I was told that I would one day I would have to answer God as to why my marriage didn't work so was I sure I didn't want to stay and keep trying? Then to be told to calm down by a minister when husband was found to have been having an affair with someone at church and I was upset. Last straw was being told I should stop taking medication gp had prescribed for anxiety as only god could heal me. Walked out, never looked back. That medication saved my life, for sure.
I grew up in the Mormon church and one of the things that makes it different from others is that it's run by the congregation. Like the bishop is literally just some random dude from the area with no study, and same for all the other church positions. There's a big corporate part of that church that gives guidelines for what to teach, but other than that everyone has a different answer for everything
My mom was an atheist and my dad is too. When I started school, I asked "Who made God?" and I got shouted at for it. That was when the last bit of religion died for me and I turned into a fun-loving little sh*t who, aged 5, went around trying to make people laugh
I have a question? How come all of the Roman, Greek and Egyptian gods are all mythological but God and other religion's gods aren't?
well yes. As Dawkins says, "We are all atheists in respect of the ancient gods, but some of us just go one god further."
Load More Replies... When I was 13 to 16 it was the period I used to go to church. For me it was quite, peace, I was relaxed, but I started to feel the pressure from others, how fake many of them were. It was sad because I had so many questions and the only answer was "believe, don't ask". I have friends from other religions and they are wonderful. I met also mean church people. Because they go and pray, they feel entitled to judge others. I traveled around the world and I can't believe God exist. People are good and bad. Every religion is made up to control us. I live in a religious country where we have more churches than schools and hospitals together. Some may say that a church can harm, but the people can. So they go to church and leave it hating others for being different (ex. LGBTQ+), but those are better humans than many religious people.
If a religious leader can't easily answer your questionsor at least try...it's a cult..plain and simple
Well not weird at all you guys are fed up religion, jehovas witness mormons and other free churches.. all crazy.But remember there are normal modest christians to, i grew up catholic , i never experienced any of this weird s**t you are descibing
If you create an image of God to suit your selves and serve your conscious you get a god ( little g on purpose). and an imperfect one at that the God I got to know has never let me down I have let him down he asks ONLY TWO THINGS Love God and your neighbour. The thief on the cross gave no tithes no religious works nothing yet Jesus said to him to day you will be with me in paradise. Why you seek the answer for you self.
I have no personal bad experiences with Christianity, just what is general knowledge. My family (my dad mainly) is Christian. We have never gone to church, we are full supporters of the lgbtq+ community and women’s rights. Which is why we’ve never gone to church, hard to find one that isn’t homophobic. I’ve always assumed that I was Christian by default, but I’m now coming to realize that, I really just don’t believe. I’d like to think that there is something up there, maybe there is, but it isn’t what the Bible says. I’m not sure. I heard my parents talking recently about going back to church, trying to find a good one (I don’t want to, I went once on Easter a couple years back, boring as hell) and it’s ok if we don’t believe but to try and steer us in that direction, which is okay I guess. So yeah.
I married a non practicing Catholic, she was a single mom. Soon after she was with my child and after she was born my wife wonted her to be baptized. Now I'm not a religious man but went to see the local priest. I asked about getting my daughter baptized, he told me that I would have to become a Catholic too before he's consider doing it. I said no way, he then threatened that my daughter would burn in hell fire because of me. I told him that no way God or Jesus would do that to an innocent child or person and he was full of sh*t and wasn't a man of any God I'd worship. Never been in a church since. Bustards. 🤬😡😡😡
Ooh my mother, supposedly a good Christian, but who the hells treats their kids like s**t and then tells them to trust god in their lives? Yeah f**k that. I’d rather follow Loki thanks, at least that guy has balls and isn’t afraid to use them
Not one thing, just an amateurish study of history. Since man started worshipping stuff, rocks, trees, the sun, etc right up to the present day religion always involves supporting a priest class that at best is a useless burden and at worst is a hypocritical hate monger. It's the one thing that every religion has in common. Believe whatever you want , you don't need an intermediary.
Every religion being adamant that their fantasy book is the only true book while other are "mythologies". The fact that 99% of believers pick their religion not based on examining all of them and choosing the one that makes most sense, but from being indoctrinated by their environment.
It's crazy how religion can effect people in so many ways. I was lucky to grow up with a very good religious experience mainly led by my dad who is an AMAZING person. Religion has really helped me live a happy life that I feel I'm getting the most out of and the way I have been taught it's been an amazing support for growth in all areas. Lately I have been thinking about how I haven't really made much effort to look into other religions to see if there are any I believe in more so if any of you want to share your beliefs (whatever they are) with me I'd be grateful. I don't expect I'll switch religions but I do want to make my decision knowing the options. Sorry to bother people :)
It's sad. A lot of these religions are good. But the people in them are messed up or using the teachings as justification for there own behavior.
I lost whatever faith I'd had drilled into me (church, Sunday School, Catholic School, etc) by the still tender age of 9. That's the year I remember praying on my knees on the floor of a Jeep in the parking lot of a cheap motel because I knew where this was going. Yeah, those prayers didn't work. Neither did the silent ones I said in my head for years after, just in case. Once I realized I was completely alone, I stopped believing. Very freeing in its own way.
ive grown up catholic, and things like this is why i want to leave catholicism (i was born into a catholic family. have gone to catholic school my whole life. i still have 3 years to go before college. yeah i dont think that being bisexual and not supporting the religion i was born into help me, especially since my parents aren't the most liberal...yeah they're kinda conservative and we're in california. southern california.) also, the church is very much a cult. once you're baptized into it (which i was at birth, not my choice) you cabt leave unless you tell your bishop. so the bishop might berate you. if youre too scared, youre always considered catholic. you cant really leavw the damn church. f**k that. s**t that was too much but thats my rant. sorry
I'm a christian and in my opion you can't hate the whole company for some co-worker's b******t. Its manly if not all People to blame like everything else not God
i don't knwo if I ever Valued religion. but i stopped believing it was worthy of anything around the age of 6 or 7 when i started learning how to recognize that some of the stuff adults were telling me was b******t.
For many many reasons above stated. But I was done with organized religion realizing the money these churches have and how they use it. Not just mega churches. The Vatican sits on a mound of riches, yet closes its churches in Chicago for lack of donations. From the struggling poor. I just finished reading the bible - how can they just this to their congregations! Plus here in the US, the amount of Christians that are so un-Christian like is abysmal. Among a ton of things, won't wear a mask to protect others? I believe in a higher power and after reading the bible I actually love Jesus and HIS teachings (big change from non-believing). But organized religion is just a money and power grab.
Do you love the verse Matt 10:34? Or how about 1 Timothy 2:12 and 1 Corinthians 14:34?
Load More Replies... What does it mean that most (all?) of these posts are about monotheistic religions? Do Buddhists not mess up their kids? Are Jains immune from hypocrisy?
Bad parents mess up their kids. Unfair to blame religion. Most Abrahamic religions are strict about rules. Most Asian/African religions are not dogmatic. Most Indic religions are not focused on god worship, but rather enlightenment to realize you are not a separate entity from God.
Load More Replies... Get an abortion or don't, Be gay, be straight, Be transgender, Believe in God, be an atheist, I am pro-leave people alone, I'm pro-respect people Even if you disagree with them I'm pro-supporting family And friends, I'm pro-mind your own damn business! Is appropriate here
After reading this list I'm so glad I ended up with the Norse gods/Ásatrú. :) pretty much no rules, no hell, no good vs. Bad, the gods ain't that much better than humans in their morality. Oh, and it's ok to call the gods little sh*ts. Lol. But seriously.... as a little kid I believed in the Christian god because I had a tape with the story of Adam and Eve and I could hear the voice of "God" on the tape. But then my granddad died and I became an Atheist. As a teen I got into the spiritual witchy stuff and then, when I studied religion and history at uni, I realized that Ásatrú had always sparked my interest in some very deep way and now that I got to study that faith I realized it was just oh so right for me. :) It's still a bit difficult for me to lay off some Christian practices, though. Like... prayer. I sort of like prayer, but it's not part of Ásatrú. So that is one thing I "struggle" with.
...and I thought being born a woman in a Theravada Buddhist country/culture/society/family has terminally messed ME up hardcore. I mean, it's not a competition or anything, I just thought the missionaries that insidiously twist, bend and demonize our native faiths were just the bad ones, sent away from their churches in punishment. I later learned they CHOSE to go into other people's countries, actively find something to get offended about and act all holier-than-thou. For some reason I never thought about the average Christian though and how they worship. Those poor kids. Wow, just... wow.
When my father spent his first Xmas in Canada he went to go to mass on Christmas Eve and was denied entry because he couldn't donate to the basket. He arrived in Canada about 2 months earlier with less than $20 in his pocket. He has never been to church since.
I grew up going to church, all my life. Then I started exploring gender and sexuality, and came out to my "friends" at church. Who outed me to everyone else in the church. My family stopped going to church after that because I would be shot dirty looks and people would tell me to go to hell, or that God wouldn't accept me if I kept going down this path. That's when I decided that if everything was Gods plan, his plan would include queer individuals. So why would I stay in a church with people who don't seem to understand that? (EDIT: we left the church when I was nearly 14. all of this happened before that)
In total? It's been the ever growing realization that we're all just A Speck. One being among billions. One place among billions. Not even seeable from far enough away, and yet... Still all part of one, contained universe... And the thought that other universes must surely exist, with billions of bodies and beings of their own. To want to know an All Being that could Create all of this wonder is a journey of Self, too. But that's discouraged "in the church". Instead, like formal education, they want to take all the forests and turn them into Pencils.
Mass-Hysteria and delusion, apart from the fact that only a few really read and understood the books...
I read about the lives of saints - just about all of the holy men and women were aristocratic. I then asked how it was easy for them to ostentatiously give away all their wealth etc. And that they could easily dedicate their whole lives to God when they no doubt had oodles of servants to take care of the food etc. Wrong questions apparently.
I tried like hell to find one that wasn't completely illogical and, on its deepest level, hateful.
All I know is I could say Pikachu is God and have the same amount of proof of that as I would any other God. Plus as someone pointed out, what kind of God would allow the things that happen in this world?
This is so sad that religion is generized like this. Most churches are lovely places to be and a lot of people are really happy there. It needs to be clear that this isn’t every church ever.
I grew up in a sort of New Age household. A mixture of sermon on the mount Christianity, a buffet of white suburban American misunderstandings of Buddhism, some weird place called the Church of Astara, and a random smattering of books on karma, past lives and guardian angels. I believed in a constantly changing and evolving version of this, and whatever other New Age garbage books I fell for until I was about 30. I was debating with a born-again Christian coworker (it was polite, we were friends), but then I was thinking intently about it after work. About how contradictory and capricious and just plain weird so much of Christianity is, and then it was like a slap in the face: my beliefs were certainly “nicer,” with no hell or Satan or retribution, but they didn’t make any more sense than his. It was all just magic, and we all just pick the magic we want and discard the rest. I was an atheist by morning.
I miss in the list that religion is one of the main reasons in many conflicts. Over 5.000.000 people died 75 years ago, because they had the wrong religion. Fights in Northern Ireland, because they believe in a different version of the same god. Reasons to defend racism, descriminition of women, lgbt rights, etc... were all found in the bible.
I really just had a hard time believing that Jesus died and then rose again. I just REALLY think that was made up. I’ve read and read all the texts and songs… They are just coping mechanisms to me. I don’t connect well with the idea that millions of people need a savior to justify their belief. I can believe in a god, not believe in a savior and still be a good person. It’s not necessarily something that religion has to justify.
For me it was actually reading the history of Christianity. Not their storybook „the bible“ but how Christianity actually came to be over the centuries. After that that was it for me, plus the fact I started developing my scientific mind and stopped believing in magic. Religion would habe much less follower if they wouldn’t start indoctrinating children at an early age
the scariest scripture in the bible is Rev. 3:16.... "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. " Sorry, but you liberals and humanists don't realize it, but you have been spewed out. You played fast and loose with God in your wild youth, treated Him with shameless indifference when he called to you to return to Him, and guess what? He let you go your way. All of the objections posted in this blog are merely justifications for giving up on God which you wanted to do in the first place. You don't realize it, but He got rid of you at the same time. You will be left behind in the soon-coming Rapture. Then you will show up at church the next following Sunday. You will be angry at God for leaving behind someone as wonderful as you. This only happened because you rejected God in the first place. Now you have to live with the terrible consequences of your bad decisions. Stop blaming God for the works of the devil with his sickness, murder, greed, hate, etc. Jesus never did any of those things, and he is the perfect example of how God is. Stop hating God because some pious hypocrite wounded you. They will someday have to give account for everything they did, including hurting you. Don't let some hypocrite offend you so badly that you give up on God and prefer to go straight to hell. He didn't send those people, they sent themselves against you. They will be punished with whatever judgment or justice is appropriate. So will you, by the way, since you will be judged by your own merciless standards. So beware! Repent while you still can.
I can only speak for myself, but every interaction I've ever had with "Christians" in my 53 years has been filled with judgment, repression, dishonesty and abuse. Every single one. However, I've never had a Muslim or Jewish person shame me for mental illness, tell me to submit to my husband, tell me my miscarriages happened because I was a sinner, or sexually assault me. Those dubious honors all belong to Christians.
Load More Replies... I see very explicit, reasonable reasons here as to why people have turned their backs on religion and/or god. Just because you don't agree with them, doesn't mean they aren't completely valid.
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