Between neurodivergence, a messy childhood, and a recent divorce, I’ve been reading a lot about a lot about toxic relationships, healing from neglect, etc.
A very common theme in all the reading is the effect of parents not meeting the needs of the child having lasting negative impacts on the child.
This one has confused me a bit. My parents definitely made mistakes, but ultimately weren’t that bad. It makes me wonder how much damage may be caused by being taught of the literal existence of loving heavenly parents that never materializes.

I’m curious to hear the thoughts of others.

Side note (just for laughs) - We may have found a genuine use for gods! Some recent reading prescribed spirituality as a helpful for those suffering from borderline personality disorder. The author made a good point, only a god can provide the unconditional love (read: narcissistic supply) they seek.

Ok so I'm an agnostic atheist, and whenever I make a post and specify this, people always say "you can't be agnostic and atheist at the same time!!"

Agnostic and atheist are two different binaries!

Atheism vs. Theism is a binary of belief: Do you actively believe a deity exists? Yes or No.

Agnosticism vs. Gnosticism is a binary of knowledge: Can humans definitively prove or know the truth? Yes or No.

Knowledge and belief are different! So if I'm an agnostic atheist, I KNOW that humans cannot prove the existence of a higher power or an ultimate truth (agnostic), but I personally BELIEVE that there is no higher power (atheist)

People have full on arguments over A DICTIONARY DEFINITION

Someone even said " agnostic is when you believe in a god but not a higher power"

A god is a higher power?? That's just a theist.

I genuinely thought this was obvious, but apparently not

The host of the famous Jordan Peterson vs Matt Dillahunty debate, Travis Pangburn, founder of Pangburn Philosophy. He has also organized some of the most iconic intellectual debates of the last decade. Travis reveal what really happened the night Jordan Peterson faced Matt Dillahunty on his stage. Travis calls it his favorite public conversation of all time raw, human, and unfiltered in a way that even the legendary Peterson vs Sam Harris series never quite reached.

Per the doctrine of the Trinity Jesus is YHWH, the god of the Old Testament. That means every command, action, behavior and law were all issued by the same entity.

When we read the Old Testament we find out that YHWH/Jesus commanded and condoned almost every major deed we classify today as severe crimes worthy of the death for their perpetrator.

He's guilty of:

Genocide

Deuteronomy 20:16–17: "However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you."

1 Samuel 15:3: "Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

Joshua 6:21: "They devoted the city to the Lord and destroyed with the sword every living thing in it—men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep and donkeys."

War Crimes, human and child trafficking:

Numbers 31:17–18: "Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man."

Deuteronomy 20:10–15: "When you march up to attack a city, make its people an offer of peace. If they accept and open their gates, all the people in it shall be subjected to forced labor and shall work for you. If they refuse to make peace and engage you in battle... put to the sword all the men in it. As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves."

Chattel Slavery & Human Property:

Leviticus 25:44–46: "Your male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life..."

Exodus 21:20–21: Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies of a direct result, but they are not to be punished if the slave survives a day or two, since the slave is their property."

Mutilation & Collective Punishment:

Deuteronomy 25:11–12: "If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity."

Joshua 7:24–25: Then Joshua, together with all Israel, took Achan son of Zerah, the silver, the robe, the gold bar, his sons and daughters, his cattle, donkeys and sheep, his tent and all that he had... Then all Israel stoned him, and after they had stoned the rest, they burned them."

Capital Crimes for religious freedom & tyrannical theocracy and oppression of minorities:

Deuteronomy 13:6–10: "If your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love, or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and worship other gods'... You must certainly put them to death. Your hand must be the first in putting them to death, and then the hands of all the people. Stone them to death..."

Leviticus 20:13: If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Numbers 15:32–36: "While the Israelites were in the wilderness, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day... Then the Lord said to Moses, 'The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.' So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the Lord commanded Moses."

Deuteronomy 21:18–21: "If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him... then all the men of his town are to stone him to death."

Mine? All religions are practically the same if you look at them at a broad level. As in eating halal and eating kosher are practically the same thing

We are all dumb all over is still relevant if not even more so today. Never heard this one until today and I find it a fantastic masterpiece.

A brilliant new video from the Understanding Humanism team, voiced by the wonderful Professor Alice Roberts. Really packs a huge amount of science and wonder into just 3m24s in my opinion. Bravo!

Following local residents complaints and a legal threat from the BC Humanist Association, the Council of the District of Tobique Valley (in New Brunswick, Canada) agreed to end the practice of opening local meetings with the Lord's Prayer.

Sometimes I wonder how many people actually believe, and how many just don't want to lose their family, friends, or community. For some people, leaving religion doesn't only change beliefs. It can change their whole life.

I think that's one reason religion survive for so long. The social cost can be much bigger than the intellectual cost. Even if someone have doubts, they may never say it.

Maybe faith is not always about believing. Sometimes maybe it's about what you could lose.

Do you think social pressure keep more people religious than we realize?

For context, I live in India. In the recent days, we have seen one of the largest student protests in Indian history. The protest is about demanding the resignation of the education minister, due to multiple cheating scandals in the country's largest medical exam (NEET). 21 students committed suicide due to this.

The protest is being led by the Cockroach Janta (People's) Party, a satirical party founded a few weeks ago due to comments made by the Indian Chief Justice, calling unemployed youth as cockroaches.

My problem is this. Since the protest started, I've seen many people say that they don't support the CJP because a few people have included Indian Gods' names in posters/slogans.

I really don't understand these people. All the parties in India use religion as a major tool while campaigning for elections. The current govt got elected due to a massive religious campaign of building a temple. Yet I've never seen any of these people speak up against them.

Your God isn't more important than 21 dead children. Such a fucked up mentality.

Maybe this is not popular opinion, but I always feel many people think any criticism of religion is same as discrimination. For me, those are not the same thing at all.

If someone insult a person because of their religion, of course that's wrong. But if someone ask questions about religious beliefs or point out contradictions, why is that a problem? I think every belief should be okay to criticize.

Sometimes I feel religion always get extra protection. Political opinions, science, philosophy, they all get challenged almost every day. But when religion get questioned, some people act like you already attack them personally.

Maybe I'm missing something here. Where do you think the line is between criticizing religion and attacking religious people?

I hear people say "we should respect all beliefs" all the time. Honestly I don't really agree. I think we should respect people, but beliefs should always be okay to question. Some beliefs are harmless, but some also affect politics, education, and even other people's life.

If nobody question religious beliefs just because they are religion, then how bad ideas can ever change? Every idea should be able to take criticism if it's really true.

I never understand why religion always get a special pass. Nobody tell us to respect every political opinion or every conspiracy theory. So why religion should be different?

Maybe I'm missing something. Do you think we should respect all beliefs, or only respect people's right to have those beliefs?

If humanity ever discovers a cure for all diseases, it would be our moral responsibility to put that knowledge into practice. Consequently, the human empathy developed in the face of this type of suffering would be lost in future generations that never experienced it. Thus, God's supposed purpose of not interfering with pathological suffering to keep us humanized would be completely in vain.

I am no writer, but I have an idea for a book that might be good. I just wanna know what you think.

This book is about the Rapture, but it takes a much more realistic approach to how it would actually go down.

Christian Version that I hear most christians talk about - Everybody knows it was jesus, seven years of war, rape, murder, slaughter, gangs, drugs, child rape and slavery etc etc...Satan tells everyone he is satan and they all follow him without question because he promises them all eternal life;.

My book would go year by year. It wouldn't have main characters in the same way other books and stories do. It would read a lot more like a journal written by many different people.

24 Hours - Chaos. Many people vanish, it takes news about nine hours to get out that many people vanished. No one has any idea but occasionally people joke about the rapture. Problem is, Every christian on the planet vanished. Regardless of denomination. All of the Mormons, Catholics, Calvanists, Evangelicals, Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals, Protistants, Lutherans, Universalists, all all gone, but no one really puts it together that they all have this connection.

Chaos assumes for the first year, but more than half of the population really wants electricity and running water again

Again, No one knows:

• Who disappeared.
• Whether they'll come back.
• Whether this is an attack, disease, alien event, or unknown physics or aliens or...pfft...maybe divine origins?

Most governments would:

• Close borders.
• Deploy militaries.
• Suspend stock markets.
• Institute curfews in some places.
• Prioritize food, hospitals, communications, and power.

After a while, people just stop caring about WHY and about what next.

A very vocal and enigmatic person keeps blasting his message out that everyone needs to follow them and if they do he can grant them eternal life but nobody listens to them because shut up, you're not satan that person doesn't exist. ( Without christians, no one is left, except maybe muslims who actually believe in that stuff and they have started to not care anymore)

After 1 Month:

Governments reform. Military creates an emergency induction period where if you want to join, you're automatically in.

Electricity is still unreliable and many places are suffering due to lack of clean water systems that are functioning.

3-6 Month period:

Society starts adapting.

Electricity:

• Mostly restored in developed countries.
• Less reliable in poorer regions.

Water:

• Mostly restored where governments remain intact.

Internet:

• Slower.
• More outages.
• Still usable.

Fuel:

• Available but rationed.

Healthcare:

• Seriously strained.
• Hospitals overwhelmed.

Crime would initially spike but would probably decline as governments regain control.

After Year 1.

Supply chains become regional instead of global.

Instead of:
Taiwan → China → Los Angeles → Chicago → Local Walmart

you'd see:
Regional manufacturing.

Countries would become more self-sufficient because global trade would have become less predictable.

Many luxury goods disappear.

Necessities return first.

Year 5 - Beginning of 7

Even video games start coming back. Steam and the internet are almost back up fully. Work resumes on games from Palworld, to Bethesda and Nintendo and others. Companies are far less greedy and the entire entertainment business itself is focused on art than profit and the stock market also reflects these new values as well.

Slavery takes a nosedive. China was so devistated that they ousted their oppressive government and children no longer work in factories. Amazon rainforest has already started to regain vegitation. Global Warming takes several steps backwards. There was a few nuclear plants that went up but none of them as critically bad that famous one so people just evacuate the area but they don't need to be contained.

Then...

Year 7 - Jesus Returns and declares himself the lord of the world to bring prosperity for one thousand years. Only problem is, Nobody is listening and when he looks around, the world is not only mostly back to normal as it was before but everyone left is better off without the Christians. Muslims aside, there is a lot less hate in the world. Governments have adopted far more human social safety nets. UBI's and Basic healthcare has spread a lot more strongly and the seven years of tribulation was more like a two year tribulation and taking everyone away effectively did nothing but make the world a better place and it happened without jesus. Leaving him with no choice but to come to the only conclusion there could be. That the majority of the world's problems were the result of three groups of people and he just took out the one group responsible for the most of those problems.

I don't think people should get mocked just because they believe in a religion. But I always feel religion get a different treatment compared to almost everything else. If someone say they can talk to aliens or see the future, everyone will ask for proof. But if someone say God talked to them or miracles happened, suddenly asking questions become "disrespectful."

For me this is a weird double standard. I can respect someone's right to believe whatever they want, but that doesn't mean every belief should be protected from criticism. Respecting a person and agreeing with their ideas are not the same thing.

I actually think this make honest discussion harder. Some religious people never get their beliefs challenged, and many atheists just stay quiet because they don't want to be called rude or offensive. Nobody really benefits from that.

Maybe it's different depending where you live. Do you think religion is still treated like a protected topic, or people are becoming more open to questioning it?

Someone at work was seriously injured. At first, there was a worry that they might lose their arm. We finally got word that the damage wasn't as severe as first thought and that the prognosis was good. One of our coworkers said "It's a miracle. God was watching him." I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying "If God was watching him, then why didn't act before his arm was mushed?"

I'm fairly tolerant of religion. I don't like it, but as long as they leave me and others alone I will leave them alone. This is the exception. That kind of statement infuriates me. It's such awful dismissive response to a tragedy.

Thanks for reading my vent!!!

As an atheist who was once a Christian, the first reason I began to doubt my faith was that I truly noticed how Christianity and church dogmas restrict people from fulfilling their natural needs to the point of absurdity.

Let’s talk about the seven sins — labels the church applied to needs and emotions that are completely natural for a healthy person.

Regarding forbidden emotions (such as pride, envy, wrath, sloth): as a psychology student, I can state that the science I study tells us the following: there are no "good" or "bad" emotions — they are all necessary, and everyone experiences them, because they are part of natural human functioning.

When I achieve success, isn't it natural to feel proud? Or when someone close to us achieves something, don't we feel proud of them? Pride is simply a recognition of the value of your efforts or the efforts of a loved one. It is also a clear indication that we are satisfied with the result. Furthermore, this feeling acts as a reward following our efforts. It signifies that our work was meaningful and motivates us to keep working and improve even further.

When a person feels envy, it indicates that they lack something another person possesses. The problem lies not in the emotion itself, but in how the person reacts to it. Indeed, some people, upon feeling envious, begin to belittle the person who triggered that feeling, project their own insecurities onto them, and downplay their achievements. Others, however, begin working on themselves to acquire what someone else possesses. They do this not to demonstrate superiority over the object of their envy, but because they understand the situation this way: "I envy this person because I lack something they have — something I actually need. How can I remedy this? By working on myself and fulfilling that need."

Wrath is also a normal emotion that needs to be channeled rather than suppressed. When you constantly suppress negative emotions, they build up, eventually leading to an explosion. Besides, isn't it natural for someone with healthy self-esteem and a sense of dignity to feel wrath at someone who has wronged them? And it is far better to vent your wrath on your offender; otherwise, you will take it out on your loved ones.

Sloth is a signal our body sends when it is tired and needs rest. Feeling lazy or unmotivated is often the body’s innate way of preventing burnout, avoiding unnecessary physical exertion, and forcing the nervous system to recover from stress.

Now, regarding the rest of the sins like lust, greed, and gluttony.

Without lust, there would be no reproduction, and humans would die out. The sharp surge in sexual desire during youth is a signal from the body prompting a person to find a partner, enter into a relationship, and start a family. Also, since humans are among the very few creatures capable of having sex for pleasure, for us, lust is about more than just reproduction. When you have sex with someone you love, it enriches the relationship and brings joy to both partners. And even if a person feels lust for more than one person and has multiple partners without feeling love, there is nothing wrong with that, provided it harms no one. Lust is an expression of natural physical need that has the right to be satisfied.

And what is wrong with greed? Isn't it natural for a person to desire material goods, given that they improve one's quality of life? There is nothing wrong with wanting to possess something that ensures prosperity and a good quality of life — not just for yourself, but also for your family, if you have one.

And finally, as for gluttony, it is simply a matter of needing to consume more than the usual amount. Everyone eats as much as they need; if someone feels the urge to eat more, there is usually a reason for it — such as a reaction to stress. Teenagers, too, are prone to overeating because they are growing and developing. Moreover, historically, gluttony was an evolutionary necessity. For early humans, food was scarce, and consuming as many calorie-dense foods as possible when available was vital for survival.

So, in conclusion, I believe that the so-called "seven deadly sins" of the Church are anti-human rules that make a person feel ashamed of NATURAL emotions and needs, which are BIOLOGICALLY INNATE. Following them is a sure path to the degradation of a developed human being.

I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I’m past the point of even wanting to be in the same room as those who exhibit religious extremism. I look around, and towards the history books, and everything that has been a direct result of religion. Wars, death, misinformation, corruption, indoctrination. We a species would be much better off without it.

I’m sick of being held back. I’m sick of those who hide behind their book and their supposed rules, encroaching on everyone else.

Now I am a believer in being able to practice your religious freedoms, but the problem is, it’s never done in private. It’s never kept to themselves like the Bible says it should. It’s always picked apart for agendas, it’s never followed through and through.

While I understand that there is the good in the sea of bad, I barely see the good because those who are the loudest, or in power, as usually always the bad.

Claims about the physical world are stronger because it’s the only world we know and the only reality we have direct evidence for. We understand the universe through observation and experience, without any direct signs of a god. The ideas of a god and religious explanations come from texts that appeared after humans had already evolved and begun forming interpretations about existence.
That’s why, from my perspective, religion doesn’t have the same place in how we understand the world today. It isn’t necessary for explaining how things work, because natural explanations have continued to provide answers through evidence and testing.
The events themselves may have been real — for example, the crucifixion and the execution of a man named Jesus may have happened historically. But the explanations of why it happened and how it made him a savior came afterward, as human minds tried to understand and give meaning to those events. People witnessed a public execution of a real person, and over time that experience developed into a spiritual interpretation that became a larger religious belief system.

And not to mention me and my dad ended up becoming atheist out of our entire religious family which makes this seem disrespectful to my family but once you see through the bullshit the illusion stops working.

The one that mainly confuses and kinda baffles me is when religious people don’t understand the argument of omnipotence.

How can you be a god that’s testing others to see if they have faith in you, when you’re literally omnipotent, YOU KNOW THE ANSWER from even before you create them because you are a god that’s knows everything. Why are you going to give a test to a student that you know will always “fall short” and fail the test? That’s your fault that he’s failing. It’s like a rigged game at an arcade. Why would I give my student a math test when I’m omnipotent and know what exactly he’s gonna score and answer correct?

I’ve been researching gathering lots of knowledge about all the things that invalidate Christianity, that were hidden. I’ve got research and Bible verses about slavery, misogyny, rape, and murder.

The remaining hurdles are more info about genocides besides flooding the earth, and persecution and killings of people that were hunted by religious people, which I’ve been told is real.

It would work great as a comeback to the statement “atheists don’t have morals.” Anyone got examples of those, so I can add it to the list?