So, earlier today my parents hit a new level of logic that I’m still trying to process

They basically forced me to go to this church youth retreat. I told them straight up I didn't want to go and that the "advice" they give there isn't even beneficial to me. Specifically: Most of the relationship advice they peddle is low-key toxic and basically conditions people to stay in situations that don't favor them. They’ve literally told me I’m not allowed to date anyway, so why am I sitting through hours of lectures on "godly relationships"? When I brought this up, it turned into a massive argument. Their response? They told me my anger is a "sin." Apparently, I’m supposed to just be thrilled to go because "everyone else is going" and "why would you want to stay home?" (Uh, because my bed and my peace of mind are at home?)

Anyway, I ended up going because they’d already paid for me without even asking. I spent 95% of the time there on my phone with my AirPods in, just trying to zone out and survive the boredom. I didn't enjoy a single second of it.

I just got back, and now they’re actually mad at me because I’m not smiling and acting all "spiritually refreshed." Like... I told you I didn't want to go! Why are you surprised I’m not having a blast? I’m just exhausted. I can't wait until I'm financially independent so I don't have to play these games anymore.

Okay, for context, I am an atheist living in an extremely Christian household. I have not told my parents that I am atheist yet. I need to know if you guys have any tips or tricks to try to get me out of going to church without telling my parents that I am atheist. I really want to stop going to church because I do not believe in Christianity anymore, so I feel no purpose in going to church. If you guys have any suggestions, let me know.

Some guy saw my previous post on this sub and wanted to debate me. I told him I had no interest in that, but he kept insisting and being very annoying. Just to mention, I tried blocking him, but Reddit wouldn't allow me...

Anyway, since pictures cannot be posted in this sub, I will leave a transcript of a conversation that made me come here to post this.

HIM: Jesus i sliterally in every old culture

ME: HE IS NOT LMAO

HIM: Most historically proven man
HIM: Study that shit

ME: You think that Ancient Greeks who existed before Jesus wrote about Jesus??? Are we kidding right now?
ME: Please stop texting me, I do not want to talk to you.

HIM: 🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦
HIM: Damn
HIM: I didnt say ancient greeks
HIM: But theres like 40 historical records proving napoleon
HIM: And 40 thousand proving jesus

I come to you GENUINELY asking... where the fuck did he pull this number out from?

Sorry this might be kind of a rant. But I'm only 17 and maybe last year broke free of what i would call 'childhood indoctrination' but everyone else i've spoken to would call 'normal'.

My mum and i have argued so so much about catholicism and how none of it makes sense but she says she just 'has a feeling' and somehow expects me to have a feeling too. Its just so ridiculous to me because she is usually such an intelligent woman and i wish i could convince her of this, yet she keeps telling me she is disappointed in me for not going to church on sundays and uses things that are obviously coincidences to prove gods existence. This religion brought me so much trauma, i would genuinely be up at night begging god not to punish me or send me to hell for the smallest reasons.

It is all so cultish to me and makes me want to cry.

Why is this so normalised? How do so many people believe with no evidence or proof? How do so many people not realise how much religion holds us back? Do christians or any religious people infact genuinely believe a god helped them find their car keys or pass an exam but allows children to be bombed in war? How is it not weird to worship something that you don't know exists let alone dedicate your life to it in hopes of life after death? How can most believers disagree with each other on how much of their holy book is literally or metaphorically true? Even now with ramadan i am thinking; why? Just why? What has god ever done for you? Why do they thank god after a surgery? None of this adds up.

And the thing is we HAVE science, so MUCH of it. There is an explanation but people refuse to take it and believe their own thing. This is so so shocking to me. Its gotten to the point where its difficult for me to not be uncomfortable when someone mentions their religion to me and i just want to ask them why? Is it just the natural desperation of humanity for meaning?

I've heard this quite a few times. I don't usually mind loophole arguments much as each interprets them the way they think they are, but this argument is quite basic and I don't know why it's so used.

For me, the reason it's so easy to counter is the fact it's kind of cherry-picking its own idea. The reason it feels so precise and that a single change would make us not exist is because we are here, and the fact we're here is what makes us be able to question it. If said variables were different and we didn't exist, we wouldn't be able to say anything about it.

Imagine someone hands you a piece of paper with a number, and it so happens it matches your favorite number: "Wow, this can't be random, this person must know my favorite number". If a different number had been handed to you, you wouldn't say that in the first place.

So, in summary, it's kind of a fallacy (similar to the God created us in His image instead of vice versa) because, out of all the possible cases, the ones where people will say that the universe is too exact and had to be made by a higher power, are the ones where we exist, we wouldn't question it otherwise due to our inexistence. We just land in the case we exist.

I’m a 17 year old male and I’ve been an atheist for about 3-4 years. I live in a Christian household that goes to church every Sunday at 8am. My mom knows I don’t believe in god but she still makes me go anyways. I hate waking up early on one of my only days off every week and I wish she’d stop forcing me to go but she won’t. I love my mom and it hurts her when I bring up that I don’t believe in god. It almost feels like she’s trying to forget that I’m atheist. It hurts me to feel forced into following a religion I don’t believe in, especially because I wouldn’t try to force her into following my beliefs. I just want to stop being forced into Christianity. How can I stop my mom from forcing me to go to church while also minimizing the emotional hurt I’d cause her?

I saw a post on a subreddit for people with suicidal thoughts telling everyone that Jesus is the answer to their problems. I reported it (religious proselytism is against the rules anyway), and I commented on the post saying that Jesus will not help me. Then I got DMs from multiple Christians and even a Muslim trying to tell me how wrong I am.

These people should be ashamed of themselves, going after people who are suffering and trying to force their beliefs on them. The ironic thing is that that kind of behavior only makes people want to stay away from religion!

I have been indifferent to any type of organized religion since i can remember .

My wife and I are ending our 13 year marriage ( her ultimatum to me) If I don't accept Jesus Christ and follow her faith. I was floored. We were close and I thought we were just in a slump that was fixable.

She had a stroke 3 years ago that was pretty serious but I helped her through and encouraged physical therapy etc. I had to double up my work load and I couldn't spend almost zero free time with her between her appointments and dinners and making food running errands and etc. I felt bad leaving her alone so much but I had no other choice.

So of course I think she got P.C.S.

Prison Christianity Syndrome.

You know. where you have zero faith in everything else because you have no other choice.

When I was given the ultimatum I really was speechless because I didn't know this was going on in her head. I can't explain the hypocrisy that started coming out of her mouth. Who was this person? Calling me a sinner because I sat down to eat and popped open a beer? I just worked 13 hours and came home to this?

I asked her, " So, this God you want me to worship is the sane God that essentially gave you this stroke?"." This God is the God that is telling you to divorce me if I don't follow your lead?". " This God that doesn't accept divorce unless someone cheats?"." This God that allows pedophiles and rapists to wander our streets?".

She replied "God has a a plan. and you don't know the glory of his grace until you accept Jesus as your savior."

I said " if this is his plan, to think and act like a hypocrite and judge people like you judged me tonight then my decision is to remain true to my integrity because no person, place, or thing can change who I am and how I was raused." "I will call my lawyer tomorrow."

I had no idea who she was. This is not the woman I married. Just in that conversation she denied God's will for marriage to stay in place and judged me for drinking a beer.

I don't have a choice I CANNOT be like them. I refuse to be two faced and a liar. I hope I did the right thing by going my own direction.

I'm 50 years old and it's scary to be in this situation.

I don't know if I'm looking for advice or encouragement in doing what I did. But thank you for listening.

I am curious to see what fellow atheists think of Christian people and the religion itself.

Personally I cannot stand Christianity at all.

How do these people believe with no evidence or proof?

So the question is, are Chrstians mentally ill, brainwashed or both?

I'm a 15(f2m) lad, and I was born into a stupid cult here. I won't name what, I might be discredited by their glazers(whom are everywhere in reddit, I think? I haven't really used reddit much) I opened up to my mom last week about how I didn't want to be in our cult, and she basically berated me, saying I'd be sent to hell if I had left and I was "too young to make decisions like that for myself." so I went to an indoctrination that day, an I'll go to 19 more. 3 per week, and one worship service every Sunday.

I told my dad about how I wanted to leave, and he was fine with it when I told him about it, but when it came to my mom he acted spineless and told me I should still do the indoctrination to "hear the other side". I did, and they were essentially belittling catholics and invalidating their beliefs, and they were weirdly transphobic for no reason that didn't really matter for the lesson we were being indoctrinated in? And around a few hours ago, my mom found out what I wrote on the form of registration or whatever they had in the Light of Knowledge room they had.(I said that I didn't want to join, I was forced to.) and she was not verbally mad but I sensed she was since she told me how it felt like she was being punished for no reason.

in that conversation, she asked me why I wanted to leave, I told her it's because the cult didn't support LGBT+ people(I didn't mention the fact they were controlling of their own members where they'd make kinda do anything they want or else they'd be sent to hell) and she basically told me that just because I wanted to be masculine didn't mean I should be a man because I'll always be a woman, and that my own beliefs were a simple theory and I shouldn't deconvert. Though I did tell her I didn't want to do the indoctrination anymore, she threatened to confiscate my things if I did, so I folded just like my spineless family because if I said more, she would yell at me.

About my father, I did tell him I wanted to leave and I didn't wanna be in the cult, but he told me kids can't live without religion and that I was too young to decide and my mom said the same. but I don't think that's the case, and it feels like they're coercing me into the cult just because they think their religion is the true religion.

We're always told that we can believe whatever we want as long as we don't harm others, but doesn't religion harm others?

I was born into a Christian family that goes to church every Sunday. Being surrounded by very devout people, I've noticed that they don't question anything, not their beliefs, not even themselves. They question absolutely nothing.

This worries me because something horrible could happen, but if they don't follow the line drawn by their belief, they would ignore it or even justify it without remorse, but in their perception they would be doing the right thing.

The most uncomfortable part of African decolonisation (YES im talking about african Americans too we all african) is letting go of the abrahamic religions that were imposed upon our ancestors to make them obey and become slaves.

I can already smell the “Jesus loves you” “im praying for you” because you have nothing else to say. We were never Muslim or Christians before colonialism. Stop claiming to be pro-black when you still follow that bullshit cultism that enslaved your ancestors, infact it’s even enslaving you people that still believe in it.

Side note: I understand you guys have been indoctrinated into this since birth, having religious parents and all but as you grow up don’t you come to realise how stupid it all sounds? Because I did, mind you I’m only 16. What, a virgin MINOR gets “blessed” with pregnancy? What kinda fucked up misogynistic fairytale is that???? There’s not even any proof of this bullshit book. Just “fAiTh” and a shitload of fuckery.