You know you have to take them seriously when they are on your library's shelves. I wonder if anyone has read these 🫠 Also, Ik that since this is a public library, it is no surprise that these books are here. I just wanted to giggle at these.
Hi, fellow Black atheists! I am new here but I had a thought about atheism and wanted to see if anyone thinks this too. I have been an agnostic and atheist for about a year now, specifically a positive agnostic and a negative atheist, but for the sake of my post, I will focus on the latter.
I am simply a negative/agnostic atheist because while I think there is no god or gods, I also think that their existence or non-existence is unknowable, opposed to positive/gnostic atheists who not only believe there are no gods but that they know this for a fact. But as for my position, I kinda find this absurd, and to explain what I mean, I will use an example. If someone asks if you believe in say fairies or pixies, you would simply say yes or no. There could be nuances to it but usually, you'd just get a yes or no with no caveats. But when it comes to God, it's weird that I have to be intellectually honest and say that I am a negative atheist when 1. proving God doesn't exist is unfair to begin with, as many god concepts are unfalsifiable, and 2. Why is not being able to prove any god keep the concept alive when not doing so for other things like fairies or pixies isn't a big deal? If you don't believe in either of those, you wouldn't be further asked if you are say an " agnostic or gnostic afairyist".
Applying this logic to a god's existence makes me feel like I shouldn't have to therefore even explicitly label as a negative/agnostic atheist but should by default just be an (gnostic/positive) atheist. But, I also don't mind labeling as it by any means either. Anyway, has anyone here thought about this before?
As a former Christian of African descent for about a year now, I have come to watch a lot of atheist content creators and binge their videos often. But, there are 2 things that I don't think even irreligious people fully think through when they say it to still kinda defend religion. Here is what I mean:
When I hear even an atheist say that Jesus would not approve of things like MAGA or Christian Nationalism or people abusing and mistreating others in the name of Christianity, I pause. I do agree with the sentiment but I can't help but think "Even if true, why should we care about what a dead man who lived in a different culture and time and society would think about what we are doing today"? Even if Jesus would be flipping the tables of capitalist CEOs or corrupt politicians and lobbyists, so what? He is dead. Sure, the Bible may not explicitly condemn homosexuality or transgenderism or whatever else you can think of but again, so what? None of that is actually tangibly helping us solve the problems related to these things now. Even if we hypothetically grant that Jesus is who non-Christians think he is, he is at best just sitting up in the clouds disliking what people are doing in his name but never... actually... stopping it.. due to BS excuses like free will and mysterious ways.
Can we say for sure that Jesus would disapprove of this or that, anyway? Remember, as far as Jesus' character and beliefs go, we only have the NT to tell who he was, which we here agree is not only not inspired by any deity but was and is also clearly biased into making us only care about him as a messianic figure. But, as for access to the historical figure behind the Jesus character (assuming he existed), we don't really have that. So, how can we truly say that Jesus would be against say capitalism? If that historical person were here today, maybe he would approve of it for completely different reasons apart from what we supposedly know about him from the Bible.
Ok, I'm done. I think this isn't structured as a typical rant but just something I was thinking about. As said before, I would still agree with the sentiment behind a non-Christian saying these things but I personally just think that it isn't as simple as just saying that and leaving it there to settle in the mind of a religious fundie and hoping it sinks in. I also don't even hate whoever the historical Jesus actually was, as regardless of whatever he actually believed and preached about anything, he is a name thrown around today to basically give authority to any opinion one may have that he may not even understand if he were here today. Genuinely, just let the man rest in peace.
Do u also feel like you're going insane when you see something like a murder on the news and see a Christian comment something like "I'm sorry for your loss. May God bless you and comfort you during this time." Don't get me wrong; it means well and it would be inappropriate to make a tragedy about your own theological disagreements with someone else, but it is just so mind-numbing to me how people don't feel cognitive dissonance by saying this. Today, I saw a news clip about a 14 yo boy who was found dead in Rochester, NY. One comment under that news video said the aforementioned saying. In another example, my mom and I met a neighbor at the laundromat last month; she is a woman from Trinidad and Tobago who lost her son to gun violence there years ago. He wasn't involved in it himself, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time one day. But, my mom, of course couldn't stop telling me about how much this woman needs to accept Jesus to help her get through the pain and to be saved. Sure, religion could help her handle her heartbreak that she feels to this day, but why can't this incompetent god just stop the tragedy in the 1st place?? How the hell do people believe that God helps them with innocuous things like finding keys, getting parking spaces, receiving tips, or whatever else, but let's humanitarian crises, homelessness, poverty, genocide, wars that kill many innocents, and such things happen every single day?? Yet, he is good, he is love, and apparently, if you don't believe in him, you can't have either yourself. What a fucking joke! What's the point of telling people that when God could just stop the bad thing from happening to begin with, like the death of the 14 yo boy?? I am so fed up with having to act as if this phrase is acceptable just because it has been normalized in both religious and even irreligious contexts, especially when in religious contexts, for critiquing it, religious people will have the arrogant audacity to say that God doesn't owe us anything and can do whatever he wants, even though this guy made us without our consent and put us in a world that he knew would go to shit through no fault of our own (they'd say it was our fault cuz of Adam and Eve, but none of us even existed yet to have anything to do with their decision, let alone want to inherit its consequences).
I overheard my mom talking to a Christian friend last night over the phone. That friend has a 17 yo autistic son and my mom really told her to anoint him daily and watch him get normal over the coming days, because apparently, doctors don't know what the Hell they are doing when they diagnose anyone; everyone should know that autism is an "evil spirit". She said the same thing to another friend she talked to beforehand about homosexuality, which she especially dislikes, saying it is disgusting and caused by demons, BUT she still believes God loves the sinner, just not the sin (although he will still burn them for it forever, but then softened her rhetoric again by saying God never made humans to go to Hell, only Satan and demons). I long for the day I don't have to hear nonsense like this anymore, guys.
Hi, all. I have something I wanna get off my chest as it is just annoying the crap outta me. So, I live with fundamentalist Evangelical Christian mom; she's a Black Evangelical tho, so you can imagine what she is like: constantly talking about Jesus/God, how she gets dreams from God all the time that are supposedly warnings (even though she selectively applies them to future events after those events happen), prays and worships all the time, etc. She also has been falling for conspiracy theories like how NASA fakes space missions because "God never intended for us to go to space, it's too far away". Bruhhhhhhh. Anyway, onto the main thing I wanna rant about is how she thinks her religious interpretation allows her to assume and assert things about other religions, non-religious/irreligious people, and even other cultures. An example of this is how anytime Buddhism ever comes up (rarely does tho), she always says that it only makes sense that Buddhists worship Buddha, as if it's up to her to decide how Buddhists practice their own religion! The buddha never even claimed to be a god, yet this man gets shit from arrogant Christians like my mom, omg. Anyway, get a load of this (what I really wanna mention): we were watching Molly of Denali on PBS Kids and there was a scene in an episode where a guy was telling a folktale about how a muskrat helped a lonesome traveler who was trapped in the middle of the ocean by going underwater to bring him enough mud so that he could use magic to turn it into a chain of islands. Upon seeing this, my mom jumps to the conclusion that this is witchcraft which they passed down to their descendants through these demonic stories. I was immediately disgusted by this thinking. She doesn't know a damn thing about Alaskan culture or history but assumes that this magic was witchcraft?? Why, just because they weren't Christian?? I am truly disgusted by this thinking. Even if it was witchcraft, I can't help but think that it's her god's fault for that because if he was real, he let so many cultures throughout decades and centuries across time develop cultural practices that he hates so freaking much? How does that make any sense? She acts as if all these cultures apparently knew Christianity was a thing before Christianity as a religion even existed but just refused to adopt it because of sin! The amount of ignorance & arrogance you have to have to make claims like this is so beyond me, y'all 😩