r/AskBlackAtheists

I just watched Immaculate (Starring Sydney Sweeney) today and I must say - it was awesome!

What an awesome Sunday!

Just wondering if any of you guys have. I’m 18m nigerian living in Canada and every black person i’ve met has been religious.
I do know that a lot of black atheists irl don’t really talk about their non-belief in god (in fear of being ostracized by others), so maybe i’ve actually interacted with one before without knowing it 😂. I myself have never disclosed my lack of belief in god to any other black people because i’m worried about how i’ll be treated afterwards lol

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Sometimes I see people who have gone through incredibly difficult circumstance like being blind, deaf, seriously disabled, or experiencing things that seem deeply unfair and yet they still have this pure, unwavering faith in God.

I honestly find myself envious of that kind of faith. I wonder, where does that absolute trust come from? How can someone go through so much suffering and still genuinely believe that God is looking out for them or that there’s a purpose behind everything?

I'm baffled but at the same time, I won't lie and say I see admiration? But then I later come to my senses and see that maybe their argument is more of an emotional one?

I don't know, I'm just typing my thoughts out and wanted to see if someone could relate 🤷‍♂️

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?

I'm sorry if this seems like too much but for most of my life I've been through a lot. I've been homeless at some point just me, my mom and my little sisters. My mom is a Christian but I don't see how she has been able to keep her faith for so long. She always keeps saying things like "Only God knows" and since I've been a kid nothing has ever gotten better. I've even tried explaining to multiple people who now dislike me that it would make no sense for God to be some kind of deity and just let people or anyone suffer. I apologize if my knowledge isn't too broad on God or Jesus. And another thing there are obviously people who exist who only want to make life worse for other people who may be innocent or just a regular person. Things like racism, capitalism these have only existed for so long because of people who've acted in the faith of Christianity I believe.