What was the single most pivotal factor or argument that led you to embrace atheism? Specifically, what evidence or line of reasoning ultimately persuaded you that a higher power does not exist?
I (31F) am Muslim-atheist, my partner (32M) is Jewish-atheist. We both grew up in religion, oceans from each other, were very practicing as kids, individually decided to become atheists. Met 4 ish years ago, and have been together ever since due to our shared values, and just, he is a very wonderful person. And we are planning on getting married. Q: if you were in a similar situation, does it ever get better?
We both live in the U.S. in a very liberal state. He grew up orthodox, and his family is still modern-orthodox. Their reactions to our relationship have been a constant source of stress. I finally met his parents 2 years into dating, they were polite to me, but there is a marked difference in how they treat the jewish partners of his siblings versus me. Some examples: For example, they never acknowledge I exist when they call him on phone. They never ask anything about me (0 questions). They live a flight away from us. I am the only partner (his siblings have non-married partners) who is not allowed to stay overnight at his parents' house. His parents' house, for context, has 7 empty bedrooms, and in-law unit. So, we always get an Airbnb when we visit his family, and I pretend that everything is randy dandy. They are very avoidant.
This year, we finally felt like we made a lot of progress. His mom behaved *warmly and friendly*, not just 'polite', and same with his grandparents. His dad is an odd character, I stopped expecting much from him. We've been wanting to get engaged, and since I'm an immigrant, we wanted to expedite the civil ceremony for legal reasons. So, he finally tells them over phone. Their reaction was that since I'm not born Jewish, he will be exiting the Jewish community by marrying me, and that they don't/will not ever accept this since I'm not Jewish. They didn't even congratulate, ask for details, nothing. We waited a few months, he asked them again. Same response.
He is a very kind and good son, and I am heartbroken for him, and heartbroken for myself. I don't have family in the U.S., and thought his family could be mine. I am a very inclusive person, and so I'm really struggling with how to navigate this.
I came to r/atheist for a reason (and not r/muslim or r/jewish haha). I would appreciate any kind advice.
In many cases, I've noticed how people who follow religions justify/protect their own religion by simply stating that they weren't real members of their religion, which is in my opinion harmful and off bad taste. I've noticed this trend in one religion more than the others but I personally believe in not feeding into biases and am making an effort to write about this experience from religion as a whole. I've noticed how whenever there was something that a group of people from any religion have done wrong (terrorism, slavery, caste systems, genocide etc.) other members from the same group state that they are not true members of their religion. It makes it easy to whitewash a religion and make it seem that these people choose to perform these morally 'immoral' acts on their own accord and not due to religion.
I recently was hospitalized at a baker act facility for suicide attempt. I was there only a week. While there the charge nurse asked me if I was suicidal. I said "yes." She asked me if I prayed. I told her "No I was an atheist." She started telling me "you should accept Jesus so you won't have such thoughts." Every day she would come up to me and lecture me about "finding Jesus." She even told me I would "be sent to hell for being an nonbeliever." To me preaching religion at a hospital by a worker especially a mental hospital is so wrong. There are people that are in the hospital because of religious trauma.
As scrolling through this sub will show you, there are new news stories every day that begin with "Pastor jailed" and every single one of them is for the same thing.
Christians will tell you that when a Christian is put behind bars, it's for "I WUZ JUST PREECHING THE WORD OF JEZUSS REELY NICE AND THAN OBAMA AND HILLERY SENT THERE THUGS TO ATACK ME RELLY NEED UR PRAYERS AND DONATIONS KTHXBYE." Of course, in real life, when a Christian is put behind bars, it's for "Remember, little Billy, if you tell anyone I did this to you, God will send you to Hell."
What's even more laughable is the videos Christians make where they role play and act out what the "end times" are going to be like, and they pretend jackbooted thugs working for the Antichrist (by which they mean the Democrats) beat them up and drag them away for having a Bible in public, or how they have to hide down in the basement of an abandoned building to have Bible study, because all of society has turned against them. What makes it most laughable is that while they catastrophize about this happening to them, they're actively conspiring to do that to everyone else right fucking now.
Nobody ever talks about the fact that most homeless shelters are run by religious organizations. Many of which such as rescue missions and gospel missions are Baptist based and require the attendance of a religious service prior to be allowed to sleep in the shelter.
Many liberal democratic politicians talk about religious freedom, equality, and separating church and state while closing homeless encampments and forcing homeless people into religion based shelters that require attendance of their services. Sure, conservatives love this. But liberals ignore this reality.
Now mind you for the record, most Catholic shelters do not require this, but the baptist ones named missions do. If the government wants to force people into shelters, they need to not force religion on them. The ACLU should step in.
Source: I was homeless from 2008-2014
I use to believe in god very heavily, but over the course of id say about 2-3 years ive started to question the idea of “God”. And from my perspective I find it crazy that people will spend their whole life believing in something that lives in the sky and is “All loving” & “All caring” when that is not the case at all because if he did love us why would he put us here KNOWING humans would sin just for him to judge us when we die😂😂😂 makes absolutely no sense at all. I haven’t been to church in years and will never go back to that piece of shit exploitation. I just let my family think whatever they want because I truly always believed that when we die we just are sleep for eternity not that “Heaven” or “Hell” bullshit. Ikno if my grandparents were here they would be so pissed at me 😂😂😂 but welcome me to being an atheist. Please give feedback in the comments on my opinion and feelings. MUCH LOVE
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has convinced the Muskogee Public Schools system in Oklahoma to cancel a proposed prayer walk at a district middle school.
A concerned parent had informed the state/church watchdog that on Aug. 12, Muskogee 6th and 7th Grade Academy was planning to host a school-sponsored “prayer walk.” The academy distributed a flyer to parents promoting the event and inviting the community to gather at the school at 11 a.m. on that day for the prayer walk. An academy employee also sent parents an official message inviting them to “join us as we pray for our students, staff and families for what we know will be an amazing school year!”
FFRF insisted the district investigate the situation and ensure that the school refrained from organizing and promoting religious events going forward.
“Here, the academy is displaying blatant favoritism toward religion over nonreligion by organizing, promoting and encouraging student and family attendance at an on-campus prayer walk,” FFRF Staff Attorney Sammi Lawrence wrote.
The school district serves a diverse population that includes not only religious students, families, and employees, but nonreligious people and members of minority faiths. When Muskogee 6th and 7th Grade Academy organizes, promotes, and invites students and parents to “pray for our students and staff” at a school-sponsored prayer event, it sends an exclusionary message to students who are not religious as well as those who do not believe in the dominant religion. More than one-fourth of Oklahomans identify as religiously unaffiliated.
Thankfully, the district listened to FFRF’s reasoning and changed course.
Superintendent Jarod Mendenhall responded via email confirming that the district took corrective action.
“After reviewing the circumstances, the district has directed that the prayer walk be canceled immediately,” he wrote. “We have also directed that any social media posts promoting the event be removed and that the school communicate with parents regarding the cancellation.”
Mendenhall also verified that future school-sponsored activities would remain in compliance with the First Amendment and that the district would not organize or promote religious activities.
“It is encouraging to see a school district respond quickly when constitutional concerns are brought to its attention,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says. “The district made the right choice in canceling this school-sponsored prayer event. Students deserve to start the year off on the right foot.”
The FFRF Action Fund is naming Oklahoma superintendent candidate James Taylor its “Theocrat of the Week” for his Christian nationalist views.
Taylor, a Republican candidate in the Aug. 25 runoff for Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, is a longtime pastor who currently teaches U.S. history and government at Little Axe High School. The runoff winner will face Democrat Jennettie Marshall in November.
Taylor has declared that Christianity belongs in public schools, promoted Christian nationalist-aligned revisionist history and argued that women should live under male authority. Taylor’s campaign promises “faith, family, and leadership for Oklahoma schools.” His own writings reveal just how literally he means the “faith” part.
In his self-published book, “It’s Biblical, Not Political! How to Line Candidates Up Biblically,” Taylor argues that America was founded as a Christian nation, laments the end of school-sponsored prayer and bible reading and attacks Supreme Court decisions protecting the separation between state and church. He writes that it was once “not possible to separate Christianity from the classroom” and complains that today “every effort is made to make sure Christianity stays out of the classroom.” He blames the removal of the Ten Commandments from public schools for social ills ranging from shootings and theft to promiscuity and disrespect for authority.
His conclusion about Supreme Court decisions restricting government-sponsored religion is even more revealing: “As a believer in the saving grace of Jesus Christ, it is obvious that our Supreme Court is actually fighting against God.” “I read the back of the book,” Taylor adds, “and we win, and the United States Supreme Court will lose.” That is an alarming worldview for someone seeking to become the chief official overseeing Oklahoma’s public schools.
Taylor also publicly supported previous Oklahoma Superintendent Ryan Walters’ efforts to inject biblical content into the state’s social studies standards. Oklahoma Voice reported after the June primary that Taylor supported Walters’ pro-bible standards, which have since been discarded and rewritten.
Taylor has defended emphasizing the bible in public schools by claiming America’s laws and founding came from “Judeo-Christian principles.” He has also complained that schools supposedly favor Islam over Christianity: “The students are encouraged to wear Muslim clothing and to write a prayer to Allah under the guise of teaching religious tolerance. Yet the same school will not allow a Christmas tree or Nativity scene in that same classroom.”
Taylor’s theocratic views extend well beyond public education.
In his book, Taylor argues that women require male authority to fulfill God’s purposes for their lives. God never intended a woman to be without “a male supervisor that is directly God or God’s vice president, man,” Taylor has written.
“She must be under some male pattern authority in order for her to achieve all of God’s purposes for her life,” he adds. “When you have dominion, you have to have hierarchy.”
Taylor’s book also condemns abortion and same-sex marriage, and tells Christians that God will hold them accountable for their political choices. He writes that “God is paying attention to what we support” and offers his book as a guide for evaluating political candidates by biblical standards. The cover makes the message difficult to miss: It features an American flag, a bible and rifle ammunition.
Taylor was fired by Oklahoma City Public Schools in 2021 after refusing to comply with the district’s mask requirement during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Oklahoma public education has only recently emerged from the tenure of Ryan Walters, whose administration repeatedly attempted to use public schools to advance Christian nationalist policies. Taylor’s rhetoric threatens a return to the same fundamental mistake: treating public schools as instruments for advancing one religious worldview.
The Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction leads the state Department of Education and chairs the State Board of Education, giving the office enormous influence over curriculum, academic standards and the education of hundreds of thousands of public school students. Those students include Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics and students from countless other religious and nonreligious backgrounds. Their public schools belong equally to all of them. The Constitution, not Taylor’s bible, governs those schools.
For his insistence that Christianity belongs in public school classrooms, his attacks on Supreme Court decisions protecting church-state separation, his declaration that women require male authority, and his vision of politics and education as subordinate to biblical dictates, the FFRF Action Fund names James Taylor its “Theocrat of the Week.”
Like someone was telling stuff about judgment day and I said I simply don’t understand religion, am I bad person if they got offended by that, I meant no harm I simply don’t understand what they are saying.
Title.
Everyone knows Satan as "the adversary", as his name literally translates to. We know that he "fell from heaven" according to the bible, and so is a fallen angel in that sense.
However, I don't remember ever encountering the name Lucifer other than some Babylonian king in the OT, the book of which I do not remember.
The FFRF Action Fund is naming Tennessee congressional candidate and secular content creator Kristi Burke its “Secularist of the Week” for her laudable journey out of evangelical Christianity.
Burke, better known online as “Jezebel Vibes,” recently wonthe Democratic nomination for Tennessee’s 1st Congressional District and will face incumbent Rep. Diana Harshbarger, who once asked for God to get rid of everyone in politics who doesn’t share her faith, in the Nov. 3 general election.
Long before becoming a candidate for Congress, Burke built an online community around something deeply familiar to many nonreligious Americans: questioning the beliefs she had been taught and finding a way forward after leaving them behind. She has used this to engage in highly compelling advocacy for critical thinking, secular government and resistance to Christian nationalism.
Burke, who describes herself as an “ex-Christian/agnostic atheist,” began questioning her evangelical faith at 19. As “Jezebel Vibes,” she has created videos aimed at supporting people questioning or deconstructing Christianity, approaching religious claims with critical thinking, empathy and, as she puts it, “a little snark.” But as Christian nationalism has become increasingly intertwined with American politics, Burke’s focus has expanded beyond deconstruction.
“Authoritarianism isn’t just a church problem, it’s a political one,” she writes. “We’re watching authoritarianism rise, democracy weaken, and fundamentalist ideology shape our laws.”
Her response has been to encourage her audience not simply to recognize those forces, but to get involved in resisting them.
In 2025, Burke attended a town hall held by Harshbarger intending to ask the congresswoman about Medicaid cuts. Security removed Burke from the event as she attempted to question the member of Congress. Friends and neighbors subsequently encouraged Burke to run herself.
“I said no, I was not interested — I would rally behind anyone who ran,” Burke later recalled. “The deadline got closer and closer, and finally I said let’s do it. I jumped right into it. It was a very last minute decision.”
Burke has framed the decision as an extension of the same questions that have animated her secular activism: Who holds power, how is that power used and what can ordinary people do when institutions fail to represent them?
“The system was designed so your pissed-off neighbor could go into Congress and write legislation,” Burke has said. “It was not designed on corporate checks or special interests.”
Burke’s candidacy is particularly noteworthy for the secular community because openly atheist and agnostic Americans remain dramatically underrepresented in elected office. Burke is running in a heavily Republican region. Still, regardless of the election outcome, her candidacy adds a nonreligious voice to a political system in which such perspectives have historically been scarce.
Burke’s evolution from “Jezebel Vibes” to congressional candidate illustrates why secularism matters far beyond debates about theology. Deconstruction begins with permission to ask questions. Secular democracy depends on the same principle. “Let’s ask the hard questions,” Burke says, “and fight for something better — together.”
For building a community that empowers people to question religious dogma, speaking frankly about her own journey out of evangelical Christianity, confronting the political threat posed by Christian nationalism and bringing a freethinking worldview into the race for Congress, the FFRF Action Fund names Kristi Burke, aka Jezebel Vibes, its “Secularist of the Week.”
Hey everyone. I’m working on a writing project/book exploring experiences from the 80s and 90s, I am specifically focusing on people who were heavily involved in church leadership, ministry, or service and ended up facing deep betrayal or fallout from the very place they gave their time to.
Having gone through my own experiences with this, I know how heavy and isolating it can feel.
If you lived through something similar back then and are open to sharing your story, I’d love to hear it. Feel free to comment below or shoot me a direct message if you prefer privacy. All names and identifying details will remain 100% anonymous."
For example, I have schizophrenia, and I know that if a good God existed , he would have given me perfect health instead of me being severely ill.
So why do Christians who are sick not realize that their God is at fault for them being sick? Why do they continue to praise Jesus? How did they not come to the logical conclusion that maybe God is not good?
I cannot rule out the possibility of an evil God/creator existing, but I also can't say I fully believe he is real, its 50/50 for me.
I hate it when christians say that there were thousands of manuscripts about Jesus and that proves he existed and I believe Julius Caesar was real even tho there are only a handful of manuscripts about him.