i’m an atheist, i do not believe in god. i want that to be very clear. i don’t know if this is the proper subreddit for this but i am losing my mind and i don’t have the courage to share this to my loved ones or get help because they’re religious and i just sound ridiculous and it’s not making sense.

ok, it started off when i was journaling about how miserable i am and i wrote about the lack of meaning in life and about how i feel like a machine and not a person, and then i just out of nowhere began writing about god, and how he must be controlling me or punishing me, except he cannot control me due to free will (and the fact he’s not real) and so he must be punishing me. and then within an hour i had fully spiralled and genuinely was ready to commit to christianity and surrender my life to god in a frenzy. thankfully, the next day i was a bit more rational. but this was 3-4 days ago. since then i have had so many thoughts on the topic, but i can also realise this could be due to mental health, except now i’m having these internal battles inside my mind that look similar to:

“i am being punished or tortured by something, the most rational thing would be for god to be controlling me, but i have free will, so i must be getting punished, but god loves me and he just wants me to repent, buti don't believe in god, and i don't know why i'm even thinking this, i must be going mad, but how can i be sure?? i may be going mad due to the absence of god in my life! oh i am so tainted and full of sin, but that is exactly what the devil would say! am i being possessed by demons??? i must repent now but i cannot! i am so evil, why can't i believe in god?? the devil is holding me back. i have to save my soul, i will burn in eternal darkness”.... and so on.

i do not believe in god, yet i am having these thoughts or whatever it is non stop. i’ve resorted to attempting to pray, reading the gospel, what not. just to stop these thoughts and i feel like i’m going MAD. genuinely wtf am i meant to say? “i’m having thoughts of god calling me to repent and trying to save me so i don’t burn in hell” no one’s going to take this seriously. i sound ridiculous, foolish, and stupid. and my thoughts are very contradictory. i cannot logic with this. i am going mad, truly going mad.

Living in a society where people can't accept different beliefs or ways of thinking is exhausting. They try to bring you down by bullying you. I feel like I can never share my thoughts with anyone. Once, I shared my opinion about God, and my friend took a screenshot and shared it with the class. The next day, everyone started making fun of me. They made me feel like I was some mentally unstable person trying to look cool by speaking against God.

Even some of my closest friends ask me to join their religion and make fun of me by saying, "I want to help you. I don't want to see you suffer in hell." They try to gather people around me and say things just to make themselves feel superior. I think people are often more proud of believing in something they never really chose or questioned for themselves.

And my new college friends are some of the most inhumane people I've met, yet they call themselves religious. They claim to be protectors of their religion, but their actions are the complete opposite of what their religion teaches. And when you question them, they justify their behaviour by saying that God gave them free will.

For example, I was with a friend when a group of girls walked past us. He stared at them and made a perverted comment. When I asked him why he always stared at girls and made such comments, he said, "God gave us eyes, so we can stare at whoever we want." And this guy has a girlfriend! His social media stories are always about God.

It's like they treat us as if we're demons in society just because we have different perspectives and ways of thinking. They act as though they're going to heaven simply because they follow a religion.

😭Why can't people understand that there might be no heaven or hell after death?

I think it's very important to teach kids to be kind and compassionate first of all and to think for themselves but I also am of the belief that there is absolutely no way for anyone to KNOW for sure what is or isn't out there and it has essentially turned reality into a religious sandbox throughout human history. If it was actually possible for anyone to actually prove any of this then it would, to intelligent open-minded individuals, change the way the world operates. I think that anyone, religious or not, who claims they know the secrets of the universe, is extremely arrogant as the most intelligent minds in human history have tried for thousands of years to figure these things out with little to no success. I have seen that it is extremely rare for an atheist to have that attitude though. I also sometimes wonder why any of it matters, because we'll never know and regardless of whichever group of people is right or wrong, the current reality is not affected in the slightest. And don't even get me started on how modern Christianity has essentially become the opposite of everything Jesus taught in the biblical gospels but personally, if I ever have kids of my own, I think that I'll try to minimize their exposure to any religious/spiritual beliefs for or against any of it and then once they turn 13 have them read the Bible, another religious text, and something like what Charles Darwin wrote, word for word, and have them write 1 page of their opinions on each and then we'd have a conversation, or series of conversations, about what they read and what they think and then I would do something special for them that they want like go on a trip or buy them a pony or something idk lol.

I took a religions of the world class in college, but apart from a vague overview of the worlds religions I've never understood much deeper beyond my own catholic family's roots. Would the spectrum be from liberal to conservative be Buddhism on one end and radical Islam on other?

It doesn't seem like being Hindu or a follower of Confucius is all that great either. As a bisexual man, I'm wondering which would stone me to death or imprison me vs being okay with me coexisting with them.

Anyone have any insight?

EDIT: I'll be honest, I think everyone lied on this question and just wasn't being real. I learned zero from these bullshit answers.

I didn't believe in god, thought about Jehovah's witness then Christianity, then I was like damn am I being retarded so much indoctrination to a lifetime of fear and anxiety 🫪 fuck all of that I want my peace

Hi, 18(F) here! For some background I am chronically ill and a poc, all factors really led me to atheism. My family is all Evangelical Christians, they have a whole family history of beginning a church and such so it’s a lot for me. I mostly keep my beliefs to myself, but some times I try to soft launch what I think to my older sister but it turns out she’s quite religious as well, which surprised me, so I had to just suck up my thoughts. Recently I bought some stuff to help calm my nervous system like a little plushie that reminds me to breathe (etc). It’s was fine at first, for like two months, but today my mom came into my room, carefully telling me that kinda stuff is Buddhist and although it looks cute, it’s like the devil.

I literally want to die. Idk why but every time my family talks about god I wanna kms, I know I won’t do it, but it just makes me really want to because I feel like that’s the only way they’ll ever understand. And why do I want them to understand so badly? Because I love them but also because they give me so much financial stability, for like the rest of my life, idk how to get out of situation like this when it gives me so much more of a boost. I’m in a circle, an infinite circle. I’m so different than everyone but yet I’m also the “favorite” and I feel like I need to uphold that as well. I just want to die, but I won’t, I know I won’t. I probably should just get out more and make new friends.

When I came out at 17 I was grilled by my parents HARD. it wasn't fun at all. It felt like an interrogation for sure. In your case, have you ever had family really grill you over it?

Carolyn Hax: Mom sees daughter’s atheism as too serious a decision at 16

https://www.washingtonpost.com/advice/2026/10/18/carolyn-hax-mom-sees-daughters-atheism-too-big-decision-16/

Dear Carolyn: I am a stay-at-home mother of

four who has tried to raise my family under the

same strong Christian values that I grew up

with. Therefore, I was shocked when my oldest

daughter, "Emily," suddenly announced she

rad "given up believing in God" and decided ta

"come out as an atheist. She said she was

'happy" in her decision and that it just "feli

right." She no longer wishes to attend church

speak to the pastor or even to participate in

family prayers.

I love my daughter dearly, but I am troubled

by this turn of events. She has never seriously

misbehaved or otherwise given me cause tc

worry before this. Emily insists she is old

2nough to make up her own mind, but I simph

do not think a girl of 16 has the maturity to

make such a life-changing decision. Our pastor

cautions me that putting too much pressure on

her now might cause her to become even more

entrenched in her thinking

How can I help my daughter see that she is

making a serious mistake with her life if she

chooses to reject her God and her faith? Can I

ïust chalk this up to teenage rebellion,

something she's bound to outgrow, or do yor

suppose this a precursor to some deeper

psychological problem?

• God-Fearing Mom

God-Fearing Mom: Please tell me it's not

either-or.

And please also tell me what vou would have

Emily do - pretend she believes? Fake-pray?

This is the fundamental problem with religion

as a family value instead of a personal one

Faith isn't in the teachings or rituals of the

group. It's in the individual's belief - with one

after another after another combining to create

a religion.

Parents can and should teach their beliefs and

values, but when a would-be disciple stops

believing, it's not a decision" or "choice" tc

reject church or family or tradition or virtue or

whatever else has hitched a cultural ride with

faith. The only choice is between living their

truth by admitting nonbelief, or faking it so as

not to upset the folks/scare the horses/torpedo

electability to national office.

So Ill ask again, what would you have

nonbelievers do? Lie? Even people who want

and try to believe just ... can't sometimes. Or

don't. I'm living proof. (No nagging

psychological problems to pin it on, either.)

This isn't to say every case of disbelief is

permanent or even real. Your daughter may well

be in a questioning phase, trying on personas,

declaring age-appropriate independence from

you, and she might take years to find answers

that satisfy her enough to stick.

One of those answers might be that you raised

her to think deeply and live honestly, and this is

just where those laudable values unexpectedly

brought her

Another might be that she didn't necessarily

want to take such a big leap, but you've

presented all your kids with such a narrow

definition of goodness that their only choices

are to conform fullv or leave the fold entirely

and she'd come back in if you gave her a little

more room to find goodness in her own way.

I mean answer in a realistic way, not a wishfully

thought, "I just want her to embrace God

because it's the right thing to do' way

Skepticism is no less personal than faith

Accordingly, I speak only for myself, but I didn't

throw out what my childhood, including my

church, taught me; I just apply it to a secular

life.

To see other possibilities, please bring your

values - all of them - to this riddle, plus your

love for your daughter, as well as further insight

from your pastor and others who can bring

different perspectives.

Also, take away any obstacles to seeing your

daughter's goodness fully -- including your

disappointment that she isn't turning out just as

you've envisioned. Kids never do: at least. not

when your vision is any more specific than, say,

"genuine, brave and kind."

Note from Carolun: I've written an advice

column at The Post since 1997. If vou want

advice, you can send me vour questions here

believe it or not, every submission gets read). If

vou don't want to miss a column, vou can sign

up for my dailv newsletter. I also do a live chat

with readers every Friday: You can submit a

guestion in advance or ioin me live. Follow me

on Facebook and Instagram.

I consider myself an Atheist, but I study physics and I have come to have a passionate understanding of the philosophy that “we are the universe experiencing itself”. This was solely based on Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics.

What's this obsession Ex Christians have with Buddhism and Hinduism? I see alot of them glorified them even though alot of them didn't even read a book about it. I refuse to take a stance on a religion before studying it carefully, especially that as an ex Muslim that I have seen already of ex Christians romanticizing Islam, I try to be careful not to glorify a religion without studying it carefully especially if it's the reason of someone's misery.

me (18f) and my bf (18m) have been together for 10 months. our bond is really intense, we told each other our deepest traumas, shared both good and bad times together and even after nasty arguments chose to stick together. he’s the first person i have genuinely liked and be in a relationship with him while i am also his first girlfriend. we also lost our virginity to each other and our first kiss.

although we are the same ethnicity we come from different countries. i’m an atheist while he is buddhist. he loves his dad a lot, and his dad demands a buddhist girl from the same country as him to get married too. his dad also caught us together once in public and implied to him that if we decide to get married, his dad won’t approve of me. for my bf, his dad’s approval is very important.

so my bf told me his future has two options, he either becomes a monk (his dream job) or he marries the girl his dad chooses (because he doesn’t want to be alone with no kids) both options would result in him leaving me and he has told me explicitly to my face that i am not in his future. i feel appalled that he would marry another girl after me or not fight his dad for us to get married, it’s as if our time together means nothing to him. but at the same time, he has decided to stay with me until the day comes where he has to make a choice between an arranged marriage and being a monk. he cannot make a decision right now because he is unsure about what his future self would want. i feel really angry that religion is coming in the way like a nuisance. i don’t know what i should do because i genuinely love him.

I’ve noticed that in discussions about morality, especially with Muslims, a common argument is that humans cannot independently determine right and wrong because morality must come from God.
But here’s what I find interesting: determining that God exists, that Islam is the true religion, and that its moral teachings are genuinely divine all require human reasoning and judgment.

So if human reasoning is considered too subjective or unreliable to establish morality, why is that same reasoning considered reliable enough to identify its supposedly objective source?

I’m not suggesting that identifying the source of morality and establishing moral principles are identical. But both rely on human reasoning, so what justifies trusting it in one case while dismissing it in the other?

Has anyone actually used this line of reasoning against religious believers in debates about morality? I personally haven’t come across it, and I’m curious whether it’s been raised before and how believers typically respond to it.

Of course, heaven used to be beyond the sky (space) and Hell was down underground where the lava and fire was. Now that we know space is just space and there’s nothing underground, where are these places?

Do they really think there is a parallel universe around us, or a fourth dimension? What is their description of the location of heaven and hell?

An atheist by definition does not believe in a God. By that definition, I can identify as an atheist.

A friend asked me why I do not perform black magic, summon a demon and make a contract with it.

I said no because i was afraid that i might actually end up cursing someone

I should not believe in the devil or a deity that wards away the devil

But after all the Epstein drama of worshipping baal and stuff im confused

Is evil i.e. witchcraft, ritual real?

Edit: guys don't slime me out im new and dumb im trying 😃

I moved to Europe from Asia last year and feeling a bit lonely. And I am quite upset recently for losing a few long term friends who also moved here. I cant stand their right wing and religious beliefs. Like supporting Trump/ right wing politicians and saying they hate DEI etc, and if they are christians, they would quote bible verses at the same time.

I tried to make some new friends online who are liberal but somehow they are very supportive of Islam. They would say things like European countries banning hijab in public is arrogant and misogynistic because many muslim women love hijab. A gay guy said muslims are not homophobic because he has hooked up with many muslim men. …I am speechless.

I think i need to make some friends who are atheists. Any suggestions where and how?
I have been to my local secular humanist group meeting, the people there are nice but I dont know how to say in person that i want to find a friend to message/chat daily without sounding cringey. I hope there are online place for making online atheist friends? this sub does not look like intended for that purpose.

Any suggestions are appreciated. Apologies if my English is not good.

Just simply asking- when someone says “yes Im religious” what do you think that means about the person? Im curious cause half the people i hear think it’s one thing, half think another. I don’t want to influence the answers so I’ll explain more later.

I have recently lost some people in my life while coming to terms with the fact that I am Agnostic. Essentially I believe that when a sentient living being dies they do not have a soul that exists beyond their valenced mental experiences. Who they were as an individual will never exist again. Maybe there's an extremely off-chance that someone's conscious self could mentally reincarnate in some way and there would be a mind-blowing scientific explanation for it, but as for now I highly doubt it.

I'm guessing that death is a pretty major topic being Atheist/Agnostic, as it is a strong instinct for any animal pretty much lol. I'm curious about other people's thoughts, opinions and experiences with death and grief. What does it mean to you? What is death to you metaphorically/literally? What meaning have you taken out of life?

For me I don't think I would feel this much loss compared to when I believed in a divine god and an afterlife. This fleeting existence has made every living thing and object that exists extraordinary to me. While sad it's kind of interesting and cool to grow this way.

Hello everyone, I've been with my girlfriend for around 3 years now, and recently I've sort of helped her move away from the horrible facets and brainwashing of religion, specifically Christianity. She now has entered that very realm of conscious realization, the point of no return, whenever one realizes there is no-one responsible for creation. I've experienced it myself, and I have felt disconnected from my loving Christian family because of it. However, she seems to be slightly down over it, maybe not because she fears death, but because of how happy the Christian thought-world can be, one of a strong illusion of connection and fellowship, and rationality, a thought-world in which you grew up with, and never questioned. I'm writing because I feel guilty in some way, because it seems as if she was happy in her Christian thought-world (or if some certain ways), and I feel as if, because of me, that strong zealot mindset and happy thought-world is gone. Perhaps it's temporary, with university stress and all, but she just doesn't feel like her old self. No longer will she not question her families decisions or thought-process, etcetera. Having to live with the fact that her and my parents don't know we are atheists, it's rough.

I want to mention one last thing. Sometimes I really miss that thought-world. I don't want to return to Christianity, but I want to worship something, like nature, the westerly sun rays, something like that. So many human civilizations have worshipped something, good or bad, but it just seems as if I'm missing something—that sort of innate human tendency to appreciate something deeply. Perhaps nature.

Thanks

As some may know, a priest in Ecuador was killed by a giant crucifix that fell from a wall onto his head, which was broadcast livestream. Very sad indeed. It would seem to me that such an event happening in a church, and involving the church's most important symbol/idol -- cross with a statue of crucified dead Jesus -- would cause a Christian to pause and reconsider the fairytale they believe in. But judging from comments online, it seems that religious folks just use this as a sort of twisted affirmation of their beliefs. If any of you were ever religious, was there an event such as this that changed your mind about the sky-daddy wizard tale, and if so, what was it?

““Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭82‬:‭3‬ ‭KJVAE‬‬
Even according to their own book they are committing evil. It’s no different than Christian nationalism.

You're all such dirty lil sinners. Irredeemable. However I really don't want to send you to the torture chamber I created. It's ok though because I've found a way. I've found the only way I can forgive you Is if you all get together and torture and kill my only son. Sounds cool right? The great thing is that once you've killed my son I can continue to love you again and anything you all do from now on you're all good. If you're a rapist a murderer or whatever you can avoid my torture chamber because you killed my son. All you have to do is believe me. What do you say?

My muslim ex (M25) dumped me (F24) 4 months ago, for starters we've been together for 4 years, and I've known him 2 years prior to that, what started as a casual fwb situation blossomed into the best human connection I've ever had with anyone, he was literally my ride or die, we did everything together, he treated me with utmost love and respect and spoiled me rotten, last June, he randomly sat me down and told me that he can't do this anymore, that he's been feeling so much guilt over the past years, he said he can't afford going to hell just to keep what we have, and the only solution would be for us to get married and even then it'd still be a pseudo-haram marriage because I'm an atheist and he's not allowed to marry me, i was honestly dumbfounded, and i started trying to reason with him, I've made it clear since the beginning that i don't want to get married, or have kids, I've always told him that I'm not meant to be anyone's wife, and at first he tried to talk me into it but then he just stopped and i thought he came to respect my choice, so the fact that he put me in a situation where i have to either marry him or leave him filled me with so much rage, anger got the best of me and i started yelling at him, he got all worked up too and although he didn't scream back, he still expressed what he was feeling and i couldn't do anything but cry at that point because i didn't know he was holding all that guilt and shame and bitterness inside of him, i felt like i was making him miserable, and that i ruined his life, he kept asking why the idea of marrying him grosses me out this much, and he even teared up too, which actually killed me inside, he wouldn't even let me console him, he then told me if i ever changed my mind i know where to find him, and i haven't heard for him ever since, i don't know if I'm making the right call, idk if my own convictions are worth losing the one connection i thought I'll have forever.

I hate this. There will be a political debate, and person A will bring up god or the bible to support their argument, and then person B will attempt to show how that’s not what that religion says and how religion actually proves person b’s argument correct. Why is that acceptable? Your religion holds no place In a political debate. No matter what you believe, your god has no say in peoples rights. Person B should just shut down the religious topic immediately, not continue to entertain it.

here's why! as an anti-theist from my muslim family, you should NOT even think about coming out. muslims have the allowance to kill you for being an apostate! don't risk your life over coming out, I know it can be hard to do so, but it would be better to be safe than sorry. so.. DON'T COME OUT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!