I’ve been wrestling with some big questions about religion and the nature of God, and I’d love to hear different perspectives. Here’s what’s been on my mind:

If a God exists and is all-powerful, why wouldn’t they make their existence undeniably clear to everyone? Why require faith when they could provide everlasting evidence that would leave no room for doubt?

And if this life is a test, why would an all-powerful God need to test people in the first place? Is it just to see who follows their teachings, and if so, why is that necessary?

Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do innocent people, including children, suffer from diseases, poverty, and early deaths? Why do wars happen in the name of religion?

If God is righteous and just, why is there so much injustice? Why does evil seem to thrive while good people often face tragedy? And why is God silent in the face of such suffering?

I’m not trying to attack anyone’s beliefs, but these questions make it hard for me to reconcile the idea of a benevolent, all-powerful deity with the reality of the world. I’d genuinely love to hear how others make sense of these issues, whether you’re religious, spiritual, or skeptical.

I'm sure this has been posted here before, but people who are hardcore believers, even those who are not part of any religion, seriously drive me nuts.

I consider myself many things. An agnostic, an atheist, a Humanist, but I fit in a lot with the Spiritual Naturalist movement. That said, I don't have any god beliefs or anything supernatural.

Someone pointed out to me recently that I because I don't believe in anything that isn't proven, as I would rather KNOW as opposed to blindly believing something, that my thought process is extremely close minded.

...Seriously? And this was coming from someone who wasn't a Christian, Muslim or Jew, either. A Deist. I've ran into all sorts of god believers that are just NUTS when it comes to their views IMO, sometimes almost even worse than people of religion.

Why are people like this?

Whenever I come across vids like Christians and Muslims debating trying to debunk each other or “own” each other I find it very incredibly hilarious.... Mate each point u are making to discredit each other can be applied to yourselves as well. The level of cognitive dissonance I tend to find in their conversations is hilarious like u just made a point that discredits your own religion as well.

By ( mind ) i mean logic , emotions, and every thing our mind can process.

Is there any certainly proof to stop worrying about metaphysical entity/s existence?

If the possibility of existence to such entity/s is 1% how can i be in consistency with my mind ?

If atheism is denying the existence of such entity/s without certainty then doesn't it become a fundamentalism?

And why atheism dont accept the concept of holy ?

No talk about religion , just metaphysics.

I'm so fed up. I'm surrounded by conservative, republican, Christians. I'm so mad about the election. I want to run away but I can't. Typically we would celebrate Christmas, I have tons of decorations, we'd do presents and hang out with my extended family. This year I want to flip everyone off and say F* You to your religion.

All this to say... any suggestions to internally say F* You this Christmas? Any vacation ideas that involve us (husband, 13yo son, and me) ditching my extended family, away from any resemblance of Christmas?

I don't have faith in God or think of them like the others think about them, but I do think that "God" exists but not as omnipotent, omniscient or omnipresent, I think of them as higher beings who is more advanced then us in both physically and mentally. I think of them as - let's take the example of ai and humans, we created the ai and we operate them and also has the power to destroy them completely, so in the perspective of ai we are like God to them, but if a ai were to gain human qualities and a physical form here, will it still considered humans as "Gods"? I think of humans and "gods" like this. So, I wanted to know where I belong to, am I a atheist?

I want to tell them, not because I have to, but because im tired of them giving me religious sermons every time my life goes not great.

I am tired of them telling me to find a church, or to pray every morning.

I am financially independent from them. I do not even live super close to them or anything (5 hours away, and in a different country).

I dont know how to word it like at all.

Especially because sometimes i just want to feel my feelings, not to hear that "god has a plan" and to "pray the pain away", mainly because it means nothing to me and is not soothing or anything at all

I will do a presentation in university about the origin of the four gospels in the New Testament. As I want to do a critical approach too, I wanted to ask you if you had any interesting ideas about contradictions, inconsistencies or errors within the four gospels.

There is a claim that spirituality is important and that it can exist even absence of religion. The argument for why spirituality is important is that it gives calming peace to both hearts and minds, even though it isn't tangible.

An example of spirituality without being religious that I can think of is AURORA. Though not confirmed, AURORA isn't religious but her songs have spiritual/divine imagery, references and tone that is just sublime and beautiful to bask in. Her songs stood out because I feel in comparison to other artists that I've listened to, they all feel material concerns and lack the abstract spiritual feel like in AURORA's songs.

With all that said, is spirituality important to you as an irreligious person? Why or why not? If so, how do you attain it? How do you maintain it?

Greetings again. I'm Muslim and I just watched Candace Owens podcast with Patrick Bet-David. This is tangents; but they talked about moral behaviours and traditions such as feminism is bad, family structure is important (such as having a father as the leader of the household) and condemning morally degrading behaviours like women selling their bodies, talking about sexual acts and how in the end they become miserable as they age, no longer young and beautiful. That they turn to political and social cause while biological triumphs sociology. How when they have family, their kids will see this and suffer the humiliating consequence. They use Nina Agdal as a case study for this and say that had Logan Paul not been there, she would've been in a worse place today.

This got me into thinking how do irreligious people form their moral values and behaviours? Religion provides moral frameworks for their followers to live and adhere by.

Not the obvious ones like respect, kindness and compassion but morals such as sexual deviancy/careers (as what's mentioned above) and traditions (like women don't need men, men bad)?

How do irreligious people form their moral frameworks? Do you form it through religion, literature and philosophy? Is it individual-level and not for the collective society? How do you pinpoint what is moral or not? Where do you draw the line that you stick with your moral principles and not stray away from it? How sure are you regarding your moral frameworks? Does it evolve overtime? Is it relativist? Is it based on universal agreement that the majority approved?

Edit:

Just to be clear, I'm here to learn more and understand, not as an attack or bashing against irreligious people. There is no ill-intent or disrespect here.

Greetings all. This is my first time posting on this sub. For disclaimer, I am a non-practising Muslim, in that I don't pray 5 times a day, but still a Muslim nonetheless.

I have been doing some readings on different religions and the role of it in our lives. One of its main roles is to give our lives meaning, purpose and inner peace. I can understand how irreligious people can give their own lives meaning and purpose without belief in higher power; but what about inner peace? Idk how other religions do it, but in Islam, the only sure way to attain and maintain inner peace is through 5 salahs every day. I admit, even I struggled with attaining inner peace time to time absence of salahs.

What about irreligious people? How do you attain and maintain inner peace? Do you need inner peace at all? Thank you.

Hi guys. I have a genuine question. You know how there's like so many atheist non practicing jews (they could even be in the millions idk). Now what I'm wondering is why doesn't the atheist non practicing jewish people fully embrace atheism? For example I have seen muslim born people in the US, even forget that they are muslim, you wouldn't even know they were born muslim because they act and look like the stereotypical american person, the Christian atheists are the same or worse, they don't hang on to their catholicism or protestantism, they completely abandon it all.

But jewish atheists would still be like "You know that I'm actually jewish, right?" even when they're not practicing the religion or partaking in the culture, language, customs, religion or anything, and they even outright say they don't even believe in it. which is just so weird to me. Now some atheist Christians and Muslims might occasionally partake in their culture like Christmas and Eid, but they would not wanna claim being Christian or Muslim. Any atheist who does not believe in god anymore, would not wanna be called Christian or Muslim any longer so why does the atheist jews still wanna hang on to this identity and call themselves jewish despite not subscribing to anything that Judaism or the jewish culture offers???

Now to my understanding when someone says to me "I'm Jewish" I always assume they mean "I practice the Judaism religion" or at least I assume that they partake in the jewish culture/identity but they don't. Some ppl drop it racially like "I'm black" but jewish is a religion/ethnicity/culture and not a race or genetic attribute because there's black and white jewish ppl. So i don't understand the whole thing. I don't understand why being a jew is like a being in a very loyal tribe or a cult who you can't just leave (for some people) and not just like any other religion that you can just abandon whenever you wanted. Can someone explain this to me?

I can easily find a lot of Christians opposing believers being in relationships with non-believers, but I'm creating this thread to see positive stories of these kind of relationships. What do these relationships look like on a daily basis and in a bigger picture? What are the compromises made by both parties?

This debate made us look both stupid. It’s Halloween and I get drunk with my friends and then I run into the Christian evangelist. Now for background I know these Christians. I sit with them at lunch every now and then. And then I went up to them while I was absolutely hammered drunk, and started debating them on the fucking Bible. This is both very stupid but very funny at the same time. None of us won the debate. I was asking him for sources while i was borderline blackout, he really didn’t have a lot of evidence to bring up either. It was just stupid. Anyways I just wanted to get that out there.

What led me to make this post is that I was utilising azar to have a video chat/call with random people so I have fun, however, I had my country’s flag behind me, and since I’m from an Arabic country so the flag has a text states an Arabic sentence, it is “ Allahu Akbaar ” which means in English “ Allah is greater “ , however, while using the app, a random guy showed up, and we had a nice conversation and he asked me from what country I’m from, I told him guess my country and showed him the flag, after noticing the flag he stated “ Allahu Akbaar “ I was perplexed, I elucidated him that the majority of the citizens of the country are Muslims, but notwithstanding that fact, there are Christians, atheists, etc.. he said then what are you? I told him I’m an atheist, he commenced to apprise me that I’m wrong, and atheism is stupidity, I stated to him “ I have prayed to god, talked to him” but no response from him, he told me I wasn’t talking to god, I told him then guide me, show me how, he stated that he can not, and I must look up myself to see how, what a stupidity from him.

However, the reason I do not believe in god is the suffering I have in my life, has caused me to not to believe in such entity, I have been born in an Arabic ignorance primitive country, in a society that majority of its individuals are not educated and in full of ignorance, and misfortune, in a family that is worse than my country and my society, my family was full of conflicts, disputes, and cheating, my wretched mother used to use physical abuse against me since I was 7-8 years old, she has caused me love deprivation, moreover, she used to get men to the house and sleep with them, so my childhood was completely ravaged and detrimental, she kept ruining my life, because of her I was diagnosed with ocd and ptsd, and when I started to have consciousness about my life and my personality, I started to question myself only two questions, first why I am struggling with a prostitute mom? And being tortured by her? Second, why god decided to put me in that country among these people and caused me to live that life? It is unreasonable, why god did that? I mean was he punishing me? If so, is god that insane to punish a new born baby that has committed no sin? And cause him ocd and ptsd? And why god was not responding to my prays when I was praying? Some may tell you were praying to the wrong god, hold on! Why the f I have to pray in the first place? Isn’t god’s mistake to be born in that place among these people? Shouldn’t god be sorry and save me? I mean I do not get the origin reason, the main reason of god throwing me in that country and among these people, why god decided to torture me? Why god decided to ruin my childhood? And my teen-ages years, they were supposed to be full of fun, but contrary, they were full of pain and illnesses, why the suffering in first place?

Later in life, I realized that it is only one of two, whether there’s no god, and god’s conception was a play, or there’s a god, but he is psychopath as f because he likes to torture innocent people like me,

I see I have made no sin in my whole life to be awarded by ocd and ptsd and physical abuse! However, I decided that I’m not believing in god’s existence!

I know the truth about death. There is no afterlife, no existence. I guess that's an atheist view. However, how do you allow yourself to be the judge about the truth. One might say it's logical that there is no existence after death as there never was one before we were born. Well being an educated person you also have to admit that you can't verify this information, as you probably also forgot the moment you were born. Well what is true now? I don't really know either, but it may be unfair to claim the truth being a non-existent afterlife. Religion claims to know the truth as atheist do. I switched from being a true atheist do being an agonistic person. Both contrary views of the time after death could be true. So in the meantime concentrate on enjoying life.

EDIT: First of all thank you for all the answers. I highly appreciate the effort. Regarding the answers I may have to clarify my question. Why do you claim that there is nothing? As far as I understand, and the Campridge dictionary supports me, an atheist "believes" in no existence of god. So being an atheist is indeed a believe. There's also no person to be able to verify that god doesn't exist, as nothing (keeping a hermeneutic circle in mind) should be held 100% truthful for eternity. So a person claiming there is any kind of god has as much evidence as a person claiming there is no god. I hope you know what kind of argument I'm trying to make. I don't want to offend anyone :)

because there people at the school who have religious views against homosexuality and those views need to be respected however why should people have to follow rules based on a religion they don't believe and are they gonna ban pork to respect the views of Muslims are they gonna ban meat on fridays to respect the views of Catholics why should people be forced to follow rules based on a religion they don't believe

So I went to New York recently and I visited the Natural History museum, I was showing him the parts I was most interested in being the paleontologic section and the conversation spiraled into talking about bigger philosophical concepts which I always find interesting and engaging to talk to him about.

He and I disagree from time to time and this is one of those times, he’s more open to religion than I am so it makes sense but personally I just don’t see how this view makes sense.

He states that genesis is a general esoteric description of evolution and he uses the order of the creation of animals to make his point where first it’s sea animals then it’s land mammals then it’s flying animals.

Now granted that order is technically speaking correct (tho it applies to a specific type of animal those being flyers) however the Bible doesn’t really give an indication other than the order that they changed into eachother overtime more so that they were made separately in that order, it also wouldn’t have been that hard of a mention or description maybe just mention something like “and thus they transmuted over the eons” and that would have fit well.

I come back home and I don’t know what translation of the Bible he has but some versions describe the order is actually sea animals and birds first then the land animals which isn’t what he described and isn’t what scientifically happened.

Not just this but to describe flying animals they use the Hebrew word for Bird, I’ve heard apologetics saying that it’s meant to describing flying creatures in general including something like bats but they treat it like it’s prescribed rather than described like what makes more sense that the hebrews used to term like birds because of their ignorance of the variation of flight in the animal kingdom or that’s how god literally describes them primitive views and all?

As of now I’m not convinced that genesis and evolution are actually all that compatible without picking a different translation and interpreting it loosely but I’d like to know how accurate this view actually is, thoughts?

From Arab barometer, Middle east Muslim became even more religious than last decade and are more supportive of Islamic theocracy, I remember when apostate prophet posted the decline in 2019 and I got happy, but it has made a huge come back since then.

From latest Malaysian elections: Both Malay Muslim adult and Youth are voting more for Malaysian Islamic party (PAS) that supports for full Islamic theocracy of Malaysia, PAS even gain the most seats in recent elections, highest as it ever has. Surprisingly the trend of Malay Muslim youth are becoming more regressive and religious than before. Indonesia also having the same trend

Pakistani youth getting more religious and supportive of Islamic rule more than ever (world values survey)

With other things like 3-4 generation of Western Muslim immigrants are even more religious than their parents, and the victory of Taliban over Afghanistan. It’s seem that Political Islam and Islamism are really on the rise contrast to the trend of other religions that new generations are becoming less religious and are more tolerant.

I always thought that was because there's a decline in secret, but no! Even in central Asia, which is ruled by communist dictators who ban Hijab and beards, there's a still a rise in religiosity and people go to mosque and wear Hijab more than ever, despite them going to jail for that!

The only exception is Iran and even there the decline is in Shiaism while the Sunni percentage is increasing

The future of progressive Muslim or Ex-Muslim is really grim indeed. It’s just made me depressed. For me Muslim countries will never have a boom of atheism like in the west and they won’t achieve it in many decades after this.

Sorry for a long rant. Feel free to correct me. 👍

I'm a lifelong atheist and theatre guy. I saw Book of Mormon for the first time last night. It wasn't a terrible show, very much South Park humor, but damn....I really wish we had some other prominent musicals. Life of Brian got a concert treatment a few years ago but it never gained traction.

I felt like overall it had the South Park feeling of pretty high highs and really low lows. I can definitely see why if you were African you would hate this show. It's pretty fucking offensive and not in a way I find particularly fun or interesting.

I wish we had some broadway satire that lampooned religion but didn't rely on "I have maggots in my scrotum" as one of its strongest running gags.

(Again, not saying it shouldn't exist, I think there can be a strong connection made to this show and Candide. They are incredibly similar and this kind of satire has a place. I just wish it wasn't the only big show with atheistic themes out there)

Any suggestions for other plays or movies?

So I went to perform at the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles church in Costa Rica. Now I am an agnostic atheist always have been, religion and the way it works has always fascinated me plus it is a beautiful church with perfect acoustic range, Nessun Dorma is more than fitting and appropriate in this setting given how sublime of a piece it is.

I am critical of religion but I always try my best to stay informed before coming to a conclusion and I try not to ridicule because it tends to be a sign of ignorance and repels people away from what you need to say, whenever I go to churches I like looking around and asking around without trying to seem invasive and I also really appreciate the art (Catholics are really good at making their temples look immaculate).

So I asked some church leaders about confessions, I knew how they worked essentially but I wanted to know if they would do this with secular people and they basically responded:

“It matters not whether you are an atheist, agnostic, Jewish, Buddhist or any other religion if you come here with peace, love and a genuine need for help and advice we will provide it to you with the best of our abilities.”

I think this is nice and reassuring but it also made me kinda sad, most people nowadays need a hug and are struggling mentally and it sucks that church confessions are available to the wider public for free meanwhile you need to pay for therapy which is usually expensive.

For as much peace a church confession may give you if you are religious not all people like myself are spiritual in that way and need more tangible help and extensive assistance like therapy can provide, church leaders aren’t professional psychologists after all (tho I do imagine they must have studied a bit of it since a job where you hear people talk about their problems kind of inherently needs that understanding).

I don’t know if this may be a misplaced gripe and there are countries out there where therapy is just as free as confession but I feel it’s something worth thinking about, what do you think?

Almost my entire life I thought that it was silly to be praying to a non existent person.
My parents, especially my own mother brags to me about if I'm praying or not or if I have "faith" in the angels like St. Michael.
I always try to avoid giving a straight answer and I don't think things can keep going like this.
I'm 16 and I feel like if I ever tell her I'm not religious I would be forced to be kicked out of my own room. Or she would think I don't believe in Jesus because I'm a satanist.
I'm very scared but also tired

Hello!

So I've been in this sub for while now. Just reading, never posted. And I'm curious if your girlfriends husband, boyfriend or wives, are religious ? And if so, have they experienced a lack of belief?

To be honest I think I might get down voted for this, but here it goes: In my case, my husband is catholic. We both know each other's point of view in the subject. We debate about it as well, but we respect each other's opinion. Just to be clear, he's not the stereotypical religious fanatic. I mean he doesn't believe in Adan and Eve, or things like that or that God created the universe in 7 days. He believes in god, heaven and hell and prays. But at the same time he believes in Darwin's evolution theory, or the big bang, etc ...

However, after 11 years together, he said a couple weeks ago, that he's losing his faith. And honestly I don't even feel happy or relieve about it. I actually feel sad for him. I don't believe in this so I just can't help him to keep his faith, it's impossible for me, even if I would want to, It would sound so fake. But I want to help him go through this, I just don't know how. I don't want be insensitive, but at the same I just can't comprehend the feeling and I don't know what to stay.

We haven't talked about it since then, but I know the subject will come up again

Fyi: English is not my first language

I know technically Atheism is a lack of belief in deities but for a long time I assumed people who identify as Atheist generally don’t believe in the supernatural at all.

However the rising popularity of AI leads me to believe that might not be the case. Why? Because when I talk to people about the human brain, specifically consciousness, I’ve found people think of consciousness as some mystical thing instead of a side effect of neurons firing.

I’ve found this to be anecdotally true even amongst my friends who are vocally anti-religious. And unfortunately it feels like I’ve pulled a thread because I’ve discovered they also don’t have a problem with things like astrology, tarot cards, or other supernatural stuff outside of religion.

I’m curious if the people here can relate or maybe I was mistaken about what atheists generally believe and perhaps i need to find a better label for myself because personally I believe supernatural belief is a core problem in society, not just religion.

I previously stumbled on an article, which mainly talks about the unreasonable aspects of the global flood in the Bible, and it also list quite a number of errors or bizarre exaggerations, which are less notable than global flood, at the end and add related comments from the authors. I found it was interesting, so I post them out to share. Actually, all the articles on the blog are relatively interesting and informative.

(I also recommend this article, which carefully and thoroughly analyze all major contradictions and errors in the bible. The website that hosts it also contains a lot of useful articles, one series is to systematically criticize Evidence That Demands a Verdict, one of the most influential apologetic book. Besides, if you want to read more articles that seriously refute global flood, here are two of them: First and second and the refutation of a creationist's response to the first article)

Does The Bible Say That “Noah's Flood” Was Universal?

Or Was the Universality Of The Flood Merely A Literary Exaggeration Of Biblical Proportions?

The famine was over all the face of the earth…And all countries came unto Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all lands.

— Genesis 41: 56,57

Don't the words, “over all the face of the earth, all countries, all lands” mean “over all the face of the earth, all countries, all lands?” If they mean what they say, then even folks in far off China and Japan and Australia and North and South America must have been “sorely famished” and had to go to “Egypt” to buy corn! Or else, “over all the face of the earth, all countries, all lands” is an exaggerated way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth.

— E.T.B.

[The Lord said to the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert] “This day will I begin to put the dread of thee and the fear of thee upon the nations that are under the whole heaven, who shall hear report of thee, and shall tremble, and be in anguish because of thee.”

— Deuteronomy 2: 25

Don't the words, “the nations that are under the whole heaven” mean “the nations that are under the whole heaven?” If they mean what they say, then even the distant nations of China and Japan and the Native American nations — to name just a few of the many “nations that are under the whole heaven” — must have been trembling in their boots, having “heard report of Israel.” Or else, “the nations that are under the whole heaven” is an exaggerated way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth.

— E.T.B.

Exaggerated Promise

I have set my king upon the holy hill of Zion. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen [as slaves] for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron.

— Psalm 2: 6,8,9,12

The above psalm is believed to have been sung at the coronations of Hebrew kings. But giving a king, “. the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession” is an exaggerated promise to say the least. Though it must be admitted that this psalm later proved popular with both Catholic and Protestant kings who used it to justify their “breaking” of the “heathen,” driving them into slavery and stealing their land in alleged fulfillment of this exaggerated Biblical promise.

— E.T.B.

[Jesus said] “The Queen of the South [the Queen of Sheba] came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon.”

— Matthew 12: 42

The Queen's residence, being probably on the Arabian Gulf, could not have been more than twelve or fourteen hundred miles from Jerusalem. If that is the “uttermost parts of the earth” then it is a small world after all.

— E.T.B.

All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom.

— 2 Chronicles 9: 23

Don't the words “all the kings of the earth” mean “all the kings of the earth?” If they mean what they say, then even Incan and Aztec kings in South America must have begun paddling their long boats toward Israel the instant they heard how wise king Solomon was. Or else, “all the kings of the earth” is an exaggerated way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth.

— E.T.B.

The devil took him [Jesus] up into an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them.

— Matthew 4: 8

Shown “all the kingdoms of the world” from an “exceedingly high mountain?” I suppose so, if the mountain was “exceedingly high” and the earth was flat. Verses in the Bible's book of Daniel presume a flat earth the same way that verses in Matthew do:

I saw a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.

— Daniel 4: 10-11

Instead of an “exceedingly high” mountain from which “all the kingdoms of the earth” can be seen, Daniel pictures a tree “whose height was great,” growing from the “midst” or center of the earth and “seen” to “the ends of all the earth.”

Funny how such flagrantly flat-earth verses appear in both the Old and New Testaments. “Bible believers” will of course reply that such verses are only “apparently difficult” to explain, and not the “real truth” as they see it. But it is the “apparent difficulties” that remain in the Bible, as it was written, and will always remain there, regardless of all the ingenuity employed in explaining them away.

— E.T.B.

A decree went out from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth.

— Luke 2: 1

Donʼt the words, “all the inhabited earth” mean “all the inhabited earth?” If they mean what they say, then even the Chinese must have taken part in Augustus' census! Or else, “all the inhabited earth” is an exaggerated way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth.

— E.T.B.

And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.

— Acts 2: 5

“Out of every nation under heaven?” A Jew from the nation of the Sioux Indians in North America was there too? Or maybe Luke was not talking about a very wide “heaven?”

— E.T.B.

A great famine all over the world took place in the reign of Claudius.

— Acts 11: 28

Don't the words, “all over the world” mean “all over the world?” If they mean what they say, then the Chinese, Japanese and Native Americans who lived in the world during the reign of Claudius must have suffered the effects of that great famine. Or else, “all over the world” is an exaggerated way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth.

— E.T.B.

Their voice (of first-century Christian preachers) has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. The mystery is now manifested and has been made known to all the nations. The gospel, which has come to you, just as in all the world. The gospel, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul was made a minister.

— Romans 10: 18; 16: 25-26; Colossians 1: 5-6, 23

Sorry Paul, but the Gospel in your day had only reached a handful of churches in the Roman Empire, not “all the earth,” not, “to the ends of the world,” not, “all nations,” and certainly not, “all creation under heaven.”

The early church father, Irenaeus, maintained Paul's charade when he wrote, “Now the Church, spread throughout all the world even to the ends of the earth,” “…even though she has been spread over the entire world,” “Anyone who wishes to see the truth can observe the apostleʼs traditions made manifest in every church throughout the whole world.” (Iraenaeus, Against Heresies, 1.10.1, 1.10.2, 3.3.1-2) Not a very big “world,” mind you, leaving out most of Asia and Africa, not to mention the continents of Australia, North America and South America.

If an all-wise God had inspired the Bible He would have been able to give its human authors a few inspired geography lessons, just to show them how big the earth really is. Instead, the Bible contains the same exaggerated speech, boastful lies and holy hyperbole common for its day and age, i.e., rather than evidence of special inspiration.

Furthermore, if the Bible is not speaking absolutely truthfully when it speaks of “all the earth,” “to the ends of the earth,” “from the uttermost parts of the earth,” “all the inhabited earth,” “in all creation under heaven,” “under all the heavens,” “every nation under heaven,” then how can anyone be expected to assume the truthfulness of the statement, “everywhere under the heavens,” when it is found in the tale of the Flood of Noah in Genesis 7:19? “The water prevailed and all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.” Could this be another instance of an exaggerated mythical way of speaking, closer to a boastful lie than the truth? Hmmm, do ya think?

Having run across so many instances of exaggerated speech in the Bible one even wonders what is to become of the central Christian boast, the exaggeration par excellence, that Jesus died “for the sins of the world?” Believers from every sacred tradition boast that their beliefs affect the “world” and must be taken seriously by the “world.” Must they indeed? I find that I cannot take seriously many instances in which Biblical authors exaggerate (boldly lie about) the extent of a famine, a flood, a census, the distance to a queen's residence, the extent to which a message has been spread, etc. Indeed, didn't “orthodox” doctrines and theology arise via exaggerating the importance of some interpretations of the alleged sayings and doings of Jesus above others?

— E.T.B.

Hello ex-jew here. I've recently made a thread asking you guys about contradictions in the old testament or debunks of the Jewish faith since I mostly see Christianity being debunked (lyingforjesus.org) and not many debunks for Judaism. However it seems like I've missspoke. What I meant was if anyone could provide me some verses in the old testament that contradict other verses in the old testament or other forms of debunks Thank you!

Hello ex-jew here.

I'm looking for contradictions in the old testament or debunks of the Jewish faith since I mostly see Christianity being debunked (lyingforjesus.org) and not many debunks for Judaism

So like our family has a lots of issues (financial, family, health, mental etc), the financial one is because of my dad recklessly spending money on himself, his affair and for his side of family, cuz we were in military every supply was free (water, electricity, rent, and even grocery was cheap), so when dad retired, then came the financial issues cuz now he had a low salary and no savings, he became super religious, listening to verses on youtube, keeping a book with himself and being super defensive regarding anything related to christianity, all of this in the hopes of getting money....after a few years, and in a scammer call, we lost lots of money cuz of my parents stupidity and greed for money, after that our situation became even worse, they both speculated that the room we rented was a badluck cus of muslims (ofc i didn't believe that) and we changed the place again. Since we were from military background, our school fees were also really really cheap and we didn't have any problem until I entered college/uni this year, and now it's relatively expensive, My dad took loans for my sister's fees which was normal but again he strugled to pay it off, and now this year its my turn, so he said that he wasn't getting money from anywhere to pay for my fee also that he used to get money for any other uses, and he and mom told me no. of times to pray, that because im not praying im not getting money for my fees (how am I even supposed to pray falsely??)..., continuously saying that its my fault we are not getting money, that because of my lack of pious we are poor and in a terrible condition (we are living with our basic needs covered when we could've saved so much money),

Her logic was no praying = problems, i used her logic saying aunt should be in a really good condition because she is very religious, but her life is full of problems, and so does my dad he's very religious and has problems she denied it, and then i said "how am i supposed to believe it cuz of this?" And then she said to keep my useless ego aside.

He also said during Christmas when i refused to come to church at night "It doesn't fucking matter if you are a scholar or academically topper, you will always be a fucking zero if you don't believe" (we already went during the day, and in the upcoming month' 1st week i had my college entrance exams, boards, and assignments whose marks could change my life trajectory) and its funny how he becomes so happy whenever my names comes in toppers list and starts praising me.

I also have some health issues and mom said "ofc u have health issues, you don't believe in god, that's your punishment" she said this years ago and when i brought it up, she said shamelessly that she is right.

I feel so hurt, i don't know what to do guys

I am a young atheist living in a more rural area, and I don't know many atheists in real life. The way I talk about atheism is mostly through online platforms, especially on Facebook. What I struggled to find was young people on Facebook 😂!

What is a show/movie/book that meaningfully and honestly criticizes the concept of religion without ridicule or satire?

What I’m talking about is media that is critical of religion in a serious way that doesn’t dance around the issue with excuses like “the problem isn’t religion it’s people” assuming that religion is this perfect moral standard that does not have an inherent dark element to it. Perhaps a show that may actually delve into say the endorsement and regulation of slavery in the Bible apologists keep denying and why that’s indefensible or maybe one that doesn’t exaggerate historical events to make religious people look bad yet nonetheless rightfully criticizes them on important topics like their institutional monopoly on science and philosophy. Maybe call out and criticize the assumption of the logical and emotional necessity of divinity to explain the woeful state of modernity as a problem invented by religion to justify and perpetuate itself due to the historical monopoly it had on intellectual disciplines. Maybe the type of media I’m talking about doesn’t exist or is obscure because it wouldn’t be popular.