Sure, it used to haunt me for years. I was brought up very religiously, I wasted tons of time in church, on prayers, and on trying to reconcile the scientific knowledge of the world with the massively anti-scientific views presented to me as facts in church and school (yes, school, I had more religion lessons in school than biology or physics). Religion and the process of freeing my mind of religious thinking, used to be a huge part of my live.
I've spent years on researching other religions and non-religious points of view, making up my mind, reverting my conditioning; but now it's just… not there anymore. Now I can separate facts from mythology, I'm happy to live in a secular country, I'm not in touch with the birth family, I haven't been in a church for years, nor have I been proselytised to (much). Basically, the topic of religion became so irrelevant to me that I needed some internet users looking for a debate to remind me that it's a thing, and one that has shaped me so profoundly.
So here's a thing: I'm happier that way. Openly challenging religion and hearing the same old boring counterarguments over and over again was unbeliveably exhausting. And also quite pointless at this point. I've already said all I wanted to say, I put in writing my reasoning, my anger, my experiences. I made sure I had heard everything that could possibly change my mind. And now I'm basically done 🤷
But… now that the strong emotions are gone it might be worth pointing out a few things, at least so that people stop bothering me:
Many people have tried to convince me over the years that I should believe this or that thing. And honestly, I'm tired of listening to them. If there's no evidence to what you're saying, I'm not believing it, simple as that. I'm not going to no hell, there's no samsara, and thunders aren't cast by Zeus. And I'm justifiably angry for having been fed those lies in the past by people financially and politically profitting from it.
Even though I know it wasn't my fault in any way, I still feel embarassed and kinda sorry for having been religious. The world would be so much nicer, if we collectively cared more for evidence and reason – and I used to be a part of a system actively working against that goal. Oh well, I did my part trying to counteract that. It was exhausting, and I'm done.
Like, I'm still against religion, I'm still gonna speak up against it if necessary – but having taken an hour to write down those afterthoughts above is basically the limit of how much I'm willing to let the topic of religion occupy my mind anymore.
For me, life without religion is amazing – and that includes flame wars about religion. I'm done. Please don't at me.
]]>Rather, you are admitting to the very thing I’m accusing faith of being: out of touch with reality, reason and facts.
Good job! 😅
]]>Well, let me tell you how is sexual orientation different from believing in Santa Claus, and why tolerance has nothing to do with it.
The thing is...
Being gay, Syrian, black, trans, etc. are things that you are.
Being a Christian is something you do. You get tought religion. You go to church. You recite prayers. You read a specific book and decide to believe in its content despite the facts not supporting it.
Your religion is an idea. And ideas can be challenged.
Tolerance, in the meaning they meant, is about people’s identities. About their very existence. About their human rights.
Mythologies, and this might surprise you, are not humans.
And yes, religious freedom is one of the human rights, but it means that others cannot forbid you to believe and practice your relgion, and that they can’t discriminate you based on your beliefs. It doesn’t mean that your unscientific beliefs or specific practices are protected from any criticism.
Just because I disagree with you, doesn’t mean I’m intolerant 🤷🏼
P.S. “Tolerance” means “putting up with something, despite disagreeing with it”. So me openly disagreeing with theism, while respecting people’s right to believe in it, is pretty much tolerant by definition.
]]>Religious people often threaten atheists with what will happen to them after death, if they don’t convert. Yeah, cause out of all the different made-up stories about what happens after death, it’s specifically yours that’s gonna be the right one. Right...
Let’s revert that question into “what if you’re wasting your life on religious bullshit”. It’s not as scary, because if it’s the case, you won’t notice you were wrong (that’s how being dead works). Still, your current life is the only one that you know for sure you’re gonna get. Are you really willing to waste it?
I’m gonna make a lot of assumptions about you, but please bear with me.
You’re spending an hour every week, and possibly way, way more than that on going to the church, sitting through services that are always almost exactly the same every time, that change nothing in your life, that provide no real value to your life.
You’re living with a constant feeling of guilt. You’re never good enough. You’re a sinner, you’re dirty, you were born a sinner and only faith can make you worthy. Your sexual preferences are an abomination. You love porn and masturbation so much, but every time you do it, it comes with a price of feeling like shit about it. You don’t enjoy those awesome and harmless pleasures as much as you could, because of that constant guilt.
You feel like shit every month when you realise it’s time for a confession. You don’t know that guy, you don’t trust that guy, but you’re supposed to tell him everything that’s the worst about you. You live in fear that if you don’t keep doing that thing, which you hate doing, you’re gonna end up in a pit of fire. Your head is busy thinking and re-thinking all you’re gonna say to that guy, instead of doing something useful, good for yourself, good for others.
Every time you learn something at school that contradicts what you’ve learned at church, you feel confused, and you spend hours trying to make both those “truths” true at the same time. You need to give up critical thinking, you can’t live up to your full intellectual potential.
You spend hours and days on prayers, you keep talking to your imaginary friend who never answers, you’re being told that repeating mantras like the rosary somehow works, even though it’s boring as hell and seems useless.
You spend plenty of time trying to reconcile god’s benevolence and omnipotence with all the evil in the world. You’re trying to reconcile all the contradictions in your holy book. You read a lot about different religions and denominations, trying to figure it all out. You feel like the whole world is some kind of a terrible puzzle...
Even when you finally manage to get out of that cult, you still get bombarded with religion. It’s in politics, it’s on the Internet, it poisons the minds of your friends, it brain-washes little kids... You have to speak up, so you keep “wasting” your time on religion – but finally, that time doesn’t seem wasted anymore.
If all of that doesn’t apply to you, congratulations! You’re a lucky person! It does apply to me, though. It was hard, but now I’m free. I can fully enjoy life in all the ways I want. Cause it’s the only life I’m ever gonna get.
]]>Say you’ve found a host lying on a street. Is there any way whatsoever to determine, whether it’s still just a bread, or maybe it’s already transformed into god in person?
It’s possible to determine, which floor was used to bake it, more or less when did it happen, how much smog have settled on it in the meanwhile. If we really try, we can figure out practically it’s whole history – but it’s impossible to say, if it’s entire nature changed drastically? That means just one thing: no, it didn’t change.
If a body A and a body B are totally indistinguishable from each other (whether physically or “spiritually”), then A = B. God’s not in that bread. Transsubstantiation is a myth.
]]>Powiedzmy znalazłeś na ulicy hostię. Czy jest jakikolwiek sposób, by odróżnić czy to jeszcze zwykły chleb, czy to już przeistoczona bozia we własnej osobie?
Możliwe jest zbadanie, z jakiej mąki została upieczona, kiedy mniej więcej powstała, ile osiadło na niej smogu w międzyczasie, gdy się uprzemy, możemy poznać praktycznie całą jej historię – ale nie da się stwierdzić, czy całkowicie zmieniła się jej natura? To znaczy tylko jedno: nie zmieniła się.
Jeśli ciało A i ciało B są od siebie zupełnie nierozróżniane (czy to fizycznie, czy “duchowo”), to A = B. Bozi w chlebku nie ma. Transsubstancjacja to mit.
]]>I have, however, found a way to spare myself all that conversional boredom. Ready?
Jesus has said: “Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Mt 12, 32)
So, blaspheming against the Holy Spirit is enough to have no way back anymore? So that all the attempts of converting yourself, begging for forgiveness and doing penance, were as pointless within the christian theology as they as in reality? So that god’s infinite mercy suddenly finished for me? Count me in!
Okey then: The Holy Ghost is a dull, egoistic, racist, sadistic fucktard. Is that enough to have that ”salvation” topic behind me?
The Catechism points out six “sins against the Holy Spirit”:
Well, I don’t believe in god, or his mercy, or a “sin”, and I’m not planning to do any penance neither now or right before my death, so it’s hard for me to fulfil points 1, 4 and 6 in any way – but instead, my disbelief makes me qualify for irreversible, unconditional damnation according to points 2, 3 and 5.
There’s no hope for me then. You don’t have to bother me with any conversion attempts. Have a nice day! :)
]]>Trochę mnie wkurza, gdy ktoś chce mnie nawracać. Bo wprawdzie wiem, że to zapewne z dobrych pobudek, że chcą mi dać prezent w postaci życia wiecznego i w ogóle, ale z perspektywy człowieka, który spędził (zdecydowanie zbyt) wiele czasu na poznawaniu religii świata, fakt nieistnienia boga jest dla mnie tak oczywisty, a absurdalność religii tak wielka, że nie ma już dla mnie drogi powrotnej. Szkoda czasu nawet na patrzenie w jej stronę.
Znalazłem jednak sposób, by sobie tych nawracaniowych przynudzań oszczędzić. Gotowi?
Otóż Jezus zaprawdę powiedział onegdaj: “Jeśli ktoś powie słowo przeciw Synowi Człowieczemu, będzie mu odpuszczone, lecz jeśli powie przeciw Duchowi Świętemu, nie będzie mu odpuszczone ani w tym wieku, ani w przyszłym.” (Mt 12, 32)
A zatem wystarczy zbluźnić przeciw Duchowi Świętemu, by nie było już odwrotu? By wszelkie próby nawracania się, przebłagiwania i pokutowania były w ramach teologii chrześcijańskiej równie bezcelowe, jak są w rzeczywistości? By boskie nieskończone miłosierdzie nagle się dla mnie skończyło? Chętnie na to pójdę!
A zatem: Duch Święty to tępy, egoistyczny, rasistowski, sadystyczny cwel. Czy to wystarczy żeby mieć już z głowy temat ”zbawienia”?
Katechizm wylicza następujące “grzechy przeciwko Duchowi Świętemu”:
Cóż, nie wierzę w boga, w jego miłosierdzie, ani w coś takiego jak “grzech”, a “pokuty i nawrócenia” nie planuję ani na teraz, ani na łoże śmierci, więc ciężko mi jakkolwiek spełnić punkt pierwszy, czwarty i szósty – za to moja niewiara zdecydowanie kwalifikuje mnie do nieodwracalnego, bezwarunkowego potępienia ze względu na punkt drugi, trzeci i piąty.
Nie ma zatem dla mnie żadnej nadziei. Nie musisz sobie (i mi) zawracać głowy żadnymi “zbawiennymi napomnieniami”. Miłego dnia! :)
]]>From a scientific point of view, of course I care for the god hypothesis. Its existence and nature are facts about our universe that are definitely worth knowing. But since we have absolutely no hard evidence supporting the existence of any god, anything we say about it and its nature must be either an uneducated guess, or just shamelessly made up.
From my personal perspective, however, should I care about god at all? Would it change anything in my life? Would I become a better person, if I just started believing against all reason?
In this case I can just freely live my life as an atheist, without wasting time for any superstitious nonsense, and without fearing death – since I won’t even notice I’m gone already. I’d be trying to be a good person just because I don’t want others to suffer.
Then why would I care either? Cool, it created us, it is some deistic or pantheistic force of nature, maybe there’s some afterlife, but we simply don’t know it. In this case I can just freely live my life as an atheist, without wasting time for any superstitious nonsense, without fearing death – since my actions won’t affect my potential afterlife anyway. I’d be trying to be a good person, just because I don’t want others to suffer.
Well, without it telling us beforehand, in a straight-forward matter, what’s actually good and what’s bad, it doesn’t really seem fair to get judged by it, does it? Still, I think it’s safe to assume, that a secular morality, based on simply not being a dick and not wanting other people to suffer, should be enough, shouldn’t it? (Seriously, I refuse to adjust my sex life or my menu to what some primitive bronze age book says!)
In this case I can just freely live my life as an atheist, without wasting time for any superstitious nonsense, without fearing death, since I did my best to be a good person anyway – just because I don’t want others to suffer.
Then why the hell would I want to be a pet of such a god? Being a mindless puppet, bullied into faith by a threat of hell, created for the sole purpose of worshipping its creator, not given enough information to make a wise decision, but being accounted for that decision anyway – that’s not what I want to be. If god is really so unimaginably cruel, then I chose to be a rebel, no matter the consequences.
Unless the punishment is hell as pictured by some sophisticated theologians: a state of soul when it’s separated from god. Then hell yeah! I’d be happy to get as far away from such monster as possible.
So if I, somehow, managed to make myself believe in a god, no matter what kind of god would that be, would anything change for me?
I’d still be as good a person, as I can. I’d still refuse to base my morality on unverified sources and self-proclaimed authorities. I’d still try to base my life on reason and evidence, as much as I can.
Just one thing would change for sure: how other people see me. Some would like me more, some would like me less. My parents might even start treating my like a son again (if I also started pretending not to be gay). But hey! If they all care about my faith more than even I do, is there any reason why should I be bothered by their bigoted opinions?
]]>If you require proof or evidence to believe in something, it’s called common sense, not faith.
If you accepted some fact after being presented evidence for it, it’s called knowledge.
If you believe in something despite the lack of evidence, that’s faith.
It’s not that hard to get those words right.
]]>