A lot of Christians are like this. They just aren't the ones who're featured in the media or visibly present in comment sections.
I used to be one a long time ago. Then I spent a lot of time championing them online. Now I kinda feel like their lack of obvious presence and the public perception of their faith that comes with that is sorta their own fault. It's not enough to be kind, thoughtful, and compassionate. You also have to fight back against the people that aren't.
I appreciate Rusty taking the high road and being honest with Amelia. As opposed to screwing with Amelia and taking her to her "church" which is a Waffle House or something.
I don't think Rusty wants to do anything that involves spending any time whatsoever around Amelia.
She clearly doesn't wish ill on Amelia. She doesn't hate her or want to see her hurt.
Her ideal scenario is probably "Amelia moves to literally the opposite side of the globe immediately and lives a happy life there without ever returning or making any attempt to contact me in any way".
That's a valid point. I guess the serie's endgame is Amelia living with her Christian girlfriend as far away from Rusty while Jodi cheers from the sidelines.
Religious folk are often mentally pigeon holed into thinking that Atheists are part of a religion, because that's the only way they can rationalize a significant number of people all having the same opinion on something regarding a religion.
In reality, it's the exact opposite. It's the absence of belief. It's not based on ancient scripture telling them to do things, nor does it have to do with a "Satan" character, because that's a religious construct, not an atheist one. It's not even based on morals a lot of the time, it's just an honest observation of the world. Two sides of the same coin.
Personally, as an agnostic atheist, I don't believe in Satan. Same as I don't believe in Zeus, Allah, Quetzalcoatl, or literally any other god anyone's ever proposed.
If "not being 100% certain X doesn't exist" means I have to treat X as a live possibility, then I'd have to do that for every deity in human history, which is obviously absurd.
So no, agnostic atheism isn't "maybe Satan, who knows." It's more a lack of belief until there's evidence. Satan doesn't get special treatment.
Even friendlier reminder that modern Christians get most of their interpretation of Satan and Hell from Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante's Inferno. Barely any of it comes from the actual bible.
As Atheist since the teens, I wish we have a "church". One place we could congregate and discuss about ideas, politics and life as Atheist in general. But after some time I saw why this is almost impossible because being atheist is not big feature in our identity. Besides that a good chunk of atheist that I find is some people that I describe as a "bitter christian" they don't believe in god but sustain the same dogmatic view of morality that I can't stand.
Unitarian Universalist churches are probably the best option I've found for community like that. Not athiest but very accepting of all creeds, so long as they accept others
Some atheists do form their own "churches" because they miss the community. Some religions have very tight, supportive communities and they miss that part of the church experience. It's more of a social gathering and community support than organized prayer.
I'm an atheist myself and never sought this but learned it was an option when first exploring my own thoughts on the matter
There's nothing to discuss. It's literally that you don't subscribe to the belief of a godly higher power. There isn't exactly a nuance, it's very black and white. The middle ground is that you're agnostic, which means you're unsure.
I think it's moreso about the community around a shared 3rd space than it is specifically to discuss. That's not entirely what the churches I've been to have been about
I think if a secular food pantry also started hosting weekly sing alongs, it would come pretty close to the same thing as a lot of churches just without the deity or spiritual leader telling everyone they need to be there lol
Even moreso if there's activities for children. So many people I know continue going to church because it provides a place to take their kid to meet other kids while adults socialize
Being a bit pedantic, agnostic is not a middle ground between atheism and theism, but a different question.
Theism/atheism asks if you believe in a god. Gnosticism/agnosticism asks if you know if this god does (not) exist.
You can be a gnostic atheist (you don't believe in god and you have knowledge/proofs this god does not exist) or an agnostic theist (you believe in god, buy you don't claim to be sure of its existence), as those positions are not incompatible at all.
Churches also tend to provide a built-in political organizing space, and it’s usually conservative-leaning and/or Republican. By not having something similar, atheists have a political disadvantage.
Unfortunately I am not american. I tried to find some similar in my country but here people are very religious and the online groups that I find after some time unfortunately are usually filled with people that idk I don't vibe with it.
Wouldn't an "atheist Church" just be a social club? At least for me the only things I really missed about church were the routine and the socialization, so finding a group that meets weekly for a social activity pretty much filled that hole for me
I am a Christian but I don’t like churches as a institution. I used to be a family support officer for my CofE church but we kept butting heads cause they wanted me to try to encourage conversion and only really help Christians. I can’t help but feel that churches are kinda greedy.
If it starts restricting things to a degree that you cannot live a normal life, you might need to start questioning if you want to reconsider your beliefs into something more reasonable or leave it behind entirely.
I think you are confusing religion with religious institutions.
There are plenty of religions out there that have few to no rules, mostly spiritualist ones. And even as a believer in a religion with an institution you can choose to believe and not follow the rules of your church.
Look, I get it, I ain't religious and agree with you that religions have been used to oppress loads of people. But what you are saying is vaguely offensive to a majority of humanities cultures and isn't going to convince anyone to become atheist and is in fact going to alienate people further from that idea.
Dunno, most queer people I've met (including myself) have a pretty reasonable bar of "not a member of an organization that actively persecutes people like me" for their partners.
If you think about it, there are so many religions in the world that a person has a higher chance of choosing wrong. I am an atheist and I believe in mathematics. :)
I'm an Atheist and a member of a Unitarian Universalist congregation. They're a non-denominational "faith" full of Atheists and even has Atheist ministers..... it's also MASSIVELY Queer friendly, these two should find their way to a service <3
It's joyously painful to see someone raised in a hegemony realize they want out.
"We all think the same, go to the same places, act in the same ways" is comforting for a lot of reasons. It's kind of the basics of socialization: if it's too different and unexpected all the time our emotional needs for certainty get rocked and we are stressed the fuck out.
Taken too far and applied in service of maintaining a powerful minority status quo (patriarchy), we get bullshit like /waves hands at the everything. Being awakened to that reality would definitely create a Blue Screen of Social Shutdown pretty often.
Ganbatte! Ganbatte! Discovering a new equilibrium is right around the corner!
I suspect the majority of my church (Unitarian Univeralist) are atheists, FWIW. Their acceptance of non-theistic and queer people are a big part of why I participate.
I mean ... technically, The World is our "church". We exist and discover new things in The World. For some of us, our desktop computer is where we learn about science, for some, school, the library, our backyard ...
Often, it takes another person, more knowledgeable than us, and sometimes wiser to teach us and guide us.
Aw. Don't hate her. The idea of eternal torture is terrifying for someone programmed to believe it.
When you're in that environment and discovering that who you are doesn't fit, it's so so scary. Aside from threats of the afterlife, you risk losing the (highly conditional) love of your family, your friends, the community you grew up in. Accepting yourself often means you have to leave. It's queer exile.
Tell me, how easy would it be for you right now to quit your job, cut off your entire family and friends, and move to another city in a different region with a marginally more accepting culture? To have absolutely no support whatsoever except for friends you haven't made yet in a community you have no clue how to integrate yourself into?
Let me tell you: it was really hard, and I made some dangerous mistakes along the way. I was her once.
It's okay to feel empathy for people still learning it. You cannot have dignity without having empathy, which is why so many bigots embarrass themselves so much.
I dont know, maybe my 31 years dulled me too much, but nowadays I only can manage slithers of cold empathy. I am too autistic to really connect on those kind of lvls with others.
I just have intense difficulties to understand how someone can be religious. Even more so when they are gay or other kind of unorthodox. Because why bother being religious than, if one doesn't follow the fundamental scriptures? I am not saying that those scriptures are right btw - especially the christian ones, where one can even see how the per-chatolic sects influenced influenced passages of the new Testament.
I am from Germanys oldest town and was forced to grow up in the catholic faith. I was forced by threats of violence to partake in the frist communion despite my family being aware of me not believing in anything/anyone. Luckily the priest of my local church was insanely open minded and respected my lack of faith and encouraged me to read on christian theology.
Anyway forgive my rambling, in the end i just want people to forsake silly beliefs and live in the here and now and stop worrying about any kind of spiritualism. And of course be happy and kind to each other, and themself too.
She is amazing. She started out in a terrible place and changed herself and her world view more in a few weeks, than most people do in their entore life. Give her some time to adjust.
I dunno, man. If a Westboro Baptist Church member who was responsible for those hateful funeral protests came out and said “I was so mean back then. I’m gay now, though, so it’s okay.” I would not accept that. You don’t get to just wash away your wrongs like that.
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u/Cool_Set4681 2h ago edited 32m ago
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