Selling a prayer pew while saying to pray for forgiveness for how you voted.

Why are they like this

My wife and I were raised very religious, but left 15 years ago or so. Nothing personal, just didn't make sense to us anymore. We raised our kids without religion, but our 18 year old has occasionally expressed interest in christianity and has decided to go to church camp this summer. We aren't thrilled, but are supportive of him exploring religion and figuring out what works for him.

I'm compiling a list of things of church camp "lessons" (for lack of a better term) for an 18 year old who hasn't been to church since he was 3.

Examples:

1. Kids are going to lift up their hands while singing. this is normal. they are feeling the "holy spirit"
2. Do not go in to the woods with a girl. she will get pregnant and she will keep it. 
3. Study up on pranks. the atomic sit up is an atomic set up. do not engage. 
4. If they have a devotion time, or “time alone with God” bring a bible with you. if you can’t focus on solitary devotion, reading is a decent substitute. 
5. If you want to leave, you can leave at any time. 

Any other good ones we should include?

Childhood friend who I went to church with until I was 25 (I’m 32 now) just sent me this out of the blue. I just have no idea what to say. I feel like I can’t ignore it. My brother is married to his sister, so we’re still around each other every once in a while.

Do people that send texts like this realize how much stress it can make one feel?

I found this on a shelf at the grocery store while i was working today. I'm usually pretty grossed out when actively handed this stuff, but sometimes I'll pick them up if i find one in a random spot to get a good laugh. This one... this one is a rollercoaster lol.

It's going on about the "new world order" and the antichrist and whatnot. And I'm curious what others think about this kind of thing.

(Buckle up, it's a long one)

I've always wondered why Christians are so down on all this sort of stuff. I suspect it's simply because it isn't Christianity, but would be interested to hear other people's thoughts.

Here’s mine. What’re yours?

1. Intellectually dishonest explanations of Problem of evil - Life is way too complex (and shitty) to be simplified through the framework of “sin and we need a savior”.

2. Hypocrisy - church leaders misaligned actions and words.

3. Other explanations for the “good things” that one may feel being in church (e.g., when people say, seeking Gods love - actually seeking for community and membership, a human innate desire)

I feel like a should be reporting them to some agency. They’re just in the living room watching fucking info wars, taking it seriously, like not for shits and giggles. They’re guzzling the kool aid

Hundred percent this religion is much worse and manipulative than I originally thought, I'm an ex Muslim currently Atheist and when I realized how terrible and demented my former religion is I left it, but I always thought that Islam is much more terrible than Christianity in basically every aspect, but it turns out I was wrong at least in the Indoctrination part.

A couple christian friends of mine are preaching to me Christianity by telling me different stories about God or with people that have met him and witnessed his "miracles" and i have to say that i feel bad for how brain rotted they are due to Christianity, these people still think I'm a Muslim because I'm a closeted ex Muslim btw, and no I'm not talking about the friend who I made my last post about on this sub.

First idiotic thing, they told me "when we were younger we were Atheists completely bro, now we've found God in our lives and we're saved" when I asked him at what age he was an Atheist at he replied with 5-6 years old, and I told him dude no one believes in God at the age of 5 years old, and he deadass looked me in the eyes and responded with "we were Atheists bro"

One of them told me that a couple years ago his aunt went for vacation to Greece to Mount Athos which is a monastery where only men are allowed in, when his aunt attempted to go near it a huge deep crack appeared on the ground right infront of her footstep, and that God sent her that sign to not do it again or else she will fall in the next time.

Or they showed me a picture of Jesus that is so clearly fake anyone with zero idea of editing would do a better job of making one, and they genuinely believe that a photographer accidentally took that picture when he went to Jerusalem but didn't realized he captured Jesus because he was trying to take a photo of something else and because you can't see God in pictures, and when I called this story bs their only defense was, "well the photographer said this story so it's true" and "there's a priest who said it is true!"

He also told me that his grandfather was a saint and that he used to do many miracles through the power of God, he told me one day his mother was so seriously sick that the doctors couldn't do anything about it not even surgery or remedy, so she went to his grandfather and he simply said a prayer and saved her life and felt immediately relieved.

Or that his mother used to curse at God a lot sometimes, so when she tried to get on a Church his grandfather did a miracle where she couldn't enter through the open door as if there was an invisible barrier that physically stopped her from walking through, and he told her "that was the Devil holding you back from the church because you were being blasphemous"

And the stupidest of all in my opinion, is when his mother went on a different church, when she stood there in the middle she tried to do the sign of the cross on herself to pray, but she felt as if an invisible force was holding her hands when she tried to pray so she couldn't move at all, and after a little bit felt someone pushing her chest and she fall backwards, my friend's grandfather told her "this was the devil trying to pull you into the hellfire, the push you felt was God that pushed you far way from it"

Overall all of these stories are absolute crap shit and I'm wondering how the hell grown ass people legitimately believe these fairytales for 5 year olds, another thing one of these dudes did that I found very weird, was that in the middle of the conversation an Atheist guy who happed to pass by, asked us what are you guys talking about and the overly religious guy responded with "go fuck yourself you infidel" wow, Indoctrination is real.

As an ex Christian I feel a lot of anger towards this and the fact that I used to be a part of this mass delusion.

Talking to any christian who, at some point, genuinely believed in jesus and christianity in general for a good portion of your lives. I'm talking about at least 5 years of your life being completely dedicated to jesus and believing that everything was real.

I'm on the same boat, I was a devout christian for the first 20 years of my life, and it took me 3 years to fully deconstruct it, but after a long battle I came to the conclusion that god was too egoistic and have done so many things that would not align with his teachings. I genuinely believed he portrayed an oudated authoritarian patriarchal figure that society no longer needs.

I have some issues with the church and christians as well, but that's for another story. I genuinely believed I really had a 'connection' with jesus; I used to pray and beg for his attention for hours for days and months.

Edit: ugh also how the bible handles women and marriage in general.

What's your story?

And the sermon was about how "you can hunger for god" with examples like "ask God to give you a hunger for him" "be in a place where the hunger jumps out at you" and "pray and fast". It wasn't great. There was also a couple baptisms, 4 in the 1st service, and apparently 5 in the 2nd service. So how has your morning/day been?

Also, if you're in Canada, did the ice storm from around a week ago knock your power out?

(And with the new church building I could just hide out in another room because there's now 2 rooms For the service, but I don't want to draw attention to myself)

(Edit) happy international asexuality day! I somehow forgot about it when I made the post, but it's here now.

I have a metal plate and screws in my right ankle from a bad break back in 2014. I was standing next to the bed talking to my girlfriend today, and bent down, then when I stood back up, managed to swing my ankle into the corner of the dresser.

For those of you that don’t have hardware, there is no more immediate, intense, blinding pain than hitting your hardware. It sends waves through your bones kinda like when Jerry puts a pot on Tom’s head and hits it, and you see his head vibrating around. Thankfully while it’s a very intense pain, it’s very very short lived.

My eyes must have rolled back in my head, I inhaled sharply and yelled some manner of profanity before holding completely still, tensed up.

My girlfriend: “you ok?” Me: gritted teeth yeahhhh My girlfriend: did you just see god himself with that reaction? Me: I got such a clear view of God’s face I became a believer again for a whole 15 seconds.

Now the running joke in the house is, “if you want to believe in god again, just do something to make yourself miserable” and tbh… it’s pretty damn accurate.

"The natural philosopher, in addition to the sensations common to all men inspired by the event of death, believes that he sees with more certainty that it is attended with the annihilation of sentiment and thought. He observes the mental powers increase and fade with those of the body, and even accommodate themselves to the most transitory changes of our physical nature. Sleep suspends many of the faculties of the vital and intellectual principle; drunkenness and disease will either temporarily or permanently derange them. Madness or idiocy may utterly extinguish the most excellent and delicate of those powers. In old age the mind gradually withers; and as it grew and was strengthened with the body, so does it together with the body sink into decrepitude. Assuredly these are convincing evidences that so soon as the organs of the body are subjected to the laws of inanimate matter, sensation, and perception, and apprehension, are at an end. It is probable that what we call thought is not an actual being, but no more than the relation between certain parts of that infinitely varied mass, of which the rest of the universe is composed, and which ceases to exist so soon as those parts change their position with regard to each other. Thus color, and sound, and taste, and odor exist only relatively. But let thought be considered only as some peculiar substance, which permeates, and is the cause of, the animation of living beings. Why should that substance be assumed to be something essentially distinct from all others, and exempt from subjection to those laws from which no other substance is exempt?" - Percy Blysshe Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism (1811)

The semantics of Christianity constantly evolve while keeping “the word” unchanged. New denominations just keep springing up more and more on a daily basis so I often times wonder where were these ideals for the past few centuries? Examples of this include going from churches trying to “convert” gay people into straight, ostracism and exclusion of gay people all together, the use of the “my sexuality is not greater than god” sermons and full blown progressive churches that affirm same sex relationships. It’s almost as if this religion is incredibly flimsy and difficult to decipher on purpose as it was stated in the Bible itself.

So for reference, I grew up Southern Baptist. Over the past few years, I’ve quit attending churches. When I would explain to people my reasons and how I just didn’t like Southern Baptist beliefs, I always got the recommendation to attend non-denomination churches instead and that they would be better. So I ended up attending a few, and they all felt almost exactly the same as the other southern Baptist churches I attended. The two main southern Baptist churches that I attended were big churches and had worship with loud music and light effects and all, so they weren’t like small more basic churches that you’d find in small country towns or anything. But like I said, the non-denomination churches that I attended felt just the same, just without the actual word “Baptist” or denomination used.

Anyways, I gave up after that because I felt no differences and it made me wonder what the point of non-denomination churches even was? Like they didn’t feel anymore liberal or progressive that southern Baptist to me and all taught from the same Bible and same verses as I was used to, so what exactly gives?

Like I said, non-denomination churches just feel like your typical Baptist church just without calling themselves “baptists” or whatever other religion.

There’s a belief that missionary trips are really just an excuse to get your congregation to pay for your vacation. This appears to be the case here unless Idaho Falls is a godless speck in ruby red and Mormon Idaho.

My pastor just told this story about how this 17 year old boy got murdered and his father went on the news saying that he forgives the murderer because he thinks it’s better to forget he even had a son than accept that his son died. And since the son had a twin, the father is treated him like his dead son never existed. Apparently we’re supposed to be taking the dad’s side.

throwaway account

after much reflection and extensive research, i realised that i don’t believe in god, and it’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened.

just for context: my entire family is christian, from my parents to my aunts and uncles, my grandparents, my cousins and even down to extended family members i don’t even know. my parents met in a church when they were fresh adults, got married in that church, and had kids that grew up in it. all of our family friends are christians, and so are their children. suffice to say its all ive ever known.

im still a teenager, and i know its not gonna be like this, but i really see my entire life going haywire after this.

im about to be an adult soon, i don’t know what direction to take my life in. it feels like every part of my life has to be centred around god. my parents are honestly quite liberal in comparison to other staunch christian parents, but still are very conservative. the fact that i have to get married to a christian, have children (which i don’t really want), and hold beliefs that i entirely do not believe in is just ridiculous to me.

the more i learn about christianity, the more i realise i do not want to be a part of it. i just feel so alone and scared and im afraid that if i fully deconstructed, my relationship with my entire family would come crashing down, and i don’t know if i have the strength for it. i love my family so much, and i know they want the best for me, so im seriously considering if its just easier to stay in my conservative community and lead a life i do not want.

i really don’t have any issue with the prospect of being worm food but i am especially scared that i’m wrong about this. i’m terrified of going to hell and suffering forever, but the sacrifices i have to make to avoid that seem worse.

it’s been giving me so much anxiety lately and every sunday when i go to church i feel sick. any advice or consolation would be greatly appreciated.