A year ago, my mom found a >1 week old baby kitten in a clover patch by her business. He was tiny, eyes and ears shut. Because of running her business, she could not care for the poor thing easily. But I could. So I took him. And I bottle fed him. I raised him. I took that responsibility. Not even a year later, he had his first urinary blockage. After a 3 day hospital stay, he got to come home. 2 weeks later, he started blocking again. We did all we could to keep the block at bay. More gabapentin. More water. Minimal stress. But it just wasn’t enough. Last night, he tried to pee 15 times in one hour. We took him to the ER vet, where they determined his bladder was not full, so he wasn’t blocked. Just very irritated and to take him to the vet in the morning. He had a vet appointment that afternoon. So I gave him extra gabapentin as prescribed by the ER and we went to bed. I woke up in the morning, he couldn’t stand up. He eventually stood up to barf. But he couldn’t walk. I called his vet, got him in a carrier, called my partner and we all went to the vet. We knew what was next. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how many times do you make a cat go through a surgery that will only fix a problem for 2 weeks? How many times do you make a poor cat be in chronic pain? How many times until it’s kinder to let them go?

Instead of making him go through it all again. We knew what had to happen. We get to the vets office, and they get him out of his carrier. Crying, wailing, hissing, heart pumping. Completely blocked. The vet, who had seen him since he was a baby, looked at me and said surgery could be done, but it might not help. I couldn’t let him suffer. I couldn’t roll the dice again. I couldn’t bet my odds.

They gave him a sedative. Something that zooted that poor cat so deeply that he fell asleep in my arms. He never did that. I laid him in his bed with his blankie. And the injection came. And just as our time started together, with me leaning over his body, he left this world just the same way. I held him the whole time. I cried over his body. I took him to my mom’s house, and buried him in her yard in a sunny spot with flowers everywhere. Where big carpenter bees, his favorite, would pollinate flowers. I gave him back to the earth. But it hurt so much. And all know is that my baby boy, the same kitten who was found in a clover patch 1 year ago, is gone.

I know there is no god, because why would that god give a kitten, not even a year old, a disease that gives him a urinary blockage?

Screw all of my mother’s friends and clients who are praying for me. Who are praying for my cat. Who are telling me “it’s all in gods plan” what plan? There is no plan. There is no god. He didn’t deserve it. He just didn’t.

I miss him so much.

This is kind of throwaway account, but not really. (That's why this is my first post) I think I'll stay on this one so I can talk with y'all.

So, this morning I was having a day. A really, really bad day. Finally sat down this morning, and thought to myself "I don't believe in God anymore.". There's a lot more to it than that, but that's the short of it.

It really hit me hard, because it's something that I'd committed to. I genuinely believed that I loved God, and was a Christian. But always in the back of my mind, that it was just wishful thinking. I wanted it to be true so, so bad. It really hurt me to admit it, and I almost shed some manly tears. So much of the way I looked at the world and lived my life was based off of my religious views. But it just had to be admitted, y'know? Hard for me to really express in text how much it hurt me. But oh well.

Honestly still haven't figured out if I'm an outright atheist, or if I'm simply not a Christian anymore. But It'd be cool if any of y'all could relate.

So yeah, title, I keep getting tons of Christianity ads and it doesn't matter how many accounts I block, more show it, it's getting extremely annoying and I don't know how to stop it

I don’t mean to be insensitive but I noticed in a recent video of his that he is quite thin and his speech is slurred.

That has me worried about his health.

Does anyone have any insight into this?

There was a time in my life when I felt deeply conflicted internally, as the religious beliefs I was raised with influenced every aspect of my life. I felt obligated to follow rules and regulations I didn't fully understand, and I always had unanswered questions. There was a constant conflict between what the communities around me believed and what I believed inside. I felt a constant sense of burden, unable to understand myself or make decisions without fear of punishment or rejection.

Then came the transformation. When I decided to transcend these limitations and seek a truth that aligned with my spirit and mind, I began to experience an inner peace I had never known before. For me, atheism wasn't just an absence of religious beliefs; it was the beginning of self-understanding and intellectual freedom. I began to live my life according to principles I believed in and found meaning in, without the fear or confusion that had accompanied me before.

Catholic public school in the UK for the record. Got sat next to two xtian nutcases in science (ironic) and somehow the conversation between them moved to homosexuality? The boy said ‘if my kids were gay I’d probably just kick them out of the house or whatever’ I just said ‘isn’t that like… not good parenting?’ Then the girl piped up. ‘No no im reasonable. I’d let them live with me BUT I’d take their phone away until they’re not gay because OBVIOUSLY they got the ideas from the internet’. I sat between them, a closeted bisexual 😭

This is about a little run in I had in college with a Campus Crusade type fella who was also a classmate. This was back in the 1980s.

Crusader did not know I am gay. I was out to friends and family but not to this clown. This is relevant to the story.

He was giving me a rundown on the various supposed signs of the end times that always seem to be going on. I was polite until he mentioned the rise in demonic activity. Then I started laughing.

Me -- "Oh come on. Demons!!??"

He got real serious. It was something along the lines of -- "What about all this homosexuality going around? Why would anybody do these things if not for demons. You know, like put another man's cock in his mouth."

Please note -- His point was not to make controversy about gay people -- He was making a point about it being the end times. To him this was evidence of the existence of demons -- So self-evident it should convince anybody who thought about it.

I laughed some more, told him I was gay, and ended the conversation.

Even though many people who grew up in religious, sexually conservative households have strong negative feelings about pornography, many of those same people continue to use pornography. And then they feel guilty and ashamed of their behavior, and angry at themselves and their desire to watch more.

1 Samuel 15:3 - “Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’” “god” literally commands them to kill babies it’s crazy how gullible some people are 😭

White House faith office adviser Paula white is asking people to send her up to $1000 dollars during the week leading up to Easter Sunday, in exchange for 'blessings' and selling 'miracles' . According to the article, it's unclear whether these 'blessings' will be received by the donors. LOL

Here's the link to the article: https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/03/31/trump-white-house-faith-advisor/

…children were exposed to therapy before being exposed to religion.

Emotion regulating, dealing with the hard things and the good things, etc… should be handled by professionals, not an imaginary man that has the same IQ as the kid in question (because it’s just the kid thinking, no one else).

Not to mention how religion teaches to repress feelings a lot by "praying it away".

I’m into yoga and meditation. There is proven scientific benefits to both and the fact that both have been tied to religion in the past does not bother me. Just like being kind to my neighbour doesn’t bother me just because the bible also happens to teach that. I have found personal benefits and no one is telling me I will burn in fire forever if I do something they don’t like. I’m usually silent when the class says Om but I’m not offended. Because I’m not a moron.

But apparently, some yoga studios are telling teachers not to use Om in yoga because Christians “feel uncomfortable.” Like serious?

https://www.reddit.com/r/yoga/s/w0v6xfjdsv

Guys I wonder sometimes how absurd can it be for someone to blindly believe in a God their entire life without questioning his existence but rather believe in him because their parents or a large populus around the world does so. The believers just use one counter argument, everything has a creator, a table was made by a carpenter, a shoe by a shoemaker, then how can a universe with such intricacies exist without a creator ? But they don't seem to understand it is not that simple. I feel the believers are scared to embrace death, they want to solace themselves by hoping existence after death. There was a time when I thought atheists were stupid to believe there is no creator and also if they were right why would they represent only 7% of the world's population. Fortunately thanks to certain circumstances in my life I started questioning God's existence. Then I came across videos of Osho, Jiddu Krishnamurti and got disillusioned. Jiddu famously said, "God is a creation of the thought and now you worship the thought in various forms called as God." There is a whole industry in the area of religion that is always thriving, more in times of difficulty, recession, inflation. I wish people would for once gather the courage to question why they do what they do. Just because someone is born in a family that practices Hinduism doesnt make them Hindu or Christian if they worship Jesus. In India , Hindus dont eat beef(cow meat) just because it is sacred in their texts, while Muslims, Christians, Jews slaughter and eat it. If you look at the above example, there is no consistency in the belief systems, what might be God for someone is somene else's food. What do you'll think drives people to not question their belief systems till they die?

All this pansy footing around people saying stuff like “I respect your beliefs” and “everyone’s entitled to their opinion” but like No.

No I do not respect your belief that the Earth is only 6000 years old.

No I do not respect your belief that science is a satanic religion.

No I do not respect your belief that 30 million different species of animals lived together in a wooden boat for 100 days.

No I do not respect your belief that gay people are evil.

No I do not respect your belief that a woman’s place is in the kitchen.

No I do not respect your belief that a woman is immoral for wearing shorts.

No I do not respect your beliefs in bullshit conspiracy theories.

No I do not respect your belief that Joseph Smith stared at two magic rocks inside a hat to translate golden plates while they were locked away in a cupboard somewhere.

No I do not respect your belief that a baby that died will burn in fire forever because someone didn’t sprinkle water over its head.

No I do not respect your belief that ghosts are communicating with you telepathically to tell you how righteous you are.

No. Your beliefs are stupid. I think less of you for having them. And I don’t care what you think about my beliefs because I don’t value your opinion.

I've been trying to come to an answer as to who or what is behind the conglomerate of the online Christian world with very little traction.

All search engines yield no results when you type in that question. All you get is the regurgitated same top 10 Christian websites that you always see whenever you Google or search any question with the keyword "God" in it.

There is virtually no independent journalist site or anything of the sort when you try and dig deeper into Christianity's true origins like you used to find.

I recall the early 2000's era where youtube and much of Google was loaded with all sorts of information about the obvious connection between ancient pagan practices and Christianity.

Like easter being related to a more ancient holiday, and how saturnalia being the original Christmas in ancient Rome.

So much information has been intentionally covered up yet very few atheists ever mention this. It's all come down to identity politics and not the core history of Christianity which would really change the argument completely.

I had a question for my fellow Agnostics and Atheists. Do you ever think about “what’s next” when you die? I tend to be a bit of a “deep thinker”. Maybe it’s my INTP personality type. I can sit and stare at the sky and just daydream for hours about “life”. Part of the basis of my being Agnostic is the fact the universe is so huge.

I think a lot about consciousness. The fact we are “aware”. It’s like that Star Trek Next Generation episode “The Measure of a Man”. Data is in danger of being disassembled for research and goes through a trial to determine if he is sentient.

What do you think happens? Do we just shut down and “end”? Or is there some higher plan of consciousness we aren’t aware of that we move to?

I had a very close death in the family this week. It got me thinking. For me I hope there is something “next”. I just don’t know.

Long story short I have struggled with myself for years about going with the flow of celebrating “Christian” holidays with my kid just because it was the norm in the rest of the family.. I’m so done with it especially just now the kid found the elf on the shelf tucked in my dresser. I wanna use this as a way out but also have immense guilt already thinking about doing so.

Am I completely ruining her childhood by saying fuck it I’m done pretending, this is not who I/we are? Or Should I just keep playing along for the magic it brings her? She will be 10 this year.

I didn't grow up in a religious household nor was I forced to go to church and stuff. I never questioned anything neither was I interested in learning about christianity, everything I heard was enough for me. Growing up, when I joined middle school and things just going downhill because I didnt had friends so I spend more alone everything just made zero sense.

I think growing up, I saw bad views of people explaining religion. Sometimes I would catch myself not believing in everything christianity says but just finding comfort. If something bad happens, I could pray but that stopped...

Due to stuff that happened in my life, (that werent even that bad) I started seeing the view that religion exists just for us not to do bad things because we simply have free will which is true to some point. I dont know how to explain but I just started blaming religion for everything bad that happened to me or like gernally. If god love us so much why did this happened? Make it make sense....

Like what do you mean, you to be a good person otherwise you will end up in hell. What does a good person even mean? Good people die... Kids die because of nothing. Wheres fair to that?

Maybe I just grew up with the wrong views. Also I dont get the heaven, hell part I dont even believe in that.

Here, most people are closeminded and call atheists dumb, or that theyll go to hell... I dont follow the same beliefs christians do, I dont believe in everything the bible says, I find it sometimes pointless. I dont think being atheist is a bad thing, but why do people even care that you dont believe?

Maybe its just a crisis but I dont find comfort anymore. I believe god exists but I dont wanna be a part of a society that uses religion to forbid you, order you to do things. I dont know if i am angry at god because of how i turned or i am angry at people for talking on god's place. Maybe this is just dumb, but everyone I know is religious and wont get it. I tried to explain this as best as I could...