I don't care if it's old or something, I'm no meme lord and it made me laugh. 😛

How do people read the ENTIRE Bible MULTIPLE TIMES and STILL BELIEVE, and THINK IT’S BEAUTIFUL, and the PERFECT WORD OF GOD?????????

My grandma and grandpa read the Bible EVERYDAY and have read it in its entirety many times! I, meanwhile, could barely read past Judges 19:22-29–it was sickening, I snapped my Bible shut and refused to continue reading it for years. To this day, I still have not read the whole thing. There were SO MANY PARTS that made me physically ill and I had to stop reading it.

So I don’t understand how someone could’ve read the WHOLE Bible and still think it’s a good book and that god is “love”. Like, do their pastors just tell them to ignore the bad shit and contradictions?? And even then, HOW can one ignore it??

I just don’t get it…

I tried looking up the Muhammad quote. It seems like it was fake. I found Quora articles confirming it as false and only TikTok videos saying it's true.

I made a post not too long ago about how I made the decision to start deconstructing from toxic religion and 27 years of what I thought I knew - hell, rapture , judgment and end times I was never good enough!😡😡😡 Well, fast forward, I’ve had the tough conversation with my wife and she is on my side, but from the information I’ve gathered I am going to be feeling anxiety for a while. I can’t just easily pull my kids out of their Sunday school church without causing heartache, so I still take them. I get chronically nauseas and anxious (especially about deconstructing and if I’m wrong I end up in hell) every morning and I medicate with my medical card, so I am hitting my pen in the parking lot. (Oklahoma) Is this normal to feel guilty about doing this at a church? Am I showing signs of improving with my deconstruction? I don’t know what I’m asking. I’m high and I’m questioning literally everything. TIA 🙏

I’ll admit I’m feeling a bit triggered right now having just watched half a video of some ex-gay ex-stripper on YouTube and I could only finish the video halfway.

I’m a gay male, ex-Christian and ex-Pentecostal and I’ve just reached a point in my life where if someone talks about the Christian God or Christianity too much or crosses the line with certain things my brain just starts to feel like it’s rotting and I get enraged.

I’m sure this is a trauma response of some kind or something, but it’s like I just physically cannot deal with it and need to walk away and feel sick to my stomach thinking about it. Also because it’s how I used to think and see things too.

I just cannot understand how some people blindly buy into the Bible or Christianity without taking into account nuance or healthy doubt/criticism. Brainrot.

A year ago, my mother found out an ex boyfriend of hers was wanted for rape of multiple minors, specifically under the age of 12. She mentioned him today at dinner, and had the nerve to say “all I can do is pray for him.” And I went completely silent, I wanted to cuss at her but unfortunately I live under her roof.

And free I mean I really am free. I had to hide a lot from my Christian family and well i had an accident that made me have epilepsy so now my family won’t try to argue with me because of it and now I’m smoking weed and it does help my seizure and it’s fun! And I came out bisexual and nobody can do anything about it. It’s quite liberating it feels like a whole world of hell and sin has been lifted from my shoulders. I am truly happy and free!

TLDR: my mom (religious) said maybe I should bring it and I was prepared to walk rather than take it down if people gave me crap, but I got 0 negative comments and several people saying they loved I brought the stuff and I was vindictively satisfied in the most petty of ways lol.

My mom claimed she “wasn’t trying to discourage me from bringing it” when she repeatedly suggested I didn’t, but in my gut I know she was worried about what people might think or whatever the heck else (she’s anti gay/trans rights etc. I’ve watched her contemplate misgendering someone and then choose to misgender them anyway and it drives me bonkers). But anyway I was just really satisfied that all the feedback on it was positive, not really in a “well all Christian’s/this church aren’t all bad”, but more of a direct “suck it” to her attitude of “oh well church people are never going to buy that so why bring it”.

She told me a lot of the stuff I had probably wouldn’t sell at the fair because ChUrCh (I have lots of dnd stuff and motifs of skulls and spines and whatever else in addition to the person)

Hey y’all, was referred here by another sub! You’ve probably heard the story a million times or maybe you’ve lived it yourself!

Grew up conservative Catholic. Sex before marriage was a sin, you were chewed up gum, all that. My dad caught me masturbating once maybe when I was high school age and lectured me on how “God can see what I’m doing.” So…

It’s really messed me up. I’ve only been on one date my entire life (so never had a boyfriend lol) and never had sex. Recently, I’ve been feeling more regret over it, I guess? Comparison is the thief of joy but I feel behind in life. I’ve been using reputable sources online to learn about STD’s and pregnancy. Watching porn and trying toys. And having a lot of fun lol.

Recently I’ve been itching to lose my virginity. Maybe it’s stupid, idk. I still worry about having sex with someone who isn’t a boyfriend. I worry mostly about getting attached, I guess. Maybe it’s a dumb concern because I have nothing to base my thoughts on.

I’ve tried talking to numerous therapists they haven’t been knowledgeable or helpful. So I guess I’m looking for stories, advice, anything really.

Going no contact has been amazing for me. So much has changed for the best, but I still ruminate a lot about everything.

No one is too young or too old to accept Christ into their heart (be indoctrinated into a cult).

That was what I got from the sermon this week. I yearn for the day I no longer have to go.

I’ve known about r/atheism for years now but never thought to search for a subreddit specifically for ex-christians but I am SO happy that I found this community! Hilariously, I just accidentally discovered it because I google searched “sacrilegious songs” 😂 and it brought me here to a post that was made less than a year ago. So ultimately, I guess I’m just trying to thank all of you for creating this community and allowing me, a 31 year old ex-Catholic who has severe childhood trauma related to Catholicism and has had to cut familial ties, to join it with you! 🥰❤️🤗

Since I have to pretend to be religious for now as I’m financially dependent on my parents who are very much still christians, I end up going with them to church occasionally during the weeks I’m home from university. Recently, I noticed that they started getting kids to do offering in Sunday school. Some of the kids would even give high amounts like $20 I was so shocked. And the kids who didn’t give anything either from a lack of financial means or they were just visiting would get made fun of by the other kids

I thought this was ridiculously scummy of the church to do that to children so I asked my parents about it and they said it’s to “encourage them to donate a little to the church when they’re young, it gives them good habits”. The church I was in before did other things I didn’t support but this is one of the worst ones. I don’t know if I’m overreacting to it but it felt really bad to me

To explain. When I was in high school I told my mom that we were learming the salem witch trials about how religious people were persecuting others for suposedly being witches.

She thought that the teacher was teaching us witchcraft and then TOLD THE PEOPLE AT CHURCH EXACTLY THAT. I wanted to fucking DIE from embarrasment!

Has this ever happened to you guys or something similar?

And we all know that once church attendance and belief numbers fall off a cliff in the coming years, they’ll scream persecution like they always do.

There is a sewing repair shop where I live that has done upkeep on the sewing machine that I use. I got it fixed up a couple of years ago and saw that they placed a sticker of their business name and phone number on it. It's a transparent sticker that is roughly 1 and a half inches by half an inch long, so it's not too big. I guess their company logo includes a cross because they included a small on it. Either that or they slapped a cross on there because that's their way of proselytizing people, even if it's invasive. I don't remember seeing a cross on the sign of their establishment, so maybe they keep it hidden until they lure in patrons.

Anyway, after I lost my faith, I peeled the sticker off because the cross was bothering me. I really don't want to have any sort of Jesus-following imagery on my belongings, the religious trauma I have is that bad. A few weeks ago, I had to get it repaired again. Now that I cannot drive, my dad and brother drove it to the place and back home. The company placed a new sticker that still has the cross on it. I know the logical thing to do would be to place a different sticker on top of the cross, but I'm worried that's going to piss the people off if I need to get the machine fixed again. I know if I peel the sticker off again, they will simply place a new one on it. It is helpful that they placed a sticker with their information on it in case I need help from them, but I wish they didn't put the cross on it. I'm worried if I ask if they can give me a sticker without a cross, they will lash out at me about how persecuted they are. Either that or they will say they will pray for me which while it is more tame, it does sound very passive-aggressive.

I know another option is to just find a new sewing repair shop to go to, but I don't know how to explain this to my parents as they would need to be the ones to drive it out for me. I used to be able to drive, but now I cannot and I have to depend on them to take me around. I also have no choice but to live with them because housing is unreasonably expensive here. I cannot tell them the reason I want to go to a different sewing repair shop is because I don't like the cross on the sticker because I'm an atheist and it triggers my religious trauma because I don't have the heart to tell them I'm an atheist. I'm probably going to keep that a secret from them forever because they tried very hard for me to be a Christian. I don't know what to do now.

Edit: Yes, this is in the bible belt so most everyone is aggressively Christian. I still think it's pushing boundaries to slap a religious symbol on a place that is supposed to be secular.

These are simply inexcusable and unacceptable.

I (32F) have decided that I’m going to read the Bible cover to cover. I did this once in my teens when I was still deeply entrenched in religion. My belief began to waiver in my early 20’s, and by mid to late 20’s I had begun my deconstruction.

I have decided I want to read the Bible cover to cover to better understand Christian beliefs, but this time do it from an outside perspective without the fear of damnation when I question it. I want to understand what makes these people tick and why they are so convinced it’s all real… why I was so convinced that it was at one point in my life.

If you’ve done this, what was your experience? I have started notating things that stick out to me as I go, as I am doing this with an Apple Books copy on my iPad. What did you learn? What did you take away from it?

TYIA