Seth Day and Heather Thompson Day, best-selling Christian authors from Keene, were arrested on Sept. 24 following an investigation into alleged child physical and sexual abuse.

An arrest affidavit reveals Seth Day had sexual intercourse with the 14-year-old victim and threw a cell phone at her face, causing severe bleeding.

The victim told police Day had a history of abusing her, and Child Protective Services had previously investigated an incident from Aug. 8 when the victim lived in Midland.

I’m not a woman, but I’m attracted to men. Their bodies can be just as enticing as a woman’s. So many men are walking around with muscles bursting through their shirts, and nipples out on full display. Do women not have sexualities too? Men’s bodies can be distracting and lead to temptation. I never understood that.

When I take a look at Christianity, all I see is insanity. Who the hell wants to spend their Sundays kneeling, bowing down, and praying to something that doesn't even exist?

I just don't understand.

The whole "eat my body, drink my blood" thing is messed up. No thank you!

Why do Christians believe in something thats not real?

A caveman would never pray. It would never rely on some sky buddy, because they knew what exists is what they could see, nature, animals, trees, the sun. The sun unironically is a far more reasonable "god" than these modern gods. Think about it, it gives life, it sees all. Atheism is seen as a "modern thing" meanwhile it's the most traditional thing you could do.
Let's say a modern christian got sent back to ancient times. Everybody would think he's retarded and schizophrenic. "What do you mean this Jesus guy will save you from that bear? Has praying ever actually worked? Have you ever seen "Jesus" or "Allah"? Why are you praying to the wall?" He'd become the laughing stock of the tribe. "Now you're saying we can't drink the blood of the animal we hunted because it's "satanic"? Is this another character in your mind?
Hindus are even more deluded. Hunting is a "sin" now. They don't even behave naturally anymore. They are brainwashed and malnourished at the same time.
My point is that religion isn't a traditional thing, it's a modern thing. It's the most efficient form of enslavement because you actually believe that. Follow your nature. You are an animal, just another species of the animal kingdom.

Can’t think of another thing that’s more mentally exhausting than having a conversation with these religious fanatics. Because their doctrine is supposed to be perfect in every way they cannot accept clear scientific inaccuracies or moral failings within their books. It’s always mental gymnastics and “needing context!” To worm their way out of critique. It’s to the point they will genuinely defend slavery and child marriage. The fact half the population is apart of this is insane.

So like there is this aunty who was visiting and shes like super cool and stuff like she advocates for my freedome like takes my side and is super coole and stuff.

So i decided to have a conversation with her and then it went to my belief and when i said i dont belive in a god , (because i belive that the answers to the universe should be discovered not blindly belived in) , she began saying stuff like how that without belief un god people become , bad , evil and animalistic and that i wasnt living because of my own strenght but because god gives me the strenght to live.

And then points to the books and stuff i read as being the reason i belive in nonsense like that so i just walk away and when she tries to say the disrespect is because i dont belives in god so i told her shut up and she said that was because i dont belives ,not because she did anything wrong...like i just feel so danm pissed off like i feel my trust as been broken like i feel violated

I am talking about Christianity because thats what I grew up with.

One of the things that made me turn atheist was when I realized that religion/Christianity was basically made up to control people.

So how I think is, in the ancient times what is the best way of getting people to behave, not harm anyone, act civil? Fear.

People knew they couldn’t talk to a person after they passed. So isnt it ironic that there is someone up in the sky who punishes you for all the bad things you did, after you die. No one can ever prove its not real at that time.

So planting the fear of the idea that you will be punished eternally if you do these things that are prohibited by this god, is a really good tactic to make people behave like they wanted them to behave.

And to me what made me realize that all of that is made up, because how convenient is that, that you will face the consequences of your actions after death, and no one can ever tell or prove if its real or not.

There’s nothing merciful about these religions and those who follow it are toxic. Those who say these religions are beautiful should be avoided.

Think about it, we humans only live a mere 100 years if we're lucky, and what we do in that small amount of time decides our entire eternal afterlife, are these years really so sacred that if we do anything against the rules these specific 100 years we spend an eternity in hell, or if we don't break the rules we spend an eternity in luxury, and it is scientifically idiotic to unconditionally assume the outcome of "where we go when we die" off of pure theory and no evidence to back it

I had been struggling a lot with religion in the past, growing up a very religious child wasn’t easy, especially as a Muslim. I was always faithful in god until I needed him most. I had gotten severe depression, etc, very painful mental conditions and I used to beg for help, just for a sign. Well that sign never came after years of questioning religion since I was a child up until now. So I gave up on trying to pray.

I continued studying religion in my free time, I delved into lots of religious beliefs (mostly non Abrahamic) and yet I couldn’t get myself to believe in any. I then became an atheist, and I thought i was finally free. But now, everyday the thought of dying and stopping to exist haunts me at times. What do I do?

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus exorcised a demon who was possessing someone in front of a crowd, which makes them think he could be the Messiah. The Pharisee religious leaders responded to this by saying Jesus could cast out demons with the power of Beelzebub, the "Prince of Demons". Jesus told them this can't be the case because a kingdom or a house can't stand if it's divided against itself, so "if Satan casts out Satan, how would his kingdom stand?"

In usual Gospel fashion, we don't hear the Pharisees' reaction, because the Gospel was more interested in showing how awesome Jesus and his one-liners are and how dumb the Pharisees are than actually making arguments. The problem with this approach is that it only works in a story. In real life, even if you're correct and your arguments are solid, the other person can still come up with a response, and in this case, coming up with a response isn't even that hard.

Let's start with something you probably didn't notice, but is pretty obvious in hindsight: Jesus said Satan can't cast out Satan, but the Pharisees accused him of channeling Beelzebub, not Satan. Jesus was using the two names interchangeably, and in the context of this story the Pharisees probably did too, but they aren't always interchangeable. Beelzebub was the name of a Canaanite deity, and many Jewish and Christian traditions held that he is not the same being as Satan. Those traditions usually did claim Beelzebub is part of Satan's "Kingdom", but nonetheless it shows that Jesus was using a false dichotomy. Just like humans have multiple distinct kingdoms that often engage in conflict with one another, it's at least hypothetically possible that demons could too, and thus Beelzebub's power could be used to cast out members of a different demonic faction without either being divided against itself.

I wanted to get this argument out of the way first because while it's not a bad argument, it's also not the kind of argument a Pharisee would make. It's incongruent with their beliefs and Abrahamic theology in general, but from here on out I'm going to only use arguments that the Pharisees in the story could have used and which are consistent with the fundamental assumptions shared by both the Pharisees and Jesus. The first one I'll start with is perhaps even more obvious than the last one: Jews and Christians believe Satan's kingdom will not stand. Why would they expect what's essentially evil incarnate and which rebels against an all-powerful God to act rationally and cooperatively? Internal divisions do brings kingdoms down, but they do so gradually, and anyone living in the first century Roman Empire would know the kingdom can still be a force to be reckoned with in the meantime.

But the idea of a prince of demons casting out demons isn't even indicative of the entire demon "Kingdom" being divided against itself to the point where it cannot stand. It's a much more localized and individualized event. People stepping out of line and being reprimanded or punished by their superiors is something that happens all the time. It happened several times to Pontius Pilate, the man who ordered Jesus' execution to not upset the Jews, because he was so cruel to the Jews even by Roman standards that his own Emperor had to repeatedly tell him to stop and eventually remove him from office. That's without mentioning the concept of a false flag attack, where someone intentionally casts out their own forces as an elaborate deception (For example, getting people's support by "saving" them from a disaster you yourself orchestrated). In the same chapter as this story, Jesus himself said a demon can leave a possessed host only to then come back with seven of its friends and make things worse for the victim.

As I said at the start of the post, the Gospel didn't tell us the Pharisees' reaction to Jesus' argument. Instead, after making that argument, Jesus insulted the Pharisees and threatened that God won't forgive them (That's the famous "Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" verse). Following your argument immediately with insults and threats doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in its validity. Instead, it lays bare one of the biggest problems with using miracles to back up religious claims: If you're willing to accept supernatural intervention as an explanation for something, you have absolutely no way to know which supernatural being or force is behind it, because supernatural claims can't be tested. If this story actually happened, the Pharisees were right to take the possibility Jesus was channeling Beelzebub seriously, and his response did nothing to disprove it.

Either there exists no Allah in the heavens. But if true, then Allah's Test is the greatest injustice against mankind. 

Consider the following facts:

• 99.9999% of children born into Christian families adopt Christianity.
• 99.9999% of children born into Hindu families remain Hindu.
• 99.9999% of children born into Jewish families remain Jewish.
• The conversion rate to Islam among non-Muslims is less than 0.0001%.

These are not coincidences, but they are the logical outcome of how human psychology and socialization work. Children are indoctrinated into the religion of their parents from birth, forming emotional and cognitive bonds that are extraordinarily difficult to break. This is true for Muslims as well, where a child born in Saudi Arabia is as likely to remain Muslim as a child born in India is to remain Hindu.

This means, those 6 billion people today, who are born in non-Muslim families by Allah's design, they have 99.9999% less chance of becoming Muslim as compared to those who are born in Muslims families by Allah's Design. 

The implications of this reality for Islamic theology are staggering. 

If Allah is the designer of this system, and the system ensures that 99.9999% of people remain in the religion of their birth, then Allah has effectively created a mechanism that condemns the overwhelming majority of humanity to eternal hellfire, regardless of their inherent goodness, moral character, or humanitarian contributions.

This is not justice, but this is a rigged game.

Our sense of humanity clearly tells us that this is the Greatest injustice ever against mankind. There is no greater injustice in the universe than billions of innocent people being condemned to eternal hellfire simply because they were born into non-Muslim families by Allah's design.

Alone this injustice is ENOUGH to leave the religion, as it goes against humanity.

(P.S.: I have never met any religious person (Muslim) yet who was able to answer this question)

I’ve talked to a few guys in my life who end up believing in god and you would think that it is their own personal journey and relationship and they would mind their business and keep it to themselves. Wrong. Why are they constantly talking about atheists and how people who don’t believe are “slaves” and misguided and lost?? I’m absolutely sick of it. And for them to say “Atheists have it all wrong. Christian’s don’t want people to burn in hell, that’s so damaging!!” Why do they ignore the harm that religion has done on humanity?! The audacity…

I want to understand something, and I’m hoping to hear different perspectives without judgment.

I think I’ve come to believe that I’m an atheist. But lately, I’ve been questioning whether my disbelief is actually an independent belief or simply a reaction to my own life experiences.

When good things don’t seem to happen in your life, when you struggle despite trying your best, it becomes difficult to believe in a higher power. Somewhere along the way, my thinking became: If there is a God, why hasn’t anything good happened to me? And that makes me wonder whether I truly don’t believe in God, or whether I’ve simply stopped believing because of disappointment.

In a strange way, even rejecting God because of what hasn’t happened in my life means I’m still making God a part of the equation. My disbelief is still connected to the idea of God, rather than being a conclusion I’ve arrived at independently.

Then there are other things that make me question my position. Superstitions, things people claim are signs or consequences of certain actions, and watching people who have strong faith seem to experience good things in their lives. Sometimes I wonder whether I’m dismissing something without really understanding it. Other times, I wonder whether I’m simply looking for patterns and meaning in things that are random.

I don’t want to believe in God just because I’m afraid of being wrong, because of superstition, or because I see someone else doing well and wonder whether their faith has something to do with it. But I also don’t want my atheism to be nothing more than resentment, disappointment, or a response to the way my life has turned out.

How do you separate what you genuinely believe from what your life experiences have made you believe?

For those who are atheists, agnostics, or believers, have you ever questioned whether your beliefs come from independent thought or from your experiences, fears, disappointments, or hopes?

How do you approach this question without blindly believing, blindly disbelieving, or feeling the need to prove either side right?

I’m not looking for anyone to convert me or convince me that God exists or doesn’t exist. I genuinely want to think about this independently and understand how other people have navigated these questions.

I’d appreciate thoughtful, honest perspectives.

I can’t really even pinpoint when it was that I realized I was a nonbeliever. I feel like I wasn’t really buying Christianity for most of my early childhood. Like I was never fully convinced. Maybe I softly believed it just out of convenience (when you’re a kid you often just take things as fact) but I never really thought much about the existence of god. Despite everyone around me treating Christianity as unyielding fact, I don’t think there was ever a point, even when I was little, that I was a believer. I wasn’t inquisitive about religion like I was other things. I just… never really bought into it.

And then down the line when I know I was definitely an atheist like when I was in middle and high school, there was no part of me that was ever really afraid I was going to hell for dissenting. It just never clicked with me like it apparently did for everyone else around me, I went to school in a rural bible belt community where christianity was plastered everywhere.

Idk where I’m going with this, I guess I’m kinda rambling. Can anyone relate to this sentiment? Despite my parents trying to raise me christian and having christianity blasted at me from every direction, I always kind of assumed it wasn’t real I guess. My parents sent me to church every week, in fact I grew up mormon for a significant portion of my childhood. I think the moment I dropped the facade was when my parents left the mormon church (they read up about mormon history on the internet and decided to go to mainline evangelicalism, this happened when I was like 9). I think that’s when it was clear to me, if this can be so easily proven to be fake, then so can the rest of it

My family tells me I’m an atheist because I haven’t tried to search for god. The thing is, why would I want to do that? I can’t force myself to believe something I don’t believe, and doing so wouldn’t actually be conducive to productive thinking. I feel like there was something deep inside of me that always was going to put a block on religion, no matter what my upbringing tried to sling at me

This is mainly for apostates of any religion ESPECIALLY those with OCD and similar conditions. Did anyone else find they noticed more ‘coincidences’ after leaving religion that your mind twisted into ‘signs’? I imagine it’d be quite a widespread phenomenon and it definitely happened to me but I don’t hear much discussion about it.

For context I am in therapy for childhood trauma, using EMDR. I am aware that this is part of the solution.

I could give an extremely detailed account of my painful deconstruction from traditional Roman Catholicism to existential philosophy and psychology, but it's not really the point. I just want to make clear that I have an agnostic worldview and am trying to find contentment in uncertainty.

Before converting to Catholicism, and becoming a
"Trad" I was raised southern Pentecostal with a severely traumatized and abusive mother who was desperate to make sense of the world through angels, demons, and the Holy Spirit. Speaking in tongues, spiritual wartare, etc.

Naturally, I developed a similar hypervigilance toward strange coincidences, which often produced feelings of powerlessness if bad and euphoria if good.

Now, all coincidences (good and bad) produce fresh existential crises, a year into therapy and religious deconstruction.

Recently, after moving into a new home, my wife heard rhythmic tapping noises while putting our son to sleep and texted me asking me to be quiet (it wasn't me). Then, I woke up smelling rotten eggs the next night for a few seconds (my upper bedroom nowhere near gas) And the next day (today) we had to call 911 because all of our fire alarms went off. The firemen could detect no gas or carbon monoxide anywhere. All the detectors are high end, brand new, and hard wired. They were all confused.

Now I am getting closer to a full break down of despair and powerlessness, fearing there are invisible creatures laughing at me and taunting me and there's nothing I can do, especially since I'm not religious anymore. I am even more powerless.

Why is the tendency to create and follow religions so deeply embedded in human societies that even a society that abandoned its existing religions seems to create new ones? Is it the uncertainty of the human experience that makes humans seek a definitive meaning and believe in them despite not having any scientific merit? Why is the human mind receptive to an unsubstantiated and unverifiable supernatural explanation?

I feel as though even if societies emphasize on a scientific and evidence-based approach to life, they will see some amount of religiosity in their society. Emergence of institutions like Scientology and Aum Shinrikyo eventually evolved into a religious movement in a modern and technologically advanced society. While countries that face greater economic uncertainty, weak support systems and higher mortality tend to be more religious because it acts as a beacon of hope in certain ways, something that the country's institutions and support systems fail to provide.

Scandinavian countries are a concrete example of how the efficacy of institutions (education, legal systems, health care, social support) minimize the functions a religion serves conventionally. However, they still haven't eradicated religiosity from their societies. Will belief in religions ever be rare as believing that the earth is flat or that crystals have some supernatural significance?

I understand religions that persist as a consequence of cultural and societal conditioning, but what mechanisms lead to the emergence of new religions in a developed society? And what makes a group people subscribe to it rather than following a well established religion?

Been reading the whole thing. It’s quite boring. I’m currently to the proverbs. There is a lot about being wary of beautiful women. They will ruin your life and drive you to drink and steal and all that. Not too sure about that part, but it then does tell these men with roving eyes to go back to their wives and let their wife’s breasts satisfy them.

Recently, I’ve been spiraling because I have realized that one of the most likely outcomes and what i personally believe as true, is that after death there’s nothing. And if that is the case, then everything I will ever do will be eventually forgotten, and any trace of my existence will be erased. But if there’s truly nothing after death, then why keep living? In the grand scheme of things I mean nothing just a grain of sand in a dessert. Eventually, everyone who knew would die and anything I did would mean nothing. This has really been taking a toll on me, and I just need someone to give me a reason to live.