Atheism

Well, my whole life, I've lived in a society where organized Christianity has overwhelmingly been a force for evil, rather than a force for good. Fuck, I straight-up believe that most Evangelical Christians are devil worshipers. If your religion leads you to hate, you aren't worshiping God, you're worshiping the Devil.

I support a few religious organizations through volunteer work.

My rules for these organizations are simple:

1. The religion takes a back seat to helping the community
2. They're not preachy or trying to convert people
3. They don't diddle little kids.

You'd think it'll be easy to meet that criteria.

there is literally nothing that religion can provide that can't be gotten without religion

insight into why.

Because it's not fucking real?

This isn't rocket surgery.

Lmao because it's horse shit that's why

Source: me, a 37-yo exmormon who was all-in, true believer, until his mid 20s.

The faster the better. It’s fundamentalists creating a lot of the problems in the world as they try to force their beliefs on others.

Because it's all horseshit?

Good for them.

These ancient lies designed for crowd control have been horrible these past thousand years.

Not that modern political groups or sects etc are much better...

My guess is that the extreme hatred flowing out of outspoken "Christians" in the US is a huge turn-off, as it should be.

Because I don't need God to be a good person, or know what good morals are.

Part of this is just that the socially conservative pressure to fit in has eased. Time was you had to be "religious" to fit in to communities and it was seen as part of American identity.

I find it hard to believe 75% of Americans are religious. In the UK 37% identify as non religious. 45% identify as Christian yet churches have emptied our and most young people only end up in one for marriages or funerals. People say they're Christian but I have no doubt a large chunk of those people are just ticking a box on a census form as it's part of their identity.

Because it's a grift?

Better understanding of the physical world than previous generations, for one thing. That and the advent of TV and Internet made it much harder to hide the hypocrisy and crimes.

should be happening with gen z and alpha too, but gen z has more right wingers than previous generations, due to significant propaganda.

because its bullshit?

No no no, this ancient religion from the Middle East based off of several other cultures mythology is the TRUTH!

Everyone, myself included always come back to the same reason - there is no proof.

If I was given actual proof of a god or pantheon or any other ridiculous nonsense I’d absolutely change my mind but actual proof magic exists can’t exist because magic isn’t real

I fully accept that I don’t and can’t truly understand the universe but where the fuck does that somehow morph into “god did it” it’s ok not to know everything I don’t need made up bullshit to fill the gaps so I can feel better about not having every answer. Live with not knowing, that’s what being human is meant to be, acceptance

I feel like the unloved sect is really the unitarian universalists. They're basically a doctrine free "church" of social justice. Like, I love going sometimes and just getting more advice on how to be an excellent human to others. And then we have snacks.

I feel like they're missing an important point

Most organized religions blue the line between clergy and god so followers need to believe their religious leaders are pretty close to infallible, like God is claimed to be.

However with modern society, information is easy to get and everywhere. So people know about organized religion's issues, and without that structure and reinforcement, we see a slower but substantial reduction in general belief in God that will continue for generations as less people are indoctrinated into organized religion at a young age.

Not sure why the author acts like it's a mystery

Here's my theory why:

• People nowadays have higher average education and can much more easilly spot the logical inconsistences in Religion.
• People are so overexposed and overwhelmed by swindles in the modern era that they are more naturally spotting the swindle nature of ancient swindles such as Religion.

For their study, Schnabel and his colleagues used data from the National Study of Youth and Religion. This included four waves of longitudinal survey data and 183 in-depth interviews conducted from 2003 to 2013. The sample included over 1,300 individuals, each tracked from adolescence into young adulthood. [...] The number of respondents attending religious services dropped dramatically between 2003 and 2013.

The study used data that's 12 years old! Millennials are not young adults anymore. At this point it's well known that Americans, especially the younger cohorts, are moving away from religion, so why even bother reanalyzing ancient data?

For me it's because religion is brain cancer that fucks up anyone who takes it seriously.

To understand these trends more fully, the researchers analyzed interview data from 54 participants whose religious involvement had significantly declined over the decade.

These interviews revealed a recurring theme: many young people left institutional religion not because they stopped caring about spirituality, but because they felt a growing disconnect between their personal values and the teachings or practices of religious organizations. They spoke of churches that felt judgmental, hypocritical, or out of touch—particularly on issues of gender and sexuality. Participants described feeling alienated by institutions that seemed to limit, rather than support, their pursuit of authenticity, justice, and self-understanding.

They have tech now. And conspiracy theories. Lots of stuff to cult about. They can build their own religion if they want.

It's dumb?